#their ability to actually impact the world around them increases as well. once you start racking S ranks and topping off the bar‚ i think

[poptartmochi]

hhrrrrrng.. colonel. it is anemone thought time

[strawberry-cowmilk]

Hi hi hi, um, can you do a GN!MC who's like Al/Koko from Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle, Or Razor from Genshin Impact? Like an MC who's parents died and was raised by Wolves or some creature, and Solomon as MC's childhood friend and the one who taught MC.. "Human Stuff"?? Like the language/vocabulary and how to walk on 2 legs (bc MC was taught to walk on all 4s by the wolves/creatures), can I have this with the brothers, dateables and luke? Like their reaction on MCs past and how Solomon was the one who taught them stuff, thank you!!

Hi, anon! Thanks for being patient, here's your request! I hope it's what you had in mind

the obey me cast with a mc who had to learn 'how to human'

-> brothers and side characters x mc (luke platonic)

mc is reffered to by they/them pronouns once, not proof read

content warnings: mentions of dead parents

-----

Lucifer

he knew about your past before you met

it was in your files for the exchange program and all

when he first read about it, lucifer wondered how and why some wolves decided to raise a human, last time he saw something like that was when he heard about roman myths

Mammon

at first he didn't really care, because you're just a human and he can't make money off of some human

but when he got closer to you, and started to fall in love, mammon started to mildly resent solomon

it's not fair he gets to be so close to you! you're his human

Leviathan

some human who grew up around wolves? they certainly didn't hear of anime then, therefore levi shall keep his distance

but you don't share that same mindset, you kept trying to make your way into levi's room until he decided to give you a chance

now he talks about his hobbies with passion to you, and he doesn't like it when solomon comes near you

Satan

he's only heard about things like that happening is fairy tales and mythology, so he's quite interested in hearing about your past

when you told him solomon taught you 'how to human', satan got worried you might be a terrible cook as well

'mc, were there any cats around when you were growing up?'

Asmodeus

there's a good chance asmo already knew you because of his pact with solomon

but now that you're here, he's excited to teach you about, in asmo terms, proper self-care, he knows solomon didn't teach you that, his skincare routine is tap water

solomon has to stop asmo from going overboard though

Beelzebub

he was sad when he first heard about your situation because you were just a baby without parents, those wolves deserve a golden medal

but you seem perfectly fine, and you act like the average human to him

beel's respect for solomon increased when he found out said sorcerer helped you understand the human world

Belphegor

his past fascination with humans comes back up for a moment

your whole story sounds like something straight out of a fairy tale, he wants to know more but belphie will never ask you about it himself

he really hopes solomon didn't teach you how to cook, belphie doesn't have the energy to fix that damage

Diavolo

he also knew already because it was in your files

diavolo was excited to place such an unique human in his exchange program, and you already knew solomon so that's great too

sometimes diavolo texts you random questions about your past late at night

Barbatos

same as asmo, he already knew you because of his connection to solomon

barbatos has a ton of other priorities and responsibilities, so he doesn't really talk to you much

but when you do speak to each other, he's really happy to listen to your stories, plus he's willing to undo whatever destruction solomon caused to your ability to cook if needed

Simeon

it left a bitter taste on his tounge when he found out your parents died when you were so young

but you seem okay, solomon did a good job looking after you

simeon actually instantly likes you, expect to get invited to a bunch of dinners

Luke

your backstory reminds him of the bedtime stories simeon used to tell him, were they about you all along?

like the other angel, luke likes you instantly, congratulations on your new little brother

he also lowkey wants to meet the wolves who raised you, from what you told him, they seem really nice

[apompkwrites]

reader impact || first meetings: liyue boys

series masterlist characters: chongyun, xingqiu genre: fluff summary: a game has been released entitled genshin impact, consisting of otherworldly abilities relying on the basic elements of nature. the game follows the story of an interdimensional traveling twin in search of their other half. along this journey, they meet different characters that live in this world. including you. notes: ahhh my boys <333 they're on my team rn and i love how well they work together. also, chongyun was kinda hard to write a meeting for because you don't really meet him??? we just recently got the hangout events so,,,

chongyun's playthrough -

chongyun tries to keep his love for supernatural things lowkey.

he does a terrible job at it, though.

his overlay is spirit themed so-- :)

his streams are very laid back.

when he first started, he didn't talk so much.

but then he started getting used to it and his viewers love how dorky he is.

he's very talkative once he's comfortable streaming :D

i'm not basing this on beau bridgland on zach's stream what are you talking about?

his chat makes fun of him sometimes because he can't stand the heat.

(they love his popsicle breaks during streams though--)

they've definitely tried to make him eat hot peppers, each one increasing in scoville units.

he fell for it once and is now very cautious about what his chat asks of him.

^^ what happened was they told him eating it with something else would make it less hot. it didn't.

the only requests he'll take now are game requests ://

anyway, a lot of people request for him to play genshin impact simply because of one character they want him to roll for.

unfortunately, he isn't able to find any trailers of this mystery character :((

he does see some things about your friend that likes to read, though!!

since he can't find anything about this character his chat is excited about without spoilers, he throws caution to the wind and uses all of his free rolls.

his luck must be god-tier at this point because he manages to get you in his first ten roll.

he will definitely pause everything he's doing just to look at your splash art.

you're so calm and poised but so forceful at the same time like?!?!??!

hOW?!?!?!?!?

you have all these floating charms around you and you're just so?!??! cool?!?!?

he hasn't even gotten to a fourth of this game and you're already one of his best characters.

he'll give the best weapons and artifacts, replacing them with better ones the more he plays.

during his popsicle breaks, he'd normally watch some videos or something while talking to chat.

until you came into his life :D

now all of his popsicle breaks include you in some way.

playing genshin? man he'll put you on his screen and just play some of your voicelines or let your idle animations play.

he's doing literally anything else??? too bad, you're right there in the form of fanart he's seen or videos of you.

if you have the same issue with heat that he has, he won't be using large scale pyro users.

characters similar to diluc or klee? nope. only small pyro users thank you very much.

and when that happens, he probably has them built up for physical damage instead of elemental.

his chat will beg him to build up the other pyro characters better please they're so good at elemental damage--

"no."

dang.

he knows for sure that it won't techinically affect you game wise.

but does he care? no.

at least 90% of the time you're paired up with a character that pairs up well with you, in both game mechanics and story.

(kinda like chongyun and xingqiu, you feel me?)

he just can't let you two part :((

he's one of the players that desperately want a story quest for you.

please he just wants to learn more about his favorite comfort character :((

xingqiu's playthrough -

xingqiu does a lot of reading streams.

he'll just sit there for hours and read books to his viewers.

they can span from children's books to full on novels.

he does requests too!!

like, if enough people request a book, he'll read it to them.

mainly streams at night so that people who need something to listen to while they sleep can listen.

(of course that only works if they're in similar time zones).

but he's a smart boy so he'll sometimes do streams in the middle of the day for people who are in different time zones.

sometimes he'll do analysis streams where everyone can discuss the book he read in the past stream.

he's another person who likes games with stories because, obviously, he likes reading.

when he's recommended to play genshin, he's a bit hesitant on it.

there isn't a whole lot of reading involved since it's voiced but then he learns about all of the books you can collect.

that's pretty much the main reason he plays the game.

he spends a lot of time in the mondstadt library.

he takes a while to actually get to liyue because he's reading all of the stories from mondstadt.

his chat is practically begging him to continue the story because... you know.

he finally gets to liyue after months of playing.

of course, he doesn't actually meet you in the main story.

he's very confused when his chat tells him to unlock one of the story quests.

honestly, he just wants to get back to reading the books in genshin.

but he unlocks it anyway.

of course, he's very excited to see that this quest takes him to liyue's bookhouse.

"did somebody say out-of-print books?"

softvoicesoftvoicesoftvoicesoftvoicesoftvoice

aND THEN THE PAN UP THAT HIDES YOUR FACE.

"is there a chance that volume six of legend of the shattered halberd is also in his collection?"

"who are they...?"

"apologies, my liege."

and he's down.

you're so soft and calm and adorable.

please you've snatched his heart in an instant.

he's on board once you invite him to qingce village.

and then you take the book and run.

when he finds you reading, he takes a hot minute before he actually talks to you.

the way you're standing is adorable please--

if you stand similar to how he does in the game, he's smitten.

you're so graceful and poised and just so,,, ADORABLE PLEASE

[limitlessgojo]

Blood Bound: Red Strings of Fate (Ch 7)

Warnings: Action, Coarse Language, Fighting, Descriptions of Blood

Previous Chapter: Speed of Sound

Next Chapter: Red Strings of Fate

Tags: Soulmates AU, Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Fem!Reader

Taglist: @lessie-oxj @rizzo-nero @whoreuc @fkngkumiko @isl3t @gojoussunglasses @onepotatostand-blog @s-t-f-u-b-i-t-c-h @sunaswife

Notes: If you want to be tagged for every update, please mention it in the comments below ty <3

Double Update today, because these two chapters go hand in hand. It didn't feel right to upload one without the other.

Chapter 7: Bird of Flame

You faced Todo off in a clearing. Everyone else was at the far side watching. “Just run away if it gets too much.” You worriedly said to Miwa and Mai pushing them back.

“It’s okay, I’ll hold off any attacks.” Noritoshi assured you. You beamed up at him, “Thanks senpai.”

“Someone’s being awfully friendly today.” Momo half coughed and half murmured out. Noritoshi just gave her the side eye.

As per your style of fighting, you stayed still if you did not know of your opponent’s cursed technique.

“I won’t immobilise you this time since we are sparring.” You called out to Todo. “Fine with me!”

You could hold out your protective space warping around you for several hours. You just had to make sure it was activated in the space around you.

Todo didn’t hesitate to start off with punches and kicks. Nothing moved you of course. 5 minutes passed with him getting nowhere. Is that all he has?

You narrowed your eyes, but lifted a hand to push him back into a tree. You manipulated its branches such that they were all pointing to him. He was about to hit them until he clapped his hands and suddenly, you were there.

Your eyes widened, barely having time to brace yourself as you guarded for impact. You hit the branches hard. “Shit.” Looks like you might have to use your extended techniques against him.

He was in front of you in a split second and you quickly moved to dodge. You tried to maneuver your way around him, but it was hard to pinpoint the exact origin of the hits as he kept swapping your positions before landing a hit.

Sometimes, when you brace for a hit, he doesn’t swap your positions. How annoying!!! Of course your spacial barrier is still active and taking the hits for you, but it does have its limits.

Moving at mach speed in a short distant range won’t help you too much as it’s better for transport rather than combat.

You breathed out low and slow, before channeling your concentration into your 6th sense. Spatial awareness. Faster and faster, you started bracing for his hits and pushing him back.

And when he was unprepared you lashed out with your hidden twin blade only for him to dodge it. You can’t deny that the 2nd year's have more experience than you in battle. And Todo's specialty is obviously close combat.

You had both blades out now quickly slashing at him dangerously. He avoids it and the slashes cut all the way to the trees behind him.

You gave in, sheathing your blades and turning around to recuperate but he was faster as he finally caught you by the arm. “I got you!”

You grinned. Who got who?

With one hand, you straightened 4 fingers out towards Todo and folded your thumb into your palm. “Extension cursed technique, focus range: Niflheim”. Your applied cursed technique slows down the movement of molecules in an enclosed area, forcing items to freeze.

A layer of ice covered Todo’s entire body. The branches that binded around him were also covered with ice, stretching behind him in an ice pillar.

You quickly released your hand from his hold and slowly breathed to the sky, releasing an icy smokey breath. You turned around with a slow smile. “Checkmate”

He struggled against the ice but, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. That is way under 0 degrees celsius. You might lose a limb or 2 Todo senpai.”

He sighed, “I g-g-guh-give!” He could barely utter the words as his teeth chattered. You gently focused on raising the temperature, melting the ice off of Todo first. You couldn’t do it too fast or else he would combust.

As soon as he was free you reached out and applied your reversed cursed technique on him, healing the cold in his body. “Thank you so much for the match! It’s been a while since I felt that much fun in battle!” You excitedly said.

“Good game. As expected of my little sister, you’re very strong.” Todo patted your head. You stared, “Excuse me, whose little sister??”

“You should have buried him y/n!” Momo exclaimed. “Hear hear.” Mai chanted. Mechamaru just said, “I almost got buried by her once. She should have done the same with him.” You just laughed, “It’s okay, I’m satisfied with this.”

You turned to Noritoshi and he walked up to you and Todo went back. At this distance, the others couldn’t hear your conversation. “That was incredible.” He had a very proud smile on his face. “I hope you take our fight seriously as well. That’s all I ask of you.” He whispered.

“Of course I will senpai. But like with Todo senpai, I won’t use immobilisation techniques so we can spar properly okay?”

“Okay” he patted your shoulder and gave it a small squeeze before moving backwards. ‘Kamo clan, blood manipulation. They can manipulate their blood freely.’ you thought to yourself.

Your eyes zeroed in on his bow and arrows. The smell of blood was always on him, but you bet he had blood on those arrows. “Begin!”

He launched arrows at you only for you to stop them. Projectiles were the worst thing he could do. You frowned as you turned the arrows on him and sent them back. He dodged and shot more.

What on earth? This was so ineffective against yo-

He suddenly came from the side and punched you. Diversionary tactics dummy, you didn’t think about it.

You got pushed back from the force but stood your ground. He was insanely fast for a human. He is currently faster than Todo and any of the male cousins whom you’ve fought with.

It was a jarring experience. “Flowing Red Scale” He moved backwards, one eye wide open with a red blood x mark on it.

Your brain went into overdrive in a hurry to connect the dots while you defended against him. Blood. Red blood cells. Oxygen. He’s increasing his physical abilities.

You quickly lashed out with a double kick only for him to bring out a blood bag. “Blood manipulation: Crimson binding”. Blood strands wrapped around you and caged you in.

But you froze them and easily broke it in the process. You hurried to try and bring him down with mixed martial arts, not wanting to hurt him too much.

Sparring with him actually felt like a dance. You dodged and had an instinct as to where the next move would come from, and he was the same. Barely any hits landed on each other for a while.

Ah right, you promised to go hard on him. You put two hands out in a V shape, with palms facing him. Noritoshi’s eyes widened at the familiar hand signs. It’s the very first one you showed him.

“Tatsumaki” A huge horizontal cyclone hit him and forced him back. “Enhanced Gravity: Output level 4%”

“Aarghhh” Noritoshi groaned as he was forced to the ground. You didn’t notice his hands moving.

“Convergence! Piercing blood” a sudden fast stream of blood shot out and grazed your cheek. It would have been worse had you not moved your head aside. Noritoshi’s eyes widened as blood poured from the wound.

You quickly made tree branches hold his hands apart and forced him back onto the ground. You pointed both your twin blades at his head. “I give!”

You released your technique and knelt down. “Are you oka-”

“Are you okay? I hit your face!” He exclaimed in worry, hand hovering just over your cheek. You stared at him in amusement. “It’s a serious matter!!” he insisted.

You covered your face with one hand, then wiped off the blood to reveal a flawless cheek. He gaped, “Reverse cursed technique. I see. Good fight” He wheezed out.

"You actually hit through my defenses in battle. That was amazing Noritoshi senpai." You whispered in amazement. There was something different about the blood he manipulated.

His bond to it was far stronger than your hold over his blood. So if you tried manipulating his blood, it's a low chance that you could get it to attack him.

You can manipulate anything and everything, even at molecular levels to some extent. But you can't produce what's not there. There seems to be a limit to your manipulation over certain items.

"I still lost. Thank you for the match." He said.

You held his hand for the first time as you pulled him up, when suddenly a searing pain hit the inside of your wrist.

"Ouch!" You exclaimed while Noritoshi winced as well. You both pulled back your sleeves to see a large bird surrounded by flames just below the inner wrist on your right hand. Noritoshi had the exact same symbol, but it was in the inner wrist on his left hand.

You quickly pulled over both your sleeves to cover the markings, “Just say we both got wounds, let’s keep this a secret.” You pulled back and acted on purpose, “Good fight. You almost got me there.”

He naturally followed your lead, but there was a brightness to his eyes that told of something else. “.... Yeah you got me. I’ll do my best to catch up to you next time we spar.”

“What happened?” Utahime ran towards the both of you upon seeing you both flinch forward. “No, Utahime sensei we just got some scrapes that stung badly, nothing too bad.”

“I see. I have a first aid kit on hand, feel free to use it if you need to.” She said, and pushed you two back to where everyone else was.

You both stayed at the back watching the other students ask to spar with each other. Noritoshi quietly tugged at your sleeve, hidden from view with his own large and wide sleeves.

You tugged back twice on his sleeve and grabbed his hand to squeeze it. His hands were rough and calloused from fighting, but also had a tenderness and warmth from the way they tried to hold onto yours.

Both your marks flashed with heat when your hands touched. Noritoshi turned to you with all the world's curiosity in his face.

But you pulled back and put some distance between the two of you so it wouldn't look too obvious. "That binding technique that you did earlier was cool. Is it possible for you to manipulate the blood even after I freeze it solid?" You asked to try and divert the attention.

"Actually I haven't tried yet. But I should be able to as the main composition is still my blood." He admitted.

The remaining time left on the field was spent mostly on the others working on their cursed techniques against each other, and with you engaging in tactical discussion with the other students.

You all bid each other goodbye and went your separate ways. Except… Noritoshi mouthed "library" after he waved you off.

You lifted your eyebrows silently in agreement and walked back with the rest of the 1st year's.

Blood Bound: Table of Contents

[noblecrumpet-dorkvision]

Gamifying D&D Encounters

Encounters in Dungeons and Dragons can be fun, but how do you make it so the battle isn’t just taking turns repeatedly taking the attack action? How can you encourage players to move around and make meaningful, tactical decisions? My solution is to think about how to gamify your encounters.

What exactly does it mean to make an encounter more “game-like?” D&D IS a game, so isn’t it game-like by default? Well, yes. But here, I’m talking about turning encounters into puzzles or riddles for the players to figure out, or making players think about when to use certain actions and where to best position themselves. If players “solve” the encounter and “play” their strategies effectively, they will be able to more easily tip the encounter in their favor.

The way a gamified encounter should go is thus:

Creatures in the encounter take actions

Players identify threats or weaknesses based on those actions

Players take steps to mitigate threats or take advantage of weaknesses they have identified on their turns.

Creatures continue to fight, but are now less effective.

Players feel accomplished for their cleverness.

(Optional) Enemies then change up their tactics, learning from the players and increasing the encounter’s complexity. Repeat.

There are several ways to go about gamifying your encounters. You don’t have to give your encounters every single one of these traits, but adding two or three will help push the encounter’s depth.

Several of these use examples from two boss battles I posted, which can be found here: Ilesstra and Kormak.

Creating Patterns

Give your creatures, particularly single-monster encounters, some sort of consistent pattern for players to recognize. This way, the players will get stymied the first time, but then the next round will be able to react appropriately. Keep in mind that Medium encounters typically last 3-4 rounds, which means the pattern needs to be pretty obvious that it will repeat. Players may not even realize it repeats until the second round, which means they only have a few rounds left to seize the advantage!

Samples:

Ilesstra: Ilesstra’s lanes in her lair’s battle map can fill with poison from obvious pipes on the map. Once players realize their significance and effect, they can work out a strategy to avoid them.

Kormak: Powering up his crystal takes a noticeable cause and effect by taking an action to charge (making it glow) by powering down once its charge is spent (so it’s no longer glowing). Players can visually see when Kormak is hard to hit and about to hit hard and conversely when his abilities and defenses are weak.

Synergizing Abilities

Your encounter can involve synergy. This can be between two creatures and their abilities, a creature and its environment, or between a creature’s own abilities. Players should be able to pick up on this synergy so they can attempt to disrupt it to their advantage. Often, synergy involves one part of the encounter being in a sometimes-state, then another part of the encounter gets more powerful when the other is in that state. 

In fact, the encounter could actually synergize to the players’ benefit.  Perhaps a creature could freeze players in ice while another creature’s thunder attack can shatter the ice thunder damage. Players could try to coerce the thunder creature into freeing their trapped companions.

Samples:

Ilesstra: Poisoned creatures take additional damage from her, and her actions can poison creatures in her lair. Her pet can drag away creatures attacking her.

Kormak: His crystal enhances his minor abilities when it’s charged. His minions jump in front of attacks with reactions.

Alternative Targets

If you have meaningful targets in the encounter other than the creatures, players will be tempted to use their actions to deal with those rather than the creatures, which can create a dilemma. Players only have so many actions, so using them on a different target has to be worth it for them; it should give them a meaningful advantage to do so.

Putting an innocent life in danger or having a target that is making a boss monster superpowered is a valid excuse to change focus. The idea is to split the players’ attention between at least two things so that they need to evaluate allocating their resources or action economy.

Samples

Ilesstra: If a pipe in her lair is destroyed or plugged, it will create a permanent safe zone for the players that won’t fill with poison gas. Her pet crocodile is actively trying to drag people into the water below, which can prove bothersome.

Kormak: If Kormak’s crystal is destroyed, he can no longer gain temporary HP or empower his attacks. If his allies are slain, he can no longer defer the damage he takes.

Alternative Victory Conditions

Adding a new way to “win” the encounter will make players need to decide between attacking the enemies or trying to achieve victory through the other means provided. Types of alternate victories might include:

Escaping the Lair

Grabbing the Macguffin

Disabling the Doomsday Device

Rescuing the Hostages

Stopping the Ritual

Completing the Ritual

Defending the Payload

Destroying the Villain’s Power Source

Racing to the Finish

Solving the Puzzle

The circumstances will always depend on your campaign, but you can always provide a miniature goal inside of an isolated encounter.

Ilesstra: Destroying the pipes that emit poison gas will put an end to her main form of attack, possibly forcing her to retreat.

Kormak: Destroying his crystal will severely weaken him, potentially causing him to retreat.

Hotspots and Safezones

Everyone knows adding environmental factors to a battle map will make it more interesting. It gives players ways to hide, cover for arrowfire, and hazards they must avoid and use to their advantage. When designing an encounter, particularly for boss battles, try adding some areas that are harmful for the players. Perhaps there are lava pits with trapdoor grates above them that the enemy can open, or maybe the enemy has an area attack that the players can work around. 

The goal is to give players areas that they are aware are dangerous and areas they know are safe so that they can take advantage of it or plan their actions around it. Bonus points if the areas move in a regular pattern.

Samples

Ilesstra: Her lair has three lanes that can be filled with poison gas using her action. Players can hide in the small space between the lanes or in the water below the grates. An alternative strategy for players is to spread out and limit the maximum number of targets since she can only affect one “lane” at a time.

Kormak: His crystal is trapped by the magic circle surrounding it, and his minions can attempt to push PCs into it.

Vary Enemies

An easy way to make an encounter require more thinking is to use different types of enemies with different abilities. Players will have to consider strategies for each different creature separately, which makes things different. Perhaps certain players will be better at facing one enemy, but not the others, forcing them to adjust their focus.

Samples

Ilesstra: She has a giant crocodile companion that is inoculated and immune to poisons. While Ilesstra is more of a glass cannon with low hit points and AC but high damage thanks to poison, the crocodile is a brute that can grapple creatures away from its master and hold them in a hotspot area.

Kormak: Kormak is a spellcaster and controller while his Barbed Devil minions are brutes.

Additional Phases

Give your encounters multiple, distinct phases that they enter once circumstances are met. These might be when a certain number of enemies are defeated, when the boss drops to half their hit point maximum, or when an alternative victory condition is met. Once this triggers, the encounter changes in a fundamental way to force players to change their tactics. Essentially, you’ve added a mechanical twist instead of a narrative. The best examples are from World of Warcraft raids where the bosses will have different phases.

Discoverable Vulnerability or Strength

The creatures have something obviously strong or weak about them that the players can easily identify in one round. Once players identify it, they can attempt to take advantage of a vulnerability or dampen/avoid the enemy’s strength. 

A vulnerability might be taking damage from a unique damage type, a character flaw that can be goaded into a bad decision, a macguffin that holds all their power, or perhaps they simply have certain targets on their body that can be hit at +5 AC but for double damage.

Meanwhile an enemy’s strengths should hopefully be visible right away. Players should have a good idea what a given creature is good at or what its abilities are as soon as a fight starts, whether this means it was foreshadowed earlier or is revealed in their appearance or attack methods. Players know what to do against a glass cannon rogue and a tanky bruiser warrior or a controlling mage. Likewise, if they find an unknown creature surrounded by petrified humanoid statues, they will know to keep their distance in case they befall the same fate. Their insights should be rewarded and should influence their thinking. Players should never feel totally unprepared.

Samples:

Ilesstra: Her strength is primarily using poison damage, but she is physically weak. Meanwhile, her companion giant crocodile is mentally weak but physically strong. These are both readily-apparent.

Kormak: His crystal visibly charges to empower his abilities and protect him; destroying it will hinder his powers. His strength lies in fire magic, which he and his minions are both immune to.

Moral Quandary

Adding a question of morality to an encounter is a good way to make it not only impactful but also create more decisions for players to make. Perhaps there are innocent lives in danger. Do players risk their lives and spend their valuable action economy to save them? Or do they let them perish to optimize their mechanics and defeat their foe?

Simply adding a hostage or bystanders can do the trick for the average encounter. For boss battles, though, you can increase the stakes even further. Perhaps killing the villain will somehow make things worse for the greater good, giving the players pause mid-combat. Maybe the villain is related to one of the players, or has charmed someone the players love into fighting them to the death. Maybe destroying the boss will take more time than it will to stop their cultists from finishing their spell to open a gate to Hell, so players will have to ignore them and stop their minions instead.

Morality can make fights much more interesting because it forces players not just to consider their strategy, but also their values.

Summary

Basically, the thesis of gamifying encounters is to force players to change their tactics each round, but in a way that makes players feel cunning and smart. Take all these tips into consideration and try and make your homebrew boss battles and encounters special:

Create Patterns

Synergize Abilities

Provide Alternative Targets

Provide Alternative Victory Conditions

Make Hotspots and Safezones

Vary the Enemies

Additional Phases

Discoverable Vulnerabilities or Strengths

Create a Moral Quandary

[chidoroki]

Norman - 22194

March 21st is here and it’s time for yet another birthday post. I already rambled on about Emma and Ray on their special days, so now it’s finally time to complete this full-score tradition with Norman. It might not be as detailed or long as the other two, since he was absent for a good chunk of the story, but it doesn’t make him any less important! I’ll be honest now, the boy isn’t my favorite character (he doesn’t place anywhere in my top ten for this series either) so I probably missed some moments worth mentioning but I did my best to praise this child anyway!

(spoilers for the entirety of The Promised Neverland, so if you haven’t read/completed the manga yet, consider this your first warning, because I’m once again going from start to finish with this.)

Since I want to stay consistent with the other two posts, this will focus on the manga timeline, as season 2 is, well.. it’s own thing. I’ll mention some things but don’t count on much. With that, let’s go.

- He achieves a perfect score on Grace Field’s daily tests, alongside Emma and Ray.

- He is, without a doubt, the smartest kid the house has ever seen, as he passes each test flawlessly and has maintained a 300 average.

- He’s a complete strategist who is capable of achieving victory (even in something simple as tag) by observing his opponents moves and analyzing their weaknesses in order to counter.

- Knows how to pick locks. The scene from ch1 was left out but we see him doing so later on in ep02.

- Stays relatively positive and calm after learning about the truth of the farm.

- Even going as far as giving Emma a reassuring smile, which I think is impressive given the literal nightmare fuel they’ve just witnessed. 

- I’m giving him half credit for suggesting the idea of there being tracking devices, since anime has him reveal this possibility while in manga it’s Emma.

- Both of them realize what determines the shipping order and that the demons favor their brains.

- This silly panel that I love dearly.

- Made sure to do a sweep of the entire house beforehand to make sure their escape planning doesn’t get pick up on.

- Figures out that Isabella only knows the children’s locations when she checks the tracker and that it can’t identify who is who.

- Has the nerve to lie right to Isabella’s face.. not that she believes it, but still gutsy nonetheless.

- Knowing the house probably wouldn’t have any rope, it was his idea to use the spare tablecloths.

- Had a feeling that Ray would reveal the harsh reality of how dangerous it would be to escape with all the children, which turns out to be correct.

- His laugh in ep02 is so precious.

- This statement being 100% accurate.

- Manages to convince the logical Ray, who we know now has spent many years coming up with a solid, safer escape plan, to join in and assist with their crazy and reckless plan instead. Having Ray on their side also grants them many advantages.

- Absolutely hates to lose, which is a good mentality to have in a world where your life is a stake and your time is limited, which eventually leads him to consider every possible opportunity to stay ahead of his enemies throughout the remainder of the story.

- Realizes that the trackers must only send out a signal upon being broken, which we found out to be true in Ray’s one-shot chapter.

- - Him looking completely terrified in this panel.

- He managed to catch all the Grace Field kids in a game of tag even after they received advice from Ray about how to survive longer.

- The goddamn intimidating energy he gives off here is fantastic.

- Despite his body being physically weak, he manages to survive and win against Krone during their game of tag.

- Just like Ray some couple chapters ago, Norman is completely serious about this idea.

- Suspects there’s a traitor among the kids and swiftly comes up with a plan to lure them out.

- This panel of him “dead” from the first side story.

- He has a feeling the spy is Ray, so he moves up the day of the escape to catch him off guard and send him into a panic.

- Even though the anime didn’t include it, he managed to throw off Krone as well with some fake footprints to keep her off their backs.

- Was honestly considering on leaving the spy behind while the rest of them escaped, though he doesn’t seem real happy about the idea, considering the traitor is Ray.

- His plan on fishing out the spy was flawless as he finally calls Ray out by revealing that the information he gave about the ropes and where he hid them were fake locations.

- Not only was Ray the first one Norman suspected, but he caught onto him way back when Krone first came to the house. All the information Ray was feeding them helped Norman come to this conclusion as well.

- Along with Emma’s words about believing that no one in their family is truly bad, Norman refrains from cutting Ray off to allow him to become their trump card. This was a risky move itself, knowing Ray could sell both him & Emma out at any time. Norman tends to prioritize victory, so while staying alive is absolutely necessary and that could’ve been achieved without Ray (as he could’ve just used Ray then ditch him later), he still decides to make the offer as realizes that in order defeat Isabella, Ray’s full cooperation is essential.

- Realizes that it was Ray who hid Little Bunny in the first place and lead Norman and Emma to investigate the gate that night, which leads him to believe that Ray isn’t really an enemy.

- He’s also left handed. Yes, that’s important. Not only for later in the story but because we’re superior. I’m sorry y’all had to find out this way. 

- This stupid, little face he makes.

- Suspects that Ray doesn’t actually plan on escaping at all and intends to kill himself.

- Just like Emma and Ray, Norman also recognizes and understands morse code.

- Look at this precious child, not even angry after getting punched and knocked over. (because i certainly would be)

- Finds Ray’s hidden supply of oil which confirms the method for his future suicide. This also helps Norman later on when he comes up with a refined escape plan by using the fire Ray plans to start.

- Figures out Krone’s true intention about why she wants to join forces with the kids in the first place. 

- He ends up accepting Krone’s offer anyway, because despite the large risk, any information that can snag out of her would benefit them.

- You mad lad, look at you, taunting the bringer of death yet again while a smile on your face.

- And he still manages to find some strength to smile while upon death’s door.

- Not for long though, as once he’s given the chance to be alone, he finally breaks down. Having the cup overflow with water really helps demonstrate how impactful the thought of dying hit him as Norman was overcome with so many emotions that he didn’t even have the strength to hold onto the cup or his facade. It’s then he starts to feel scared and sorry for himself but away from Emma and Ray’s eyes as to not worry them.

- His entire internal monologue as he comes to terms with his unfortunate situation and flips back to his determined “I can’t lose” attitude to help everyone else escape. Also, his theme ‘22194’ hits especially hard.

- For someone with weak, physical abilities, he manages to climb the wall on his own.

- Though the cliff stopped his escape, he used that opportunity to survey the surrounding area of the entire farm to rely his findings to the duo and provide them a safer escape route.

- Completely adamant about his decision to accept his shipment in order to give the rest of his family a chance to escape. (hell, id’ be terrified right now)

- This hug that is sure to break everyone’s hearts.

- Quick to react to Emma’s last ditch effort and prevented her from slamming her already busted up leg into the ground.

- Not only did he predict that Ray would start a fire to distract Isabella and on which day, he also left behind the pen and key he received from Krone along with a new, detailed plan (which he managed to come up with in only a few hours by the way) that would allow the kids to cross over the cliff.

(post season one spoilers below. again, focusing on the manga timeline, so any new season 2 events will be mentioned sparingly.)

- Like Ray, Norman was able to figure out how the pen worked well enough to see Minerva’s message regarding B06-32.

- Since he doesn’t show up again for quite some time post-escape, there isn’t much to talk about.. but at least I can make fun of him thanks to extra pages, like how he wouldn’t have enough strength to use a bow.

- But hey, props to s2ep10 for actually giving us Norman shooting an arrow. He was pretty decent with it too, as he hit his target on the first try behind a darn smokescreen. The manga did show him holding a bow in ch161, but that’s it.

- Not relevant to the actual story at all, but his smarts certainly make anything possible.

- I’m sorry but these tiny failures of his bring me great joy.

- Though the tests at Lambda are harder than those at Grace Field, Norman still managed to get every question correct. Every single day he was there. Even when the facility manages to increase the difficulty of the tests, he continues to pass each one with flying colors.

- Since he noticed someone who’s right handed also takes the same tests he does, he makes an attempt to communicate with them via a Rubik’s cube. He waits patiently for five months until he finally gets a response from Vincent around Christmas 2046. 

- Dealt with the experiments/drugs that were forced onto him and the seizures that resulted from them.

- Even with the tight security and surveillance, he somehow acquired explosives and successfully blow up Lambda and escapes with the survivors.

- Again, not significant to the story, but seriously dude? You just fainted and yet you still get this crazy question right effortlessly?

(post time-skip)

- Contacts Lucas moments before the B06-32 shelter gets blown up and gives him the numeric code that eventually leads Emma’s group to the “Jaw of Lion.”

- Destroyed numerous mass production farms since his escape from Lambda.

- As well as save countless children from other farms and used the Paradise shelter found by Smee’s network to give them a sense of safety and taste of a normal life.

- The darn glow-up he receives, like sweet lord child, are you sure you’re still 13??

- - His cute, squishy cheeks though!

- He may look like he’s in his thirties, but still has the strength of a child. (see anime? this is how strong ray’s slap should have been!)

- Learned a great deal of demon history and gave that lengthy lesson about the demon’s genetics and how they inherit the characteristics of whatever they eat and evolve accordingly. 

- With Emma’s wish about saving everyone and lively happily still on his mind, he thought of a safe and certain method in order to create such a future for all the children raised as food.. which ends up being complete extermination of all the demons caused by a civil war. His plan also includes ending the Ratri clan as well. How cheerful.

- Are you surprised to learn that Norman getting tackled by the younger kids is my favorite panel of him?

- You weak, little bean, I’m sorry I enjoy making fun of you so much.

- Successfully forms an alliance with Lord Geelan and his clan by offering revenge on the royal family, the five regent houses, as well as the Ratri clan, thus putting Geelan in full control. In return, it would grant Norman the full release of farm children, permission to self-govern and some much needed power in terms of demon strength.

- He knows full well that the entire alliance is a lie and both parties are only using each other, though in works in his favor, as it will send the demons to destroy each other without the lose of any human lives.

- This absolute powerful panel that the anime decided “nah, we’re gonna change this too” because they’re cowards.

- Narrowed down possible locations on where to find Sonju and Mujika. Sure it was with the intention of killing our demon friends but his map was accurate.

- Survived who knows long with his seizures at level 4, and because of his severe condition, he’s completely set on following through his plan and succeeding before his time runs out.

- Seems to enjoy blowing stuff up, such as the imperial city’s bridges to send the place into a panic and trap all the citizens.

- Advised the Lambda crew on how to effectively fight against the queen by attacking relentlessly.

- Let loose a poison that causes not only normal demons to degenerate, but the royal family as well, such as the five regent heads and the queen who’s name is too long and complicated for me to ever remember, who all have the cursed blood. (at least that’s how effective it was in manga, in anime it did absolutely nothing to vylk)

- He somehow managed to learn, speak and understand the demon language, which, according to Shirai (vol16 author notes), is actually an uncommon language nowadays. (and we’ll unfortunately never know how this language actually sounds, thank anime..)

- Do I even praise him for killing a demon and well.. all this? Sure in the anime he tried killing Vylk, but old demon was fair more innocent compared to the royal family, so I have no idea.

- I will give season 2 some credit and say I prefer their take on the “right now you look like a small child, shaking with fear” panel.

- But not too much credit, as they didn’t give us the full trio hug as the manga did!

- Then again the anime did have him about to apologize to Vylk and Demon Emma for his actions, which is something, I suppose? since in ch154 he says he didn’t regret killing the queen and royals, which I guess is justified because they were the bigger problem, but oh well.

- Might have apologized to Ayshe for killing her father? Can’t be sure but that’s the unanimous consensus in the fandom right?

- Instantly comes up with counter moves and directions for the entire group upon hearing the enemies locations from Vincent during the GF raid.

- I honestly can’t look at this panel anymore and not laugh about it.. because reasons.

- He just keeps on winning. (also he looks real good here, i’ll give him that.)

- He and everyone else are skeptical about there being no “reward,” and for rightfully so.

- Upon learning that Emma is missing after everyone crossed over to the human world, they all adopt her optimistic attitude and swear to find her no matter where she might be.

- After a stressful two year search, the kids finally find Emma and Norman is so overcome with emotion that he busts out into tears of joy, despite finding out that she lost her memories due to the reward. All that matters to him is that Emma was safe and happy and he accepts her just the way she is.

And I guess.. that’s it. I’m sorry again, I know this is truly the weakest post out of the trio and I have no doubt I glanced over a whole bunch of great moments but it still had to be done! Making fun of him probably wasn’t the best thing to do on his special day either, but I assure you this child is very powerful. Who else do you know that is capable of sending an entire fandom into a panic and rage furiously by just simply showing up?

Ah ha okay, now I’m done. In all seriousness though, this lad is great and through everything he has endured, he definitely deserves to be celebrated today, so happy birthday to our boy Norman!

[tsarisfanfiction]

I Promised

Fandom: One Piece Rating: Teen Genre: Angst/Tragedy Characters: Law, Shachi

“Promise me,” Shachi had said once.  “No matter what.“  Law wished he hadn’t.

So this has been kicking around in my wip folder for literal years - I think I actually wrote most of it in 2018 - and those of you who pay attention to my side pages on my blog might have seen this teased under Tales From The Heart.  It’s technically Tales-verse, and will be archived under the series, but due to a character death, I’m posting it as a separate fic.  However, it references chapter 94 “Immortal” of Tales From The Heart, and actually I believe the idea for this fic came from a throwaway comment I got for that chapter?

“Law!”

Exhausted as he was, Law couldn’t move fast enough, his eyes tracking the blow headed straight for him as he stumbled back half a step and braced for the impact that seemed likely to kill him.  Once upon a time, he wouldn’t have cared at all, but with a crew that meant more to him than life itself he realised he didn’t want to leave them, not now and not ever.

The collision was solid, shoving him backwards until his back hit something hard; some rubble debris from the fight, probably.  A weight followed him, crashing into his chest and pushing all of the air from his lungs.  His back hurt from the rubble, blood soaked his front.  There was no pain at the point of impact, but that was probably shock.

He opened his eyes to see the damage – when had they closed? – only to gasp as his throat choked up. Ginger, a colour unmistakable even in the battlefield, clouded his vision, alongside askew shades and weeping eyes.

Shachi’s eyes were green. Law had never been close enough to tell before, even in thirteen years.  Once upon a time they were probably striking, before being ruined by snowblindness.  Moisture welled up in them and Law moved instinctively to fix his shades, a trembling hand wiping away the tears.

The act drew his attention to the blood dripping from Shachi’s mouth, the laboured breathing. The fact that the blood soaking into his own top was coming from elsewhere, wasn’t his.

“Law,” Shachi croaked, voice weak and trembling even as his lips pulled into a pathetic excuse for a smile. Law’s eyes widened in horror as the situation started to sink in.  “Are you okay?”  Law was numb, trembling as his nakama tilted forwards before his hands moved on autopilot, catching the ginger’s weight.

“You-” he tried, feeling the blood coating his hands in seconds.  So much of it; they needed to stop the bleeding now but he couldn’t even draw on his Room and conventional treatments wouldn’t be fast enough.  “Shachi-”

The ginger coughed, blood splattering Law’s face.

“It’s okay,” he wheezed, as though he wasn’t painting Law’s world crimson with every passing second. “It’s okay, Law.”

It wasn’t okay, wasn’t okay at all.  Law tried to move, to do something even though his bones felt like lead, only to be brought up short by quivering hands on his face, wiping away tears he hadn’t realised he was crying.

“No.”  The voice was broken, cracking on the single syllable and barely louder than a whisper.  It took Law a moment to realise it was his.  He didn’t have any stamina left, the muscles in his arms trembling from supporting the ginger’s weight and his knees trembling in warning that they couldn’t keep him standing much longer.

That didn’t stop him from dredging up whatever he could, pushing out the Room from his heart and ignoring the burn that warned he was draining his own life.  The blow would have been enough to kill Law, and Shachi was weaker.  He didn’t even have Armament Haki capable of absorbing any of the attack.

“Don’t you dare die on me,” he managed, letting gravity take over and pull them to the ground.  He needed his hands free for this, even as Shachi gave him a bloodstained grin.  The crimson stained his lips and cheeks in a way that was all too similar to Cora-san’s eternal grin; his final grin.

Law was a doctor.  He didn’t need his abilities to tell him that Shachi’s wounds were fatal, even as he shoved him over to lie on his back – roughly, but he didn’t have the strength to use any finesse.  Shachi was beyond feeling the pain, anyway.

There was only one thing he could do, short of letting Shachi die and that was not an option, was never an option.  Law had suspected that one day things would come to this: exchanging his own life for his nakama, just like Cora-san had exchanged his life for Law’s all those years ago.  Unlike the Ope Ope no Mi’s other abilities, this one didn’t need any stamina to use. It would take its payment at the end.

A hand grasped his own, pale where it wasn’t stained with blood, halting him with strength it didn’t seem like it should have had.  Dead man’s grip, the back of Law’s mind whispered in despair, and he tried to tug his hand back, to continue the operation.

“You promised,” Shachi rasped, somehow managing to sound strong even though his voice was faint. “No matter what.”

Of course, Shachi was the one that had found him the day he’d learnt about his ability to exchange his life for another’s.  He wasn’t the only one that knew Law could do it – such a thing, while kept close to his chest, couldn’t be hidden from Penguin or Bepo for long – but he was the only other one that had read the papers detailing how to do it.  No-one else would have known until it was over.

“I won’t let you die,” Law snarled back, tugging furiously at his hand to no avail.  “What would that do to Penguin?  To the others?”

“The weak… don’t get to choose how they die,” Shachi quoted, reminding Law of the phrase he’d said more than once.  “Law… Captain…  Am I that weak that I don’t get to choose?”

“No,” Law admitted, unable to even imply that Shachi was anything other than strong – in many ways, stronger than him.  “But-”

“Everyone dies sometime,” Shachi cut him off, his grip increasing further.  Law wished that was because his strength was increasing, and not because his muscles were starting to seize.  “For a pirate… I can’t think of a better death… than saving my nakama.”

“Shachi-” Law wanted to complain, scream about how it wasn’t fair and that he refused to let Shachi die, requests be damned, but one look at the content look on his face, marred only by a furrowing of his forehead that Law knew was Shachi’s concern that he wouldn’t be listened to, and he couldn’t do it.  Not to Shachi.  “You idiot,” he mumbled around a suddenly too-thick tongue.  His vision blurred, but despite that he could see the moment the ginger relaxed, realising that yet again – for the final time – he’d out-stubborned Law.

“Law... look after Penguin, would you?” Shachi asked, and Law’s heart seized.  Penguin.  How was he supposed to face the older man?  “He’ll… understand.  A-and, Law?”  Law made a noise of recognition, no longer trusting his voice.  “Look after yourself.  You probably know… this already, but j-just this once… I’ll say it.” He paused, taking as large a breath as his rapidly weakening lungs allowed.  The rasp cut through Law sharper than any scalpel.  “I love you.”

He was smiling.  Law wanted to shout at him, to tell him he wasn’t allowed to say that and then die smiling, but before he could gather his thoughts into enough coherency and get the first word on his tongue Shachi’s chest – heaving weakly since the blow – stuttered and then stopped.

The noise that escaped Law’s mouth instead was a cry of anguish.  Tears blurred his vision, but not enough to hide the fact that even in death, Shachi was still smiling.

[nanoland]

new chapter (supernatural fic)

(Also on AO3.) 

Clean Hands, part 4 

Crowley/Dean Winchester/Castiel 

Warning: Demon deals, violence, mention of abuse and torture. Also: Crowley is an abuse + addiction survivor and also a cold-hearted arsehole with very little respect or empathy for abuse + addiction survivors, and this story is written from his POV. 

0 

What was there to be done when you were enamoured of a man who hit you?

Leave him! the whole world cried back in one voice.

Which was a bit like telling someone trapped in a burning car to get out of the car. Yes. Quite. Thank you. Fully agree. But what if, for a moment, you assumed I wasn’t as stupid as a fucking dog?

That, incidentally, was one of a handful of ways the world had worsened since Crowley last drew breath.

Back in the fourteenth century, the women in the marketplace had noted his black eye and torn dress with immediate understanding. Instead of insisting he pack his bags and walk out of the house belonging to his wealthy shoemaker husband, the father of his child, the man on whom his safety and good reputation and continued ability to eat depended, the man he, for some fucking reason, still loved, they’d actually tried to help.

Sybil had given him willow bark for the pain. Rose had engaged him in long, rambling conversations, stretching the minutes until he had to return home. Jane had walked across the village and rapped on his door every evening she could, always armed with solid excuses, just when the bastard was well and truly in his cups and looking for something to damage.

If ever analytical minds were to try to account for Crowley’s misanthropy and sadism, they couldn’t honestly conclude that either was due to his never experiencing true, heartfelt human kindness.

Yes, Sybil and Rose and Jane had all thought he was a woman and addressed him accordingly, and it had hurt. But that wasn’t their fault. He’d not had the courage to tell them otherwise.

Crowley didn’t regret much. Regret, in this game, was a slow-killing poison.

Still, he did occasionally wonder how things might have turned out if he’d accepted Jane’s invitation and fled with her to London that one warm night, rather than hanging in for years until he finally snapped and beat his husband’s skull into tooth-sized pieces with an iron kettle.

Returning to the present:

As Crowley watched Dean’s fist barrel towards his face, and not for the first time, he reviewed the pros and cons of incinerating him with hellfire.

When fist and nose were one millionth of an inch apart, he teleported across the room.

“Squirrel,” he sighed, “this has nothing to do with you.”

Dean charged and took another swing at him. “Fuck you! He worked so hard! Clean for four years, you piece of shit!”

This time, Crowley reappeared sitting on top of the dead man’s wardrobe, where Dean couldn’t reach him. “Good for him. His family and friends won’t remember him as the thieving, lying wretch he was ten years ago when he sold his soul for a pound of meth. They’ll probably give him a nice funeral.”

“Why couldn’t you make an exception? Just once?”

“That’s not how this works, Dean! It wasn’t even my deal! The contract is in the hands of a relatively inexperienced subordinate and honestly, I’m glad that she pulled it off. She’s got potential. This is her first real win. It’ll increase her standing in Hell and make her more powerful, which will be useful because some older demons have taken to bullying h-…”

“I don’t give a damn about your minions,” he snarled, picking up a lamp sprinkled with blood and throwing it at him. Crowley ducked. “Every last one of you can take an angel blade to the face, for all I care. You’re fucking parasites.”

Evenly, Crowley replied, “Yes. We are. You know that. You’ve always known that. Why are you having a fit about it now? Good people get dragged to Hell all the time.”

Dean stared down at what remained of Martin Booke, now that the hellhounds had left. “He worked so hard. Christ. You could have made an exception. He came to us and I swore I’d help him out.”

“Well, you shouldn’t have cocking well done that, should you?” Crowley cried, throwing up his hands.

Eyes wet, Dean sneered at him. “Parasite. Get out of my sight before I wring your evil neck.”

Crowley left.

Upon arriving back in Hell, he went to the Admissions Department.

The soul of Martin Booke was sitting in one of the cheap blue plastic chairs, knees drawn up to his chest. Probably still reeling from the trauma of the hounds ripping his throat out, though no damage was evident on his form now.

“Mr Booke,” Crowley said, sauntering up with his hands in his pockets. “Could you come with me, please?”

A door appeared in the nearest wall and swung open silently.

Once they were both standing inside Crowley’s office, it swung shut and dissolved into nothingness.

Moving to his liquor cabinet, Crowley said, “I hear you’re a Harvard man.”

“Um… y-yeah. Yes. I was.” Thin voice. Midwestern accent.

“Promising career ahead of you before things – ah – went awry.”

Booke swallowed. “Tom. First boyfriend. Got me into meth. Got me into a lot of stuff. I figured it was okay because we were gonna be together forever and as long as I had him, I’d be fine. Then he went and died and I had to pick up the pieces on my own.”

Smiling thinly, Crowley said, “Isn’t romance grand? As it happens, you may still get your happily ever after. Thomas Abbott is currently waiting in the eternal queue – which, ordinarily, is where you’d be headed.”

“Yeah. Dean told me. Although… um…”

“You have a question? Spit it out. Cowards bore me.”

“Dean said that when you sell your soul, you go to Hell and demons torture you until you become a demon. But he also told me about the queue thing. So that’s confusing. I mean, queuing sucks but it’s not torture.”

Crowley poured himself a glass of bourbon and sat down behind his desk. “Clever boy. Yes; when I became King of Hell, I restructured things. Most of you end up in the queue. The hot knives and whips are a speciality service and, as such, are reserved for our elite clientele. The pedos and Nazis and so forth – and, of course, anyone who pisses me off too much. As for the process of becoming a demon; that doesn’t actually require torture. I know! Surprised me too! We always thought it did, back when Lilith was in charge. Then I started running some tests and it turns out that becoming a demon is a bit like catching a virus; it’ll happen to anyone who hangs around other demons long enough. Everyone in the queue will have black eyes by the end of their first century.”

Booke took off his glasses and nervously rubbed them on his sleeve. “You said that ‘ordinarily’ I’d go to the queue. So am I an – uh – ‘elite client’?”

“Hah! No. Your little life was staggeringly boring and barely impacted anyone in ways either negative or positive. No, the reason you’re here is Harvard. See, I had a snoop and it seems that before you dropped out, you were getting bloody good grades.”

A wistful smile. “I guess. Had big dreams, once.”

Sipping his bourbon, Crowley said, “On track for a Master’s in aeronautical engineering, I believe.”

“Yep. I wanted to work for NASA.”

“Cards on the table, Booke: I might have a job for you. There is, at present, space in one or two of our departments for a man with your talents. But first I need to ask a question.”

He cocked his head. “Um. Sure? Anything’s better than what I was expecting. Shoot.”

“Do you know how to crash a spaceship?”

[lakemojave]

Supergiant Games: Same Bones, Different Skeletons

I just finished a retrospective of all 4 games by Supergiant on my twitch channel, and I have a few thoughts I wanna connect and questions I wanna explore. My love for these games is real strong and i could write a whole essay just gushing about them, but I wanna give some thought to what makes them so compelling: not just to me, but to damn near everyone I’ve talked to on their discord who feels the same. I myself rank Bastion among my favorite games ever, and Hades is climbing that list at a clip. And even though I could take or leave Transistor or Pyre, they keep pulling me back.

But I could talk a whole lot about each game’s appeal and waste a lot of time. I’ve gushed enough to my friends about how Bastion and Pyre’s rugged, apocalyptic atmospheres draw me in with their incredible vibrance to contrast. I could talk about how Ashley Barrett’s vocal tracks carry Transistor on their shoulders, or what makes Hades so much goddamn fun that the game doesn’t really need to be much else. But I realize that if the Supergiant library is so universally appealing to me, there must be some sort of connective tissue between them--some sort of fundamental similarity that makes them work. After thinking about it for more than five minutes, it turns out there are many; some are pretty obvious, and some less so. This brings me to the conclusion that the Supergiant library, with its four wildly distinct and different games, still follow a noticeable formula--one that is flexible enough to allow such completely different games.

Game Design

The Supergiant library are all essentially top down action rpgs, Transistor having the most elements of the genre. This is still a pretty weak connection, given how different they all play from each other. The only two that have much overlap in the most basic sense are Bastion and Hades, with the same general fast paced, real time combat. On closer examination, the two games have enough differences in the variety of mechanics at play, (Bastion with its multiple weapon slots and a shield, Hades with its sheer number of commands) that even they are hard to compare.

There are, however, several mechanics that the library loves to use. The first that comes to mind are the difficulty conditions: idols in Bastion, limiters in Transistor, titan stars in Pyre, and the pact of punishment--and arguably Chaos boons as well--in Hades. Their function is simple: increase your challenge for a little extra reward. Bastion and Pyre go the extra mile by fixing in world building elements to this mechanic; Bastion’s idols inform about the game’s pantheon, while Pyre informs about its, well, evil pantheon. The use of these conditions is indicative of Supergiant’s game design philosophy as a whole--you, the player, can make the game as hard or easy as it takes for you to have fun. The inclusion of infinite lives in Bastion or god mode or hell mode in Hades further builds on this point. This library is designed for all sorts of audiences, whether they want to be challenged by their games or simply immersed in the story.

Another repeating mechanic in these games are the use of challenge rooms, which started in Bastion as the training grounds and, to a lesser extent, Who Knows Where. In Transistor they are the sandbox test rooms, and in Pyre they are the beyonder crystal’s scribe trials. They appear in Hades a little more ambiguously; the infernal troves or Erebus rooms are not quite the same, but they serve a similar function. This function is a momentary break from the gameplay loop for a little extra reward, much like the previously discussed conditions. Transistor and Hades’ challenge rooms offer relatively negligible rewards; the sandbox rooms simply offer xp and unlock tracks for the jukebox, while the Erebus tiles offer double the reward for any normal tile. Bastion and Pyre go the extra mile by giving specific, long term rewards for their challenges. In Bastion’s training grounds, the Kid earns weapon specific abilities that are among the game’s most powerful; in Pyre’s scribe trials, exiles can earn character specific talismans that feed their specialization. For the most part, these rooms give the player a low stakes opportunity to practice, hone their preferred playstyle, and reward the effort, all while being completely optional.

Akin to these breaks in the game loop are designated resting areas/hub worlds. The Bastion, the Sandbox, the Blackwagon, and the House of Hades each offer a moment to interact with characters and lore, goof around with the environment, buy permanent upgrades, or just take a break. Transistor utilizes this function the least of the library, since it never once requires the player to enter the space. Pyre utilizes it the most since it has the most breaks in both frequency and number. In a way, this decision is both a game design and storytelling choice. Between all four games, perhaps excluding Transistor, this is where the majority of story beats take place. It is where the player can read up on some fresh lore or meet the ever growing cast of characters, and eventually grow to cherish them (as I often do playing this library). Without little breaks like these, the climactic or world/story shaking events that take place out in the actual playable space have no impact or narrative weight. The fact that all these sort of interactions are completely voluntary also rewards the player in the storytelling sense; by choosing to engage with the figures of the story rather than having that choice decided for them, the player feels as though they themselves have agency in the story unfolding.

Style

Perhaps the most distinct part of the Supergiant library, (and perhaps what I personally love most about it) is its aesthetics. There are few games that look, feel, and sound the way these games do. Yet, the four of them hardly resemble each other. Bastion is a rugged, frontier-esque sci fi apocalypse, Transistor is a sleek, cyberpunk apocalypse, Pyre is a high fantasy purgatory space, and Hades is simply stylized Greek mythology. It is a shock to remember, then, that these four games are all designed by the same artistic team.

I confess I don’t know much about art, so I don’t have anything too profound to say about Jen Zee’s art style, besides that I like it a lot. It is also worth noting that despite her spearheading art and character design for the whole library, each game still looks visually distinct, and not just in their overall aesthetics. Take the character design of the library, for instance. Bastion’s human figures tend to be short, stocky, with exaggerated facial features. Their colors are highly saturated, with a soft, almost blurry quality that gives a level of warmth to the fatalistic atmosphere. Transistor’s characters, barring Red, tend to be based around palettes centered around a single color, such as the Camerata red and the spectrum of the function character profiles. Pyre is the first of the library to use talking portraits, which contrast robed figures with stark color palettes and simple designs with unrobed figures with much noisier details. Hades is easily the most distinct of all four, using simple colors and thick outlines on all its characters. The most consistent feature of all their designs, as usual, is how wildly different they are. For Hades, Zee makes sure that characters only look alike in any way if they have some relation to each other, such as the Furies, Achilles and Patroclus, or Zagreus and his parents. On the whole, the versatility and variety in the character design is impeccable.

What I most enjoy about these games is Darren Korb’s soundtracks, which continue to vary wildly. From the closet-recorded Bastion soundtrack to the whole two and a half Hades score, Korb’s scoring keeps improving and changing in the 10 years Supergiant has operated. His music, which adds and changes motifs as each game progresses, contributes to the atmosphere just as much as the visuals do. Whenever he teams up with Ashley Barret to add vocal tracks to certain parts of the game, they always manage to place them at critical narrative or emotional beats, turning them into the games’ most memorable moments. The team goes one step further every game by incorporating a musician or source of music into each game, giving the music just as much character as the one performing it. It also sneaks its way into the aforementioned hub worlds by providing the player a means to play their favorite tracks whenever they want (except in Hades, where they have to pay in game for that privilege). In essence, Korb makes sure to give each game a distinct feel through its music, but familiar enough to connect the library in the player’s mind.

Just as Supergiant gets so much mileage from Korb and Zee alike, they also manage time and time again to make use of Logan Cunningham’s top notch voice over work. Originally the sole voice actor at Supergiant Games, Cunningham continued on from famously narrating Bastion as Rucks to remaining a ubiquitous voice throughout the library. His role as the Transistor in the game proper drives the emotional core of that game, and his role as the Voice/Archjustice proves to be a solidly effective, yet distant antagonist. In Hades, his roles are somewhat overshadowed by Korb’s performance as Zagreus, (which I’m still blown away he still had time to do) but his performance as Lord Hades is still excellent. Supergiant also uses Cunningham in Hades to sort of satirize how often he narrates for them by casting him as the narrating Old Man, then allowing Zagreus to break the fourth wall and acknowledge him. It is as if the team at Supergiant knows how much they use the same stylistic team, then mocking that same choice.

To other studios: learn from Supergiant

I’m running out of things to say and my ball of yarn that connects all these newspapers and polaroids on my wall is running thin. I would talk more about Supergiant really knows how to end a game and frequently does so in similar ways, or that their library is a masterclass in character-driven stories, but this little essay is long enough.

Instead, I wanna talk about how Supergiant does something right which so many AAA developers and publishers don’t seem to understand. To contrast with the Supergiant library, consider Assassin’s Creed, another franchise I have spent an embarrassing amount of time playing. This franchise releases a game almost every year, and in my experience, when a company does this, you tend to get the same pig with a different paint. From the original Assassin’s Creed to their most recent release, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, the differences seem to be night and day. Combat and free running are far more complex than they once were, rpg elements to story and gameplay have been introduced, composers, writers, voice actors, and cast members have changed with each release, and the sheer size of the game has become staggering. Yet, in the 13 years and 11 main releases in the game’s history, (plus spinoffs) any change has not only felt incremental over time, but fundamentally insignificant to the skeleton of the game. Assassin’s Creed 1 and 2 play and feel differently, but the differences are subtle. The bones are different, but every year they assemble to form a vaguely Assassin’s Creed shaped thing. People who play games tend to hate this and frequently berate companies for this practice; Bethesda and GameFreak receive the same criticism that their games are so formulaic that their new releases might as well be carbon copies of the ones before it.

Yet, Supergiant Games, with its four games over ten years, has used essentially the same team and building blocks to make games that can hardly be considered interchangeable. Whether its the passion of this humble little indie studio or the sheer talent of this team, Supergiant takes the same pile of bones and assembles them in a different shape each time with care and attention. They are proof that a formula doesn’t need to be tweaked or altered or given a different coat of paint in order to be accepted; instead the formula needs versatility, the means to produce a fresh result each time. It also works best when we adore the result every time.

[caxsthetic]

Nice Serve• Haikyuu x Reader • Series

Chapter 3 — People come and go, and in this case, you were the one who leave them for good.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *. NICE SERVE MASTERLIST .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Karasuno's Volleyball Team, including you, were now standing on the Heartbreak Hill. Sawamura decided that the team needed to increase their stamina. You were there to keep track of everyone, and thank god your phone was good enough to be a stopwatch and to save some notes. You typed down, ten times running up the hill, with everyone running in pairs.

The first team was Ennoshita and Tanaka. You ran to follow them and noted how much the track affects their bodies. Not long, you heard a shout that belongs to Kageyama and Hinata. And before you could praise them from being so passionate about this, they run past everyone in a second.

"TOBIO! HINA- Ah, screw this." You take off your jacket and entrust it to Yamaguchi, "I am not getting paid enough for this!" You grumbled under your breath and ran to follow the two.

Both of them had extreme stamina, that's what you could conclude from how they keep running miles after miles. You made a space between you and them, and your legs have almost given up by now. But praise the lord as they finally stopped near a minimarket.

Those two turned their heads at the same time, only to find you there. Both of them could see the fuming in your eyes, and they knew they screwed up big time.

"(L/n)! Your stamina-" Before Hinata could finish his sentence (wanting to sugarcoat you), you pinched his and Kageyama's ear, "H-hurts!"

"You guys really acted like a child!" You shouted at the two of them, "Both of you were supposed to run until the first intersection. Not here!" You let go and walked towards the minimarket, "I will buy something to drink for all of us. Don't go anywhere!"

You were currently out of sight. Kageyama and Hinata immediately blamed each other because now you were angry with them.

"We are in Wakano?" Hinata pondered.

"Aren't Wakano near Shiratorizawa?" Kageyama added.

"Shiratorizawa? You mean, Ushiwaka's school?!" Hinata screamed from the information, excitement bubbling on his voice.

"Do you have something to do with me?"

You currently look around the minimarket, wanting to buy mineral water and some buns for everyone. After you were done with everything, you walked outside to find no one. Not even a trace of humans could be seen at this point. Why am I not even surprised anymore? You pondered.

"(Y/n)?" You jolted when you heard your name, and you turned around to found Semi Eita. Your ex-teammate, "So it's you." From how long he heaved his chest right now, you knew that Shiratorizawa must be doing some jogging routine.

"Hello, Semi-senpai." His eyes looked at you and the heavy groceries bag on your hands. Without asking for your permission, he immediately grabbed one of the groceries bags from your hand.

"Eita." He muttered.

"What?" You blinked, wanted to make sure if you heard him right or not.

"You always called me Eita." His gaze couldn't be read as those dark eyes bore at yours, "Just because you didn't go to Shiratorizawa anymore, doesn't mean we have to become strangers."

You almost cried at this. There were actually a lot of good people on your team, so why were you running away that easily? Semi turned to look at your face, and he could immediately found the sadness in your eyes,

"Where are you going?" Semi tried to change the subject, and you knew damn well about his attempt. You smiled and told him about your two children who were missing from your care.

"Does one of them look tall, black-haired, and scowling non-stop?" He just looked from his phone, receiving a message from his friends, "Because if it's true, they are currently talking with Ushiwaka near our gymnasium."

"THEY WHAT?!"

You dashed to Shiratorizawa in a blink of an eye. Both of your babies inside the predator's territory. You could hear Semi's footsteps follow you, try to catch up with the mother of two crows in movement.

When you walked inside the school, you thanked the god that there was no one there who recognised you. You walked to the gymnasium directly to avoid any unwanted attention. When you were near, you could see Hinata walking towards Ushijima.

You stopped near them. Close enough to hear whatever they said, but far enough that they couldn't spot you.

"I am sorry if my words offended you." You heard Ushijima say, "But words that come out from someone who lost from Aobajohsai and couldn't go to the final is meaningless to me." You knew how blunt he could be, but his words really made you grit your teeth and clenched your hand.

"(Y/n), calmed down." Semi touched your shoulder to calm you down. He was like your tamer ever since you enrolled in Shiratorizawa, and he was the one that was responsible to calm you down when you were emotional.

Suddenly, a ball bounced from inside the gymnasium. Your instinct told you to record the whole thing. Ushijima jumped to catch the ball, but Hinata jumped higher and caught the ball before the ace could.

"My baby crow~!" You squealed softly when you watched it unfold. Even Semi was shocked to see the ability of Hinata. While Kageyama smirked at how Hinata reacted, knowing damn well the ability of his teammate.

"Hinata Shouyou, from concrete soil." Hinata walked to Ushijima and gave him the volleyball that he caught, "I will beat you and stride to the national."

There was a glint of pride in your eyes as you looked at the scene that unfolded in front of you. Karasuno already seeped into your heart, and right now, you vowed to yourself that you would strive to be the best manager for them.

"I am sorry if you are from another school, you couldn't be here."

A man popped out and ruined the moment, making you groan at this. Hinata bowed to Ushijima and walked away. But Kageyama stay put,

"If Oikawa is the best setter from the prefecture." You could sense how pumped up Kageyama was, "Then I will be the one who surpassed him." He bowed down and left too, following his teammate that already walked first.

You bowed to Semi when Kageyama and Hinata walked past you. Your hand grabbed the groceries bag from his at the same time and caught up to your new family. You walked behind them and smiled. Hearing how confident they were, you couldn't help but be pumped up too.

When the two of them finished talking, you decided to walk a little bit faster to pop in the middle of them.

"I love your spirit, but it's cruel to leave a girl on an unknown road, you know." You fake pouted once you squeezed yourself between them. They jolted when they remembered that they left you on the minimarket.

"I-I am so sorry, (L/n)-san!" "S-sorry, let me help you with the bag."

"Ushiwaka." Semi appeared near Ushijima. His eyes still focused on the three crows who walked in Shiratorizawa, "She's doing great."

Dark olives orbs gazed on you, a faint smile spotted on his usually stoic face, "Yeah." A smile plastered wide on your face. Soft complexions could be seen from afar with how the evening sun hit your skin, "They treat her right."

»»————-　♔　————-««

Today, Takeda-sensei, asked everyone from the volleyball team to gather before the practice began. You knew what he was going to say after this. On your tablet right now, showed the whole school score from everyone on the team.

"So, for the match in Tokyo, everyone needs approval from their parents or guardian." Takeda started, "And you need to know that there will be a final exam next month." Kageyama, Hinata, Tanaka, and Nishinoya tried to avoid Takeda's gaze, "(L/n)-san, would you help me continue?"

You took a deep breath and cleared your throat. Resulting in you catching everyone's attention, including the four boys, "The final exam would have an impact on this match if any of you failed on one of the subjects." All of the eyes suddenly turned towards the freak duo and the second years.

"Since if any of you failed," Dark aura emitted from your frame, "Then there will be an extra class on the weekend." Kageyama shuddered at the thought, knowing what were you going to say next, "That means, you couldn't participate in the match that will be held in Tokyo."

Hearing that, Tanaka and Nishinoya tried to run away. But thankful to Ennoshita, he could hold them off. The news somehow broke the four of them, mentally. You let out a long sigh at the whole circus in front of you,

"Failed? Failed? What does it mean?"

"Kageyama didn't breath!"

Everyone was in an uproar. You could hear how desperate Hinata was, and heard nothing from Kageyama that everyone thought he was dead (What a tragic if a setter died from academic reason).

"EVERYONE ZIP YOUR MOUTH FOR A MINUTE!" You shouted, everyone stopped their movement. "All of you pass the entrance exam, how could you be so distraught?!" You counted to five before you calmed down, "If we all help you with the subject that you were hard to deal with, I am sure we all could go." You gave them an angelic smile.

"G-goddess..." Nishinoya and Tanaka sobbed from your little speech.

"Hear that, Kageyama? Hear that? Your goddess will help you!"

"Shut up, Boke!"

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*     ༶• ┈┈ ⛧ ┈ ♛ ♛ ┈ ⛧ ┈┈ •༶     *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Tagged Nice Serve:

@lumiriai @akaritheyeetus @pocket-puddingg @maraudusk @playboygeniusphilanthropist @akakuzumo @shiningstar-byulxx @gyubit17 @aristatrois @aquariarose @muffins-puffins @vlovers-world @blacckdiamondposts @for-ests @atsunflower @hihiq @the-fandom-ness ​ @quirksandbreaths @rintarhoe @verbluehte @simp4tsukkii @ladyalicevii @evermorehaikyuu @clowninfortodoroki @koutaroulovebot @mistypoison @greenleaf-fantasy

[wandaterrell]

What is a Postal Code

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What are Postal Codes and How Do They Work?

Businesses of all kinds are familiar with terms like address cleansing and ZIP+4 code. They are aware that you need a complete ZIP+4 code to send and receive packages via USPS without any delays and to ensure the mail’s deliverability. Yet, businesses often remain ignorant of what is what and focus solely on their campaigns/efforts and their reach.

Businesses must realize that they need to have a comprehensive idea of what is what if they are to come up with feasible and innovative solutions. You can’t be inspired to come up with a smart solution or alternative with a limited understanding of what you are dealing with. And as far as a company’s direct mail efforts are concerned, the postal code is the perfect place to start.

You need to understand what is postal code so that you can have a better understanding of how your direct mail efforts work. This article discusses what postal code is, how the ZIP+4 code fits into pictures, and how it is important for your address verification and validation process.

What is Postal Code?

Postal codes are a set of numbers, a very specific set of numbers (although it sometimes includes letters too) that helps postal services determine the destination of a mail. The postal code allows a mail to reach its destination, and full ZIP+4 makes sure that it reaches the destination ASAP. The use of postal code is standard practice across nations all around the world. Even though the details may be different, the basic functioning is similar everywhere.

The postal code system across different countries may vary, and so will their format but their purpose remains the same, and that is to make postal delivery easier. Every stage in postal delivery is optimized by the use of postal codes. This optimization includes the batching of posts sent to a particular state to the stage where the postman makes the delivery. In essence, the postal code dictates the extent of the delivery jurisdictions.

So, every address that falls under the same delivery jurisdiction will have the same postal code assigned to it. However, this broad classification only applies to a part of the code if you are referring to a full 9-digits postal code. It is also worth noting that sometimes the postal codes are based on their geographical areas or even administrative boundaries in some cases. On the flip side, sometimes they are free-floating in nature or integral to a certain organization or a single delivery point.

It may feel that the postal code allocation may very well be random with so many different bases for their allocations, but there exists a common element between all of them. And what is that? Well, the postal codes are closely linked to the delivery route of a postal employee. It makes perfect sense to do it this way because the purpose of the postal codes in effect is to streamline their delivery process, reducing the time required for deliveries through effective planning.

How the Postal Code was Created

The postal codes had a massive impact on all the activities related to postal delivery, and this goes for every country in the world. A system that is simple yet effective enough to manage the postal operations of big countries such as the US. As an address verification company that works closely with postcodes, we can’t help but get a little excited when talking about the origin of postal codes.

So the story begins when the cities in the US started to grow bigger and bigger. As the cities kept on growing, the delivery of postal mails also became more and more challenging. Soon there were not enough postman or post offices to deliver all the letters; keep in mind that this was at a time when letters were the only means of communication for the vast majority of the population.

The most obvious solution at this point was to simply meet the increased demand for postal services was optimize the logistic capability of the postal body. To optimize the logistical capabilities, more post offices were built and more postmen were hired. But the problems were only beginning because the postal delivery was potentially a management nightmare.

Why? Because despite having new post offices and new postmen to deliver the mails, it still did not rectify the problem of how one would find the different addresses. There were a lot of questions that were left unanswered, such as which post office would deliver an address that is exactly halfway between two post offices? An efficient way had to be developed that is productive in a way that none of the resources went to waste.

A similar situation prevailed in different parts of the world during the time. It was in London that they first started using the postal codes in the late 1800s. London was subdivided into ten different districts to meet the postal delivery requirements and is often signified as the first source of postal codes. They called these newly classified districts postal districts or postal zones.

To keep track of them effectively, they were all numbered, and that is how “postal district numbers” or “postal zone numbers” came into being. Although during the first World War, such systems already existed in various European countries, the one from London is often regarded as the origin.

The US began using the postal code system a bit later but not later than the 1920s. Since then, the postal delivery system has gone through numerous changes and optimized for better and faster deliveries. Even with all the progress that we have made since then, the district numbering system is still the foundation on which the modern-day postal codes are built on.

Using Postal Codes Across the Country

The postal code that had its inception in London was merely the tip of the iceberg. The district code created in London was a primitive one because they only ever covered a big city and nothing more. As one would expect from a new system, even though it had some sound logic behind the first postal code was not effectively implemented. The system was perfected over the years and evolved itself to what we now see around the world.

For starters, the first postal code was created only for big cities like London. It was never equipped to cover larger areas like states or the country. They lacked the systematic superiority to implement them on a larger scale. It was the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic that first implemented a country-wide postal code system back in 1932. However, this did not last as they failed to implement it efficiently, and it was finally discontinued in 1939.

If you are looking for a functioning example of a postal system in history, then you will have to go to Germany in 1941. Even though they were dealing with the war at the time, the Germans still managed to keep effective postal communication throughout the country. Later in 1963, the US also joined the club by implementing the ZIP-code system. In the meantime, it took another decade for the UK that actually began the practice of postal code to implement it nationwide.

But we have not once had to look back ever since the introduction of a nationwide postal code system. The beauty of the system and probably the reason that it has not been replaced by an alternative system is its ability to expand. It allows countries to expand and accommodate for new or additional areas simply by adding new digits to the already existing code.

The postal codes are much more than just a means of delivering direct mails today. They help in geocoding, address validation, and more. They can help you with identity verifications and even checking for stolen credit cards. At this point, the postal code is not something you can afford to be ignorant about because it has many real-life uses, and you never know when you might need one in your personal or professional life.

International Mailing Postal Code Names

We have already made it clear that countries around the world use a postal code system. However, it is not necessarily called a postal code everywhere around the globe. It’s similar to how in the US we call an elevator an “elevator,” and in the UK, they call it a “lift,” and we haven’t even considered the non-English speaking countries yet. Every country has a different term, and below we take a look at some of the most popular ones.

In the US, we call the postal service the ZIP code or “Zone Improvement Plan.” The “Postal Code” is a generic term, and it is universally applicable, and it also happens to be the name used by Canada’s postal service. Many English-speaking nations like the Netherlands use the name Postcode which, as you can see, is just a slightly different variant of the “postal code.” In Italy, they call it CAP, which is short for “Codice di Avviamento Postale” which further translates to Postal Expedition Code.

In Ireland, the postal code goes by the name Eircode, which is their latest delivery code system. Brazil calls it “Código de Endereçamento” (CEP), which in English means Postal Addressing Code. In India, the postal codes go by the name “Postal Index Number code” or PIN code/Pincode. The Germans call it “Postleitzahl” or PAZ, which conveniently translates to “postal code.”

Postal Code and Their Different Formats

Although there are certain generalities when it comes to postal code format, they still have many variations, and it is essential to understand these different formats. Beginning with the characters used in the postal codes, you need to keep in mind that the actual composition may vary depending on the country, and hence all the places may not necessarily use all the characters.

You can expect three kinds of symbols in a postal code. The first of these symbols that you will notice are the numbers 0 to 9, or the ten base characters of the Arabic decimal system if you want it in technical terms. As you may have very well guessed, the second of these symbols are the alphabets A to Z or all 26 letters of the basic Latin alphabet. The third and final one of these symbols is the hyphens and spaces.

The majority of the countries use only the numbers in their postal codes. However, it is worth noting that the hyphens and spaces are also used in varying saturation levels. That being said, this is not always the case as some countries out there use a more complex system that throws in alphabets to the mix, making their postal codes alphanumeric. Canada, Venezuela, the United Kingdom, Swaziland, Netherlands, and Ireland are some of the more popular countries that employ an alphanumeric postal code.

The Role of Location in Mailing Postal Codes

Instead of assigning random numbers and letters to addresses around the city (or country, for that matter), the postal codes are attributed based on their location and deliverability. Grouping together the addresses in a systematic manner makes way for easier labeling. Take the ZIP codes in the US. For example, the first digit of the full 9-digits ZIP code indicates the region of the country where the postal mail is destined to go.

Suppose the first digit of the ZIP code is 0, then it is headed for New England, and similarly, each digit specifies a particular region in the country. However, you should remember that this system may change from country to country. As far as the US is concerned, its codes are generally based on the administrative areas. This means that the first number of the ZIP code will give you a fairly accurate idea about the destination country.

That being said, on the practical side of things, ZIP codes often cross county, city, and state boundaries. So what does this mean for the postal code? Well, this means that although it is likely that the ZIP codes are closely linked to the administrative boundaries like city and states, it is by no means compulsory. As we briefly mentioned before, it all comes down to optimizing the delivery process, and hence the most productive way for running the mail is adopted.

Another thing you should be aware of is that sometimes when the codes are not based on a boundary, they are tied to the recipients. For example, PO boxes usually have their own postal code or postal code suffix. It is also normal for large buildings and organizations to have their unique codes because of the large volume of mails they send and receive.

Postal Code Accuracy

The postal code accuracy can also be subject to variation from country to country, meaning some codes can be more accurate, or some may be less accurate. The ZIP code used in the US comes with what is called a “block-level” accuracy. This implies that the mails sharing the same ZIP+4 code will be delivered by the same delivery man or share the same delivery route. This is one of the most accurate postal codes in the world, and the USPS assures delivery as long as you have a validated address.

Conclusion

The Postal Code system is an international system used across countries around the world. Although its name, application, and mode of operation can change from country to country, the basics remain the same. The postal code used in the US is the ZIP code, and it comes with a “block-level” accuracy which is one of the best in the world.

However, the postal code accuracy is not worth much if you do not have a validated set of addresses, and this is especially important for businesses who regularly send out postal mails. You need an advanced address verification tool like PostGrid that can provide you with an accurate ZIP+4 code of the addresses with it’s Address Verification API that has Zip Code API and Postal API so that you can ensure that your marketing efforts are functioning in their optimal condition.

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The post What is a Postal Code appeared first on PostGrid.

Via https://www.postgrid.com/what-is-postal-code/

source https://postgridplatform.weebly.com/blog/what-is-a-postal-code9893031 source https://irenejvines.blogspot.com/2021/09/what-is-postal-code.html

[scoutception]

Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation review

The original Dragon Quest was an extremely important and influential game that built the foundations to the Japanese role playing game genre, but was an extremely basic game that would end up outclassed by nearly any other RPG on the NES released afterwards that wasn’t completely incompetent, and while Dragon Quest II improved upon the foundation of the original, namely in terms of party progression, it was also a rushed, unbalanced, overly difficult and overall tedious experience. Despite its importance, Dragon Quest’s third installment would have to be a significant step up, and as luck would have it, it was, becoming another of the most legendary and important RPGs ever made, and firmly cementing Dragon Quest as a series that would stay around even to the present day, and how exactly this came to be is what we’ll be looking at today. The version I played was the SNES remake with a fan made English patch, so many of the names in the screenshots won’t match up with official translations. Other options are the Game Boy Color version, which was officially released in English, and even has a bit more exclusive content, namely a very time consuming sidequest and a bonus dungeon related to it, the Ice Cave, and much more recently, the mobile/Switch version, which is also available in English, and is based on the SNES version, minus some of its exclusive content. Be warned, there will be spoilers.

Story: In an unnamed land, geographically similar to the real world, the archfiend Baramos has appeared and unleashed monsters to plague the land, with its people’s woes ranging from groups of bandits robbing kings and kidnapping citizens, to monsters impersonating rulers, to entire towns being wiped out by the forces of Baramos, who ultimately plots to destroy the entire world. A hero from Aliahan, Ortega, once set out on a journey to slay the archfiend, only to fall in combat with a dragon over a volcano. The child of Ortega is thus given the task of slaying Baramos themselves on their 16th birthday, with the help of a group of adventurers recruited from Aliahan’s tavern.

On the surface, it’s still not much more of a plot than the first two games, and for the most part, that is true, but it’s still much more interesting simply because there’s much more going on. Many of the towns you visit are facing some sort of crisis, or have some sort of interesting circumstances around them, such as the immigrant town that slowly changes and expands as the game goes on, making them a lot more fun to discover and explore compared to the towns of the first two games. Additionally, there’s the famous and influential late game twist that strikes after defeating Baramos, namely the reveal of Zoma, Baramos’ superior, and the second world map of Alefgard, the setting of the first Dragon Quest. These two twists are a large part of what made Dragon Quest III so impactful when it came out in 1988, and considering the game presents itself as unrelated to the previous games, and that by the time you defeat Baramos, you’ll have explored the entire world, barring two small locations at most, they hold up fairly well even today. There’s not much more for me to add besides this, however, so it’s time to hop straight to the gameplay.

Gameplay: Dragon Quest III uses the same turn based battle system as the first two games, and besides things like new types of spells and weapons, not too much is changed with the combat itself. The biggest change DQ3 provides is to the party progression system. Instead of the Hero being completely alone like the first game, or gaining two fixed party members in the second, DQ3 allows you to build a party from the ground up, besides the Hero, who’s always required to be in the party, and has the exclusive Hero class, with well balanced stats and unique and useful spells. The party size has been increased to four at a time, and party members can be created and exchanged in Aliahan, with a total of 8 different classes they can be: warriors, slow, yet well equipped physical fighters that act has tanks and heavy hitters, priests, who specialize in healing and support spells and, contrary to most healers in RPGs, actually have decent equipment and offensive options, mages, typical magic attackers with great offensive spells, yet bad physical stats, martial artists, physical attackers with great agility who forgo most equipment and have a higher chance of landing critical hits, merchants, average at best fighters who have supporting abilities like being able to earn extra gold after battle, gadabouts, odd and clownish characters with bad stats besides luck, and a fixed chance to simply goof off and take random actions instead of doing as commanded, thieves, a class exclusive to the remakes, with great agility and several abilities that mainly help with exploration, and sages, who learn nearly every spell in the game, and have a wide selection of equipment options, yet cannot be put in the party to start.

Compared to Final Fantasy I, which had a similar class based party system, and came out only a few months before DQ3, this system actually has quite a few advancements. Most importantly, you’re never simply stuck with the party you start with. As long as you can make it to Aliahan, you can simply make new characters and swap out whoever you’re currently using. Obviously, doing this too much isn’t very practical, considering new members will be behind on EXP, but not being able to permanently lock yourself into an awful party combination is a big improvement alone. Party members who have reached level 20 can also change classes at Alltrades Abbey, resetting their level to 1, and cutting their stats in half, but keeping any learned abilities, meaning, if you were so inclined, you could make a mage with the physical stats of a warrior, a warrior with the speed of a thief, and so forth. Changing classes like this is also the only way to get sages into the party, and even then, only with the use of a Words of Wisdom book, of which only two exist in the game. This lends itself to a lot of creativity, and while I personally didn’t use this mechanic much, only turning my priest into a sage, it’s still an impressive level of complexity for a game this old.

The class balance is also fairly interesting, as beyond the upsides and downsides already listed, classes also level at different rates. Warriors are expensive to equip and very slow, but level the fastest out of the main offensive classes. Martial artists are, by contrast, very cheap, but have the third slowest leveling rate in the game, and the little equipment they do have is usually pretty difficult to get, especially their weapons. Merchants are guaranteed to eventually fall behind if you try to use them, but actually have quite a bit of exclusive, and good, equipment early on, and level the fastest out of everyone. Gadabouts are liabilities, but level second fastest, and can become sages for free once they reach level 20, making them an investment class. Despite how several classes are very obviously inferior in the long run, you actually can get away with some pretty unorthodox party combinations, at least earlier on. Take my party of hero, warrior, martial artist, and priest: very strong physically, but expensive to upkeep, despite the martial artist somewhat balancing it out, and lacking in offensive magic. While switching the priest to sage later on mostly fixed the latter issue, I was still left wishing I had taken a mage with me from the start several times, and yet I was still more than capable of finishing the game. While the difficulty has definitely been lowered compared to the first two games, that’s still a sign of ultimately successful balancing.

For some more combat related changes and improvements, some stats have been added or changed since the first two games. Resilience now determines how many hit points a character can gain when leveling up along with being added to physical defense as before, Wisdom determines a character’s potential magic points, as well as how soon they learn spells, with spells being delayed or expedited by up to three levels, and Luck determines how well a character can avoid debuffs and status ailments inflicted by monsters. Related to these stats, exclusive to the remakes is the personality system, which affects the stat growth of each character, with each party member gaining a personality during character creation or, in the case of the Hero, through a personality quiz given at the start of the game. While this generally doesn’t matter too much for casual play, assuming you aren’t unlucky enough to get the worst personalities on all your party members, it still adds an even greater deal of complexity, either allowing you to try to compensate for a character’s weaknesses, or add to their strengths. You could, for example, give a female warrior the Amazon personality, raising their strength growth, but lowering their agility, wisdom, and luck growth, stats they don’t care about much anyway. You can also change personalities during the course of the game, either temporarily by equipping certain accessories, or permanently by reading certain books scattered throughout the game, which further adds to the depth. It’s a bit overwhelming, but still pretty interesting to see.

Beyond the combat and classes, there’s still a lot of nice things to see. The bag from DQ6, which can hold an unlimited amount of items which can be taken out at any time, has been added, allowing easy inventory management on the spot. The Zoom spell now lets you return to towns of your choice, rather than the last place you saved your game, and while not every town can be warped to, it’s still a massive time saver. There’s a day night cycle, which gradually changes when traversing the world map and affects the state of the towns, and while it isn’t super prominent, there are a few towns pretty heavily affected by it, and you actually get a few ways to manipulate it later on. There’s also a few minigames added, once again exclusive to the remakes, those being the monster arena, where you can bet on computer controlled monster fights for the chance of winning money, and Treasures n' Trapdoors, which is basically a giant board game one of your party members can traverse, with several very valuable prizes available, both from winning and from landing on certain spots on the boards. Despite being very luck based, it’s creative and rewarding enough that the boards are actually a lot of fun to play, and the Switch version lacking this minigame entirely is a big shame. The remakes also added the Cloudsgate Citadel, a bonus dungeon accessible after defeating the final boss, with a superboss, Xenlon, waiting at the end. Defeating Xenlon within a certain number of turns allows you one wish, such as opening up a new Treasures n’ Trapdoors track, or resurrecting a certain character, and thankfully, you don’t actually need to traverse the entire dungeon again to refight Xenlon for more wishes, as a Zoom location is added only a few rooms away.

The biggest improvement DQ3 makes, however, is just how well the game flows. There’s still grinding to be found, yes, but generally, the game goes by much faster. Characters move quickly, the difficulty, as mentioned before, is much lowered, so you don’t need to grind 5 levels just to walk a bit north, and there’s just a lot of variety that keeps the game fresh all the way through, instead of becoming monotonous like DQ2. The dungeons are also much more reasonably designed compared to the giant, nightmarish mazes of DQ2, and while you do get a ship like in DQ2, it comes quite a bit later, keeping the amount of areas now available to explore from being as overwhelming. The obligatory key item fetch quest, this time collecting the six orbs to hatch the phoenix Ramia, is also much more reasonable to complete, with the orbs either being in locations that NPCs directly talk about, or being acquired by fighting bosses. Speaking of which, there’s also many more bosses than in previous games, and while they’re not as frequent as in most RPGs, they still add a nice bit of variety, along with actually being pretty challenging, in a good way. Overall, Dragon Quest III’s gameplay actually holds up very well, and just makes it a lot of fun to play. Even considering this is a remake with a lot of quality of life improvements, I was amazed that this was originally an NES game.

Graphics: DQ3′s visuals are quite nice, as the SNES version was made with DQ6′s engine. To give a comparison, whereas the games using DQ5′s engine were about comparable to the visuals of Final Fantasy IV and V, the visuals here are comparable to Final Fantasy VI, and considering that’s one of the best looking SNES games out there, that’s a pretty big leap. The character designs come out quite well, and many locations have unique looks to them, both towns and dungeons, with the Pyramid and Baramos’ ghastly castle sticking out the most to me. The enemy battle sprites are still great, and are actually animated whenever they attack, adding a lot of life to them.

Sound: As with the rest of the series, DQ3′s soundtrack was done by Koichi Sugiyama, and it’s once again a great soundtrack, even better than the soundtracks of the previous games. From the peaceful Small Shrine, to the iconic Overture, to the peaceful Heavenly Flight, to the world map theme Adventure, to the great final boss theme, Hero’s Challenge, it’s a soundtrack that’s a joy to listen to. It also gives towns different themes for both day and night, which is one of my favorite things to see in games.

Conclusion: Overall, I would give Dragon Quest III a recommended. It’s aged very, very well, and genuinely feels like it could have been on the SNES to start. Between the much deeper, yet ultimately accessible mechanics that give quite a bit of replay value, to much better overall design gameplay, graphical, and sound design, it makes a fantastic entry point for the series, if you have a liking for classic RPGs. Till next time. -Scout

[kaitycole]

Mono a Mono

Summary: Liam arrives in Montana and takes a visit to the Walker Ranch

Word Count: 3484

Pairings: Drake x Riley, Jackson x Eleanor

Warnings: Mentions of violence, Mentions of character death, Mentions loss of a mother, Mentions of alcohol consumption

A/N: Just a reminder, here’s a link to my character profiles if you’re interested. You learn somethings about a few that won’t be written directly in the series: here.

Song Choice: n/a

Part 17 of WP. To catch up, read here.

Tag List: @fromthedeskofpaisleybleakmore​  @kingliam2019​  @texaskitten30​ @glaimtruelovealways​  @bobasheebaby​  @bascmve01​  @burnsoslow​  @the-everlasting-dream​  @ao719​  @sirbeepsalot​  @janezillow​  @i-bloody-love-drake-walker​  @kimmiedoo5​  @choices97​ @marshmallowsaremyfavorite​  @lodberg​ @edgiestwinter​  @marshmallowsandfire​  @hopefulmoonobject​ @iaminlovewithtrr​  @cordonianroyalty​  @rafasgirl23415​  

“It would’ve been less suspicious if we had just picked Liam up!” Riley whines, anxiously bouncing up and down.

“But everyone knows he’s here.”

“Yeah, but…” she flops down on the nursey floor. Drake is trying to once again pick a paint color. They have it narrowed down to Heavy Goose, Moonshine and Gray Owl; all shades of gray that look exactly the same to Drake.

“Seriously? He’ll be here soon, you’re acting like a child.”

“I haven��t seen him in forever!” She huffs, crossing her arms across her chest.

“And if you don’t help pick a color, I’ll lock you in here until you do and it’ll be even longer until you can see him.”

Her jaw drops, “Drake Thomas Walker, you wouldn’t!”

“Two words: Try. Me.”

“Technically that’s four.” She sticks her tongue out at him.

He rolls his eyes, seriously contemplating locking her in the nursery. He just wants to get the room together and really doesn’t’ want to wait until the last minute, unlike Riley.

Riley’s head snaps up when she hears a car heading up their gravel, it’s not until there’s shuffling on the front deck that Drake starts towards the door. She tries to slip out of the door, but Drake takes a larger stride; locking her in the nursery.

Drake opens the door right as Liam has raised his fist to knock. Liam and Bastien are standing on the porch while a few other guards are scattered through the property. The friends stand there before pulling each other into a hug.

“It’s been a while.” Drake moves so Bastien and Liam can come inside.

“Thanks.” Liam looks around, it’s the first time he’s been in their home, “I like the farmhouse décor.” He takes in the nice blend of neutral colors mixed with wooden textures. The only reason he even knows as much as he does is because Riley sent him hundreds of photos and samples while choosing how to decorate.

“She spends more money trying to make half of the décor when she could buy it for less. She says it’s more authentic.”

Liam chuckles, “Speaking of, where is she?

They pick up on faint banging when Liam looks at him through furrowed brows.

“Second door on the right.”

Liam walks down the hall, skeptical. Riley isn’t one to do jump scares, but he’s still hesitant. When he opens the door, he finds a pouting Riley. When she looks up at him, she jumps into his arms; Liam stumbles back into the hallway.

“Drake locked me in here! He’s trying to keep us apart, Li!”

Liam gasps playfully, “Drake! How could you! Trying to keep my Riles from me!”

“He so effortlessly locks his pregnant wife in a room!”

Drake glares at them, “Honestly, you both are two halves of a whole idiot, you know that.”

Riley untangles herself from around Liam as he gently places her feet on the ground. Before they both ask, “But I’m your favorite idiot right!” at the same time.

Drake shares a look with Bastien who holds his hands up, staying out of it before they all walk into the living room.

*                      * Liam looks up at the ceiling as he lays on the guest room’s bed. He wouldn’t say that he’s nervous but there’s definitely a weight in his chest. He felt confident when he made the plans to come to the states, still felt confident when he got here, but now he feels the weight of the world.

He squints as the room slowly feels with the hallway light as the door opens.

“Li?”

“Riley?”

She sits on the edge of the bed, tapping his arm so he scoots over before she crawls in bed next to him. “You nervous?”

He gulps, he should be used to it now, but Riley has an uncanny ability to just know how he feels, know what’s going on with him. “I’m scared, stupid right?”

She leans her head on his shoulder, “I’d be scared too. This is uncharted territory for almost everyone.”

“I just don’t want to lose those good memories of my mom.” The words get stuck in his throat as he blinks away tears.

“You don’t have to.” She toys with her wedding band, “I mean, yeah you’re going to hear somethings you probably don’t want to, but it doesn’t change the memories you have. Those can’t be changed because whatever Jackson says can’t change that she actually loved you.”

“It’s just hard to feel that way knowing that she left.”

Without thinking, Riley does what she does best; saying exactly what pops in her head, “What if she didn’t want to leave?”

“Huh?”

“I’m just saying, all we know is that she left. We don’t know the why yet.”

“I…I guess…well I never thought about it that way.” He runs his hands through his hair, “I just immediately assumed it was because I wasn’t good enough for her to stay.” Riley sits up immediately and faces her best friend, “Liam Rys, King of Cordonia or not, if you ever think you aren’t good enough again I will punch you. How could you think that?”

“Because she left, Riles. One day she was there and then one day she wasn’t. Then I found out she got pregnant she picked that baby over me.”

“Maybe it’s wishful thinking,” she rubs her hand over her stomach, “but I find it hard to believe she didn’t do this to protect you. I know I’d do anything to protect my child.”

“You’re gonna be a great mom, ya know?”

“I can’t even pick out a paint color, what am I going to do when trying to figure out if they’re hungry or tired?” “I can’t help with that, but I can help you with paint colors.” He jumps out of the bed, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the nursery, “Okay. Pick a number one through three.”

“This is silly.” She looks at his pajamas, “Actually those pants are silly.”

He looks down, they were navy blue pants with apples on them, “They were a gift!”

She just gives him a side look, “Not a gag gift?” “Pick a number before I lock you in here.”

She lets out a breath, “Two.”

“Good choice. Baby Walker will be surrounded by,” he scans over the paint squares on the wall, “Gray Owl.”

“But,” she makes a face; unsure of the decision.

“Nope. It’s Gray Owl.”

Drake walks into the room, mid-yawn, “It’s after three in the morning. Do I even want to ask?”

“Riley picked a paint color.”

“She’ll just change it.” Drake shrugs.

“Not this time.” Liam smiles, sleep washing over him.

Riley smirks, if Liam could face his fears and the uncertainty that comes with tomorrow then surely, she could keep a paint color.

*                      * Liam and Drake pull up to Jackson’s ranch. Liam is already out the door before Drake has put the truck into park. He storms up the driveway and his blood began to boil when he sees Jackson walking down the stairs to meet them.

His pace increases and he can feel the anger as he stomps on the ground. Jackson has a hesitant smile on his face. He reaches his hand out to shake Liam’s just as Liam’s fists slams into Jackson’s jaw.

“Liam!”

Jackson stumbles backwards as his body reacts to the impact. Liam gives him zero change to recover before slugging him again and he’d have gone for a third if Drake hadn’t have pulled him back.

“Get off of me!” Liam shouts, his body radiates anger.

“Only if you’ll calm down.” Drake tugs him backwards once more, separating him and Jackson more.

“Fine!” Liam shrugs him off before running his hands through his blonde hair. He hadn’t planned on being physically aggressive towards Jackson. He wanted to be civil, he knew that’s what his mom would’ve wanted, but there was something about seeing his face that brought all his emotions to a head.

To him, Jackson was the man who ruined his family and Drake’s as well. While he was pissed that he lost his mom, Drake lost both of his parents and he would defend Drake his whole life.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine, Drake.” Jackson rubs his jaw, “Though I always thought Leo would be the fighter, not you.”

“Because you know me so well, huh?”

“I get it, I understand.”

“Do you? You had to believe your mother died only to find out she ran off with the help!?”

“Liam, that’s my dad.”

“Drake. Let him get it out.”

“Get it out? What? You think I’m going to yell and then we’ll shake hands and swap stories of my mother?” Liam shouts, “Oh, wait! You have more than me.”

“I know that won’t happen. I didn’t expect it too. I can’t imagine how hard this is on you. I just want you to try to understand.” Jackson takes a step towards Liam.

“Understand what!? You’re talking as if you’re telling me that Santa isn’t real. How do you possibly expect me to understand?”

“Li, I know it seems hard to but I understand things, just hear him out.” Drake tries to mediate but to be honest, he’s not sure Liam is even listening. If he knew that Liam was going to be closed minded and violent, he wouldn’t have brought him here.

“It’s not the same for me as you Drake!”

“How? We both believed our parents were dead. Both found out they aren’t.”

“No, Drake, it’s not. Your dad isn’t really dead, but my mom is. I’m sorry if this seems harder for me to understand.” Liam shakes his head as he walks away from the Walkers. He needs space, air to breathe and he feels like he’s suffocating standing here.

Drake begins to walk after him, but Jackson puts his arm out, stopping him in his tracks.

“Let him go. He needs time.”

“But…”

“No, Drake. He’s right. This isn’t something you two can work through together right away.”

*                    * Liam finds himself sitting outside the barn. His idea to wear khakis wasn’t faring well; could a king even wear jeans? He should’ve stayed in Cordonia; coming here didn’t change anything or make anything better. Part of him thought Olivia would have stopped him, but he knew that he couldn’t depend on her to save him.

“Hey. You must be Liam.”

He looks up and freezes. Drake told him that Luke heavily resembled him, but seeing him in person made it uncanny.

“And you, Luke?”

Liam looks at Luke, they have a lot of shared features of his mother, their mother. But his eyes weren’t hers, they were signature Walker brown eyes. How could this person in front of Liam look so much like him, but make him feel so much anger?

Luke sat next to him, “I know this must be hard.”

“Oh, you do?” Liam spits at him. He didn’t mean to say it so rudely, but no one could understand how he felt.

“I lost her too.”

Liam whips his head to the side, looking at Luke. In all his anger, he never thought of that. Regardless of when, they both shared the loss of Eleanor. The loss of their mother.

Luke wipes a few tears away, “I couldn’t imagine losing her twice like you though.”

It has been years since Luke had spoken about his mother, Jackson always said she wouldn’t want them to dwell on the sadness of her passing, but the joyfulness of her life. Though he wouldn’t really talk about their memories with her either. He only lost her three year ago, but Liam lost her twenty years ago yet here he was crying while Liam remained stoic.

“What was,” Liam’s voice cracks, “was she like?”

“Like sunshine. If that makes sense.”

Liam smirks, he knew exactly what he means. The few memories he could remember clearly, that’s how she was, “It definitely makes sense.”

The two sat in silence, an awkward silence. The person next to them is a complete stranger yet someone they share a bond with. Liam isn’t ready to let his guard down, while they share a mother, he still wears the last name of the man Liam hates the most. But he trusted Drake and he was a Walker.

“Is it rude to say this is awkward?” Luke asks, unsure of what to really do.

Neither of them is sure of what to say. Luke went from being an only child to be the youngest of four while Liam went from being the youngest to the middle child. Or technically an only to the oldest. There was a lot they could talk about; their mother, their childhoods, who they are, but there was still uncharted territory between they that prevented it.

Although they weren’t speaking, there is something comforting about the exchange. Just sitting there next to someone who shares the one person you felt lost without. Luke goes to speak up when he sees someone rushes over to them and begins to panic.

“Your Majesty!” The figure says, standing just a few feet from Liam who seems unfazed.

Majesty? Where exactly is he from? Luke looks at his eldest brother confusingly.

“Yes, Bastien?”

“I turn around for one minute and you run off.” He is breathless, as if he had to run a far distance, “You act more and more like Leo some days.”

Liam smirks, “Oh, Bas. Don’t tempt me.” He looks over at Luke who looks more confused than he’s ever seen anyone look, “I’d like some time with Luke, can we have some privacy?”

Bastien just nods before walking off, but keeping a reasonable distance from the king.

“Why’d he call you ‘your majesty’? That’s a weird greeting.”

“I guess Jackson never told you.” Luke shakes his head and Liam rubs the back of his neck, “Well, uhm…I’m the king of the country that Jackson and Elea…mom, left from.”

Luke feels like he’s going to pass out, he feels dizzy and his face has paled. He had to be joking, right? A king? Seriously? They have those in more than just England? I really should’ve paid attention in history class.

“It’s a lot to take in.” Liam chuckles before Luke jumps up and drops down into a deep bow.

Liam feels a smile twitching on his lips before he starts laughing. Luke looks up confused at his brother’s reaction. Wasn’t this how you addressed kings and queens? Several moments pass before Liam has stopped laughing and if it wasn’t for the fact it was a genuine laugh, he might have felt bad.

“I’m so sorry. That was just so…” he taps his finger to his lip looking for the right word, “Adorable? Innocent?”

Luke stared at his brother, slightly confused that he had just been called adorable. “Did I do it wrong?”

He shakes his head, “Not at all, but you just don’t need to do it. Yes, I’m still a king, but I’m not here on royal or diplomatic business. This trip is a personal one, so please, just treat me like Liam.”

“And who exactly is Liam?”

“Well, I guess he’s your older brother.” Liam lets out a nervous chuckle, “I don’t really know what to say, this is new for me.”

Luke wrings his hands together, there is something that he wants to bring up, but he’s scared. He isn’t sure if it would be pushing too far, if he’d be overstepping a line and even though he’s just met his, he doesn’t want to lose him just yet.

“Something on your mind?” Liam cocks his head to the side, “I might not know you, but I do know people. That look is exactly the kind I see when diplomats wear when they want to address a topic. A topic I might not want to hear.”

“I don’t want to hate my mom, our mom, but it’s hard to still see her like I used to now. Since I know the truth,” he shrugs with a sigh.

Liam understands completely. Though looking back the way he handled the news wasn’t very mature, but he’s done a lot of thinking. He doesn’t have all the pieces to the puzzle, he hasn’t fully come to his own conclusion, but things are becoming more clearly to him.

Luke panics at his silence, “I’m so sorry. I know you must blame me…”

“Blame you?”

“If mom didn’t have me, she would’ve stayed with you.” He clears his throat, trying to mask that his voice is breaking.

“But I don’t.” Liam shrugs when Luke’s head snaps in his direction, “You, personally, didn’t make the decision. Mom and Jackson did.”

“I…wow…that means a lot.” Luke stands up, “I think I need to go process today.”

Liam stands up and nods as Luke walks off, leaving him staring at the ground. This is proving to be a lot harder than he thought, but at least now he knew he wasn’t so alone. Yeah, he had Drake and Riley, but Luke was different. He wasn’t sure why exactly, but with Luke he feels a sense of comfort he hasn’t felt since he mom left.

*                      * Riley peaks around the corner when she hears the door shut. She’s not surprised when she sees just Liam standing there; she had a strong feeling he’d come back alone. He takes off his shoes by the door before walking to the couch; flopping down with a sigh.

“I have a new bottle of scotch with your name on it.” She walks into the living room with the bottle along with a glass for him.

“Thanks, Riles.” He takes the bottle, opens it and takes a quick swig right from the bottle. Riley stares at him, mouth slightly opened.

“What? Not like you can drink any.” He smirks at her as she just rolls her eyes, sitting down next to him.

“Want to talk about it?” She sighs, she hates seeing the two most important people to her so hurt. This is a huge mess that she isn’t sure anyone can come out unharmed from. To make matters worse, Liam seems to be the one who continuously comes out empty-handed at the end of the day: lost his mom, died dad, found out mom wasn’t dead only to learn she is actually dead now.

“After say,” he pretends to look at his watch, “a few more big swigs.” He tries to laugh, but can’t.

She’s looking at her best friend when she notices his right hand is red, “What’s up with that?”

“Can I get in a few more sips?” He tries to dodge the topic as Riley goes into the kitchen, coming back with a cloth filled with ice.

“Talk.”

“I punched him.” He winces a tad as she presses the ice to his knuckles, “Jackson, that is.”

Riley could say that she is surprised, but she’s not. Honestly, that had been her first reaction too. The way Jackson effortless recounted the story of how he met Bianca, how things were with him and Eleanor, he said it all as if somehow, he was the white knight. As if Constantine and Bianca had gotten in their way to prevent them from being together. It didn’t sit right with Riley.

“I’ll apologize tomorrow.” “I wouldn’t.”

“Riley! That is your father in law.”

She snorts, “Don’t remind me.” Liam raises his eyebrows, “Spill it.”

She lets out a deep breath and tell him how she wasn’t immediately supportive of the idea Drake had seen Jackson. And how now she isn’t sure it’s a great idea to just jump into things. How she understands he wants to get to know dad, but wishes he was more skeptical because who knows what all Jackson is going to say and how that will shift what Drake thinks of him.

“I think I’m ready to talk about it now.” Liam holds up the bottle, now only two-thirds full.

“Then let’s talk about it.”

“I thought I could handle seeing him. That I’d be able to come here and get the answers I’ve been wanting. Then I saw his face and this rage built up, all I could think about was how I grew up without my mom and he got her. He got all those memories that I missed out and I snapped.” He takes another sip of the scotch before shaking his head.

Riley gives him a sympathetic smile, gently placing a comforting hand on his arm.

“But then,” he chuckles, “I met Luke and it might’ve been weird at first, but he’s actually not that bad.”

“Well duh, he’s related to you.” She playfully nudges his shoulder, “Maybe since you aren’t ready to talk to Jackson, you can talk more to Luke tomorrow.”

Liam nods, “Yeah, I think that’s a good idea.”

[the-mercurial-star-o-vesper]

Fallout Themed “Get to Know me”

tagged by @emiratexaaron. Blast, I didn’t even realize I got tagged!

FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH FALLOUT:

Ye gods, I was maybe... We’re gonna go early teens. I remember watching Fallout 3 on my father’s computer, and having been someone who had played Oblivion to death, the graphics were amazing.

And then I got a hold of it, and didn’t immediately put God Mode on, and actually learned how to play a Bethseda game for once.

NAME OF FIRST CHARACTER To be honest, I don’t honestly remember. I was a kid who tended to blunder into games like nobody’s business. So I really can’t remember my first.

... I can remember that I tried to create the Fonz at one point in FO3. So High Charisma, wears the Tunnel Snakes Jacket, good Repair and Speech skill.

DUMB WAYS TO DIE, SO MANY DUMB WAYS TO DIE: I. Hate. Reaver Ghouls.

Falling off Bridges

How bout opening up a can of AcciDeathclaw in Fallout New Vegas?

Pissing off Legion at the wrong time.

NEW VEGAS. LEGENDARY. BLOATFLY.

Trying to make a run North of Goodsprings.

Trying to run away from North of Good Springs...

Geckos in Fallout 2.

Talking Pig Rats in Fallout 2.

Rats in Fallout 1.

Really, the list could go on.

WHAT WOULD I IMPROVE IN FALLOUT 4: *cracks knuckles*

Where do I start.

For one thing, Bring back the Dark Comedy that Fallout is known for. Fallout 4 is too damn bleak, made bleaker by its poorly executed message of “Never give up Hope”.

Cut out half them settlements. A few of them you can’t even build anything on (LOOKIN AT YOU COSTAL COTTAGE).

How about fix those Character plot-holes? Like what was Nick’s take on the Ghoul Removal from Diamond City. He’s been there for nearly 60 years.

Where are the Fallout ZAX?

Add Centaurs. Yes, from the Concept art. Fallout 4 wants Bleak? We’ll make it bloody horrific.

How about more lore-backing to the cap system, hm? Original Fallout, it had been the water traders and their show of force. Here is... cos they want to? You can dig a thing anywhere for clean water, so maybe the trade off could be food. Or maybe make it more mafia theme’d, like its Triggerman enforced or something.

Speaking of Which, can we have more revelance to the Triggermen? We have a Detective with all the Perks for the gods’ sake. Make something of ‘em. Fallout 4 is clearly Fallout Noir to New Vegas’s Fallout Western, let’s go all out.

I want to build a Synth.

How about the Minutemen? What they could’ve done is expanded it more than just from the Castle. Look, all other Factions have bases and set missions from bases that apply to their respective storylines. The Minutemen’s stops at getting a base. Why is that? Why not bring in that Minutemen-Gunner war? How about having the end of the Minutemen Quest be “Taking Quincy Back!”.

Speaking of which, let’s redo that Minutemen Intro a bit. How about... Billy the Ghoul’s Family! Yes, I mean the Ghoul kid. Remove that stupid Fridge quest, and add them to the original roster of Settlers that Preston Garvey is protecting. It’d introduce your character to Ghouls right off the bat without issue (Since there wasn’t a bloody introduction to ghouls).

How about where the Hell the rest of the Minutemen groups were when Qunicy was attacked. The only two you run into were recently Gunners, or turned Raider years ago.

WHAT ABOUT THOSE TIMED MISSIONS BETHSEDA.

How about a bit more interaction with the world from the Companion’s side? If you take a look at Outer Worlds, made by the creators of the original Fallout, the Companions do have an impact when they’re around and it affects and changes the world around them. When you have a Companion in Fallout 4, they’re more like Ghosts with tiny but ultimately meaningless interactions here and there. - I want to be able to call out Piper on her Yellow Journalism, and actually see an increase in News papers around the Commonwealth if I help her. Plus, not just earn her perk, but also gain the ability to create News Paperstands / Printing Presses in Settlements in order to help build the infrastructure of News. You can even add missions about gathering Paper or Printing Parts. - I want to be able to have trading interactions with Goodneighbor, thus giving a reason to have Hancock as a successful companion outside of him being a real cool ghoul. - If you let Danse survive, how about not just letting him grow out of his bigotted views, but let him train Minutemen in weapons, in armor, and in tactics and having a command. - If you help Curie, imagine the improvement of Health for your settlements. Imagine who she could teach for Doctors and Medics, and actually give the Commonwealth a Healthcare system again. - PRESTON IS YOUR BATMAN (I mean the military term, but its funnier if you don’t know the alternative meaning). - Y’know, I would’ve liked to have seen Duncan.

For Companions: -

And the Fucking Institute. An attempt to be the Big MT, and failing that. They could’ve done wacky mad science and still been 50s B-Movie levels of seriousness, y’know? We got so many hints on what they’re like, and they failed to live up to it! We have the visual evidence and dialogue that Gen1 and Gen2 tend to literally dissect / pull things apart by their bare hands. We could’ve seen more of that. What do they do to all those people they kidnap? ... Where did they get the Super Mutants from. How about the Synth v1 Gen3s? Y’know, the one’s that Look like Gen 3s, but have machine parts inside. There could’ve been more mad science, more B-Movie levels of sholy hit. Grossly mutated animals, brains in jars, unique robots, the works!

How about we have something akin to the Master directing the Super Mutants. This was a problem / thing I had with FO3 too. The original Super Mutants had a Psychic Master entity, so why not the East Coast mutants?

How about an explanation as to why the Assaultron is only in Boston.

Where the hell is the Rest of Boston.

How about being capable of directing Minutemen groups to weed out or scavange an area? I don’t have time for all this Missions Present, we have a Castle Now, SEND SOMEONE ELSE.

How about instead of going after Kellogg, Kellogg comes after you. The Director is dying, and you’re the Backup. This would associate you with the Institute just as early as the Minutemen, Maybe. And then, you can take the game into whatever direction you want. - Explore the Glowing Sea by yourself, we’re busy.

Mix Pickman’s Gallery and Cabot House... As one mini-storyline.

Add more cases for Valentine, such as Diamond City Blues and Mystery Meat... Possibly even Cabot House.

Where on Earth is the Brotherhood getting all those Vertibirds... Do they have a factory? Those things blow up if you look at them wrong--- WHERE ARE THEY GETTING THEM.

Replace most of the Generic Raiders with named Raiders, not unlike Fallout 1. Have more Gunners, Rust Devils, the Nuka World Parties; more development at Libertalia.

How about more branching options to deal with Kellogg.

Add a bit of a reputation system for Cities you can’t make a settlement from. Boosting faction or trade routes or really, anything other than sitting there.

... So to sum it up.

I’d do practically a rewrite of Fallout 4.

... ye Gods.

Not tagging anyone cos, well, I don’t know that many people who play fallout that weren’t already tagged...

[novantinuum]

Fandom: Steven Universe

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Words: 3.6K~

Summary:  She’s poofed, he repeats to himself like a dying man’s mantra. She’s poofed. She’s stuck in the rubble, but she’s only poofed. She’s fine, and I’m fine, a-and—

Above the scars of Steven's wreckage, thunder claps like mighty titans colliding in the heavens.

(Or: what happens in the moments after Steven and Jasper's rematch.)

Some canon compliant ooof set mid-Fragments.

If you enjoyed this, I’d greatly appreciate your support through reblogs here, or kudos/comments on AO3 as well. Thank you! <3

_

Fight the Future

The impact shreds the landscape, gouging deep cracks that penetrate through to bedrock and felling nearly every tree in a good hundred-yard radius. Rubble is still settling, small fragments of bark and stone raining to the ground like scattered bomb shrapnel, but in the heat of the moment he genuinely can’t hear a thing through the blood that pounds in his ears like a war drum. There’s only ringing. Nothing but ringing...

Floating high above the scars of his wreckage, Steven Quartz Universe pants hard, exhausted and lightheaded from all the physical exertion and yet clutching to the tingling energy pulsing under his glowing pink skin with all the desperation of a lost child. This... the raw diamond power he’s been holding back on expressing all this time... surely this has to be what he’s been searching for. This has to be the piece to fill that growing emptiness he can’t seem to shake, right? Right?? Stars, he doesn’t want to let go of this feeling, this invigorating rush, not now, not yet. His fists tremble at his sides. H-he... he’s not ready to be anything else. Besides, the fight isn’t even over. His opponent hasn’t gotten up yet. She’s probably feigning defeat, hoping to catch him off guard. Hah, good ol’, typical Jasper!

With a huff of resolve, he wipes the sweat off his brow and wills himself to drift down to the shattered earth below. Sandaled feet meet the ground toes first. As he fully settles upon his soles, loosened soil shifts under his weight. He scans through the wreckage for the quartz Gem, the inanity of this whole harebrained situation drawing breathless laughter from between his lips. For a split second its darkened tone almost strikes him as alien, but he quickly shreds this thought. After all, everything’s fine! He’s fine. In fact, he’s more than fine. He’s nearly won.

“Please, I know you’re not finished yet,” he goads, an intoxicating dose of satisfaction (as for once in his life, he has full control of something and that thought feels so alluring it’s as if he’s finally greeting the sun) flooding his synapses. He cracks his knuckles hard enough that she’ll be sure to hear. “The fight’s barely started, get up!”

Nothing. No footsteps, no taunting, not even her usual groan of derision. Outwardly he turns his lip up in a sneer. Inside his chest however, a far different story plays out. His heart constricts like it’s being crushed by a vice, tinnitus acting up ever stronger as he tries with desperation not to let this deafening silence taint his apparent victory.

Something’s wrong, something has to be wrong, his mind screams underneath all the mock bravado holding him in one piece. In retrospect that should’ve been his first sign to disengage, the fact that even his body is viscerally reacting to the sight of his wreckage, but in the heat of the moment he stamps out this nettering worry like Jasper would a bug. No! He will not allow himself to crumple to fear again! He’s not afraid of this. That’s why he’s been training. He’s in control now. Not Jasper, not the Gems, not these emerging diamond powers, nor his ever-increasing list of anxieties. And it’s for that precise reason that in all the moments he bares his fists, drops on his haunches... whenever he consciously allows the full force of his ability to burst forth in a flash from the deep wells of his soul like lightning to a tree... he’s not just fighting to prove himself to someone.

He’s fighting the future itself.

He’s done being yanked around by tragedy, by genes, by all his family’s unfinished business. It can’t control him. He won’t let it, not anymore.

I’m in control.

And yet...

(A throat tearing scream, propelled by the creeping desire to fix, to refine, to control... and yet a crater of spiderwebbed cracks he never intended branching underfoot as his audience looks on in slack jawed horror—)

(A dome of his own subconscious creation, born of fear and anxiety and selfishness, unstoppable, pressing inwards, pressing all who dare touch him ever closer towards their ultimate fate—)

(A surge of strength, built from anger and betrayal and loss felt for the stable life he’d never have... the sickening realization that he’s helpless to swerve out of the way as he slams his foot down on the break—)

...if he’s in control, why hasn’t his opponent showed her face yet? Why can’t he force his tensed muscles to ease up, or will away that unbearably nauseous sensation growing ever more present in his gut?

“Jasper, come on! I didn’t hit you that hard.”

The waking world responds by confirming his solitude, the dust that‘s swirling around his legs finally beginning to settle as he takes five wide strides towards the center of the impact crater. The closer he approaches, the more he realizes that his view of the site from far above really didn’t succeed in illustrating just how radical his influence on the landscape was.

Sure, so maybe the monolithic hard light barrier he constructed by sheer force of will has long since dissipated, but its apocalyptic hand on the environment remains. A few concave indents (from the spikes) are scattered throughout the cracked, uneven earth where it is not otherwise fractured beyond all recognition. The tree trunks left standing are so harshly splintered that he’s sure the razor sharp edges of their bark could slice his fingers. Fallen branches, heavily segmented and warped, mix evenly between blocky chunks of stone and clay. Pine needles are scattered across the face of the ruins like confetti. With his overactive digits growing increasingly squirrelly at his side the longer he observes his handiwork, his gaze shies down.

Stop!!!

His sandaled foot hovers.

Ants. A vast colony of them, tiny and black and darting about all lost and confused. Normally one doesn’t see so many of them crowding at the surface, but all this destruction must have unearthed their intricate network of tunnels.

Steven stumbles back a few steps from the heart of the panicked, scurrying mass, knowing immediately by the sharp twist in his chest that he didn’t manage to miss all of them. H-he- stars, why does he even care so much? They’re just ants. It’s not like he’s never accidentally stepped on an ant before, yeah? And it’s certainly not like he, a self-proclaimed vegetarian, hasn’t spent the past three days surviving entirely off fish he personally caught, skewered, and broiled! It’s not like any of this is inherently wrong, it’s just... different. He’s different. He’s changing, transforming, just like this landscape changed. And that’s okay!

This is exactly what I wanted, he tells himself, a broken smile creeping across his face. I’m different, but I’m better. I am! I’m in control of myself now!

The teenager grips at his hair, fingers clutching tight around thick clumps of unwashed, overgrown curls, and yanks. (Needle pricks of pain shoot across his scalp like a metaphysical lattice. His choice. Somewhere, somehow, it’s probably deserved.) An almost tipsy peel of laughter surfaces from a place deep in his soul yet unbeknownst to him. His limbs tremble as he struggles to take a breath between it all.

“I’m in control,” he rasps, hands drifting to press at his temples. Nature responds with a startling thunderclap. He flinches on instinct, another laugh bubbling over the brim. “I am, I’m...”

Another roll of thunder. Slowly, steadily, he begins to feel cold raindrops sprinkle against his still-glowing skin as he inhales fast and shallow, standing at the center of the clearing. Almost everything outside the narrow radius of his light is dark and muted and painted in shades of brown and grey. There’s barely any green. With the intruding storm, no blue. And as for orange...

Suddenly feeling like nothing more than an insignificant speck upon this landscape, he cups his mouth and roars.

“Jasper!!”

For a moment nature seems to accept his cry, taking it up through her roots like a tree does nutrients from the soil, but it quickly becomes obvious that the nutrients he provides are nothing but toxic. Degenerating. Something to be rejected. The distant cliffs bounce his words back at him without thinking twice, naught a single response to be found on the wind. There’s only rain now.

Nothing but rain.

A harsh shudder runs through his body as the reality of his situation begins to set in. He stands motionless, feet chained into place, his clothes growing wetter and wetter as the thunderstorm’s strength picks up. In all this time, Jasper’s made no move to retaliate. She hasn’t even shown her face. So... This fight- is that it? Is their rematch over? D-did he...

His eyes widen so far in his dawning comprehension that they sting.

“Oh geeze, I poofed her, didn’t I?” he says out loud, bluntly answering his own question. “That’s why she’s not responding... I-I—“ his words are cut in the middle by a choked sob, a strange noise caught somewhere between the tides of pride and utter disbelief— “I actually poofed her!”

He quickly finds himself overrun with laughter once more, this latest batch rough and strained, a wordless plead for help. (But no worries, though, really! He can figure this out!) Desperate, wandering fingers tug across the coarse stubble dusting his cheeks. Dampened curls plaster against his forehead, his head almost feeling heavier for it. So yeah, maybe he poofed her. From all evidence, that seems to be the most likely scenario here. He, Steven Quartz Cutie-Pie DeMayo Diamond Universe, singlehandedly poofed a Gem. But it’s not like he‘s never done that before?? Bismuth? Spinel? This isn’t anything new. He’s not so innocent as he’d like to believe he is. And sure, so maybe he held the upper ground on his finishing blow, and maybe this entire fight wasn’t in self defense like the others to begin with, but that’s not a problem either! All this? Just a spar. It’s just training. In a moment he’ll find Jasper’s gem buried in the rubble, and when she reforms back at camp she’ll give him a rough clap on the back and admit something uncharacteristically touchy-feely about how she never imagined he actually had it in him, and everything will be fine. It will!

Inhaling deep through his nose, he drops to his knees at the center of the crater— pointedly ignoring the damp soaking through his jeans and the shiver dancing up his spine— and begins pulling aside thick slabs of stone. Another nearby lightning strike asserts its presence with a frightening clap, his limbs seizing up and his heart ramming double time on impulse. He grimaces, rainwater dripping off his nose and chin. Stars, it’s only thunder! He hasn’t been scared of thunder since he was a child, so what’s all this about? He’s stronger than this. He’s better than this. Stubbornly refusing to let nature’s force intimidate him, he pushes on. Another roll of thunder, another stone overturned. Not a glint of orange to be found here either.

It’s strange... he’s not even off the ground, but he feels like he’s falling, his body limp and helpless to break his descent, the ground rushing to swallow him whole faster than he can move to even protect his face. And like an ill-fated omen, a destiny he may ignore but never shake, this feeling clings to him like the inescapable stench of smoke on charred clothes. If anything else, he supposes it’s proof he faced the fires head on and survived.

He can’t say the same for Jasper.

Above, thunder claps like mighty titans colliding in the heavens.

(Boisterous, neigh-unrecognizable laughter, a sky walled off in panels of incandescent light… his opponent’s terror-stricken form shackled to the very Earth she detests as she awaits his next attack, finally powerless in the claws of the diamond once beaten and belittled by her might and doesn’t that just drip with irony, doesn’t not holding back for once against someone who hurt you feel great—)

Chunks of clay break apart in his hands as he angles to relocate them. No gemstone yet.

She’s poofed, he repeats to himself like a dying man’s mantra. She’s poofed. She’s stuck in the rubble, but she’s only poofed. She’s fine, and I’m fine, a-and—

His mind grows dizzier and fainter by the second as he searches for his reassurance, for some steady surface upon which he might gently end his descent. Falling… He’s still falling. But the problem now is that his heart is pounding so hard his chest feels like it's bruising from the inside out, and all the drab greys and browns of his surroundings have blurred together until he can barely distinguish the start and end of anything. Hands once steady and assured now repeatedly fumble over uneven chunks of wet stone, unable to grasp their edges solidly enough to turn them over. H-he… no matter how hard he fights, he still can’t—! The diamond huffs, smooth, blemishless fingers slamming into hardened fists. Frustration spilling out broken and raw like hunks of cotton from between his soul’s uneven seams, he stares into the face of the uncaring, stormy sky and screams.

Energy explodes outwards, momentarily tinting his world in pink. He screams until he’s hoarse, until his throat burns like an inferno and his innate healing factor has to once more clean up the damage he’s sewn. (Although today he almost wishes it wouldn’t.) Behind him, something cracks at his command. Still very much panting in light of such a bombastic release of power, he presses a weary hand to his forehead and turns to meet the sight head on.

Be it from exhaustion or clear-cut denial, it takes a while for him to fully comprehend what he’s looking at.

His screams have cleaved a flat slab of stone in half. Before, this slab seems to have been propped diagonal against a sturdy boulder in an almost tent-like fashion, shielding the rough soil below from the elements and any further defacement. Both the soil, and…

Oh.

His head fills with static. Glimmers of orange flood through his synapses as if he’s staring through the eyepiece of a kaleidoscope, and suddenly the whole world’s spinning and shifting and—

The next moment he’s aware, he’s on his hands and knees before the sight in question, those quivering, squirming fingers clawing into uneven earth as if it too may abandon him at a moment’s notice, having realized far too late how terrible a person he is, how he- NO! He heaves for breath as his herculean form pulses with light and shrinks down to his typical soft, stocky self, leaving not a trace of pink in its wake. The surrounding world is plunged into darkness. Choking back a sob, he yanks his hands out of the ground and desperately smooths over the divots he made as if this single act could in any way make up for the blunt reality that he’s a sha- NO! NO, NO NONONONONO- not real not real not real, NONE of this can be real, there’s no way, it’s not true, stars, h-he’s not—

His whole body trembling like a man angling to greet death, Steven reaches a hesitant finger towards one of the orange, glittering quartz shards littering the soil. This isn’t real. Those shards can’t be real, can’t really be lying amidst the rot and ruin in the rain, and he’ll prove it. H-he’s having a nightmare, he has to be. He has to! Because if he’s not, a-and he caused this, and Jasper, she- if she’s really—

Skin meets crystal, organic heat pooling against the cold, lifeless facet in a veritable explosion of sensation. The shard shifts under his touch and knocks against the other pieces of Jasper’s gem. Tangible, and very, very real. Gasping, he jerks back as if burned by ice, bile rising in his throat.

SHATTERER I’m a shatterer she’s shattered she’s dead she’s GONEGONEGONE shards broken, fractured, cold, there’s nocomingback youSHATTEREDher you’reamonst—

NO!

The last stitch holding his battered soul in one piece snaps. His chest heaving, strained, sloppy wails begin to rise into the air like the threads of thin morning mist, fading into obscurity under the thunderstorm’s might. A rush of wind bites against his face, the salt of his tears mixing with the steadily falling rain. Gently... reverently... (too late too late you’re too late) he gathers up all her shards in his palm.

Steven’s genuinely unsure how much time passes while he sobs there in the crater’s heart, the soil turning to mud under his knees. Each second is an eternity spent locked within the recesses of his own mind, screaming in denial at the wreck he’s become, the mess he’s made. Connie, his dad, the Gems, and now her—! In all paths of the known universe, how is it that— despite years of tireless effort to do the right thing— his life has fallen to this? What’s wrong with him??

He doesn’t notice he’s pink again until the glow’s already overtaken his body, entombing him like a second skin. Blood pumps wildly right alongside the dizzying rush of hard light through non-organic veins. The teen’s breath hastens, and he‘s powerless to stifle his cries as he begins to swell up, an ungodly sum of pressure threatening to burst out right then and there from the arc of his spine. On his own there’s nothing he can do but hunch over and ride the episode through, his head throbbing and mind shrouded in static. Arms tremble to support his upper body. His chest bows in and out in an unpredictable pattern, and yet no sum of air is enough to quell his panic. Grinding his eyes shut, he hunts for an anchor. Shirt... his shirt. It’s sopping wet now, sticking to his back. The scent of pine needles, mingling amongst the rain. Sandals on his feet. The thunder, still causing him to seize like a child with each startling clap.

The weight of her fragments in a shatterer’s his hands.

(For once, a title not even Mom could claim, hah! Imagine that...!)

It’s a slow path to victory, but eventually his anchors are successful. The swelling recedes. The stone and soil around him grows drab and neutral in color once more, the pink glow fading from his skin. His lungs ache from exertion as his breath evens out. Sitting back on his haunches, he lifts the remains of Jasper’s gem to eye level, watching as the sharp edged fragments knock against each other, waging battle even in death. Memories flicker through his mind like a roll of polaroids: the terror he experienced that night he met her on the beach; standing up to her as Stevonnie; the moment he realized with shame stewing in the pit of his heart just how insecure she really was, watching her all but corrupt herself; every day he tried to convince her with no success to reach out to Little Homeschool. Even if he didn’t... didn’t hurt her, would all this still be his fault? Could he have done more? Is this nightmare he’s trapped himself in a failure of aid as well as a failure of morality?

What happened to him, Steven Universe, savior of the galaxy? When did he stop being the boy who heals?

“What... am I doing...?” he pants, gripping the shards in closed fists. “I.... I have to fix this.” Blinking heavily against the rain, his emboldened words spill out into the observing wilderness. “There’s gotta be a way to fix this!”

With a stubbornness as hard as diamond stirring in his heart, he grinds his teeth together, opening his eyes so wide that they sting. His tears once brought Lars back to life. They outright resurrected the dead. So shouldn’t it stand to reason they should also weave shattered Gems back together?

“Come on,” he says pitifully, holding the glittering orange remains close to his face. “Please! Cry, Universe, cry! I just...!”

He feels his face screw up, powerless once more to hold the sobs back. They strip the layers of his soul to bedrock, each gasping cry more helpless and desperate than the last. Water carves a messy trail down his cheek, dripping off his chin and onto the slick shards. The droplets clinging to their surface area cause the ambient light to scatter at new and unpredictable angles. If not for the sobering context, he’d call it beautiful. But despite the tracks of his tears, the shards remain dim and cold.

Lifeless.

His shoulders shudder.

“I-I don’t want this,” he says, voice hitching, “I don’t want to hurt anyone! So why can’t I just—“

Wait, he realizes with the speed of a lightning strike to a tree.

“The diamond essences,” he whispers hoarsely, tasting each syllable on his tongue. “They- they can heal corrupted Gems, bring them back w-where I can’t alone. Is… is it possible they could also—?”

Steven shoots to his feet at the crater’s center, clutching onto the pieces of the quartz Gem like a lifeline. He- oh stars, he has to get back to the house, quick! There’s still time. There’s still a sliver of hope. He can still mend this mess he’s made. Turning on his heels, he begins to sprint back to camp with Jasper in tow, his flip flops noisily squelching in the mud.

The future won’t win, not here, not now. I won’t let it. I’m not a shatterer a healer! I’m Steven Universe. I'm in control.

I’m still in control.

[gabriel-gabdiel]

Youtou Shinnoken: Demon Sword Chapter 57: Living Sin (Part 9)

Hiei does his best to take care of Usui Uonuma, who’s gunning for his Jagan. In turn, Yusuke deals with his old behemoth of an enemy who was once merely B-Class in power level.

Kenshin in turn deals with an enemy from his past with the assistance of one of the Spirit World ferry-girls.

Credit for the pictures goes to Ozzy Oz da Vyrus. 

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

Up above the Okushiri Military Base....

The flying fortress made of solidified reiatsu (spiritual pressure or pressurized spirit energy) care of the Quest-Class powers of Detective Daiji Matsudaira (the reincarnation of Aoshi Shinomori) landed on the helipad of the base, startling the soldiers there.

Yahiko had earlier requested Botan to fly even higher up than the flying castle with purple beams of light shooting out of it in order to get the drop on the structure.

Literally.

From 50 kilometers above the earth, Yahiko descended straight towards the moving castle, its concentrated jaki beams dissipating against the ghostly human missile and his neutralizing reiki.

He first skydived from the ferry-girl's oar (much to her surprise and chagrin) up in the stratosphere and did his imitation of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu's "RYU TSUI SEN! (DRAGON HAMMER FLASH!)" for starters.

The impact then cracked the topmost outer shell of the dense fortress.

A trickle of reiatsu leaked off of the spiritual construct, like scattering fireflies in the night.

He then did one of his own Revisal Techniques of the Kamiya Kasshin School, named, "DOU GAMI! (GOD ON EARTH!)", which rocked the castle further at its core and spread cracks all over its very foundations.

Daiji's solidified reiatsu then turned into a shower of outright sparks, the solidified energy sublimating and ionizing into pure spirit energy.

Finally, the Tokyo Samurai Spirit executed a "TEN GAMI! (GOD IN HEAVEN!)" that started the downward spiral of the moving building, the cracks turning into outright crags and debris as the teenaged ghost got jettisoned high above even the stratosphere, reaching instead all the way to the mesosphere.

He reached a height about 70 kilometers or 43 miles away from earth.

The young samurai kid drove the Onmyouji's prison that whole distance from heaven to earth with a sky-cleaving, earth-shattering strike, or at least a strike powerful enough to send cloudy shockwaves behind them as they broke through the speed barrier.  

"INGA GAMI! (KARMIC GOD!)"

Yahiko's first of two ultimate attacks had enough jaki-neutralizing power to push that huge pillar right into the middle of the military base like a meteorite. A shooting star.

The sublime mix of reiki (spirit energy) and jaki (negative energy) then ionized into their base forms, the kenki (swordsman energy) that bound them fading away into the ether.

All of these forms of energy were neutralized by Yahiko's own strange spirit energy. His own reiatsu or unique mixture of reiki and kenki.

His strike from his self-made sakabatou (Kenshin's reverse-edged sword that Yahiko manifested using his reiki) was powerful enough to warp time and space itself. Like a blunt version of the Jigen Tou.

Only a single helipad-sized spire of the formerly huge fortress was left by the time it crash-landed unto the base.

***

Youtou Shinnoken: Demon Sword

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

Original Concept by Chad Yang

The Kenshingumi will now take care of their loose ends before fighting the final boss of this arc. This battle is about to explode! FIGHT!

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 57: Living Sin (Part 9)

***

Back at Kitaoimisaki Park...

Usui Uonuma shook his head. The newbie member of the New Ten Swords, Kuronue, was outwitted by the legendary demon fox Youko Kurama as well.

If you wanted something done right, do it yourself.

Amidst the burned shadows and silhouettes that were once Kuronue stood Usui, his previously broken Tinbe practically whole now.

With it now capable of withstanding the heat and impact of multiple Jaou-En-Satsu Kokuryuha (Dragons of Darkness Flames) from Jaganshi (Evil Eye User) Hiei, the black serpentine flames were unable to affect the turtle shell one way or another.

But Uonuma knew that Jaganshi Hiei had one more ace up his sleeve. The Chojin's spies had briefed him about the fire demon and his ability to absorb the power of the fiery dragon beings unto himself.

As expected, Hiei boosted his speed and power tremendously by absorbing the flame dragons of the Kokuryuha right into his body, his youki (demon energy) rising to astonishing levels. To S-Level and beyond.

Under the old Reikai rules, Hiei's presence there would've been considered outright illegal. A demon that powerful shouldn't be in the Ningenkai (Human World).

A demon that powerful was on par with one of the Chojin's Ten Swords.

'So this demon's name is Hiei, huh?' thought the blind man, waxing nostalgic. That was also the name of the mountain where the old Juppon Gatana (Ten Swords) stronghold was.

What a curious demon. He had the speed of Souiro "Heaven Sword" Seta and the strength (or even firepower) of Makoto Shishio.

If Usui could conquer this strong demon, then he'd get one more step closer to standing as equals with the Youkiri (Demon-Slayer) Tenro.

To sit at the right hand of an unborn god. To be able to challenge an unborn god and become one himself.

Nah, perhaps that last one was still a bridge too far for him. But this, defeating the fire demon, wasn't.

The dragons roared and gnawed against the Tinbe but like a mountain standing above the earth with a crown of clouds, it wouldn't yield.

His Tinbe then reformed completely, but there was a gap the size of a sword slash right on its upper top left corner.

That was where Hiei focused his attack, sticking the tip of his Jaou-En-Satsu Ken (Sword of Darkness Flame) right into it, forcing its way in.

Hiei learned a lot from Kurama's little trick earlier with the Demon World Moss. This time around, the jaganshi found a weak point before the shield was able to fully heal or reconstitute itself.

Hiei's aura of youki and black flames flared to life, increasing the pressure on that one little crack, like a pressure cooker about to burst.

More cracks appeared on the shield as the pressure built up further and further. It reached the boiling point and then went beyond it. Through this one weakness, Hiei was able to focus his demonic energies and bust through.

The Tinbe cracked apart in twain and then into a million pieces, and from there Hiei released all of the Dragons of Darkness Flame unto Usui's hapless form.

However, that was actually a ruse.

The blind swordsman and spearman had actually activated a second illusion from Jine Udo's Jagan as Hiei attacked with the full power of the Kokuryuha inside of him, knowing full well that his Tinbe wasn't complete yet.

However, by making Hiei dream that he had broken the false Tinbe, this bought Usui enough time to completely manifest his real Tinbe with the small crack or gap finally filled in.

It was this shield that stopped the Dragons of Darkness Flame cold.

Usui baited Hiei into wasting his one shot at him and it worked. Hook, line, and sinker.

Every last one of the flame dragons crashed uselessly against the reinforced and complete Tinbe, like the waves of the ocean crashing against the sea wall or dam. The tides turned but the wall remained unperturbed.

Hiei's Jagan was now his...!

However, as Uonuma began his counter Rochin stab with the intension of pinning both Hiei and Kurama into the nearest wall like twin butterflies, something felt amiss.

His body then literally fell apart into tiny pieces of meat cubes, red mist spraying all around him.

Usui was able to seal the crack on his Tinbe, but the gap of time he needed to do his counterstrike was all Hiei required to strike back.

In that fraction of a fraction of a second, the super-powered fire demon slashed at him at the rate of a hundred times per second. Or more.

Before Usui could block one strike with his shield. Or counter with a thrown spear to the heart or face.  Or even activate Jine's Jagan at the last second and create another illusion to fool Hiei with.

Moving faster than his sensitive hearing could detect. Or predict.

Moving faster than his mind could fathom.

Moving faster than sound itself.

***

About a hundred years ago, around the 1870s, inside Shishio's hidden fortress within Mount Hiei...

From out of the blue, Usui Uonuma asked Makoto Shishio a simple question.

"Between the Ten Ken (Heaven Sword) and myself, who is more powerful?" he had asked out of whimsy. "Who would win in a fight?"

Shishio chuckled, swirling the wine inside his wineglass as he considered Uonuma's unusual query. He decided to humor his former hitokiri (manslayer) rival.

"You can keep up with Sou-kun's speed up until he uses the Shun Ten Satsu (Instant Heaven Kill), which is him using both battoujutsu (sword-drawing techniques) and the Shukuchi (Reduced Earth) at the same time. If you're able to disable him before that, then you will win."

"Shun Ten Satsu, huh?" repeated Usui. "Why do you think that?"

Makoto drunk his drink in one shot and then gave the glass back to his courtesan and lover, Yumi Komagata.

"It's simple. You can counter anything you can hear, smell, sense, and react to, right? Sou-kun's Shun Ten Satsu is faster than sound. Your Shingan won't even hear him coming."

***

Back in 1993, at Mount Kannon...

Kenshin Himura sighed as he trudged on foot back to Mt. Kannon within the Hidaka Mountain Range of Hokkaido.

He had Kazuma Kuwabara place him near the mountain care of the trusty Jigen Tou (Dimension Sword).

Like in the case of the battle at Mount Kamui, Mount Kannon was outside of Okushiri.

Kenshin had absorbed enough spirit energy from all the Reikai Tantei (Spirit Detectives) earlier to manifest himself and his spiritual body on his own, without being wielded by any of them.

Although he was kind of curious what sort of powers would manifest if his sword were held by the likes of Yahiko Myojin, Natsuki Shinkai, Likka Ikumi, or Daiji Matsudaira.

Perhaps another time, they'd find out.

Most of the energy he soaked up came from Yusuke Urameshi, in fact. It should last him until the rest of the battle.

The fact that Yusuke's reiki was that immense was both reassuring and worrying.

Reassuring in that they had the big guns against the Shin Juppon Gatana (New Ten Swords) this time around. Worrying in that he wasn't sure if it was Rando's Kugai (World of Suffering) curse or Urameshi's own developing powers that led him to have this surplus of energy.

Without all those multiple seals that held back his power, Yusuke might still suffer from power incontinence. He might still be unable to control his full immeasurable strength.

Regardless, Himura had other concerns to deal with. He was busy taking care of this Chinese warrior earlier, who wounded him in battle that made it difficult for him to save Hajime Saito from Feng Xinhai's schemes and Toguro Ani's attempt at possession.

A Chinese warrior that ended up related to him and his dark past after all.

The stranger with white hair and crazed eyes that Kenshin fought was no stranger to him after all. He remembered who the man was.

The man's name was Enishi Yukishiro, all grown up. The younger brother of Kenshin's ex-wife, Tomoe.

Since Tomoe was Kenshin's ex-wife, that made Enishi his brother-in-law. A brother-in-law with a century-old grudge regarding Kenshin's (accidental) murder of Tomoe Himura (nee Yukishiro).

"...Tell me, Battousai. Is my sister smiling down on you from heaven?" so said Tomoe's brother, Enishi.

Enishi had somehow ended up in the Heisei Era and got himself mixed up in Kenshin's current affairs. Himura could've almost sworn that his brother-in-law had died back in the Bakumatsu.

The younger brother of Tomoe was one of many unsettled debts Kenshin left when he died fighting against Makoto Shishio back at Mount Hiei.

In their first meeting in a hundred years, Enishi even gave Kenshin the same wound that ultimately killed Tomoe.

Meanwhile, as Himura neared where he previously defeated the martial artist, the cross-shaped scar on his cheek flared with a twinge of pain. No, actually the cuts felt as painful and fresh to him as the first time they were made.

The scar somehow ached even more than the much deeper laceration on his chest that still hadn't fully healed.

Like a paper cut that microscopically tore through skin and thousands of nerve endings like a jagged handsaw.

As though Enishi's very presence had reactivated Tomoe's curse on him. The curse of the cross-shaped scar.

***

At the helipad of the Okushiri Military Base...

"Get the HELL out of THERE! Sadojima Houji!" beckoned Yahiko as he sheathed his sakabatou while Botan herself swooped down from above then behind him.

He further chided, "That strike wasn't enough to take you down, right? No, you still have the Chojin's powers inside you, you dirty rat. Of course that wasn't enough!"

"You're being too loud, Yahiko! You're bothering the military people!" was what Botan resisted herself from saying, inwardly reminding the Kaoru inside her, 'He's supposed to be loud, you silly goose! The Chojin and his forces are invading Okushiri, remember? If not Hokkaido altogether!'

The aforementioned military base had long ago been put on high alert ever since supernatural beings started attacking different parts of the island at once.

Many of their deployed teams didn't return to the base hours after deployment.

"Stand aside, kid!" one of the soldiers said, who in Yahiko's eyes should've looked more shocked at seeing the seeming U.F.O. land in the middle of their base. "Civilians aren't allowed in here. This is now official military business!"

Another private attempted to grab hold of Myojin, only for him to slip his grasp. The teenaged version of Yahiko willed his ghostly self to become incorporeal.

The Jieitai or JSDF (Japanese Self-Defense Forces) then surrounded what was left of Daiji's solidified reiatsu structure, their guns cocked and ready to go.

What remained of Matsudaira's seal broke apart like a hatching egg.

And from there came forth the Onmyouji (Occult Priest) in all his glory, wearing a mix of a business suit with an occultist robe serving as his overcoat. The true right-hand man of the Overfiend.

With purple glowing eyes and a miasmic aura that flowed all over his body like thick black and crimson smoke from a smoldering flame, Houji spoke in askance.

"Why do you want to fight me, Myojin Yahiko? Do you bear a grudge against me? Do you hate me from the bottom of your heart?"

Yahiko was taken aback by the question. "W-What...?"

"Right now, you have no such hate in your heart," said Houji the Onmyouji. "You're fighting out of a sense of duty to your friends. To your idol, Himura Battousai. Otherwise, you'd have no such quarrel against me."

Or perhaps Sadojima was merely acting as the representative speaker to one other person.

Perhaps Myojin was actually talking to the Chojin (Overfiend) himself. The mastermind behind all these resurrected baddies from the Meiji Era to the Heisei Era.

Just who the hell was the Chojin anyway? Was he Makoto Shishio? Or someone else entirely?

The Onmyouji's ghoulish shikigami (familiars) with their tattered robes and sharp scythes flew at the gathered soldiers, who fired at them to no avail.

"STOP!" screamed both Yahiko and Botan at the familiars prior to the massacre that was about to take place.

None of the military men stood a chance against these supernatural beings.

***

Back in Hokkaido, far away from Okushiri, at the foot of Mt. Kannon...

Kenshin witnessed Enishi's strength firsthand.

The Chinese warrior had become so powerful he drove Himura Battousai himself from the forests of Okushiri all the way to a whole separate mountain range in Hokkaido, miles away from the island.

By pure willpower and hatred, Enishi grew strong enough to give pause to even the powered-up version of Battousai that had his own magical Demon Sword.

The Overfiend had indeed prepared for every last contingency. He was every bit as cunning as Youko Kurama himself.

Earlier, Kenshin's chest actually got hit by Enishi Yukishiro's ultimate attack, the Kofuku Zetsu Tou Sei or Kofuku Zettousei (Crouching Tiger Severing Sword Rush), as a counter to the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki (Heavens Gliding Dragon Flash).

Kenshin was also distracted by the fact that Tomoe's brother managed to find him a century later to enact his rightful revenge. His Jinchu.

That was why he was defeated by a technique Enishi must've trained over and over again to counter all sorts of battoujutsu strikes, including the ultimate one devised for the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

Luckily, instead of doing the follow-up strike that would've also missed, Kenshin had the foresight to do a more powerful version of the Dou Ryu Sen on the ground that was enhanced by the vortex created by the succession technique.

This last-minute creative counter was what initially buried Enishi right into the heart of Mt. Kannon.

Regardless, Kenshin arrived back at his earlier starting point.

By Himura's estimation, only he or maybe Yusuke could take Yukishiro out one-on-one. Enishi should not be allowed to join forces with the rest of the Shin Ju.

***

Yahiko manifested his neutralizing reiki and kenki all over the military base with a sparkling blue and yellow light that blended together and formed a green glow. This then warded off the raggedy evil spirits that served as the Onmyouji's shikigami.

It was his own form of spirit pressure. His spirit energy interacted with his swordsman presence in a way that sealed or canceled out the spiritual power of his opponents.

Botan, in turn, flickered back and forth between her original shinigami (death goddess) form and Kaoru Kamiya's form as she saved the soldiers from being reaped by Houji's soul reapers by using her floating boat oar like a bokken (wooden sword) or naginata (glaive).

The two Kamiya Kasshin Ryu practitioners made short work of the familiars before they could take one life of the JSDF military corps.

"Please evacuate from here. You're no match against them," explained Botan to one of the soldiers before swatting multiple weakened shikigami away with her weaponized boat paddle.

One of Myojin's shikigami-dissipating swings swiped mere inches away from Houji's face, creating a thin cut over the bridge of his nose.

"Swinging a sword mindlessly at someone out of hatred is just violence. Kenshin taught me that," said Yahiko. "My duty as the Son of Tokyo Samurai is to defeat you. That is all. I'll even stake my life on it."

Sadojima smirked. "So be it. Samurai-san."

From behind Houji teleported the ever-reliable Gatekeeper Itsuki.

Yahiko turned towards the blue-haired shinigami and told her, "Quick, call Boke (Moron) and tell him to come here right now."

"Boke...?" trailed off Botan.

"KUWABARA! Kuwabara Kazuma! We need him here now! If he needs healing, heal him up as well! He and his space sword are the only ones who can take on that green-haired yoga guy and his goddamn portals!"

"All right! I'll call him! Jeez," said Botan, who turned on her communicator.

"Language, Yahiko!" reprimanded the Kaoru inside her in turn.

Afterwards, Itsuki summoned a multitude of warp gates, this time rectangular and doorway-shaped instead of circular and hole-shaped.

Inside each dimensional door was either the corpse (as well as ashes) or unconscious body of the many different Shin Juppon Gatana members.

It was through these gates that the Occult Priest blasted his purple beams of negative energy. Before, they served as destructive pillars of neon plasma. Now, they were probably used to give the killed or otherwise heavily injured Shin Ju another lease on life.

"Oh no," said Botan. "Not again. He's not going to revive all the New Ten again, is he? Jeez, we just defeated those goons! Learn how to stay down and give up!"

The shining eyes of Houji the Onmyouji then dimmed and faded away, replaced with his actual normal eyes.

"Ah, you returned. The snotty little brat. How does it feel to go back to zero after all the effort you've spent killing the Shin Ju? Like Sisyphus and his rock, right?"

The boisterous nature of the Chojin's conduit had returned. Houji was seemingly awakened from his brief slumber earlier, when he actually sounded "cool" and "aloof" for a hot minute.

"Hey," said Yahiko. "What happened to you earlier? You weren't the one talking, were you?"

Houji raised an eyebrow at that. "What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb. It was the Chojin who talked to us back then, right?" asked Myojin. "Tell it to me straight: The Chojin is Shishio Makoto, isn't he? Of course, he is! Who else would start a war against the Spirit World with a team called the New Ten Swords? No one but him!"

The necromancer chuckled. "That's a... secret."

With a grunt, the samurai teen jumped and attacked the Chojin's right-hand man with a downward slash from the Jodan-no-Kamae (Fire Stance), which was then blocked by Houji's scythe.

They crossed blades, their different energies clashing against each other as arcs of lightning ripped through everywhere like light-filled cracks that broke through reality itself.

Houji's lack of formal training with his weapon was rendered moot due to his seemingly oceanic flow of negative energy that gave his simple block the weight of the world. Or at least the huge water pressure of the ocean depths.

However, regardless, the beams of purple plasma emanating from the dark priest flickered and wavered as it interacted with the reiatsu of Yahiko.

"That's it! You can do it, Yahiko!" said the Kaoru within Botan. "Show them why I consider you the number one pupil of the Kamiya Kasshin School!"

"Can you really do it, boy?" asked Houji, smirking. "Can you seal away the overflowing, overwhelming power of the Chojin himself? The Living Sin?"

The dimensional doors leading to the Shin Ju were then shut down. Or rather, slashed shut.

Gatekeeper Itsuki chuckled, his slashed eye that doubled as a dimensional portal opening. "He's here."

Sure enough, in one of the doors, the jaki beam was slashed in twain, the negative energy cut down by the spiritual might of the Jigen Tou.

It was from this door that Kazuma Kuwabara emerged, the transparent ghost of a recovering Sanosuke Sagara beside hiim.

"You called, Jo-chan (Missy)?" said Sano.

"YOSHA! (HELL YEAH!) Let's get this party started, samurai boy!" shouted Kazuma, the rambunctious teenager with bleached orange hair similarly styled like his best friend Yusuke Urameshi's hair.

***

And so there he was. Buried deep underneath Mt. Kannon itself like Son Goku the Monkey King from the literary masterpiece, "Journey to the West".

The rumbling inside the grumbling mountain roared deeper and harder. Like it was about to explode and turn into a volcano.

"...BATTOUSAI!" screamed Tomoe Yukishiro's little brother Enishi from underneath Kannon Mountain, spewing hot fire along with the brimstone and magma he was surrounded in.

His spectacles had long ago been lost or burned to smoke and ash by molten rock. The rest of his outfit remained intact though, probably protected by his body's significant aura.

Yukishiro crawled out of the hot magma pits of hell, or at least the otherwise dormant mountain in an explosion of fire, smoke, molten rock, and lava flow that scarred and burned the surrounding forest.

The singes and burns on Enishi's (literally) piping hot body, however, started healing right before Kenshin's eyes.

Not quite at the level of instantaneous regeneration as the Elder Toguro, but quick enough to survive a trip down a volcano and live to tell the tale. Still too quick compared to a normal mortal though.

Besides which, he wasn't supposed to only be burned from the fires of a river of magma anyway. It must've taken thousands of degrees of heat to even leave him slightly scalded at all.

His humongous amount of spirit energy kept him from suffering life-threatening injury. The same way Hiei or Yusuke would've survived such a predicament.

The red-hot blade of the Chinese-styled warrior didn't quite reach its melting point but it cooled down from the sheer blast of miasmic spirit energy from him.

If allowed to run rampant like the rest of the Ten Swords, Yukishiro could very well murder every last one of them. The Reikai Tantei, the Kenshingumi, and the Oniwabanshu.

All of them could die. This high-level martial artist could do what at least 8 of the 10 Shin Ju couldn't. He was a one-man army. He was like their Hajime Saito. A true wild card of sorts.

Kenshin foresaw it all through the Youtou Shinnoken.

The last thing Yahiko and the rest of the Reikai Senshi (Spirit World Warriors) needed right now while battling the Onmyouji and the Chojin's wealth of negative energy was a spanner in the works like Enishi.

***

The powers of most of the reincarnations or ghosts from the Meiji Era—most of Kenshin's comrades—were a result of how their spirit energy interacted with their swordsman energy or fighting spirit, creating what was known as reiatsu.

With Daiji Matsudaira (Aoshi Shinomori's reincarnation), it was the Quest-Class manifestation of objects and materials from his spirit energy.

With Natsuki Shinkai (Yutaro Tsukayama's reincarnation), it was the ability to manipulate kinetic momentum or acceleration, usually in the form of reflection or deflection.

With Likka Ikumi (Misao Makimachi's reincarnation), it was her skill to manifest her thoughts into reality, creating visual mirages or even holographic illusions seen by all.

With Sanosuke Sagara's soul, it was his pure fighting spirit that allowed his ghost to approach Regent-Class regeneration abilities, stamina, and pure brute force that allowed him to affect the physical plain like a rampaging poltergeist.

With Kaoru Kamiya's soul, it was a mix between Botan's soul reaper powers and Kaoru's past swordsmanship skills that allowed them to heal, boost, replenish, bind, manipulate, or otherwise enhance the spirit energy within them or of those around them.

With Kenshin Himura's soul, he became one with the Demon Sword, a demon-slaying blade that could arguably injure or kill a god. His own reiki, kenki, and reiatsu interacted with anyone who wielded his blade in ways that raised their very power levels.

Finally, with Yahiko Myojin's soul, his unique brand of spirit energy interacted with other spirit energy (whether it was human or demonic) in a way that suppressed or neutralized them into nothingness.

Yahiko's unique powers worked like how an acid and a base reacted quantitatively with each other when mixed until the acidity of the acid disappeared. Or how Hiei's Jaou-En-Satsu Kokuryuha was cancelled out by Shinobu Sensui's polar opposite power of Sei Kou Ki (Saint Light Ki).

Their reiatsu was different from the reiki and youki used by Yusuke Urameshi and their comrades due to the use of other forms of reiki within the Meiji Era reincarnations and the use of classic shinigami warrior techniques among the revived spirits.

Reiatsu was more comparable to something like Sensui's Saint Light Ki or Yusuke mixing his reiki and youki together to form something approaching Sei Kou Ki instead of either pure reiki or youki. Even jaki.

It was through these souls—these seeds of hope—that Koenma Daio intended to defeat the Chojin and his unnatural powers that defied death and the natural order of the Spirit World.

***

Kurama's board full of chess pieces were in their proper places, which kept the Chojin in check. They were practically on the verge of a checkmate, even.

The pawns were positioned to divide and conquer the Shin Juppon Gatana, with each Reikai Senshi paired up to their appropriate members.

Their source of power, Houji, had his borrowed negative energy suppressed by Yahiko. Their means of transportation, Itsuki, got sealed off by the Reikai's own Kuwabara and his Dimensional Sword.

Botan was there to heal and replenish reiki as well as assist Myojin tactics-wise care of Kaoru. Sanosuke himself was gradually recovering his spirit energy and fighting spirit for good measure as "Jo-chan" or the shinigami she fused with nursed his flickering body back to health.

Kuwabara regained his second wind even, which allowed him to not only create portals but to close or destroy them with his twin Dimension Swords.

This kept the annoying Gatekeeper from transporting jaki to the injured/dead Shin Ju or even getting the recovered members to help Houji out.

Even with his use of Sensui's seven personalities and the new powers it brought him, Kazuma kept him at bay.

As for the shikigami that served as the Onmyouji's infantry, Sanosuke punched them out with the "FUTAE NO KIWAMI! (DUAL EXTREME!)" while riding shotgun on Botan's oar.  

So why did Myojin feel like something was amiss? Like he had a bad feeling about everything? Like something terrible was about to happen?

A new enemy descended from an unseen sky portal that Kuwabara noticed, slashed apart, and closed too late.

"Huh!?" was Yahiko's reaction to the new arrival. This distracted him even as he ended up on the verge of disarming the untrained Houji. "Who is that? Is it another replacement Shin Ju?"

Kuwabara said, "We've already confirmed that Toguro Ani and Kuronue replaced Suzaku and Udo Jine! It's not one of the New Ten! Must be one of the Dai Shin Kan instead!"

Sanosuke's jaw dropped. "No way...!" which made Botan and Kaoru ask in unison, "Who is that supposed to be, Sano?"

Kazuma jumped into action, intending to slash a portal and kick the newcomer into it, only for his Jigen Tou's energy to start unraveling before his eyes.

The woman in courtesan clothes smiled as she floated down using her umbrella as a parachute (like goddamn Mary Poppins, Botan realized), crimson energy emanating from her pale white skin.

"Ah, it's all coming together now." Houji cackled. "Welcome back, Komagata Yumi. Get rid of these insects for me, if you would please."  

And so Makoto Shishio's personal courtesan and lover arrived, dressed in her classic Meiji Era garb but this time there was a hole in her chest where her heart used to be.

The very place where Shishio stabbed her in order to do a surprise attack on Battousai Himura.

Also, she had long fangs inside her mouth.

"Inner Blood Turmoil," Yumi said as she sapped Kuwabara of all his spirit energy using the Kyuuketsuki Kakuto Ryu (Vampire Martial Arts) that Rando stole from her.

"SHIT! Now even Shishio's girlfriend has superpowers too?!" said Sanosuke, remembering the woman whom he did a bridal carry with as they traversed Shishio's Mt. Hiei stronghold.

"...BLOOD WIND!" she screamed, releasing a red energy-sapping tornado at the Reikai Senshi.

***

Originally, Kenshin was barely able to defeat Enishi and get back in time and save Sanosuke Sagara, Kazuma Kuwabara, and Hajime Saito from the nefarious machinations of Karasu, Feng Xinhai, Usui Uonuma, and Gatekeeper Itsuki at Mt. Kamui.

But now that his detour was over, he had to get back to his original business.

He had to. Or else Enishi would undo everything they'd done so far to suppress the New Ten Swords from conquering the island of Okushiri as well as Hokkaido.

"Sessha (This one) wonders why even though I thought I'd never met you before, you seemed to know everything about me de gozaru (that you did)."

"'Sessha'? 'De gozaru'?" Enishi repeated the words with a snarl and a dismissive snort. "Are you kidding me, Battousai? Why is the most fearsome hitokiri of the Bakumatsu acting like a gentle fool with flowery samurai language? Enough of your lies!"

"This one never thought to see you again after a hundred years. I was sure you were already dead," confessed Kenshin.

"I did die. But I live again. Reincarnated in a new era," said Enishi. "I willed this weak new body I was reborn into to become even stronger than I already was before you died in the hands of Shishio Makoto."

'So he survived the Bakumatsu after all,' thought Kenshin, who believed that Enishi had died of starvation as a little boy in the ensuing revolution.

"Now I will enact the revenge that I was robbed of a hundred years ago! If you've been dispensing Tenchu (Heavenly Retribution) in your time as a hitokiri, then this is Jinchu (Earthly Retribution) for all your sins! Prepare yourself, Battousai! ZETSUGI...!"  

From there, he didn't even give Himura the chance to breathe or any breathing room as he attacked, attacked, an attacked some more.

Tomoe's little brother had grown ridiculously strong. As though he'd been training the last hundred years for this one moment. Empowered purely by hate.

However, one way or another, Kenshin was able to contain Yukishiro's growing threat long enough to assist Saito's rescue or allow the Kenshingumi to go through their mission of taking out Houji.

Himura figured out how his Wattoujutsu (a mixture of Japanese swordsmanship and Chinese kung fu) worked after only seeing a couple of techniques from it.

The Demon Sword's blade then shone with an ethereal light before Kenshin's form changed altogether.

From a 30-year-old man, his body returned to his more youthful 15- to-16-year-old self.

The form he had before he developed the cross-shaped scars. When he was still known as the Hitokiri Battousai. This way, he could engage Enishi the same way he did against any other opponent.

Free of bias. Free of shame or guilt.

"SHUUGEKI TOU SEI! (KICKING SWORD RUSH!)"

This technique of Enishí's involved hitting his opponent from below then kicking the blunt side of his sword at the last second to maximize damage.

Thusly, Kenshin answered the technique back with his own, "SOU RYU SEN! (TWIN DRAGON FLASH!)"

"KAISHI TOU SEI! (BAYONET SWORD RUSH!)"

As for the Bayonet Sword Rush, it was a follow-up whirling counterattack or riposte involving Enishi putting the hilt of his sword against his opponent's sword to add momentum to his pivoting swing.

However, Kenshin had a similar counterstrike technique like that as well in the form of "RYU KAN SEN! (DRAGON WRAP FLASH!)"

"SHO HA TOU SEI! (PALM BREAK SWORD RUSH!)"

From the Jodan Stance, Enishi swept his sword starting from over his head down to the ground. Afterwards, he then placed the palm of his hand on the sword's blunt side to push it forward at full force.

The answer to this move that resembled the Dragon Hammer Flash was the "RYU SHO SEN! (RISING DRAGON FLASH!)", which was the natural Ryu Tsui Sen counter that doubled as a two-handed sword block wherein the sword was held by its handle and tip with either hand.

"CHOU TEN TOU SEI! (UP-AND-DOWN SWORD RUSH!)"

This was Wattoujutsu's version of the Ryu Sho Sen. It allowed Enishi to leap upwards using his sword as his pole vault then attack from the air by pulling his sword towards him by its hilt cord immediately after jumping.

Kenshin drew out the fearsome technique with a feinted Ryu Tsui Sen only to do the "RYU KAN SEN ARASHI! (DRAGON WRAP FLASH STORM!) at the last second, the multi-hit forward somersault sword strikes catching Yukishiro off-guard.

"Ugh!" Enishi landed bad on his ankle, his knees buckling from the force of the centrifugal strikes, the chainsaw-like windmill of strikes drawing a fine mist and squall of blood. "Damn you, Battousai...!"

Kenshin cut Enishi's cursing short with a jarring punch to his jaw.

Battousai Himura had a Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu answer to every one of the white-haired young man's Wattoujutsu techniques. He took advantage of Enishi's barrage of hateful, unfocused strikes with clinical precision.

The fact that Himura didn't realize who exactly he was fighting against until the last second helped him figure out the proper counters to Enishi's Wattoujutsu early on and even bury him right inside the Kamui Mountain itself. Albeit temporarily.

Kenshin imagined he'd have a harder time with the kung fu master swordsman were he distracted by his guilt for killing Tomoe and knowing Enishi's identity from the start.

"Is that all you've got, Battousai?" demanded the scuffed-up, bleeding-from-the-mouth Enishi, who spat away blood as his veins—no, his very nerves themselves—hypertrophied or thickened enough to become visible underneath his skin with vascular density.

This was his Kyokei Myaku (Nerves of Insanity) in action.

***

It was bedlam at the Military Base of Okushiri.

Ten things were happening at once, and barely anyone could keep up.

More soldiers were deployed to rescue the fallen and suppress the invaders.

They waged war against the Onmyouji's shikigami, even though many of them couldn't even see the grim reaper familiars.

They had to use their special thermal goggles to detect and shoot the enemy, but neither bullets nor grenades worked on them.

Botan had more luck dissipating the strange creatures into the ether, but that was because it was part of her job description as a soul reaper.

She did double duty in casting her healing and reiki-replenishing spells on Yahiko, Sanosuke, and Kuwabara while at the same time defeating her share of scythe-wielding reapers created from wayward earthbound spirits infected with the Chojin's jaki.

Also, the bodies were really hitting the floor now. Not due to the Kenshingumi (they were basically all ghosts) or their Reikai Tantei comrade falling into a dead faint.

It was because the vampire (or perhaps succubus) Yumi bit the necks and absorbed the blood of all the nearest JSDF soldiers to power her Kyuuketsuki Kakuto Ryu.

As for Gatekeeper Itsuki, he and Kuwabara were having a portal contest of sorts. He kept making portals while Kazuma kept slicing them apart.

Regardless, it took much longer for Yahiko to seal the power of the Chojin, the borrowed ocean of jaki overflowing with immense pressure from within gleeful Sadojima.

"TSUI GAMI...!? (HAMMER OF GOD...!?)"

Myojin's attempt at the sword-breaking, jaki-neutralizing Hammer of God was thwarted with a simple yet shuddering one-handed scythe swipe that belied Houji's actual physical strength.

"So you intend to beat me at this level of strength?" asked a smug Sadojima before releasing a pillar of jaki that made Yahiko kneel before him, as though bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Yahiko felt like he had plunged deep underwater, drowning in negative energy as the oceanic water pressure increased further and further the deeper he went.

Myojin grunted, grit his teeth, and rose up against the harsh and dense waves of pure jaki that bore down on him in waves, his green aura of reiatsu resisting the crushing force of the Overfiend's distant yet overbearing presence.

Like a black sun whose dark rays and heat reached the earth all the way from space despite being millions of miles away.

It was a tug of war between the Chojin's power boosts and Yahiko's neutralization skill.

Thanks to Botan and Kaoru, the ghost of Sanosuke had healed up and reenergized himself with reiki enough to summon his signature Zanbatou (Horse-Chopping Sword) again at long last.

He had more bandages than usual, half of which were spirit seals from Botan that kept his ectoplasm from escaping his ghostly form.

"ZANBATOU ATE! (ZANBATOU DISTANCE HIT!)"

Sanosuke's Zanbatou Ate, based on Anji Yukyuzan's Tou Ate (Bladed Distance Hit), created a landslide aimed at Houji, who shielded himself with his shikigami ghouls.

"ZANKUU ZANBATOU ATE! (ZANBATOU VACUUM DISTANCE HIT!) "

As for his Zankuu Zanbatou Ate, Sanosuke aimed it at the ensuing Blood Wind air funnel that the courtesan in revealing clothing fired off at him.

The last thing Sano expected was to use that 12-foot longsword against Shishio's lover, the non-fighter known as Yumi.

***

Enishi did a low split-legged crouch, only to charge with an onslaught of strikes instead of doing another Zettousei when he saw Kenshin sink his stance low in kind instead of taking his bait and attacking with the Hirameki.

"SENRAN TOU SEI! (WAR SWORD RUSH!)"

"RYU SOU SEN! (DRAGON NEST FLASH!)"

Sparks flew everywhere as though they were in a steel mill or foundry as they parried and attacked each other with impunity, their swords crossing and chipping at their edges.

Blood and ectoplasm stained the ground soon afterward from both combatants.

Enishi moved faster than Kenshin could react. Like an unswattable fly. Or perhaps a whole swarm of flies. Locusts. Bees. Wasps, even. A plague of wasps. His twitch muscles able to react to attacks or counterattacks by lightning-fast reflexes.

It was like dealing with Soujiro Seta's Shukuchi all over again. Himura couldn't even predict Enishi's strikes by reading his sakki (bloodlust) because he was exuding hatred and killer instinct at all times. At every waking moment.

Like the polar opposite of the Heaven Sword. It was no different to deal with someone who lacked bloodlust compared to someone who always exuded bloodlust. There was no sudden spike of killer instinct you could use to read an opponent's moves.

This forced Kenshin to take the initiative and jump high into the air in order to become the aggressor for a change, even if only to draw out a counterstrike that he could then counter.

"RYU TSUI SEN! (DRAGON HAMMER FLASH!)"

Yukishiro countered by also leaping vertically before Kenshin could drop him with the Dragon Hammer Flash. Afterwards, at the point where his jump force was equal to Earth's gravity, he jumped even further, thus essentially doing a double jump or what was known to basketball players as an airwalk.

"SHIKKU TOU SEI! (SLASHER SWORD RUSH!)"

Kenshin's youtou (demon sword) and Enishi's watou (Chinese-style katana) clashed hard against each other, their impactful vibrations strong enough to shatter steel. However, their mystical swords forged from spirit energy and the life force of their very souls both held true.

However, Battousai or no Battousai, the scarless Kenshin realized he had to take Yukishiro out before his own feelings of despair, depression, shame, and remorse got the better of him.

For even now, he felt like he deserved to get hit by every last strike from Enishi for the sin of accidentally killing his ex-wife in an attempt to rescue her from her kidnapper.

"KUZU RYU SEN! (NINE-HEADED DRAGON FLASH!)"

"UGH!"

Like water crushing rock over time, the constant barrage of counters from earlier finally took its toll on Enishi, leading to several lapses of attention that the Battousai took advantage of to great effect.

Kenshin's persistence paid off, with that last multi-hit attack finally landing on his nerve-filled brother-in-law.

He then prepared to do a supersonic noutoujutsu (sword-sheathing technique). The same one he used to disable the super sensitive hearing of Usui Uonuma's Shingan.

"RYU MEI...! (DRAGON CRY...!)"

Kenshin stopped short of doing his high-pitched sheathing technique when he saw a familiar young woman with jet-black hair, doe eyes, a white kimono, and purple shawl appear out of the half-burnt forest.

She brought with her a nostalgic, heartbreaking scent.

"T-Tomoe...?!" stuttered Kenshin before Enishi's Watou ended up stabbing him right in his chest, on the same wound made by the Zettousei that got him earlier.

The pair of scars on his left cheek reappeared. Bleeding with fresh blood (or, in his case, ectoplasm).

***

Back at the Okushiri Military Base...

The Blood Wind dissipated from the strength of Sanosuke's vacuum slash, but Yumi herself blocked the wind pressure with her open, glowing-red umbrella serving as her shield.

Ah, yes. The Blood Wind.

The double-edged, energy-sapping red tornado created from the heat of the spirit energy it stole and the coldness of an injured body that was losing blood.

However, this woman somehow managed to do Blood Winds without the need to be injured. Or perhaps the hole in her chest served as her injury?

Sagara originally thought it was one of Rando's ultimate moves, only to remember something about him stealing techniques. So this energy-sapping technique was actually her move, wasn't it?

Regardless, what was a desperation move for Rando was a normal move for her. It all made sense now. Or at least that part did.

"How the hell did you get superpowers too, lady?" Sano demanded to Yumi. "You even went so far as to change yourself into a vampire! You really are something else!"

"Stop acting so friendly around me, you boorish lout," said Komagata to Sagara with half-lidded eyes, parrying his probing zanbatou stab from more than 12 feet away with her closed umbrella that doubled as her sword. "You should've stayed as a ghost in the Spirit World. You'll regret crossing paths with us again after a hundred years, Sagara Sanosuke."

Sano left his cumbersome giant sword behind, charged unimpeded, and backhanded the woman. "Nothing personal, Neechan. We can't let you or your psycho boyfriend run amok again in this era either."

"...Bastard! You dare hit a lady?! Youki Duantoutai! (Spirit Guillotine!)" Yumi reeled from the slap that caught her by surprise but then kept Sanosuke at bay with the Spirit Guillotines.

"...Son of a bitch! Rando stole that move from you too?!" said Yahiko before breaking the paper-thin waves of demon energy with "Men (Head)" strikes from the Fire Stance and flying skyward with the God in Heaven technique.

"Not exactly," Yumi chatted with a nonchalant smirk. "I stole some of Rando's moves myself in exchange for the moves he stole from me. Tit-for-tat."

As for Sanosuke, his follow-up attempt at chopping Komagata in half with his 12-foot sword led to it getting blasted full of huge holes care of Itsuki. This made the zanbatou look like a macroscopic slice of grey Swiss cheese.

The scattershot blasts responsible for Sano's predicament originated from a gun attached to Itsuki's right arm. It shot out miniature black holes the size of pinholes but had event horizons the size of bowling balls or bigger. They ate up any type of matter nearest them.

It was a (literal) handgun with black holes as its bullets that the Gatekeeper developed through the help of Shinobu Sensui's Kazuya personality.

Itsuki's Black Hole Gun also ate up chunks of Sano's ghostly flesh whole.

"GUUAAAHH!"

The Gatekeeper had taken advantage of Sanosuke's moment of hesitation in killing Yumi. Sano remembered mid-swing how she had originally died by Shishio's hand and then had her corpse burn along with his in a sudden unintended funeral pyre.

Meanwhile, as the flying Myojin attacked Yumi from above, Botan attacked from below. She flew on her oar mere inches from the ground before getting off her ride and using her forward momentum to smash her paddle right into the vampire. She then let the more athletic Kaoru inside her do the rest.

Using jaki and youki together, the succubus imbued her foldable fan and her closed umbrella with enough blood-red energy to stop the oar cold with a cross-block. She then unfurled her umbrella in time to also prevent Yahiko's Ryu Tsui Sen from hitting her noggin.

From this close proximity, she then used her Inner Blood Turmoil to absorb her attackers' spirit energy unto herself, sapping the two of their reiki and making their souls flicker and fade.

Neither the living nor the dead were safe from this vampire queen.

***

"GOU TSUI TOU SEI! (FALLING BLADE SWORD RUSH!)" screamed Enishi after impaling the distracted Kenshin in the chest.

The Falling Blade Sword Rush allowed the white-haired martial artist to pin Battousai at last, lifting him high up and over his head with his sword and upper-body strength.

"At last. At long last. You're going to die, Battousai! You scum! You criminal! You took away everything from me! Now I will return the favor and take away everything from you! This is my Jinchu!"

The Guardian of the Youtou Shinnoken grunted and coughed, his eyes unable to tear themselves away at the visage and silhouette of his ex-wife Tomoe Yukishiro.

Red tears streamed down his cheeks and bloodstained scar.

"T-Tomoe? I-Is that really you?" he mumbled in disbelief, as though not even noticing Enishi's watou inside of him.

He was no longer Hitokiri Battousai (Battousai the Manslayer). Instead, he transformed back to Rurouni Kenshin (Kenshin the Vagabond).

"Tomoe" then told Enishi with an old man's deep voice, "My apologies. This is the best help I can give you for now. That damn Okashira stole all of the jaki that the Chojin gave me and sealed me and my precious Iwanbos away with it, turning the energy into solidified reiatsu."

"You did splendidly, Gein," said Enishi, who smiled for once. He couldn't face the reanimated corpse of his elder sister eye-to-eye, though. "Now please take that puppet away. I don't want you to soil my sister's memory with it."

Kenshin went pale. He'd been duped by one of Gein's puppets. However, his trickery paid off. He didn't feel like hurting Tomoe's little brother any longer.

"Did you know what I went through to get to this moment, Battousai? As an orphaned boy, I ate human flesh in the battlefield to survive. I was adopted by a rich couple, only for me to kill them because I hated how happy they were. I ended up becoming an arms dealer using their wealth for good measure. I then found out you already died, which sapped me of my will to live. Only to be reborn in this era after I found out you became the Demon Sword's guardian."

Enishi dragged Kenshin's bloody (or ectoplasmic) body all over the forest at the foot of Mt. Kannon, savoring the moment before pulling his sword out and stomping on the Battousai's bleeding wound for good measure.

"I'm not sure whether I should wield your damn sword myself or just destroy you along with that sword. Oh well. It doesn't matter. You could die a thousand deaths and it won't bring back my sister. Even after I died, I couldn't find her anymore. I've lost her forever. All that's left is to make you feel the despair I felt when you stole her away from me."

***

Back at the Okushiri Military Base...

Chaos continued. Fires broke out everywhere.  The wind howled like wolves to the moon. The base crumbled and turned into shambles. It was Hell on Earth.

Hell in Hokkaido.

Komagata's Inner Blood Turmoil created her own version of reiatsu—her youki mixed with the Kenshingumi's reiki, the blood of the soldiers she fed on, and the Chojin's jaki—before releasing that pent-up energy towards Yahiko in the form of the "BLOOD FIRE WAVE!" projectile.

However, thinking fast on her feet, Botan purified the surplus of jaki around them then used it to replenish the reiki she and Myojin lost from being in contact with Yumi.

'Wow. She's doing the thing! The same thing Urameshi did when he got hold of the Meikai's crystal ball thingy,' thought Kuwabara. 'She's purifying jaki into reiki!'

Again, Botan used spirit bandages that doubled as spiritual energy seals, acting more like a priestess than Hinageshi the Shrine Maiden or Houji the Onmyouji.

"Nice one, Tanuki-chan!" said Yahiko. "I mean, thank you, Botan."

Botan smiled at the samurai boy. "You're welcome. Now go get 'em."

'This woman is seriously getting on my nerves,' thought Yumi while eyeing the ferry-girl whose astral body housed two souls instead of just one.

A rejuvenated Myojin then did the sword-breaking "TSUI GAMI!" to neutralize the Blood Fire Wave and the pinhole-sized black holes that Itsuki's sneaky Kazuya personality shot right into his heart and head with the Black Hole Gun.

The samurai kid kept moving forward, practically swimming in the thick of "it", with "it" being the Chojin's ocean of jaki.

Meanwhile, Houji frowned, his arms crossed. 'This goddamn brat! For Chojin's sake, he sure is persistent.'

He thought that the Chojin allowing him more access to his boundless negative energy—enough jaki to, quite frankly, revive the long-dead kingdom of Meikai (Nether World)—was sufficient to neutralize the neutralizer.

However, Houji's jaki output remained relatively low and it even started dwindling.

Like opening your water main at full capacity yet still ending up with less water than you expected when filling up your bathtub. Defying the very will of the Overfiend himself.

'The boy is starting to get better control of his neutralization powers, isn't he?' the Onmyouji thought, tapping his scythe's handle to the ground impatiently.

To Yumi and Itsuki, he only had one command. "Kill him."

Yumi then made it rain blood like the Battousai would back in the Bakumatsu.

A literal rain of blood poured down on them, but each droplet contained razor-sharp scalpels. A bloody rain that cut you apart in order to induce a thicker bloodbath afterwards. It pelted the ground like suppressive fire from a machine gun.

She aptly named the technique, "Bloody Rain."

It was the bloodsucker's way of creating the energy-absorbing Blood Wind without having to sacrifice all the plasma that she had already drained from her other victims.

"I don't know who you are, lady, but you leave that boy alone!" said Kuwabara, who finally had time to intervene.

***

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the island...

Yusuke Urameshi had actually been in a punching match with Toguro Ototo all this time.

Right in the middle of Okushiri Island, in fact. Along the Tsurikake River.

Instead of playing with the percentages of his power, the Younger Toguro instead went all out from the start, displaying 100% of his full strength.

'His B-Level strength,' was Yusuke's unsaid sentiment. He recalled how easily he manhandled the A-Level Rando earlier now that he wasn't faced with any distractions or dirty tactics.

So dealing with Toguro should be a cakewalk now, right?

In kind, Urameshi himself released his first pair of Spirit Cuffs. Just like the good ol' days, they ended up in a slugfest that turned the peaceful river into roiling rapids from the shockwaves of their punches.

"You've struggled in every encounter you've faced with the Chojin's forces so far yet won every time," said the Younger Toguro. "Why is that?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, man," said Yusuke before blasting the gigantic hulking grey behemoth before him with the "SHOT GUN!" technique, bombarding him with the purest of reiki bullets.

The vascular and muscular Toguro pressed on, healing the missing pieces of his flesh instantly like his older brother would.

An impressive feat a power level or two ago. To Yusuke, it had somehow become old hat. Any S-Level worth their salt should be able to regenerate fast enough as long as they had an abundance of spirit or demon energy inside them.

"I took on Rando, Souther (Xinhai), Suzaku, the blind guy (Usui), and the rest of the Chojin's New Ten Swords fair and square. All I'm doing now is killing time and keeping you from ruining Kurama's plans to take your new gang out. Right until your big bad boss, the Chojin, shows up."

Toguro's eyes narrowed behind his shades. 'His reiki is... overflowing. It almost reminds me of the Chojin's own jaki. Immeasurable.'

Yusuke dodged the Shi Dan (Finger Flip Bullets) by reflex even though he had a feeling he could survive direct hits from Toguro's unnaturally strong finger flicks at this point in time.

It was a B-Level against an S-Level (albeit one who was holding his strength back), after all.

The Shi Dan were even more powerful than the strongest human punches, capable of blasting through concrete, but against Urameshi's wealth of spirit energy, he doubted that they'd even penetrate his skin.

Even with his powers sealed, he teetered from being a high A-Level to a low S-Level.  

'Are you hiding your present power level, Toguro? Is your 100% form not your full power?' Urameshi thought.

There was just no way that the likes of Rando, Xinhai, Usui, Saito, or Suzaku would end up stronger than the Toguro Ototo himself.

Then again, while it took Toguro 50 years to reach B-Level, it took only 10 years for Sensui to reach S-Level. Meanwhile, it took less than 3 years for Yusuke to surpass them both and take on a centuries-old S-Level archdemon, Yomi, to the brink of defeat.

To Toguro, Urameshi asked, "What happened to you deciding to stay in Hell for 100 million years to atone for all the crimes you've committed? Were you plucked from Hell by the Chojin and forced to work for him? Answer me, Toguro!"

"...We're not so different, you and I."

"OH, COME ON! Not this tired cliché again!" the teenaged living warhead told off the demonized human strongman in between bone-crushing punches.

He didn't want to hear such things from someone much weaker than him.

***

The veiny (actually nervy) Enishi got talkative all of a sudden, Kenshin realized.

His life story was as unfortunate as the vagabond expected. Maybe even more so. So he even killed a family after he was given a new lease in life? How much of a monster had he become?

This was a lot for Himura to take in. He could barely breathe right now; much less digest Yukishiro's words.

Meanwhile, Enishi snarled in remembrance of the things he'd been through. The people he killed. The opportunities of happiness he turned his back on in favor of a century-old grudge.

The innocents he murdered in order to harden his heart enough to take on a monster like the Battousai. When he died, he resisted the reincarnation cycle for so long, hoping against hope he'd find Himura's soul in the afterlife and drag him to Hell along with him, torturing him for a million years.

However, his chance had finally arrived only a few decades ago. He reentered the reincarnation cycle and avoided becoming an insect or a slug, getting instead the body of a Chinese boy with his memories of the past as a Japanese man intact somehow.

He then trained his body in martial arts, went to prison more than a few times, became a career criminal, and climbed the ranks of organized Chinese crime known as The Triad (what the Shanghai Arms Dealers eventually developed into a hundred years down the line).

In fact, until a few couple of years ago, Enishi occupied the position of Dragon Head that his protégé, Feng Xinhai, currently had. He had a Chinese name himself, but he long ago abandoned that identity in order to completely become Enishi Yukishiro.

He dedicated himself into becoming what he was in his past life and more.

It was because the Chojin himself reawakened his soul's past memories for the purpose of taking down Kenshin Himura.

Under the guidance of the Chojin and his reformed Shin Juppon Gatana, he even learned how to use his spiritual powers on top of reviving the lost martial arts of Wattoujutsu. He studied the Japanese language.

He began slaying demons himself by helping fund technology that linked the Demon World to the Human World with the money he made by being the Triad Dragon Head.

And now, while serving under Tenro the Demon-Slayer's Yakuza Family as one of his enforcers, he finally crossed paths with the man who stole his happiness a hundred years ago.

His revenge, his Jinchu, was literally a hundred years in the making.

"I will kill you now and then the rest of your friends afterwards. I'll break apart the Demon Sword or steal it for myself. Become its new master. From there, in the Spirit World, I will also hunt your ghost and kill you again until all memory of you is erased. Suffer like I did. Suffer for eternity, Battousai!"

Something stirred inside Kenshin when he heard those words. It was one thing for Enishi to swear to kill him. However, what did the rest of his comrades have to do with his revenge? Was he really going to kill the Kenshingumi or even the Reikai Tantei and the Oniwabanshu all in the name of his Jinchu?

Just as Enishi prepared to finish Himura off, a shinigami flew between them like a bolt from the blue.

The woman who sported a black kimono and raven hair zeroed in not on Enishi and Kenshin but instead on the Tomoe puppet of the Puppet Master.

'Ah, I remember her,' thought the Guardian of the Demon Sword. He met that death goddess before while assisting the training of Sanosuke and Yahiko when they first arrived in the Human World.

From his limited interactions with the shinigami, Kenshin surmised that she mainly did research work for Koenma Daio, not unlike the child inspector Sayaka.

'Ayame, was it? She's the shinigami that Kurama assigned to the Southeast Quadrant of Okushiri. Did she follow us all the way here?'

***

Yusuke wanted to end the fight with Toguro using one gigaton punch or one Chou Rei-Gan (Mega Spirit Gun), but he held back. Kept his cool.

He wanted to bet on a "maybe".  As in, "Maybe Toguro is holding back and is about to show me something more amazing than 100% of his power".

Otherwise, Urameshi would've already blasted Toguro back to Hell where he belonged and had a 100 million year sentence to serve. From there, the teenager would've waited for the Chojin or someone to arrive and force him use 100% of his power instead.

Finishing this fight early presented too much of a risk. Like eating an unripe fruit or something. Besides which, if Yusuke went all out, he'd wipe out several mountain ranges and riverbanks off of the map.

But maybe he was risking hundreds of thousands of lives over his own selfish whims.

'Fine. I'll push a little harder, then.'

The ensuing "REI-KOU-DAN! (SPIRIT WAVE BULLET!)" that fissured the surrounding ground and threatened to break the world in half was mostly absorbed by Younger Toguro's beefy body.

Toguro's 100% form before might instead be his 000.1% now. Maybe he'd been training all this time in Hell. Training from Hell.

Or maybe this was all wishful thinking on Urameshi's part now that he had outgrown his boogeyman from his past.

Yusuke put his hip into his last punch, manhandling the "ultimate" form of Toguro that earlier on threw him around like a rag doll the first time they fought.

"You want to rise to your greatest potential, but unfortunately you've already been there and done that and more. You've become too powerful," Toguro said after fixing his twisted neck that had his head staring straight behind him.

"You're not somehow begging for mercy, are you?" asked Yusuke as he hit another bone-crushing uppercut to Toguro's jaw.

"...Nothing challenges you anymore, but you don't want to sever your attachment to this world of weaklings."

Toguro flexed and did a full-powered tackling punch with enough force to move or even obliterate mountains. Alas, this version of Yusuke ate mountains for breakfast ever since achieving S-Level during his fight against Sensui.

This was nothing to him. Drop a building on him, and he'd wonder if it was raining.

He hated to think in such a way, but to him fighting Toguro now was akin to fighting Kuwabara. It didn't help that the behemoth fought straightforwardly and without trickery, unlike Xinhai and Rando.

"You honestly sound pathetic now, Toguro. What happened to you? Keiko can hit harder than that. Put your hips into it!"

But nothing major really happened to Toguro after dying back in the Ankoku Bujutsukai (Dark Martial Arts Tournament). It was Urameshi who had changed.

Any of the current roster of Roku Youkai (Six Demons) could take him on and turn him into roadkill, to be honest.

Toguro's form doubled or even tripled in size. He was now doing his "100% of 100%" technique that had him stake his very soul's life force in order to unleash his fullest potential.

However, his fullest potential ended up just B-Plus in the end. Not even at A-Level.

'Quit messing around and go 1,000% power or something already, Toguro!' Yusuke inwardly begged. But that never happened. He kept dealing with a Toguro who could barely make him flinch.

"In order to continue to live the lie you call your life, you're someone strong pretending to be weak so you could fit in with the rest of the weaklings."

"Stop yammering! I'm more impressed with your big mouth than any of your punches!"

Yusuke did his signature finger gun pose and focused his ocean of reiki at a single point of his index finger, gathering all that limitless energy into one concentrated shot.

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

"Jeez. Shut up already."

Yusuke sighed. If Toguro really was going to unleash a new superpower on him, he would've done so by now. Meanwhile, he himself hadn't even worked up a sweat.

Was this some sort of long-con, "Sun Tzu's Art of War" deal? Was Toguro hiding his power level like he always had, using only a small percentage of his potential? Or was this indeed his limits after his defeat in the Dark Tournament?

"Maybe you're right. Maybe I have been a little careless in my fights lately. However, in the end, I kept winning anyway. So who cares? It's my curse, I know. REI-GAN!"

***

Back at the foot of Mt. Kannon...

Ayame the Shinigami grabbed hold of the corpse puppet of Gein and cut off its spiritual connection with the mad scientist using her reaper powers.

She then said to Enishi, "There's no way your sister is smiling down on you in heaven! Not while you're doing something as terrible as this, stalking Himura-san for decades! A whole century!"

Enishi scowled at the impudent ferry-girl. How dare she say such things to him.

"What do you know? How can you possibly know the pain I've been through? The pain that my sister and her fiancé suffered from? You're nothing but a stranger! You have nothing to do with me!"

Kenshin tried standing up, but Enishi kicked his chest wound and pinned him down with a foot stomp. "And as for you, stay down! I'm not done with you yet!"

Yukishiro was about to punch Koenma's ferry-girl away when she chanted an incantation that led to the body double of his sister Tomoe to frown at him and cry tears of blood.

"Don't you hear it? Don't you hear the cries of despair of your dearly departed sister Tomoe from a hundred years ago? The last thing she wants to see is you suffering or making everyone suffer along with you!"

Enishi shook and shuddered before he himself screamed in anguish, screaming until his throat became ragged. Clutching his chest at that baleful look that rocked him to his very core.

"Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up, SHUT UP! Enough of your lies, Reikai! I don't believe any of them for a second!

However, he couldn't for the life of him kill even a puppet of his sister. Any young woman who reminded him of his sister, he couldn't bring himself to kill.

He damn well tried to though, his hatred rising. His cognitive dissonance assuring him these were all lies. That his sister had wanted to kill Battousai all along to avenge her fiancé's death.

That the rumor of how Battousai pledged to not kill ever since he killed Enishi's sister was just a rumor.

That Enishi hadn't wasted his multiple chances at a new lease on life for nothing.

He slashed the Tomoe corpse puppet apart with the Sho Ha Tou Sei, his own tears flowing down as he did so. Nauseated by the act, he moved away and puked soon after.

Even though she wasn't the real Tomoe.

'I have to do this. I have to destroy all their lies!'

He had waited for so long and come so far. In the end, it should still matter, right? If it didn't matter then what was the point of all this?

It was all Battousai's fault. He was the one who ruined his life. He was the one who forced him to suffer like this. Everything was perfect until he came along.

Even in the afterlife, Himura haunted him.

"Himura Battousai must die! Suffer! Die a thousand deaths! A million deaths! I won't rest until he has suffered as much as I have and MORE!"

Yukishiro prepared to do his ultimate attack on Kenshin, only for Ayame to get in his way.

This looked mighty familiar.

He hesitated for a whole second in cleaving the shinigami in half. Here was another woman the same age as his sister. Everywhere he looked, such maidens like her kept reminding him of what he had lost.

A second was an eternity in a fight, though.

Kenshin rose up and blocked Enishi's ensuing sword strike even though, unbeknownst to him, his brother-in-law intended to miss Ayame by a mile anyway.

Himura's heart swelled at doing so. Here and now, the vagabond was able to do the sword block that he failed to do against Shishio.

Had he done the same block against his hitokiri successor, would he have survived their mutually assured destruction? Had he not given up back then and decided to fight on, would he have been able to come back to Tokyo with the rest of the Kenshingumi? With Miss Kaoru?

Kenshin really wished he had fought on instead of giving up and dying along with Shishio. That he did.

"...I will fight to the end to protect those I hold dear! That is my truth!"

Himura's resolve in defeating Enishi finally hardened after wavering for so long, his cross-shaped scar seemingly glowing with a red bioluminescent light.

The crouching tiger faced off against the unhidden dragon one more time.

"KOFUKU ZETTOUSEI! (CROUCHING TIGER SEVERING SWORD RUSH!)"

"AMAKAKERU RYU NO HIRAMEKI! (HEAVENS GLIDING DRAGON FLASH!)"

Last time, the tiger was able to cut deep wounds into the flying serpent even though it was driven deep underground by sharp dragon claws.

Would the tiger finish what it had started? Or would the dragon have something hidden behind its upward flight into the heavens?

***

Kazuma attempted to create a portal to serve as a shield over Yahiko, only for Itsuki to seal that portal with Kazuya's Black Hole Gun, the twin rips in space-time canceling each other out.

However, Kuwabara expected the maneuver and teleported right in front of Itsuki in order to slash apart the firearm at pointblank range with the Jigen Tou.

"Motherfucker...!" shouted the foul-mouthed Kazuya possessing Itsuki's body, grasping his damaged handgun.

Itsuki then awoke Sensui's George personality in order to gain access to a hyperdimensional gun vault filled with Tommy guns, pistols, Desert Eagles, mini guns, shotguns, AK-47 rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, and bazookas.

He had actually restocked his gun collection by stealing many of the armaments and ammunition available in the very military base they were invading right then and there. Knowing full well that ordinary guns were more useful against living, flesh-and-blood beings like Kuwabara versus the solidified souls of shinigami and ghosts from the past.

In retrospect, this made Houji's efforts to shoot Yahiko, a ghost, with a gun moot. However, Itsuki at least had a backup plan.

"I'll kill you all!" said Hitoshi. "I will purify the Human World by getting rid of all the humans!" His shtick was that he wished for human extinction.

However, before he could use one magazine or clip from his guns, he got pummeled to submission by a revived Sanosuke Sagara.

Botan had healed up the wounds of Sano's ghost yet again with purified jaki turned into reiki. He then got the jump on the green-haired youkai through brute strength instead of fancy teleportation techniques.

'Her again?' thought Houji, noticing how Battousai's woman served the same function as he did with the rest of the Shin Ju. 'That Reikai shinigami is making this mission of ours needlessly difficult.'

Furthermore, every attempt Itsuki made to get away from Sagara was blocked by Kuwabara, who himself punched the demon back into portals of his own that redirected him towards Sano's waiting fists and "FUTAE NO KIWAMI!"

"All right, enough of this!" declared Yumi, who shifted from targeting Yahiko to focusing her Spirit Guillotines and Blood Fire Waves at the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu kendoist turned shinigami Botan/Kaoru Kamiya.

Kaoru assisted Botan in deploying evasive maneuvers against the succubus, with her using the reiki-imbued boat paddle to bat and parry away the projectiles headed towards her before flying away from the bloodsucker.

She then ended up blocking the scythe of the unskilled but jaki-empowered Houji, which kept her from taking flight and escaping. "Keep still like a good girl."

Finally, a black hole appeared where her chest used to be. It was actually a dimensional rift that sucked the ferry-girl's ghostly flesh and ectoplasm away.

Gatekeeper Itsuki then closed the portal that mortally wounded Botan/Kaoru with a wave of his hand.

The ferry-girl's jaw opened, clenched, and froze at a silent scream, her red eyes rolling upwards until only her eye whites were visible.

"KAORUUU! BOTAAAAAN! NOOOO!" said Yahiko with an anguished, bloodcurdling shriek of his own.

Itsuki's mouth curved upwards in curiosity. 'What will you do now, Samurai-san? Is this enough to break you into pieces like what happened to my dearest Shinobu (Sensui) when he saw the Black Chapter Tapes?'

***

Back at the foot of Mt. Kannon...

As Enishi Yukishiro's heart wavered, Kenshin Himura's resolve hardened. Tempered by his will to protect those around him.

The Kofuku Zetsu Tou Sei should've countered the Heavens Gliding Dragon Flash by avoiding the first slash completely and countering the second slash with a well-time riposte, unfazed or even aided by the void created by the first slash.

The Zettousei was seemingly designed to break apart or deconstruct the Hirameki, as demonstrated earlier by Kenshin barely surviving it the first time it was used.

It should've halved the effectiveness of the second slash, but by Kenshin drawing the sword low and removing the ground-based leverage of his crouch, Enishi stood no chance.

Kenshin's much faster and stronger Heavens Gliding Dragon Flash hit low to weaken Enishi's strong crouch then hit high with the multiplied centrifugal force of the follow-up second strike of his ougi, the Crouching Tiger Severing Sword Rush buckling under pressure.

Enishi's counter was ultimately overpowered by the much stronger and better applied succession technique.

However, like before, even after his counter was countered by a more experienced, worldlier version of Battousai guarding a powerful demonic sword, he still kept standing.

Sure, Yukishiro shook like a leaf and heaved belabored breaths because his double-edged, hypertrophied Nerves of Insanity multiplied his pain to the point where an ordinary man would've blacked out in a dead faint.

But he wouldn't go down. He refused to go down. He'd rather die than go down.

Whether he was thrown into magma inside a mountain or cut down to oblivion with the Legendary Youtou Shinnoken (Demon Sword: The True Blade), his willpower continued to defy fate and destiny itself.

He braced himself for Battousai to deliver the finishing blow, relying on his twitch reflexes and his thick pulsating nerves that were practically on fire at this point to launch another counter.

Instead, Kenshin told him, "You didn't really mean to raise your sword at Miss Ayame, did you? Cutting down the fake Tomoe puppet to you was like ripping your heart out."

He spat, "What of it, Battousai?! That's just a puppet I tore apart, not my real sister! My sister that you killed!"

"It doesn't matter if the puppet was fake or not. Ripping her apart hurt you at your core. The pain you felt is real."

"DAMN YOU TO HELL! Push me any further, and I'll do the same to the shinigami!"

Himura replied, "Even though you've murdered others because you couldn't stand how happy they were, you hesitated in killing Ayame-dono. She reminded you too much of Tomoe to go through with it, didn't she?"

"DON'T YOU DARE SAY HER NAME, BASTARD! Her murderer has no right to do so!"

"...In the end, what stopped you was your sister. So I ask you the same question you asked me. Is your sister smiling down on you from heaven?"

Delirious, he started having visions.

Visions of his sister taking care of him when he was sick with the flu, sleeping at his bedside. Cooking for him. Taking care of him. Serving as the only family and mother figure that he ever knew.

His revenge against Kenshin was all he had left. All that mattered. His only reason for being, since Battousai robbed him of the original reason for his being. Without this one goal, he'd be nothing.

He could do anything as long as his sister was smiling back at him.

He closed his eyes. All he could see—the face he claimed was a lie made by the Spirit World—was his sister frowning at him with sad eyes full of pity.

The things he'd ignored earlier that bothered him also started making sense.

Why his sister threw herself in between Battousai and the leader of the Yaminobu.

Why his sister stayed with Battousai for so long and even became his wife (being a deep cover agent wasn't enough to explain that away).

Why Battousai vowed never to kill after "easily" killing so many people for such a long time.

'He did that because he felt guilty after killing my sister! And everyone around him! He's a criminal who's celebrated as a hero because he killed during a war when it's 'legal' to do so!'

He opened his eyes. The image of his unhappy, melancholic sister coalesced into Shinigami Ayame's face while bearing the same grim expression with her mouth.

He fell to his knees and broke down bawling. A broken man.

It wasn't the strike from a mystical demonic blade or the most powerful technique of a ghostly guardian from the Bakumatsu that brought him down to his knees.

No. It was him realizing his sister's disapproval of his Jinchu that unraveled his single-minded determination to kill Kenshin and/or make him suffer for an eternity and a day.

Only sheer willpower kept Enishi standing. So when Kenshin broke even that, he had nothing left.

His will to fight went away. All that was left was anguish, despair, and hopelessness.

"Neesan... Neesan...! (Big sis... Big sis...!)"

What was he supposed to do now?

***

To Be Continued...

The main event is about to start, and it's a doozy. Tenro will finally make his appearance to complete the Okushiri Arc!

Ciao, Abdiel