Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ One for the Ages ❯ Chapter Thirty-Three: The End of the Tunnel ( Chapter 33 )

One for the Ages

By Gan Xingba

Chapter Thirty-Three: The End of the Tunnel

 

Soujirou calmly regarded the pair before him, his cheerful smile never faltering for an instant. However, on this occasion the smile was genuine. Ever since the defeat of Shishio, he had wandered the land searching for his own path through life, and his own philosophy to follow. He had questions that needed answering, but had currently found no way of answering any of them. That is, until now.

 

“That's not very polite, miss,” Soujirou remarked to the young woman who had attacked him a moment ago. “When two people are dueling, it is generally considered rude to interrupt them, I think.”

 

“Cut the act,” returned the other, shifting the large weapon that rested on her back. “I'm giving you one chance to walk away. I suggest that you take it.”

 

Soujirou simply smiled and shook his head in response. This woman was unusually strong, but he could still tell that she would stand no chance against him on her strength alone, and Hiei Takahashi, who she was shielding behind her, had been wounded too greatly to be a factor anymore. According to Shishio's thoughts on strength, this meant that the victor would clearly be Soujirou, as he was the strongest.

 

`But Mr. Himura would think differently, perhaps,' mused Soujirou. `According to him, true strength can only come when you are fighting to protect something…well then, it seems that it is time to find out who was right.'

 

Soujirou began to shift down into his fighting stance, but even as he started the motion, the unknown woman sprung into action, hurling her odd weapon towards him with unexpected force. As powerful of an attack as it was, it was simply far too slow to use against Soujirou, and that boy easy leapt away from the attack. However, he did not attempt to counterattack, and instead merely watched carefully as the strange weapon returned to its master. Taking a rough measurement of the distance between himself and his assailant, he hoped a few paces backwards and waited for the next attack.

 

The young woman, it seemed, had failed to notice his calculations, and again sent her weapon hurtling through the air. The response from Soujirou was different this time around, however. Instead of waiting until the last minute to dodge, he waited for one count before stepping quickly to the left and dashing forward, seemingly right towards the incoming projectile. In actuality, however, he was just to the left of it, and it passed by him harmlessly as he continued onward towards its now unarmed wielder. He almost lazily slashed diagonally at the woman as he approached, the angle of his attack giving her no choice but to dodge to her own left. He hastily followed her, for a moment later the woman's weapon came flying back on its return path.

 

Soujirou felt the wind whistle behind him as the weapon crashed into the spot of ground where the woman should have been to catch it. Instead, there was nothing there except Hiei, who could be heard cursing as he threw himself out of the weapon's path.

 

“Bastard! You were trying to finish him off!” accused the woman angrily, hastily unsheathing a dagger from under her sleeve.

 

In actuality, Soujirou had merely intended to put as much distance between the woman and her weapon as he could. After witnessing the attack twice, it had been easy for Soujirou to judge the timing and angle of the weapon's return and simply direct the young woman away from it. While Hiei had indeed been in the way, Soujirou had been very confident that he would be able to remove himself from harm. The dagger that was being thrust towards his heart told him that no one would listen to this explanation, however.

 

Although the hidden weapon was unexpected, it was easily dealt with. A quick and precise cut from his katana slashed across the woman's wrist, and with a cry of pain she was forced to drop the dagger. This had also worked to throw her off balance, and she stumbled into the root of a large tree, sending her sprawling onto the forest floor. The fight was clearly over.

 

`It seems that you were wrong about what true strength is, Mr. Himura…'

 

Slightly disappointed, Soujirou was about to knock the woman unconscious with the hilt of his sword when he sensed rapid movement from the rear. He whirled about just in time to block the attacker's sword with his own, and in doing so experienced shock for the first time in months. The person attacking him was not another newcomer, but Hiei, his eyes ablaze as their swords locked.

 

“I never said our fight was over,” snarled the policeman as he pushed with renewed vigor against Soujirou's blade. “You're going to die for thinking otherwise.”

 

Hiei suddenly broke the deadlock and let loose a storm of cuts and slashes with more speed than Soujirou had ever seen out of him. Soujirou managed to escape the assault totally unharmed, but he was so surprised by it that he was being unwillingly forced backwards. He quickly leapt away to gain some breathing room, and Hiei hastily pursued him. The young woman's voice could be heard as the duelists left her behind, but they had moved far enough away where the sounds of sword on sword made it impossible to decipher the words.

 

`He seems to be far stronger than he was before,' noted Soujirou as he parried another furious attack. `Perhaps I spoke too soon, Mr. Himura…'

 

000000000000000000000000000000000000

 

Sano cursed silently to himself as he felt yet another thorn of some kind bite into his leg. He now had no less than thirty tiny, slightly bloody holes in his pants at this point, one for every minute he had been scouring the woods for this “Hiei” person. From what Kenshin had said about his own encounter with the policeman, Sano had absolutely no idea why the diminutive swordsman had any friends in the first place, much less ones that would go through so much trouble to find him. Nonetheless, he had promised he would help, so he was going to help, even if it meant an extra trip to the tailors.

 

`Damn it…I bet this wouldn't have happened if we hadn't split up. I always get the bad draw. Ouch! Does every plant in this forest have thorns?'

 

He was about to take out his aggression on the nearest foliage when a loud crash ripped through the forest. In an instant, the thorns were forgotten, and his zanbatou was now free of its case, which lay abandoned on the ground as he sprinted of in the direction of the sound. Moments later, another crash was heard, and not long after that, there was a third crash. He could hear Sango's voice calling out to someone, and the faint sound of swords clashing as he picked up his pace. Then the noise stopped, and as he finally burst into the clearing where the sounds had come from, he didn't expect to see anything good.

Fortunately, the situation was not quite as bad as he had thought it might be. Sango was half kneeled, half laying down on the ground, gripping her wrist and cringing, while her large weapon was imbedded in the earth a good distance away from her. Before Sano could form a question, Kuwabara tore through the undergrowth, his wooden sword in hand, and beat him to it.

 

“What happened? Did that Soujirou guy attack you? Is Hiei fighting him?” demanded the boy, not taking time to figure things out on his own.

 

“Yeah, they went off that way,” answered Sango pointing over her shoulder. “I don't kn-”

 

“Damn it, shorty!” cursed Kuwabara before hastily dashing off in the direction Sango had indicated.

 

“Wait! Kuwabara! We need to be careful!” Sano called out, but could only sigh as his warning went completely ignored.

 

Sano hefted his zanbatou in preparation to pursue the boy, but was stopped when he heard another grunt of pain coming from Sango's direction. He looked over to witness the young woman attempting to hobble over to her weapon, wincing with every step. It was clear that she had twisted her ankle somehow, and while it was possible that she could recover completely in a matter of hours or even minutes, there was no way she would be able to continue fighting for now. Pressed for time and not having much room for manners in the first place, Sano simply walked over to her, and threw her over the shoulder that his zanbatou wasn't resting on.

 

“What the hell are you doing, you neanderthal?” demanded Sango furiously, fruitlessly trying to squirm away from the man. “I am not going to be carried like a child, do you hear me?”

 

“Well, you're not doin' any fightin', either,” Sano retorted curtly before setting Sango down against a large tree. “I get where you're comin' from, but just sit tight for now. You can't help anyone when you're hurt like that.”

 

“But I'm not…” began Sango defiantly, before trailing off as Sano shot her a skeptical look.

 

“Don't worry,” continued Sano, smiling deviously. “I'll make sure your precious little boyfriend gets back in one piece.”

 

Normally, Sano was convinced that cameras were an instrument of evil, but seeing Sango's bug eyed, gaping face turn completely crimson was enough of a sight to make him wish he carried one with him all the time. Realizing retaliation would be swift and brutal, Sano hastily sprinted off in the direction Kuwabara had left in, a barrage of curses and insults following in his wake.

 

000000000000000000000000000000000000

 

Although Hiei was unsure how long he had been assaulting Soujirou or how far he had driven him back, he was sure of one thing: he was finally winning. Each cut he made felt stronger and faster than the last, his wound was barely hurting, and he felt lighter on his feet. The difference was clear in Soujirou, as well. Since Hiei had first launched his attack, Soujirou had not managed to get off a single counter-strike of his own, although he had managed to avoid any damage himself.

 

Eager to change that, Hiei continued his attack, bearing down with a series of quick slashes that were predictably parried, before suddenly changing direction and circling around to Soujirou's left flank. With a vicious battle cry, he let loose a thunderous downward strike down towards his opponent. Before it could hit home, however, Soujirou had disappeared from sight using his unparalleled speed, and was spared from the blade. The ground he had been standing on, however, was not. In fact, the sword had managed to cut a thin line straight through it, as though it hadn't been there at all.

 

`This strength…this feeling…could it be that I've finally reawakened my spirit energy?' pondered Hiei, looking down at his hands in disbelief. `Now I can really make that fool for all that he's done.'

 

“You see it by now, don't you? The inevitable?” Hiei said menacingly as he slowly turned around to face Soujirou. “You are fated to die today, worm, and I am fated to kill you.”

 

Hiei did not realize it, but he was more right then he though about his spirit energy. For, as he faced Soujirou, there was something different about his appearance that only an astute observer like Soujirou would have noticed. From under his bandana, a faint purple glow could be seen, like a sliver of light from underneath a closed door. The Jagan was starting to open itself.

 

“Really? That's not what I see at all,” replied Soujirou, smiling and rubbing the back of his head. “I see some trees, the sun…”

 

“Stop playing games!” Hiei roared furiously, charging Soujiriou in a rage.

However, Soujirou again disappeared from sight before Hiei's sword found its mark, only to reappear several meters away from Hiei again. If Hiei hadn't been conviced that he was beginning to re-find his power before, he surely was now. The air around him was beginning to vibrate with his spirit energy as it ever so slowly began to build in intensity, and the Jagan opened a hair more.

 

“I will say that I see something different about you, though, Mr. Takahashi,” Soujirou remarked cheerily before dropping into a battoujutsu stance. “So, sorry if this seems kind of sudden, but I think I'm going to end our duel now, okay?”

 

“Hn, you're serious? Battoujutsu?” scoffed Hiei indignantly. “That won't work on me twice, boy.”

 

“Actually, not exactly,” answered the other. “Tell me, Mr. Takahashi, did you notice something different about how I moved when I used the battoujutsu from when I moved just a second ago?”

 

Hiei narrowed his eyes as he tried to recall what had happened. He first visualized the battoujutsu, and then he tried to visualize Soujirou's other movements. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open wide. Normally, Soujirou used some unknown technique that made him move at unthinkable speed, but he hadn't used that for the battoujutsu, because the battoujutsu was fast enough on its own.

 

“It looks like you figured it out. That was pretty fast of you,” Soujirou commented. “Normally when I move, my speed comes from a technique called Shukuchi, but I didn't use it for that battoujutsu. In other words, if I combine the two, it will be much faster.”

 

For the first time that Hiei had noticed, Soujirou's smile faltered a little as the boy finished getting into his stance. Gritting his teeth Hiei shifted his sword into position and made to attack. Just as he had taken his first steps though, Soujirou softly uttered three words:

 

“Shun Ten Satsu.”

 

Hiei felt the sword bite into his abdomen before he could even register that Soujirou had moved. He was sent spinning sideways through the air, blood splattering the ground that he passed over. After what felt like an eternity, he finally hit the ground with dull thud and a gasp of shock and pain. He slowly turned himself over to see that Soujirou had his back to him, and was now walking away.

 

“This really isn't your day, Mr. Takahashi. Maybe you could try agai-”

 

“Silence. This still isn't over.”

 

Soujirou turned around to find a sight that caused his smile to drop completely. Somehow, Hiei was raising himself to his feet. While the attack had essentially defeated him, his returning spirit energy was enough fuel to will his body onward. Unfortunately, willpower can only force the body so far, and when Hiei tried to attack Soujirou, he found himself stumbling forward like a drunk instead of charging like a warrior. Grimacing as he tried to balance himself, he expected to hear Soujirou's sword cutting through his flesh once again. Instead, he heard something quite different: a the loud noise of something surging through the bushes, accompanied with an even louder battle cry.

 

“Why don't you quit picking on shorties and fight a real man, punk?” yelled Kazuma Kuwabara, leaping over Hiei's head and straight towards Soujirou while gripping a wooden sword.

 

Stunned, Hiei could only watch dumbly as Kuwabara began to attack Soujirou. While Kuwabara's slashes and cuts were more precise than Hiei remembered them to be, it was obvious that Kuwabara was far too slow to even compete with Soujirou. Fortunately for Kuwabara, he had only fought Soujirou for a few moments when yet another party intervened: a very large tree falling straight towards the two combatants. Soujirou used his Shukuchi to easily escape, while Kuwabara used the less graceful method of diving out of the way while crying out expletives.

 

Puzzled, Hiei glanced over in the direction from which the tree had fell to find out exactly what had happened, and what caused it. The first answer was fairly easy to accept: judging by the giant stump left standing where the tree had been, it seemed that the tree had been cut down very cleanly. The second answer was slightly harder to swallow: it appeared that the tall man standing behind the stump was responsible for said action by using a sword that seemed to be at least three or four times as big as Hiei himself.

 

“Oh, hello there, Mr. Sagara,” greeted Soujirou politely as the tall man stepped out from the trees. “Are these guys friends of yours?”

 

“Yeah, you could say that,” Sagara replied, hefting his sword back up to his shoulder. “Look, Soujirou, I trusted Kenshin when he let you go walk your own path, and I don't think you're a bad guy. However…”

 

Sagara broke off unexpectedly and slammed his massive sword down into the ground, creating a small crater with the impact and scattering dust and rocks in the air. Letting his sword rest there, he continued speaking.

 

“These guys are with me, so if you fight them, then you're going to be fighting me too. Got it?”

 

“I understand, Mr. Sagara. I don't want to fight you,” Soujirou cheerfully answered, sheathing his sword. “In fact, the only reason I was fighting your spiky haired policeman friend was that I was trying to learn something.”

 

“Trying to learn something? What the hell are you babbling about,” spat Hiei, unable to control his frustration.

 

“Just the answer to an important question. You helped me very much, so I thank you for that, Mr. Takahashi,” answered Soujirou before bowing politely and turning back to Sagara. “And Mr. Sagara, please do me a favor when you next see Mr. Himura and tell him that he was right. I would be very grateful if you could do that for me.”

 

Hiei had absolutely no idea what the boy was talking about, but Sagara nodded in apparent understanding. Then, with a final smile and a wave of goodbye to everyone present, Soujirou vanished from sight, the only sign of movement being the dust that rose in reaction to his rapid movements.

 

“Hey, Sano, what was he talkin' about?” Kuwabara asked as he scratched his head.

 

“Long story,” Sano replied, before hefting his sword and turning to Hiei. “So, this is Hiei, huh? Geeze, I thought you were kidding when you told me how short he was.”

 

“No, Kuwabara's nickname for Hiei is pretty accurate,” came Kurama's voice as the fox demon dropped down from the trees in front of Hiei. “Wouldn't you agree, `shorty'?”

 

“Hn, don't push it, fox,” snarled Hiei, clutching the both the wound on his abdomen and the one on his side. “What are you fools doing here, anyway? I told you that I was fine on my own.”

 

“Obviously,” shot back Kurama sarcastically as he pointed towards the fire demon's wounds. “As soon as you let me stop your bleeding, we'll explain everything.”

 

000000000000000000000000000000000000

 

Sango flicked another pebble at the rock she was pretending was Sanosuke's head. Although it looked nothing at all like a human head, either in shape or proportion, it was the best object that was within range, so it served its purpose. Unfortunately, that was the last pebble that she was able to reach from her position up against the large tree where said thug had left her, so now all she could do was think unpleasant thoughts in his direction.

 

`What an ass. Honestly, the nerve of that guy, trying to tease me for something he's just assuming…even if it isn't that far from the truth. You shouldn't just go saying those things so bluntly! When he gets back…'

 

Suddenly, Sango realized just how long she had been waiting. No matter how much of a numbskull Sano was, she knew he wouldn't just forget about her. As soon as the fight was over, surely they would all return for her. Yet, it had been so long. Her ankle was already feeling much better, and she could tell that the sun had moved in the sky since he had left.

 

`Could that guy have really…? He might be strong enough. Even if they fought him all at once, he might still have been able to,' Sango thought, though she was horrified at the idea. `I can't sit around any longer. They could be bleeding death out there, I have to go help!'

 

She rose gingerly to her feet, and was about to go retrieve her boomerang when several figures emerged from the forest in front of her. Sure enough, it was Sanosuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei, all walking towards her. Upon seeing her, the fire demon stopped walking forward, and just stared. For a moment, their eyes were locked, and neither seemed capable of movement. However, Sango could not maintain this for long, for within moments her eyes were beginning to tear up, and her legs seemed to rush forward on their own accord. Soon, she had the stunned fire demon in a tight hug. While his body was rigid, and he was not hugging back, he was not resisting her, either.

 

“You're ok-kay…y-you're really okay…I th-thought you were…” she managed to stammer out in between sobs. “I know…I know you t-told me to let go…bu-but there are some things…there are some things that are worth holding onto! So…so I'm not going to let you go! Do you hear me?”

 

Her hug became even tighter, and at first, Hiei became still more rigid. Within a few moments, though, as Sango's sobs began to slow down, he relaxed himself, and allowed her to hold him upright in her arms. The other three people present in the clearing watched the spectacle silently, one with a gentle smile, one with a bemused smirk, and the other looked as though the Queen of England had appeared out of thin air and killed a small animal with a boombox that was blaring heavy metal. This silence, however, predictably ended when the second party could no longer keep his mouth shut:

 

“So, I guess this means your ankle is all better, huh?”

 

Sanosuke's forehead did not stop bleeding until nightfall.