Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Two Hearts, Two Minds, One Soul ❯ The Tournament's Final Battle ( Chapter 27 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Mitsukai no Awai 
Yusuke versus Younger Toguro.
Anime/Manga: Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Hentai / Romance / Angst | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 08.07.2005 | Pages: 6 | Words: 6.0K | Visits: 201 | Status: Completed
Yusuke versus Younger Toguro.
Anime/Manga: Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Hentai / Romance / Angst | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 08.07.2005 | Pages: 6 | Words: 6.0K | Visits: 201 | Status: Completed
Sorry this took so long! I was on vacation for four days. Four days without a com.! I also would like to thank my reviewers and Ran who helped me write this chapter and edit it.
MNA: *holding a cup of sweet snow* Oh Carnation! I have something for you! *trying to get the neko back from eating her graduation fish*
Yusuke: You know, this isn't going to work.
Hiei: I actually agree with the detective.
MNA: Tojikomeru, you two! Kuwabara, do the disclaimer!
Kuwabara: I, Kuwabara Kazuma, am not owned by MNA. She doesn't own YYH either.
Hiei: Why would she own you, baka. You're an ugly oaf!
Kuwabara: Want some of this, shrimp? *holds up a fist*
Hiei: Hn.
MNA: Kurama, please stop this fight before Kuwabara gets hurt.
Kuwabara: *anime falls* Oi! I'm not the one who's gonna get hurt!
Kurama: Read and Review please.
^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^o^
Two Hearts, Two Minds, One Soul
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The Tournament's Final Battle
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Gwen stopped laughing as Kuwabara walked off, toward Yusuke. "Nice, nice, Kuwabara! Are you all right?" he chuckled. "For a minute there, I wasn't sure what was going to happen-"
Kuwabara interrupted Yusuke by stopping and punching him hard in the face.
Yusuke stumbled forward, not expecting the hit. "Kuwabara...?"
"Teme... What didn't you say anything about Ba-san getting killed!?" the carrot top asked angrily. "Am I the only one you left out of the loop!?" He stormed up to his stooped over friend. "Say something, would you!?" Lifting Yusuke by the collar of his shirt, Kuwabara continued to rant in his face. "Did you think that if I found out about Ba-san being killed that I would chicken out and run away!? Urameshi!?"
Kurama stepped forward, his eyes sad. "Kuwabara..."
"You keep quiet!" Kuwabara snapped.
"The rest of us didn't hear it from Yusuke either," he continued, ignoring Kuwabara's order. "Somehow, we just realized it, and didn't need to ask about it."
"You what?"
Yusuke stood back up. "Genkai Ba-san...died right before my eyes. Gwen was with me. That's how she knows..."
"Urameshi..."
"I asked Koenma to take Ba-san's place and help us out," Yusuke said, his voice choking. "I braced myself for the worst, knowing that all we could do is fight with those of us who were left. But even so, I still couldn't believe it. It's like it wasn't even real. Even now, I think that maybe, by some chance, she'll suddenly come back here." Yusuke paused, his eyes downcast.
"And I felt that somehow, if I were to say that she had died-if I were to admit it-then she wouldn't come, and I couldn't say it.
"I'm sorry."
Kuwabara looked at Kurama and then back to Yusuke. Yusuke walked past him to the ring.
"Urameshi!"
Yusuke stopped walking.
"Win."
Yusuke smiled. "Yeah." Cracking his knuckles, he continued walking to the ring to face Toguro Otouto.
But then- "Toguro," said Sakyo calmly. "I will go."
He stepped into the ring with an air of regal grace and walked over to Juri. "Referee, your mike."
Juri looked at him and gave him the mic. "S-sure..."
Sakyo faced the crowds. "Before the fourth match, I would like to make a wager. Naturally, I will be wagering that Toguro will be the winner. And what I'm staking...is my life! In other words, whoever wins this match will also include the win from the fifth match, making it worth two wins." His gaze slid to the Junior ruler of Reikai. "Such is the value of a battle between Toguro and Urameshi Yusuke. Although I am in the position of team captain, I do not possess the martial force to satisfy the spectators. Instead, I declare here and now that I shall stake my life on Toguro's victory.
"That is, of course, if the other team captain and the tournament head office also say yes to this..."
"It's all right," Koenma answered. "I will stake my life on the victory of Urameshi Yusuke." Everyone was shocked by his answer, and even the audience murmured their stunned surprise. Sakyo only smirked.
"Koenma!" Yusuke said, still shocked.
"I'm the one who got you caught up in all of this in the first place," Koenma replied, apologetic. "At least let me look a little cool doing so."
Yusuke was still uncertain. "But if you..."
"Never mind that, it's this man named Sakyo that has me concerned. His eyes are the eyes of a person who has been through the gutter over and over again. The ambitions of a man who does not care about self-preservation... They bring about tremendously destructive actions that engulf not only others around him, but he himsself as well. Such is always the case.
"The one person who can put a stop to such a destruction is you, Yusuke, and you alone."
"...There will be a conference of the head office administration personnel to discuss Contestant Sakyo's proposal. Thus starting now, there will be a ten-minute recess," the loudspeaker spoke.
After a couple of seconds, Shizuru stood up. "I'm going to go to the restroom now, while there's time."
"Uh...okay," Gwen said, looking up with Carnation laying on her head.
The girls watched her leave, and started chatting. Gwen spaced out, letting her mind wonder.
"Gwen! Hello! Earth to Gwenevere!"
"Huh?" Gwen shook her head, seeing a hand waving in her face. Keiko withdrew her hand and sat down.
"The match is about to start," she informed her, pointing to the ring with Yusuke standing across from Toguro Otouto. Gwen look back at the girls, seeing Shizuru back at her seat.
Then suddenly, they heard crackling, and saw Toguro Ani jump up from the ground.
"That bastard! Is he still alive!?" Kuwabara shouted.
"That blow earlier did indeed hurt," Toguro Ani said with a frightening smirk. "It took some time for me to connect together again. Your defeat is now assured! Urameshi, you cannot beat my brother! Even Genkai lost to him! Even Genkai!"
Yusuke's eye twitched, his expression furious. "You son of a bitch...!"
"At the moment when things were settled with my brother, Genkai definitely had her youth back. In other words, even though she used all of her power, she was unable to win, despite having been many times stronger than you!
"When she was young, Genkai was a fine lady. I don't know how many times I thought about taking her for my own woman. However, even she grew filthy and senile, and now that she has kicked the bucket, she is through!
"Urameshi, you saw it, didn't you? The end of Genkai?"
Toguro Otouto gritted his teeth.
"Very soon," Toguro Ani continued, "I will send you all to the same place!
"Now, my brother, use me as your weapon! What would you like? A sword? A spear? Once we brothers become as one, there is no enemy that can face us!"
Toguro Otouto stepped up behind his brother, his aura menacing. "Out of my way!"
"What did you say?"
"You're in my way, Brother."
Toguro Otouto kicked his brother forcefully, sending him flying up to the ceiling. Ani stopped himself midair and targeted the ring and his brother, instead. "Teme! You would strike your own brother, who together sold his soul with you for the sake of the martial arts!? You'll pay for this!"
"That has nothing to do with it."
Toguro Otouto punched his brother, hard, coating his hand with blood. The less fortunate of the two could no longer be seen.
"I do not remember selling my character as well. I won't let anyone get in my way. Are you ready, Urameshi? This is one-on-one."
Yusuke's smile was nearly mad. "Yeah!"
"Both contestants, are you ready? Then begin the final match!" Juri announced.
Toguro instantly kicked up to eighty percent of his power. His youki was so potent that as it swept over the audience, it killed all the weak youkai, sending them up in flames where they sat. Yukina looked around. 'What a fearsome youki he has! If a regular person, with no power to defend themselves, were to fall under this youki...' "Everyone, hurry up and leave here!" she cried, standing up. As she did, she saw they were in a force field that Puu and Carnation themselves made. "Puu-san and Carnation-san are creating a barrier?" She sat back down.
Gwen looked down at Team Urameshi, seeing Koenma had made a force field as well.
Toguro lumbered forward towards his target, and to everyone's shock, Yusuke ran forward to meet the shot. He landed a punch squarely in Toguro's abdomen, but the fierce brute pulled off an equally vicious uppercut. His shot won their little standoff, and Yusuke was thrown backwards, skidding across the ring.
Pushing off, he took another swing at Toguro, but missed as Toguro moved behind him. The youkai swung a heavy punch at Yusuke's head, but the spry young man swung himself around and kicked Toguro in the face, using the recoil to launch backwards and land on his feet.
Toguro's missed punch sent a wave of youki into the wall, shattering a messy hole into it. He swung his arm sideways to send another shockwave, towards Yusuke this time, and a chunk of stone successfully cut a long slice into the boy's cheek. The wave continued on, killing any youkai unfortunate enough to be seated there. As Toguro charged, Yusuke set his tance, making as though to catch Toguro's punch.
Yusuke's gaze slid to the side for a mere moment, and he saw the girls out of the corner of his eye. Bare millimeters from his target, Toguro stopped his swing. "Pardon me," he said. "It wouldn't be fair for me to attack you from this angle, huh?"
"I didn't know you were a feminist."
"Still not yet... Both still haven't using their full power. They're still just checking each other out-determining each other's power. I shouldn't have yielded this fight with Toguro to Yusuke! Emotions distract in the battlefield," Hiei said.
Gwen looked down at him. 'No, Hiei, you're wrong. Emotions make you stronger in the battlefield.' For a second, Gwen thought she saw him look at her, but she turned back to the fight.
They kept fighting. Yusuke charged forward, handing Toguro blow after blow to the abdomen as Toguro commented on the softness of Yusuke's fists. He took his own shot at the Tantei's side, but Yusuke dodged, moving around to the side. Toguro aimed another blow and missed once again, and this time came around with a kick. Yusuke used his leg to pull himself up towards Toguro's head, coming back around with a clean hit to the large man's face.
However, the ring between Yusuke and Toguro shattered, and chunks of it hurtled upwards, throwing Yusuke off balance and knocking him backwards.
Toguro punched Yusuke again, but missed. This time, though, a wave of his electric red youki shattered the ring, sending it flyinginto the air, Yusuke tossed around within the cloud.
"Come on, shoot me!" Toguro shouted, jumping up to move with the rocks. "I've given you some cover!"
"Rei Gun!" Yusuke shouted, a blast emitting from his index finger at Toguro. It hit him, sending him out of the stadium and into the forest.
The girls were cheering wildly. Gwen was the only one who looked serious. 'Something...doesn't feel right... I think Toguro's not out of the count yet...'
And, Gwen was right. Yusuke stood in front of the hole, looking shocked. A minute later, Toguro walked through the hole, unscathed but for the loss of his sunglasses.
"I knew it!" Gwen shouted. "I knew this would happen!"
"That's all there is to your power, is it?" asked Toguro amicably, flexing his wrist.
A sickly purple aura erupted around him. Yusuke raised his own barrier, a green wave of a sort, but it was quickly broken through.
"I was a fool to expect too much from you. Not even you are worth fighting at 100 percent. I will settle this the way I am, at 80 percent. I will finish you off like this!"
A long pause followed, but then Yusuke rubbed the blood off his cheek and actually smiled. "Sure enough, it was too much to hope for, the way I am..."
"Nani?"
Yusuke held up his left wrist, and ripped his wristband. A golden glow surounded it. "For some reason, Contestant Urameshi is taking off his wristband," Koto commentated. "Huh? It looks as though his wrist is glowing... Don't tell me he really was hiding a new finishing move...!"
Yusuke closed his eyes as if he was thinking deeply.
Gwen widened her eyes. 'Rei cuffs...' ~Carnation, remember when I used the Rei cuffs?~
~Hai... but I forgot the word that Genkai told you to unlock them now since you put them on after six months of training with her, and then you put them off a couple of years ago, seeing as you didn't want them anymore,~ Carnation said thoughtfully.
~Baka. He just said the word!~
~What was it then?~
~Uh... I wasn't listening since your annoying voice was in my head...~
Carnation anime fell as Gwen sweatdropped, watching Yusuke's ki take form as a blue phoenix, swooping overhead and soaring around the stadium. Gwen clearly remembered hers as a white hawk with a pink outline. The phoenix flew down to Yusuke, and it disappeared as he absorbed it. Gwen watched Yusuke beating Toguro up.
Yusuke jumped out of the crater he made when he punched Toguro into the ground. He waited, seeing if Toguro would get out as well.
A couple of minutes later, Toguro did get out of the crater... with no muscles at all.
"How'd that happen...?" Gwen asked to herself.
But then, Toguro was changing. Bright purple ki swarmed around him, killing off the weak youkai. Then it turned to darkness. The force field was the only thing holding the girls from the blackened aura.
"What's going on?" Keiko asked.
"I don't know..." Botan replied, trying to look through the dark.
All of a sudden, it disappeared. The light blinded Gwen for a couple of seconds. When she was able to see, she shouted out, "Oh Enma!"
The girls looked frightened at the new and scarier Toguro. He was huge, and his skin looked darker. Gwen had a very bad feeling about this.
Yusuke charged at Toguro, surprising everyone. He knew he had to avoid any of Toguro's attacks and fired a Rei Gun... but it didn't look like Toguro was afflicted, or moved at all.
Toguro moved his thumb like he was flicking something. Yusuke appeared to take a hit to the face.
"You figured that out, did you? Well then, now I will do it rapid-fire!" Toguro said, firing bullets of ki at Yusuke as Yusuke was dodging. Yusuke ran at Toguro when he was done shooting, and tried to punch at him. Toguro caught his fist and punched Yusuke's free arm. Yusuke crashed to the ground, seeing as Toguro destroyed the ring earlier. He stood up, holding his arm as the elbow, where Toguro had hit, turned blue.
Yusuke ran at him again, but Toguro punched him to the empty stands, Yusuke hitting the wall behind them.
"Yusuke!" Keiko shouted. The girls looked down at the ring worriedly.
"From my viewpoint, as someone who used to be human," said Toguro quietly, "there is something that you are currently lacking."
Darting forward, practically invisible, Tuguro snatched up Yusuke's collar and held him up in the air. "A sense of impending crisis. You don't, by any chance, still think that you aren't going to die, do you?"
Toguro hauled back and punched Yusuke, right in the stomach, sending him flying clear across the stadium. Skidding up the stairs, Yusuke crashed into the far wall, kneeling over from the impact. Painstakingly bringing himself up to a kneel, he coughed up blood, staining his teeth red.
Toguro looked up at him with a sort of sagely superiority. "You've got it all wrong, don't you, Urameshi? All you have done is earn the right to fight against me in my 100 percent form. Right now, I could kill you with just one arm, and that would be more than enough. But if I did that, then there would be no meaning in me reaching 100 percent."
Yusuke grit his teeth and glared at a point between Toguro and the ground.
"I became 100 percent so that I could see your power at its greatest. So you have an obligation to me. You have an obligation to expend all of your energy at its maximum limit and fight me! Surely, that is ironclad logic!"
Kuwabara trembled in place. "That bastard! He thinks he can say anything he wants without having to pay for it later!"
"It's instinct," Koenma said, his voice hushed. "He's been living on nothing more than his fighting instinct."
Toguro's gaze slid sideways. "Instinct? Oh, no. It is my sheer will. Put simply, fighting is my purpose in life! Intstinct is no more than a means to survival. Like this is..."
Yusuke stood up as holes appeared on Toguro's shoulders, sucking in souls from the audience. Luckily, the soul-stealing ki couldn't get passed Puu and Carnation's force field. The girls decided that staying in the stands wouldn't be safe, so they walked up the stairs to the top.
Yusuke looked furious at Toguro's doing and jumped down to the stadium floor, beating him with a flurry of raging punches, but none had any effect. Finally, he was punched soundly in the face by a bored Toguro. Charging back, Toguro caught his fist and proceeded to beat him badly. All the girls could do was stand there, helpless...or that's what Gwen was feeling, since she was a strong fighter, but she couldn't do anything to help Yusuke.
"What's happening?" Keiko asked, her eyes glazed and blank. 'Yusuke, we're not really here, are we? We're in school, like we were. I'm a class representative and you get me in trouble all the time. You play stupid pranks on me and I wish you'd grow up. At nighttime, I worry about where you are, and in the mornings I drag you to school. Every day someone asks me why I hang around with you, and I don't answer. But even though you don't realize it, you're the only one in the world who bothers to see me as I really am.'
A deliriously happy sort of smile graced Keiko's face. 'We're safe with each other. We're not hundreds of miles from home, and you're not fighting for your life. When we're together, it's our own little world, and nothing gets inside.'
"This tournament full of demons isn't real. It's all a bad dream." Tears spilled down her face. "Come on Yusuke. Just wake up. I wanna go home. Let's go home Yusuke!" The tears fell heavier as Keiko saw Yusuke fly across the ring one more time. "Yusuke!"
Gwen looked at her sadly. 'Poor Keiko. I know how it feels...'
Gwen noticed that the audience was cheering for Yusuke now, ever since Sakyo used a control device to set walls around the stadium so that no one could leave. The audience started to charge at Toguro, only to get killed. The weak youkai's souls were sucked away first, and Koto commented that even the strong ones were weakening.
After a couple of minutes, Gwen thought she heard Genkai's voice, but she shook her head. 'Genkai's dead... She's not here.'
~Baka! I am here.~
Gwen looked around. So did the others beside Keiko who was still sobbing. Puu turned around and Gwen noticed that his eyes were different...
"Genkai!? Is that you?" Gwen exclaimed.
"Hai. This is such a mess. Carnation, can you keep the force field up?" Genkai said in Puu's body. Carnation nodded. Puu flew off to Yusuke as the girls stared ahead blankly.
"You'll never let this old woman have some peace and quiet, will you Yusuke?" Genkai asked snappishly. "Toguro, you want to see Yusuke's real power come to the surface? I'll tell you how. He's very predictable. The only thing you have to do is kill one of his friends and make sure he's watching."
"Genkai!" Yusuke snapped. "What the hell is the matter with you?"
"Yusuke has a six-foot wall of crap betwen him and his actual emotions," Genkai continued, "and that's where his power resides. To break through that wall you have to do something drastic, like killing someone he really cares for."
"Dying must have ruined your heart, Genkai."
"Open your childish eyes, dimwit!" Genkai snapped. "If you don't stop Toguro, everyone in this stadium dies! And damn it, if the life of one friend is what it takes for you to save the rest of them, then that sacifice is worth it!"
"No!" Yusuke screamed. "You're nothing but a stupid little hypocrite! You told me to commit to something all the way and I chose my friends! Now you say killing one as motivation is okay!"
A short pause lingered between them before Genkai turned slightly and slapped Yusuke's cheek with Puu's ear.
"Sorry Yusuke, but this is the world you stuck yourself into, and it's not pretty. When you're not strong enough to lead, you lose the privilege of getting what you want."
Toguro glared, annoyed, and struck them each with an air bullet. Genkai recovered herself and flew off, and Yusuke landed hard on the ground.
"I had that idea a while back and I didn't like the way it felt," he said loudly. "But if nothing else can bring out your true abilities. Well, you heard before. I'll do anything. All I have to do is choose which one."
Yusuke pulled himself into a crouch. "Don't do this!"
Toguro scanned them each comtemplatively. Finally, he pointed. "How about you, Kuwabara."
Yusuke leapt forward, but Toguro only tossed him aside. He charged again and again, four more times, but each one proved as fruitless as the first. Finally, Toguro moved behind Yusuke and, in one quick motion, pushed his head into the ground, knocking him temporarily unconscious.
Kurama, Hiei, and Koenma each tried to convince Kuwabara to try and run, but he wouldn't hear of it. "A mulberry's a tree. Kuwabara's a man. And I'll prove it," he said bravely. "We all have to die when our time comes, but if we do our duty we don't got regrets! So taste a little piece of my sword, Toguro!"
Toguro's smile was the wicked it have ever been. He phased before Kuwabara, and thrust his hand into the boy's chest. When he removed it, it was covered in blood.
"Okay Urameshi," Kuwabara choked out. He coughed up a wave of blood. "It's all you. I did what I could. Now beat him for the rest of us. Make my death count, okay?"
The others rushed over to him, and Kurama draped Kuwabara's arm over his shoulder. "Hold on now Kuwabara. Just stay with us. Kuwabara, just stay with us."
His face quickly took on a saddened expression as Kuwabara's lifeless form leaned against his side.
Shizuru looked at her fallen brother with sadness. Yukina covered her eyes and dozens of hiruseiki stones burst through the gaps between her fingers, clattering to the ground. Gwen looked on in shock as did Botan.
Yusuke stood up and began to glow an eerie green. He disappeared and stood in front of Toguro.
"You took my teacher," Yusuke said sadly, almost tonelessly. "Now I let you take my friend. What the hell do you want from me?"
Blue reiki wove around the stadium in small bursts, all emitted from Yusuke's body.
"For not being able to save my friend, more than anyone else, I cannot forgive myself."
Toguro grinned in anticipation of the fight ahead. He charged.
"You are approaching the same status of strength that I possess!"
"I'm not like you..."
"How are you different?"
Toguro's punched landed, and Yusuke went flying into the opposite wall of the stands.
"Get up!" Toguro ordered. "That shouldn't have hurt you that badly. That power I hit you with is the same. However, the damage you take should not be so great. If that is not strength, then what is it!?"
Yusuke still didn't look at Toguro as he spoke. "It's true, my body doesn't hurt the way it used to..."
He stood slowly, and the reiki emitted from his body alternated between blue and red.
"Urameshi," Toguro asked, "does it pain the heart? It's like having the measles. Once you get over it, you'll never suffer from it again. Right now, you are being tormented by your feelings of powerlessness, right? Don't you want to become stronger? More and more!" Fire erupted behind Toguro. "You'll reach the same state as I have! Even if it means discarding everytthing else! Now is the time! Believe me! Power is everything!"
Yusuke grit his teeth. "I'm different from you. I can't discard them."
"Can't discard them?"
"I was able to make it this far because everyone else was there..." Yusuke elaborated.
Toguro looked furious. "You're soft!" he shouted. "Soft! Soft! Soft! All you need is yourself! Can't you understand that!?"
Yusuke shook his head, his eyes still sad.
"It appears you won't understand unless I get another one of them to die." He looked over his shoulder, smiling insanely. But just as he was about to step forward, Yusuke was at his side, grasping his wrist.
"Let go of me!"
But Yusuke didn't let go. "At some level, I yearned to be like you... Even as I was nearly having the piss scared out of me, I yearned after your strength." The ground under Yusuke's feet began to crack and crumble. "Despit what Ba-san told me again and again...I wanted your kind of strength, even if it meant tossing everything aside."
Toguro looked at him over his shoulder. "That's the way you have to be."
"No, I can't! Ba-san told me, right at the end... I've finally realized the weight of that which you have discarded. I will not discard it! I will safeguard it, even if I have to cling to it!"
Yusuke twisted his hand around Toguro's wrist, and the ground crumbled.
Toguro smiled. "You're Genkai's pupil, all right. Being at that level, and all..."
"I won't let you kill anyone else!" Yusuke shouted. "As such, I'm going to beat you!"
"I doubt you could."
Yusuke disappeared, a black flash before Toguro, and pounded him in the face, twisting his neck around most uncomfortably. He was tossed against the ground, spinning around and bumping off the surface as if he were made of rags, flailing against the rocks. He finally landed, submerged in the ground and his neck bent at an angle no neck could possibly bend at and stay whole, and looked up just in time to see a colossal Rei Gun firing towards him. It smashed him into the wall and continued on, careening into the atmosphere.
"This next blast is my last one," Yusuke said solemnly. "I'm going to put all of my power into this blast. Take the power you got in exchange for discarding your soul, and use all of it... _all_ of it to come after me! I will tear down everything about you, and win!!"
Toguro paused a moment, then smiled, pushing his neck back into place atop his shoulders.
"That's a good look... Up to now, I've beaten everybody who challenged me with that look, and stepped over their corpses. At those times, no matter how weak the opponent was, I used my full power... And now, I can use more power than ever before... Let's finish this!"
The very air behind Toguro seemed to turn patched and golden, and his muscules expanded even further, the veins bulging around his neck and his pants all but torn off.
"Full power! 100 percent of 100 percent! If you're going to be the greatest at one thing, you have to toss aside everything else! In the end, not being able to do that is what makes you only half a man!"
"Tossed aside, you say?" Yusuke asked. "That's not true."
"Nani?"
"You've run from them. You ran away from it all!"
Yusuke raised his finger, and a blue spark glittered above it.
'I will not run. I will not toss them aside!'
Waves of black erupted from Toguro's body, surrounding them. Electric blue reiki surrounded Yusuke as his Rei Gun grew larger and larger, finally nearly twice his height.
"Take this!! Rei Gun!!"
Toguro charged it, holding one hand out and even catching it. Blood spurted from his hand as he struggled to push the blast away. He raised his other hand to push back further on the reiki.
Opposite him, Yusuke finally reached the limits of his power and collapsed to his knees. He watched Toguro fight with his ki.
Toguro was hugging the reiki, still trying with all his power to throw it away, but it would not be denied. Blood spurted from his shoulders and he clenched his hands, hugging the reiki in the middle and finally, after much blood loss and struggle, shattering it. Yusuke collapsed face down on the ground.
Toguro walked forward slowly, painstakingly, and stopped before Yusuke's fallen form.
"I give you my thanks, Urameshi." He smiled, his eyes kind, blood flowing from the corner of his mouth. "I've never been able to put out that much power."
Starting between his two eyes, a crack appeared in Toguro's head, spreading quickly throughout his body. "Is this the strain caused by going beyond 100 percent...?"
His eyes widened, and his skin seemed to shatter, coming off his body in pieces and leaving him as frail as though he powered down to one percent. 'When fighting for someone else, you can put out 120 percent of your power... That is what your strength is.'
Tuguro fell, face forward, to the ground, his skin chalk white and frayed, like an old piece of cloth.
"J-Juri!" Koto shouted, and Juri turned to see Yusuke rising off the ground, swaying slightly on his feet.
Koto jumped down from her booth, and she and Juri faced Yusuke happily. "Contestant Urameshi is the victor!" they cried together, pointing to him.
Gwen smiled. "Yeah! Go Yusuke!" She punched a fist in the air, making Carnation fall to the ground, breaking the force field.
Then her face became solemn. She looked down at her fallen friend, Kuwabara.
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I'll try to update faster. I promise!
Carnation: *walks to the cup of sweet snow on the floor* Hm...
MNA: Gotcha! *slams a cage on Carnation so that she'll not escape* Haha! I caught you, neko!
Carnation: *smirks* Oh really, Authoress? *uses her psychic powers to open the cage door*
MNA: Um...no not really... ^_^U
Hiei: *smirks* Review.
MNA: *holding a cup of sweet snow* Oh Carnation! I have something for you! *trying to get the neko back from eating her graduation fish*
Yusuke: You know, this isn't going to work.
Hiei: I actually agree with the detective.
MNA: Tojikomeru, you two! Kuwabara, do the disclaimer!
Kuwabara: I, Kuwabara Kazuma, am not owned by MNA. She doesn't own YYH either.
Hiei: Why would she own you, baka. You're an ugly oaf!
Kuwabara: Want some of this, shrimp? *holds up a fist*
Hiei: Hn.
MNA: Kurama, please stop this fight before Kuwabara gets hurt.
Kuwabara: *anime falls* Oi! I'm not the one who's gonna get hurt!
Kurama: Read and Review please.
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Two Hearts, Two Minds, One Soul
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The Tournament's Final Battle
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Gwen stopped laughing as Kuwabara walked off, toward Yusuke. "Nice, nice, Kuwabara! Are you all right?" he chuckled. "For a minute there, I wasn't sure what was going to happen-"
Kuwabara interrupted Yusuke by stopping and punching him hard in the face.
Yusuke stumbled forward, not expecting the hit. "Kuwabara...?"
"Teme... What didn't you say anything about Ba-san getting killed!?" the carrot top asked angrily. "Am I the only one you left out of the loop!?" He stormed up to his stooped over friend. "Say something, would you!?" Lifting Yusuke by the collar of his shirt, Kuwabara continued to rant in his face. "Did you think that if I found out about Ba-san being killed that I would chicken out and run away!? Urameshi!?"
Kurama stepped forward, his eyes sad. "Kuwabara..."
"You keep quiet!" Kuwabara snapped.
"The rest of us didn't hear it from Yusuke either," he continued, ignoring Kuwabara's order. "Somehow, we just realized it, and didn't need to ask about it."
"You what?"
Yusuke stood back up. "Genkai Ba-san...died right before my eyes. Gwen was with me. That's how she knows..."
"Urameshi..."
"I asked Koenma to take Ba-san's place and help us out," Yusuke said, his voice choking. "I braced myself for the worst, knowing that all we could do is fight with those of us who were left. But even so, I still couldn't believe it. It's like it wasn't even real. Even now, I think that maybe, by some chance, she'll suddenly come back here." Yusuke paused, his eyes downcast.
"And I felt that somehow, if I were to say that she had died-if I were to admit it-then she wouldn't come, and I couldn't say it.
"I'm sorry."
Kuwabara looked at Kurama and then back to Yusuke. Yusuke walked past him to the ring.
"Urameshi!"
Yusuke stopped walking.
"Win."
Yusuke smiled. "Yeah." Cracking his knuckles, he continued walking to the ring to face Toguro Otouto.
But then- "Toguro," said Sakyo calmly. "I will go."
He stepped into the ring with an air of regal grace and walked over to Juri. "Referee, your mike."
Juri looked at him and gave him the mic. "S-sure..."
Sakyo faced the crowds. "Before the fourth match, I would like to make a wager. Naturally, I will be wagering that Toguro will be the winner. And what I'm staking...is my life! In other words, whoever wins this match will also include the win from the fifth match, making it worth two wins." His gaze slid to the Junior ruler of Reikai. "Such is the value of a battle between Toguro and Urameshi Yusuke. Although I am in the position of team captain, I do not possess the martial force to satisfy the spectators. Instead, I declare here and now that I shall stake my life on Toguro's victory.
"That is, of course, if the other team captain and the tournament head office also say yes to this..."
"It's all right," Koenma answered. "I will stake my life on the victory of Urameshi Yusuke." Everyone was shocked by his answer, and even the audience murmured their stunned surprise. Sakyo only smirked.
"Koenma!" Yusuke said, still shocked.
"I'm the one who got you caught up in all of this in the first place," Koenma replied, apologetic. "At least let me look a little cool doing so."
Yusuke was still uncertain. "But if you..."
"Never mind that, it's this man named Sakyo that has me concerned. His eyes are the eyes of a person who has been through the gutter over and over again. The ambitions of a man who does not care about self-preservation... They bring about tremendously destructive actions that engulf not only others around him, but he himsself as well. Such is always the case.
"The one person who can put a stop to such a destruction is you, Yusuke, and you alone."
"...There will be a conference of the head office administration personnel to discuss Contestant Sakyo's proposal. Thus starting now, there will be a ten-minute recess," the loudspeaker spoke.
After a couple of seconds, Shizuru stood up. "I'm going to go to the restroom now, while there's time."
"Uh...okay," Gwen said, looking up with Carnation laying on her head.
The girls watched her leave, and started chatting. Gwen spaced out, letting her mind wonder.
"Gwen! Hello! Earth to Gwenevere!"
"Huh?" Gwen shook her head, seeing a hand waving in her face. Keiko withdrew her hand and sat down.
"The match is about to start," she informed her, pointing to the ring with Yusuke standing across from Toguro Otouto. Gwen look back at the girls, seeing Shizuru back at her seat.
Then suddenly, they heard crackling, and saw Toguro Ani jump up from the ground.
"That bastard! Is he still alive!?" Kuwabara shouted.
"That blow earlier did indeed hurt," Toguro Ani said with a frightening smirk. "It took some time for me to connect together again. Your defeat is now assured! Urameshi, you cannot beat my brother! Even Genkai lost to him! Even Genkai!"
Yusuke's eye twitched, his expression furious. "You son of a bitch...!"
"At the moment when things were settled with my brother, Genkai definitely had her youth back. In other words, even though she used all of her power, she was unable to win, despite having been many times stronger than you!
"When she was young, Genkai was a fine lady. I don't know how many times I thought about taking her for my own woman. However, even she grew filthy and senile, and now that she has kicked the bucket, she is through!
"Urameshi, you saw it, didn't you? The end of Genkai?"
Toguro Otouto gritted his teeth.
"Very soon," Toguro Ani continued, "I will send you all to the same place!
"Now, my brother, use me as your weapon! What would you like? A sword? A spear? Once we brothers become as one, there is no enemy that can face us!"
Toguro Otouto stepped up behind his brother, his aura menacing. "Out of my way!"
"What did you say?"
"You're in my way, Brother."
Toguro Otouto kicked his brother forcefully, sending him flying up to the ceiling. Ani stopped himself midair and targeted the ring and his brother, instead. "Teme! You would strike your own brother, who together sold his soul with you for the sake of the martial arts!? You'll pay for this!"
"That has nothing to do with it."
Toguro Otouto punched his brother, hard, coating his hand with blood. The less fortunate of the two could no longer be seen.
"I do not remember selling my character as well. I won't let anyone get in my way. Are you ready, Urameshi? This is one-on-one."
Yusuke's smile was nearly mad. "Yeah!"
"Both contestants, are you ready? Then begin the final match!" Juri announced.
Toguro instantly kicked up to eighty percent of his power. His youki was so potent that as it swept over the audience, it killed all the weak youkai, sending them up in flames where they sat. Yukina looked around. 'What a fearsome youki he has! If a regular person, with no power to defend themselves, were to fall under this youki...' "Everyone, hurry up and leave here!" she cried, standing up. As she did, she saw they were in a force field that Puu and Carnation themselves made. "Puu-san and Carnation-san are creating a barrier?" She sat back down.
Gwen looked down at Team Urameshi, seeing Koenma had made a force field as well.
Toguro lumbered forward towards his target, and to everyone's shock, Yusuke ran forward to meet the shot. He landed a punch squarely in Toguro's abdomen, but the fierce brute pulled off an equally vicious uppercut. His shot won their little standoff, and Yusuke was thrown backwards, skidding across the ring.
Pushing off, he took another swing at Toguro, but missed as Toguro moved behind him. The youkai swung a heavy punch at Yusuke's head, but the spry young man swung himself around and kicked Toguro in the face, using the recoil to launch backwards and land on his feet.
Toguro's missed punch sent a wave of youki into the wall, shattering a messy hole into it. He swung his arm sideways to send another shockwave, towards Yusuke this time, and a chunk of stone successfully cut a long slice into the boy's cheek. The wave continued on, killing any youkai unfortunate enough to be seated there. As Toguro charged, Yusuke set his tance, making as though to catch Toguro's punch.
Yusuke's gaze slid to the side for a mere moment, and he saw the girls out of the corner of his eye. Bare millimeters from his target, Toguro stopped his swing. "Pardon me," he said. "It wouldn't be fair for me to attack you from this angle, huh?"
"I didn't know you were a feminist."
"Still not yet... Both still haven't using their full power. They're still just checking each other out-determining each other's power. I shouldn't have yielded this fight with Toguro to Yusuke! Emotions distract in the battlefield," Hiei said.
Gwen looked down at him. 'No, Hiei, you're wrong. Emotions make you stronger in the battlefield.' For a second, Gwen thought she saw him look at her, but she turned back to the fight.
They kept fighting. Yusuke charged forward, handing Toguro blow after blow to the abdomen as Toguro commented on the softness of Yusuke's fists. He took his own shot at the Tantei's side, but Yusuke dodged, moving around to the side. Toguro aimed another blow and missed once again, and this time came around with a kick. Yusuke used his leg to pull himself up towards Toguro's head, coming back around with a clean hit to the large man's face.
However, the ring between Yusuke and Toguro shattered, and chunks of it hurtled upwards, throwing Yusuke off balance and knocking him backwards.
Toguro punched Yusuke again, but missed. This time, though, a wave of his electric red youki shattered the ring, sending it flyinginto the air, Yusuke tossed around within the cloud.
"Come on, shoot me!" Toguro shouted, jumping up to move with the rocks. "I've given you some cover!"
"Rei Gun!" Yusuke shouted, a blast emitting from his index finger at Toguro. It hit him, sending him out of the stadium and into the forest.
The girls were cheering wildly. Gwen was the only one who looked serious. 'Something...doesn't feel right... I think Toguro's not out of the count yet...'
And, Gwen was right. Yusuke stood in front of the hole, looking shocked. A minute later, Toguro walked through the hole, unscathed but for the loss of his sunglasses.
"I knew it!" Gwen shouted. "I knew this would happen!"
"That's all there is to your power, is it?" asked Toguro amicably, flexing his wrist.
A sickly purple aura erupted around him. Yusuke raised his own barrier, a green wave of a sort, but it was quickly broken through.
"I was a fool to expect too much from you. Not even you are worth fighting at 100 percent. I will settle this the way I am, at 80 percent. I will finish you off like this!"
A long pause followed, but then Yusuke rubbed the blood off his cheek and actually smiled. "Sure enough, it was too much to hope for, the way I am..."
"Nani?"
Yusuke held up his left wrist, and ripped his wristband. A golden glow surounded it. "For some reason, Contestant Urameshi is taking off his wristband," Koto commentated. "Huh? It looks as though his wrist is glowing... Don't tell me he really was hiding a new finishing move...!"
Yusuke closed his eyes as if he was thinking deeply.
Gwen widened her eyes. 'Rei cuffs...' ~Carnation, remember when I used the Rei cuffs?~
~Hai... but I forgot the word that Genkai told you to unlock them now since you put them on after six months of training with her, and then you put them off a couple of years ago, seeing as you didn't want them anymore,~ Carnation said thoughtfully.
~Baka. He just said the word!~
~What was it then?~
~Uh... I wasn't listening since your annoying voice was in my head...~
Carnation anime fell as Gwen sweatdropped, watching Yusuke's ki take form as a blue phoenix, swooping overhead and soaring around the stadium. Gwen clearly remembered hers as a white hawk with a pink outline. The phoenix flew down to Yusuke, and it disappeared as he absorbed it. Gwen watched Yusuke beating Toguro up.
Yusuke jumped out of the crater he made when he punched Toguro into the ground. He waited, seeing if Toguro would get out as well.
A couple of minutes later, Toguro did get out of the crater... with no muscles at all.
"How'd that happen...?" Gwen asked to herself.
But then, Toguro was changing. Bright purple ki swarmed around him, killing off the weak youkai. Then it turned to darkness. The force field was the only thing holding the girls from the blackened aura.
"What's going on?" Keiko asked.
"I don't know..." Botan replied, trying to look through the dark.
All of a sudden, it disappeared. The light blinded Gwen for a couple of seconds. When she was able to see, she shouted out, "Oh Enma!"
The girls looked frightened at the new and scarier Toguro. He was huge, and his skin looked darker. Gwen had a very bad feeling about this.
Yusuke charged at Toguro, surprising everyone. He knew he had to avoid any of Toguro's attacks and fired a Rei Gun... but it didn't look like Toguro was afflicted, or moved at all.
Toguro moved his thumb like he was flicking something. Yusuke appeared to take a hit to the face.
"You figured that out, did you? Well then, now I will do it rapid-fire!" Toguro said, firing bullets of ki at Yusuke as Yusuke was dodging. Yusuke ran at Toguro when he was done shooting, and tried to punch at him. Toguro caught his fist and punched Yusuke's free arm. Yusuke crashed to the ground, seeing as Toguro destroyed the ring earlier. He stood up, holding his arm as the elbow, where Toguro had hit, turned blue.
Yusuke ran at him again, but Toguro punched him to the empty stands, Yusuke hitting the wall behind them.
"Yusuke!" Keiko shouted. The girls looked down at the ring worriedly.
"From my viewpoint, as someone who used to be human," said Toguro quietly, "there is something that you are currently lacking."
Darting forward, practically invisible, Tuguro snatched up Yusuke's collar and held him up in the air. "A sense of impending crisis. You don't, by any chance, still think that you aren't going to die, do you?"
Toguro hauled back and punched Yusuke, right in the stomach, sending him flying clear across the stadium. Skidding up the stairs, Yusuke crashed into the far wall, kneeling over from the impact. Painstakingly bringing himself up to a kneel, he coughed up blood, staining his teeth red.
Toguro looked up at him with a sort of sagely superiority. "You've got it all wrong, don't you, Urameshi? All you have done is earn the right to fight against me in my 100 percent form. Right now, I could kill you with just one arm, and that would be more than enough. But if I did that, then there would be no meaning in me reaching 100 percent."
Yusuke grit his teeth and glared at a point between Toguro and the ground.
"I became 100 percent so that I could see your power at its greatest. So you have an obligation to me. You have an obligation to expend all of your energy at its maximum limit and fight me! Surely, that is ironclad logic!"
Kuwabara trembled in place. "That bastard! He thinks he can say anything he wants without having to pay for it later!"
"It's instinct," Koenma said, his voice hushed. "He's been living on nothing more than his fighting instinct."
Toguro's gaze slid sideways. "Instinct? Oh, no. It is my sheer will. Put simply, fighting is my purpose in life! Intstinct is no more than a means to survival. Like this is..."
Yusuke stood up as holes appeared on Toguro's shoulders, sucking in souls from the audience. Luckily, the soul-stealing ki couldn't get passed Puu and Carnation's force field. The girls decided that staying in the stands wouldn't be safe, so they walked up the stairs to the top.
Yusuke looked furious at Toguro's doing and jumped down to the stadium floor, beating him with a flurry of raging punches, but none had any effect. Finally, he was punched soundly in the face by a bored Toguro. Charging back, Toguro caught his fist and proceeded to beat him badly. All the girls could do was stand there, helpless...or that's what Gwen was feeling, since she was a strong fighter, but she couldn't do anything to help Yusuke.
"What's happening?" Keiko asked, her eyes glazed and blank. 'Yusuke, we're not really here, are we? We're in school, like we were. I'm a class representative and you get me in trouble all the time. You play stupid pranks on me and I wish you'd grow up. At nighttime, I worry about where you are, and in the mornings I drag you to school. Every day someone asks me why I hang around with you, and I don't answer. But even though you don't realize it, you're the only one in the world who bothers to see me as I really am.'
A deliriously happy sort of smile graced Keiko's face. 'We're safe with each other. We're not hundreds of miles from home, and you're not fighting for your life. When we're together, it's our own little world, and nothing gets inside.'
"This tournament full of demons isn't real. It's all a bad dream." Tears spilled down her face. "Come on Yusuke. Just wake up. I wanna go home. Let's go home Yusuke!" The tears fell heavier as Keiko saw Yusuke fly across the ring one more time. "Yusuke!"
Gwen looked at her sadly. 'Poor Keiko. I know how it feels...'
Gwen noticed that the audience was cheering for Yusuke now, ever since Sakyo used a control device to set walls around the stadium so that no one could leave. The audience started to charge at Toguro, only to get killed. The weak youkai's souls were sucked away first, and Koto commented that even the strong ones were weakening.
After a couple of minutes, Gwen thought she heard Genkai's voice, but she shook her head. 'Genkai's dead... She's not here.'
~Baka! I am here.~
Gwen looked around. So did the others beside Keiko who was still sobbing. Puu turned around and Gwen noticed that his eyes were different...
"Genkai!? Is that you?" Gwen exclaimed.
"Hai. This is such a mess. Carnation, can you keep the force field up?" Genkai said in Puu's body. Carnation nodded. Puu flew off to Yusuke as the girls stared ahead blankly.
"You'll never let this old woman have some peace and quiet, will you Yusuke?" Genkai asked snappishly. "Toguro, you want to see Yusuke's real power come to the surface? I'll tell you how. He's very predictable. The only thing you have to do is kill one of his friends and make sure he's watching."
"Genkai!" Yusuke snapped. "What the hell is the matter with you?"
"Yusuke has a six-foot wall of crap betwen him and his actual emotions," Genkai continued, "and that's where his power resides. To break through that wall you have to do something drastic, like killing someone he really cares for."
"Dying must have ruined your heart, Genkai."
"Open your childish eyes, dimwit!" Genkai snapped. "If you don't stop Toguro, everyone in this stadium dies! And damn it, if the life of one friend is what it takes for you to save the rest of them, then that sacifice is worth it!"
"No!" Yusuke screamed. "You're nothing but a stupid little hypocrite! You told me to commit to something all the way and I chose my friends! Now you say killing one as motivation is okay!"
A short pause lingered between them before Genkai turned slightly and slapped Yusuke's cheek with Puu's ear.
"Sorry Yusuke, but this is the world you stuck yourself into, and it's not pretty. When you're not strong enough to lead, you lose the privilege of getting what you want."
Toguro glared, annoyed, and struck them each with an air bullet. Genkai recovered herself and flew off, and Yusuke landed hard on the ground.
"I had that idea a while back and I didn't like the way it felt," he said loudly. "But if nothing else can bring out your true abilities. Well, you heard before. I'll do anything. All I have to do is choose which one."
Yusuke pulled himself into a crouch. "Don't do this!"
Toguro scanned them each comtemplatively. Finally, he pointed. "How about you, Kuwabara."
Yusuke leapt forward, but Toguro only tossed him aside. He charged again and again, four more times, but each one proved as fruitless as the first. Finally, Toguro moved behind Yusuke and, in one quick motion, pushed his head into the ground, knocking him temporarily unconscious.
Kurama, Hiei, and Koenma each tried to convince Kuwabara to try and run, but he wouldn't hear of it. "A mulberry's a tree. Kuwabara's a man. And I'll prove it," he said bravely. "We all have to die when our time comes, but if we do our duty we don't got regrets! So taste a little piece of my sword, Toguro!"
Toguro's smile was the wicked it have ever been. He phased before Kuwabara, and thrust his hand into the boy's chest. When he removed it, it was covered in blood.
"Okay Urameshi," Kuwabara choked out. He coughed up a wave of blood. "It's all you. I did what I could. Now beat him for the rest of us. Make my death count, okay?"
The others rushed over to him, and Kurama draped Kuwabara's arm over his shoulder. "Hold on now Kuwabara. Just stay with us. Kuwabara, just stay with us."
His face quickly took on a saddened expression as Kuwabara's lifeless form leaned against his side.
Shizuru looked at her fallen brother with sadness. Yukina covered her eyes and dozens of hiruseiki stones burst through the gaps between her fingers, clattering to the ground. Gwen looked on in shock as did Botan.
Yusuke stood up and began to glow an eerie green. He disappeared and stood in front of Toguro.
"You took my teacher," Yusuke said sadly, almost tonelessly. "Now I let you take my friend. What the hell do you want from me?"
Blue reiki wove around the stadium in small bursts, all emitted from Yusuke's body.
"For not being able to save my friend, more than anyone else, I cannot forgive myself."
Toguro grinned in anticipation of the fight ahead. He charged.
"You are approaching the same status of strength that I possess!"
"I'm not like you..."
"How are you different?"
Toguro's punched landed, and Yusuke went flying into the opposite wall of the stands.
"Get up!" Toguro ordered. "That shouldn't have hurt you that badly. That power I hit you with is the same. However, the damage you take should not be so great. If that is not strength, then what is it!?"
Yusuke still didn't look at Toguro as he spoke. "It's true, my body doesn't hurt the way it used to..."
He stood slowly, and the reiki emitted from his body alternated between blue and red.
"Urameshi," Toguro asked, "does it pain the heart? It's like having the measles. Once you get over it, you'll never suffer from it again. Right now, you are being tormented by your feelings of powerlessness, right? Don't you want to become stronger? More and more!" Fire erupted behind Toguro. "You'll reach the same state as I have! Even if it means discarding everytthing else! Now is the time! Believe me! Power is everything!"
Yusuke grit his teeth. "I'm different from you. I can't discard them."
"Can't discard them?"
"I was able to make it this far because everyone else was there..." Yusuke elaborated.
Toguro looked furious. "You're soft!" he shouted. "Soft! Soft! Soft! All you need is yourself! Can't you understand that!?"
Yusuke shook his head, his eyes still sad.
"It appears you won't understand unless I get another one of them to die." He looked over his shoulder, smiling insanely. But just as he was about to step forward, Yusuke was at his side, grasping his wrist.
"Let go of me!"
But Yusuke didn't let go. "At some level, I yearned to be like you... Even as I was nearly having the piss scared out of me, I yearned after your strength." The ground under Yusuke's feet began to crack and crumble. "Despit what Ba-san told me again and again...I wanted your kind of strength, even if it meant tossing everything aside."
Toguro looked at him over his shoulder. "That's the way you have to be."
"No, I can't! Ba-san told me, right at the end... I've finally realized the weight of that which you have discarded. I will not discard it! I will safeguard it, even if I have to cling to it!"
Yusuke twisted his hand around Toguro's wrist, and the ground crumbled.
Toguro smiled. "You're Genkai's pupil, all right. Being at that level, and all..."
"I won't let you kill anyone else!" Yusuke shouted. "As such, I'm going to beat you!"
"I doubt you could."
Yusuke disappeared, a black flash before Toguro, and pounded him in the face, twisting his neck around most uncomfortably. He was tossed against the ground, spinning around and bumping off the surface as if he were made of rags, flailing against the rocks. He finally landed, submerged in the ground and his neck bent at an angle no neck could possibly bend at and stay whole, and looked up just in time to see a colossal Rei Gun firing towards him. It smashed him into the wall and continued on, careening into the atmosphere.
"This next blast is my last one," Yusuke said solemnly. "I'm going to put all of my power into this blast. Take the power you got in exchange for discarding your soul, and use all of it... _all_ of it to come after me! I will tear down everything about you, and win!!"
Toguro paused a moment, then smiled, pushing his neck back into place atop his shoulders.
"That's a good look... Up to now, I've beaten everybody who challenged me with that look, and stepped over their corpses. At those times, no matter how weak the opponent was, I used my full power... And now, I can use more power than ever before... Let's finish this!"
The very air behind Toguro seemed to turn patched and golden, and his muscules expanded even further, the veins bulging around his neck and his pants all but torn off.
"Full power! 100 percent of 100 percent! If you're going to be the greatest at one thing, you have to toss aside everything else! In the end, not being able to do that is what makes you only half a man!"
"Tossed aside, you say?" Yusuke asked. "That's not true."
"Nani?"
"You've run from them. You ran away from it all!"
Yusuke raised his finger, and a blue spark glittered above it.
'I will not run. I will not toss them aside!'
Waves of black erupted from Toguro's body, surrounding them. Electric blue reiki surrounded Yusuke as his Rei Gun grew larger and larger, finally nearly twice his height.
"Take this!! Rei Gun!!"
Toguro charged it, holding one hand out and even catching it. Blood spurted from his hand as he struggled to push the blast away. He raised his other hand to push back further on the reiki.
Opposite him, Yusuke finally reached the limits of his power and collapsed to his knees. He watched Toguro fight with his ki.
Toguro was hugging the reiki, still trying with all his power to throw it away, but it would not be denied. Blood spurted from his shoulders and he clenched his hands, hugging the reiki in the middle and finally, after much blood loss and struggle, shattering it. Yusuke collapsed face down on the ground.
Toguro walked forward slowly, painstakingly, and stopped before Yusuke's fallen form.
"I give you my thanks, Urameshi." He smiled, his eyes kind, blood flowing from the corner of his mouth. "I've never been able to put out that much power."
Starting between his two eyes, a crack appeared in Toguro's head, spreading quickly throughout his body. "Is this the strain caused by going beyond 100 percent...?"
His eyes widened, and his skin seemed to shatter, coming off his body in pieces and leaving him as frail as though he powered down to one percent. 'When fighting for someone else, you can put out 120 percent of your power... That is what your strength is.'
Tuguro fell, face forward, to the ground, his skin chalk white and frayed, like an old piece of cloth.
"J-Juri!" Koto shouted, and Juri turned to see Yusuke rising off the ground, swaying slightly on his feet.
Koto jumped down from her booth, and she and Juri faced Yusuke happily. "Contestant Urameshi is the victor!" they cried together, pointing to him.
Gwen smiled. "Yeah! Go Yusuke!" She punched a fist in the air, making Carnation fall to the ground, breaking the force field.
Then her face became solemn. She looked down at her fallen friend, Kuwabara.
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I'll try to update faster. I promise!
Carnation: *walks to the cup of sweet snow on the floor* Hm...
MNA: Gotcha! *slams a cage on Carnation so that she'll not escape* Haha! I caught you, neko!
Carnation: *smirks* Oh really, Authoress? *uses her psychic powers to open the cage door*
MNA: Um...no not really... ^_^U
Hiei: *smirks* Review.