Kaoru Kamiya here! At last, the climax to the race for Shishio’s legacy! Oh-ho! At last we get proof that Shishio was just a Copy Man created by Yumi! Huh? Yumi, you want to kill us to avenge Shishio? You’ve got it all wrong! Kenshin no baka, what’s the big idea attacking us?! You’re supposed to be fighting the other guys! Then we learned that their true objective was the rebirth of the demon beast Zanaffar! And then… and then…

“Rest in peace, Yumi,” Shishio went on. “Shishio’s vengeance will be carried out – but on my terms!” He crushed the gem between his fingers.

“Oi, what’s goin’ on?” Yahiko demanded. “That’s just a copy of Shishio, right?”

“That’s right,” Misao wavered.

“Why?” Kaoru cried. “Shishio, you had no reason to kill Yumi!”

“Yes I did,” Copy Shishio replied. “So that I might prove my worthiness to live by achieving what the original Shishio could not do.”

“What the original could not do?” Aoshi repeated.

“Yes. To kill you all with my own hands.” Shishio’s eyes opened; one was stormy blue, the other yellow as an animal’s. “So that I, as a Copy, can surpass the original!”

“Surpass the original?” Kaoru blinked.

“Is it not wonderful?” Copy Shishio went on. “As long as Yumi lived, I could never achieve my goal.”

“And so you killed the one who created you?” asked Megumi in horror.

“In the end, just a copy,” murmured a faint voice from the floor.

“Yumi!” cried Kaoru.

Megumi knelt beside the fallen mahoutsukai, oblivious to the blood that stained her kimono. Her hands glowed with healing energy.

“No matter how hard I tried, it wasn’t really Shishio-sama,” the dying woman whispered. “Still… just a copy.”

Shishio fired a bolt of energy at Megumi. Kenshin blocked it with a sweep of the Sword of Light. The others formed a protective circle around the priestess.

Yumi turned her head toward her creation, who was standing on air high overhead. “Shishio-sama… I only wanted… you…”

She never got to finish her last words. Copy Shishio extended his hand. Yumi’s body began to glow. Megumi hastily scrambled back. Before their eyes, Yumi faded from existence, leaving behind only a faint outline on the stone floor.

“That was inhuman!” Aoshi exclaimed.

“And not fair!” Kaoru added.

Lightning flared around Copy Shishio’s body. He arched his back and screamed, caught in some transformation as monstrous as the first Shishio’s had been. Everyone dove for shelter.

“Here it comes,” Aoshi whispered.

“Zanaffar’s rebirth,” Kaoru agreed.

“Kaoru, ain’t there nothin’ we can do?” asked Yahiko.

“Yes, just hope for the best!” Kaoru snapped, and cracked him over the head with her bokken.

“If he keeps building up his power…” Megumi whispered.

“But he’s already so powerful!” wailed Misao.

And the tower exploded! Copy Shishio hung in a maelstrom of air and light. It ripped stones from the walls and sent them hurtling upward, through the tower’s ruined roof, into the night. Answering lights flickered through the leaves of Flagoon.

“Kaoru-san, look!”

Kaoru followed Misao’s gaze up to where Copy Shishio hung in the air, his bandages half torn off by the force of the energies coursing around and through him. She could dimly make out an aura that hadn’t been there earlier. “Time for the star to appear on stage,” she muttered.

“Forgive the delay,” Zanaffar-Shishio intoned, floating slowly to the floor.

Kenshin’s eyes narrowed. “He looks the same, but…”

“The pressure of his ki is incredible!” Aoshi finished.

Kaoru gasped. “Is that the demon beast Zanaffar…?”

“You were expecting a more grandiose form perhaps?” Zanaffar-Shishio sneered. “Zanaffar is an energy being of limitless demonic power.” He raised his arms. “One who joins his body with Zanaffar is given control of that power!”

“Sure, whatever!” Kaoru snapped. “Kenshin, take him!”

Kenshin stepped forward. “It is the teaching of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu that its first master banished the demon beast Zanaffar with this Sword of Light.”

“Go get him, Himura!” Misao cheered.

“Feh,” Zanaffar-Shishio sneered. “Then try your hand. We’ll see if the legend is true or not.”

“You should not laugh de gozaru yo,” Kenshin replied. “Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu – Ryuu Kan Sen!”

His blows made no impression on the energy field surrounding Zanaffar-Shishio. The demon gestured slightly, and Kenshin flew across the tower and crashed into the floor.

“Ken-san!” Megumi cried.

“It can’t be!” Aoshi exclaimed.

“Why didn’t the Sword of Light work?” Kaoru demanded.

Zanaffar-Shishio laughed. “So this is all the legendary Sword of Light can do?”

“The legend’s a big liar!” wept Misao.

“Now it’s my turn,” Zanaffar-Shishio went on. “Let’s go!” With a flick of his fingers, he snapped a little sphere of blue-white light toward them. They leaped out of the way, and the place where they had been standing turned into a smoking crater.

“That’s Zanaffar’s power?” Kaoru wondered.

“Nicely dodged, but what about this time?” Zanaffar-Shishio fired a barrage of the glowing spheres at them.

“He’s playing marbles with us?!” Kaoru squawked.

FIREBALL!

Aoshi’s spell hit the demon’s shield squarely. It had absolutely no effect.

Zanaffar-Shishio extended his hands and cast something like a high-powered Burst Rondo through the shield, aiming not at Kaoru and Misao but at the walls above them. Dislodged stones rained down on their heads.

“At this rate we’ll be buried alive!” cried Misao.

A huge slab, nearly as big as the chamber itself, plummeted toward them. It was too big to dodge, and falling too fast for Kaoru to blast it. Not even the Sword of Light could cut it into harmless fragments in time. They cringed and waited to be crushed.

Nothing happened. They looked up and saw the stone hovering above them, supported only by Shishio’s will.

“Shishio?” Kaoru whispered. “Why?”

Because being crushed under rocks would be a boring death for you,” Zanaffar-Shishio smiled. “And it would deprive me of what I seek. Now fight me properly and die!”

“As if we could,” Aoshi growled.

“Aoshi’s right!” Kaoru added. “First of all, we can’t fight properly in a narrow little underground cavern like this!”

“Hmm, you have a point,” Zanaffar-Shishio agreed. “I’ll move our battle to someplace easier for you.

“Wow, really?” asked Misao.

“Don’t be so gullible!” Kaoru snapped.

Zanaffar-Shishio raised his arms. Magical symbols glowed beneath his feet.

“See, he was lying!” Kaoru murmured to Misao.

“No, look closer,” Aoshi pointed out. Slabs of stone rose into the air. So did Kaoru and her companions, encased in a bubble of magical force. And so did Zanaffar-Shishio.

“What’s he trying to do de gozaru ka?” asked Kenshin.

“I don’t know,” Kaoru replied. “But whatever it is, it’s going to be big.”

“Now for something truly spectacular!” cried Zanaffar-Shishio. The laboratory exploded, and the bubble containing Kaoru and her friends rocketed upward.

Kenshin peered down through the bubble. “We’re above ground de gozaru yo.”

“But weren’t we just deep underground?” Yahiko wondered.

“That devil Shishio blew the laboratory apart in an instant!” Aoshi snapped. All the secrets it contained – maybe including a way to reverse his transformation, hidden in that endless collection of books – gone.

And at that instant the bubble of force around them popped and they all plummeted toward the ground! Those who could, hastily cast Levitation and they all floated to safety.

“Kaoru-chan, look!” Megumi pointed.

Where Shishio’s laboratory had been, a huge crater gouged deep in the earth. In its depths floated a little sphere of light.

“Shishio…” Kaoru whispered.

“He does all this and still laughs at us,” growled Aoshi.

“And now that we’re out where we can fight him, what are we s’posed to do?” Yahiko asked.

Kaoru turned. “What we have to do is really pretty clear.”

“No!” Misao protested.

RAY WING!

Kaoru picked up Kenshin, Megumi grabbed Yahiko, and they flew away from the destruction at top speed. “A temporary withdrawal,” Kaoru said to herself.

Megumi cried out in horror as they flew toward Flagoon. Part of the tree looked like it was dead! Its branches were bare, its leaves stripped or burned by the force of Shishio’s blast. Little ribbons of light crawled along the dead wood like worms. Whether they were the tree’s efforts at self-repair, or some poison of Zanaffar’s, they couldn’t tell.

The shielding aura around Zanaffar-Shishio was clearly visible now, a great two-headed dragon, enveloping and towering over Shishio’s human body. The dragon heads reared back and roared defiance to the heavens.

Fireballs and lightning bolts pelted down on Kaoru and her friends as they ran. “Why can’t we fly away?” Misao wailed.

“Because we have more cover on the ground,” Aoshi replied.

“Kaoru-dono! This way!” called Kenshin, veering off to the side.

“Is Shishio trying to torture us to death?” grumbled Yahiko.

“Why does he want to kill us so badly?” asked Megumi.

“Because the moment he kills us is the moment he surpasses the original Shishio!” Kaoru explained, diving into the shelter of some ruins.

“Quite right.” Shishio’s voice echoed around them. “You understand completely. Typical Kaoru Kamiya brilliance.”

“Naturally!” she retorted. “I am the kenjutsu komachi who beat Shishio the Red Priest, right? Oh yes, that was the original, not a copy.”

“Now you insult me,” the false Shishio responded in an injured tone. “But if you don’t beat me, your victory will be a hollow one.”

“Now who’s insulting whom?” she snapped back.

“It will take more than common techniques to defeat me,” Shishio smirked. “For example… yes! The mightiest attack in the world – the Giga Slave!” His eyes gleamed.

Kaoru gasped. “The Giga Slave!”

Her companions stared at her in horror, remembering what Megumi had told them – that the power of the Giga Slave was enough to unmake the entire universe and return it to primal chaos.

“You killed the original Shishio with your Giga Slave, didn’t you? Then why don’t you try your Giga Slave on me?”

“How did you know about that!?” Kaoru demanded.

“Easy,” Shishio purred. “I was spying on you behind Yumi’s back. What she knew, I know.”

“Now look!” Kaoru protested. “If you’ve been spying on me then you must know – the key to that technique is calling the Lord of Nightmares into my body! What happens if I lose control?”

Megumi spoke up. “The entire universe could become an empty void! It’s a horrible technique!”

“What of it?” Shishio growled. “What does the fate of the universe matter to me? All I care about is the question in my heart.”

Kaoru stared. “You… you’re insane!”

“Maybe I am,” Shishio agreed. “Now won’t you show me your technique?”

Kenshin drew the Sword of Light. “Kaoru-dono, is there any other way to beat him de gozaru ka?”

“You’re right,” Kaoru murmured. “It’s a long shot… but let’s try it!”

Aoshi began the attack, throwing a fireball that splattered harmlessly against Zanaffar’s aura. Shishio responded in kind, with a fireball powerful enough to overcome Aoshi’s ice-demon nature and scorch his stone skin.

“You can’t escape!” Shishio roared.

“Taste this! The Blade of Justice!” Misao threw a handful of magically-enhanced kunai at him. He backhanded her and sent her smashing into a rock. She slid to the ground in a boneless, unmoving huddle.

“Now then, my all-important Kaoru,” Shishio murmured.

Two lines of fire brushed his shields. They were barely enough to notice, but he looked up anyway, to see Megumi and Yahiko standing in front of him. “Get ready to die, phony!” the boy jeered, holding his shinai in a ready stance.

Shishio extended his hand to blast the upstarts.

“Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu – Ryuu Tsui Sen Tsumuji!” Kenshin dropped like a stone out of the sky.

“Hn.” Shishio’s fire-blast caught the rurouni square in the chest. He smashed into a stone wall. The Sword of Light flew from his hand as he fell.

“Ken-san!” Megumi screamed.

Slowly, breathing as though his ribs were broken, Kenshin got up. Step by step, he returned to take a defensive stance in front of Megumi.

“Oh?” Shishio raised an eyebrow. “You still have some strength left to face me? Then I accept your challenge.”

Kenshin smiled. “Someone else is more worthy of your challenge than sessha.” He picked up Megumi and leaped backwards out of the way – or rather Megumi carried him, because once his feet were clear of the ground she cast Levitation and they soared to safety.

“Sloppy, Shishio!” Kaoru jeered. Shishio looked down and spotted her – below him, in what had been the building’s cellar. The other attacks had been simply to lure him within range. “Zanaffar’s shield won’t protect you – not at this close range,” she smirked.

DRAGON SLAVE!

She aimed straight up, and a column of crimson destruction engulfed Zanaffar-Shishio at point-blank range. But when the smoke and flames cleared, the Red Priest stood completely unharmed.

“Well done, Kaoru!” he laughed. “But it’s no effort at all for me to absorb a Dragon Slave like that.”

“Absorb…?” she murmured in awe.

“Now, fire the Giga Slave!” Shishio ordered. “Otherwise…” he leaped at Aoshi and gave him a swift and merciless beating with his bare fists, unfazed by the chimaera’s stone body. Then he seized Misao. “Shall I keep this up until I kill someone?”

“Yurusenai!” Kenshin charged, furious – but bounced back from Zanaffar’s aura, as impenetrable as a stone wall.

“Ken-san!” Megumi ran toward the fallen rurouni, but Shishio blocked her way.

“Prepare to die!” the Red Priest screamed.

But in the midst of his frenzied attack, Shishio stopped! He turned and stared at the holy tree Flagoon. So did the twin dragon heads of the demon beast Zanaffar. They reared back and roared, as a lion roars at its captor.

Megumi’s eyes went wide. “Flagoon…”

Shishio gazed at the tree as though he could poison it with his hatred, while the dragon heads of Zanaffar roared with fury. Lights coiled around the scorched branches.

And Copy Shishio twisted aside, barely in time to avoid a fireball.

“Kaoru-chan!” Megumi gasped.

Kaoru looked down at Kenshin, lying unconscious a few feet away, then raised her eyes to Shishio’s. “I can’t forgive you now,” she said quietly. Her voice was colder than Aoshi’s could ever be.

“At last you’re ready,” Shishio purred. He was smiling with anticipation.

Drops of golden light rained from Flagoon’s leaves.

“At least I can let your companions stay out of this,” Shishio went on. “To settle this ourselves, man to woman.”

Kaoru picked up the fallen Sword of Light. “I have to borrow this, Kenshin,” she apologized.

Megumi ran up to her. “Kaoru-chan!”

“Megumi…” Kaoru averted her eyes. “Sorry!” She levitated away.

“Wait, Kaoru-chan! Don’t do it!” the priestess screamed.

Kenshin tried to sit up. “Megumi-dono…”

“Ken-san, it’s terrible!” Megumi cried. “Kaoru-chan… Kaoru-chan is…”

Kenshin’s eyes snapped open, his pain forgotten. “Kaoru-dono!”

Shishio and Kaoru faced each other on a stone platform at the very foot of Flagoon. “I’ll give you what you asked for – the Giga Slave!” She held the Sword of Light across her body, and little sparks began drifting down from the tree toward the glowing blade. Then darkness wrapped around the sword. Lightning made it twist and buck in her hands. She fought to control it as she began her incantation.

Darkness beyond blackest pitch,
Deeper than the deepest night,
King of Darkness who shines
Like gold upon the Sea of Chaos!
I call upon thee!
Swear myself to thee!

Tendrils of blackness seemed to stretch between the black-wrapped blade in her hands and the moon, shining serenely down on the battle. Lightning flickered around the demonic form of Zanaffar.

Let the fools who stand
Before me be destroyed
By the power you and I possess!

The Sword of Light nearly twisted itself out of her hands.

Aoshi raised his head, focused on the battle. “That’s… that’s the Giga Slave!” he whispered.

Misao opened her eyes. “Kaoru-san…”

It worked last time, Kaoru prayed. This time too, please…

Copy Shishio spread his arms like a man waiting for his lover’s embrace. Kaoru raised the sword over her head…

GIGA SLA–

“STOP IT!” Megumi screamed, and flung herself at Kaoru.

For a moment it looked like Kaoru was going to lose control of the Giga Slave after all, but then the Sword of Light stopped moving, the lightning faded, and the black tendrils were sucked back into the sword’s glow.

“Kaoru-chan, stop it, please!” the priestess begged. “The world could be destroyed!”

“Megumi…”

“There may be another way to defeat Shishio!” the healer went on. “I think that Zanaffar… that Zanaffar and Flagoon are…”

Kenshin rose and slowly walked toward Flagoon.

“Little witch!” Copy Shishio snarled at Megumi. “I’ll teach you to interfere with my destiny! DIE!”

“Look out!” Kaoru screamed, and pushed Megumi out of the way just as Zanaffar-Shishio fired a spear of light from his outstretched hand. Megumi sprawled on the ground, bruised but safe, at least for the moment.

Kaoru hadn’t been so lucky. Shishio’s energy bolt went straight through her.

It was the same attack he’d used on Yumi. She flew through the air and landed like a discarded rag doll. A pool of blood spread from under her body, flowing in little streams through crevices in the stone, seeping into the earth.

“Kaoru-san!” cried Misao.

“Gods…” whispered Aoshi.

Kenshin’s eyes glowed like sunfire. “Kaoru-dono!” He launched himself at Shishio, oblivious to his own injuries. “KAORU-DONO!!”

How could this happen? I don’t believe it! Copy Shishio and the demon beast Zanaffar got me? Oh, maybe the beautiful really are doomed to die young! No way – I DON”T WANT TO DIE!!

NOTES, EXPLANATIONS ETC.

Oh, we’re in a pinch now! Kaoru’s down, Kenshin’s attacks are useless – but we’re not out of the game yet! Megumi still has a surprise or two in her medicine box… and there’s one more defender yet to arrive! O-tanoshimi ni!