At last we learned that Shishio’s legacy is the same thing that destroyed Old Sairaag – the rebirth of the demon beast Zanaffar! Once Zanaffar had joined with Copy Shishio, he forced me to use my forbidden technique, the Giga Slave! Fine! I was ready to try it! But just before I could release the Giga Slave, Megumi jumped between us! And now I’ve been hurt really bad trying to save her! Things are looking pretty bad, aren’t they?

“KAORU-DONO!!”

Copy Shishio swatted Kenshin aside with no more effort than shooing away a fly. Kenshin’s eyes burned with fury. Almost casually, Copy Shishio tossed one of his explosive energy-marbles at him, for the sheer petty amusement of keeping him away from Kaoru.

“Kaoru-chan! Kaoru-chan, hang on!” Megumi placed her hands over the terrible wound in Kaoru’s chest and prayed as she had never prayed in her life. Kaoru’s injuries swallowed her healing energy like a bottomless hole swallows water. “Misao-chan, help me!”

The younger priestess ran to her aid. With her powers added to Megumi’s, the healing light grew brighter.

“Injuring herself to save another, how foolish,” Copy Shishio murmured.

“Go to hell, you monster!” Yahiko yelled.

“I must kill that girl myself, in order to prove that I’ve surpassed the original Makoto Shishio!” the false priest raged.

Kenshin struggled to his feet yet again, picked up and sheathed the Sword of Light. “Megumi-dono, how is Kaoru-dono doing?”

“We’ve stopped the bleeding,” Megumi replied. “But she’ll die unless she gets a full healing spell!”

“I understand,” Kenshin replied. “Take Kaoru-dono and go!”

“Ken-san…”

“Please, Megumi-dono!”

“All right.” Megumi picked up Kaoru and ran.

“You won’t escape!” Copy Shishio growled. Zanaffar’s twin dragon heads reared up and spat fire at the fleeing priestess. The impact knocked Kaoru out of Megumi’s arms and flung them both into the air.

Aoshi swiftly encased them both in a protective bubble. “Keep going!” he called to Megumi. The sphere continued on its way, to safety in the tangled branches of Flagoon.

“Surpass Shishio?” Aoshi murmured. “What a monstrous ambition! Yes, I wanted vengeance on him for giving me this body… but once you’ve surpassed Shishio, then what? Where do you go from there?”

Copy Shishio refused to rise to the bait. “There is nothing beyond that,” he replied. “So long as I can kill the girl, what comes next doesn’t matter!”

“What?” Aoshi gasped.

“That’s crazy!” Misao cried.

“Now then, won’t you please get out of my way? If you don’t, you’ll get hurt.” Zanaffar spat fire at the chimaera.

This time it was Misao who planted herself in front of Aoshi and cast a barrier. The power of Zanaffar’s attack pushed them back across the paving stones, and Misao’s barrier started to give way.

“Hikari yo!” The Sword of Light split Zanaffar’s attack, sending it harmlessly to either side of Aoshi and Misao.

“Thank you, Himura!” Misao called.

“You little idiot!” Aoshi snapped. “What do you think you were doing? Worry about your own hide!”

Misao blushed and tugged on her braid.

From within, Flagoon turned out to be not so much a single huge tree as a very dense grove. Individual trunks sank their roots into mossy, damp ground and rose to spread an impenetrably thick canopy of branches overhead. The sphere containing Megumi and Kaoru drifted through silent peace.

Shishio is… Megumi thought, remembering. She thought how, in the midst of the fight, Shishio had broken off his attack on her, and stared at Flagoon. Shishio is afraid of Flagoon. It was a slender edge, the merest hairline crack in his invincibility. Could they use it? The sphere drifted through the doorway of a crumbling building. Once it had been the holy tree’s shrine, but Flagoon had grown over and around it, and humans had moved their worship to a safer distance. As soon as they were inside the building’s shelter, Aoshi’s bubble winked out of existence, dumping Megumi and Kaoru onto the stone floor. Megumi picked Kaoru up and ran deeper into the building, far from the sounds of battle outside. “Kaoru-chan, we’ll be in a safe place soon,” she murmured. “Just hang on until then.”

It was hard to say what the chamber had been – perhaps a sanctum for the holiest of rites. Now, roots grew through its ceiling and down its walls. Megumi seemed to know all its secrets. She rummaged in a cabinet and pulled out an old cloak. Dumping out the things that had been wrapped in it, she spread it on the floor to give Kaoru some protection from the cold stones. “Kaoru-chan, I’ll give you that healing spell now.”

But just as she began her prayer, she looked down. Kaoru’s face was too bluish-pale, her body too still. Megumi bent over the girl’s body, but could hear no heartbeat, feel no breath…

“NO!” she screamed. In frustration she pounded on Kaoru’s chest. “Don’t die!” Again and again she brought her fists down. “Don’t… you… DARE!” She stopped to blow air into Kaoru’s lungs, then resumed her compressions of the younger girl’s chest. Was it working?

Yes! I’m still in time! It was a secret technique of the healing priesthood, developed by Megumi’s father – that sometimes a stopped heart could be restarted, if the healer acted quickly enough. Now she could begin the healing incantation.

Blessed, humble hand of God,
Breath of Mother Earth,
I pray thee come before me,
Show your great...

Kaoru stirred slightly. “Kaoru-chan, please, come back,” Megumi whispered.

Show your great compassion to
This person and deliver her!

Pictures flashed through Megumi’s mind: herself as a little girl, then as a novice priestess, learning the healing techniques from her father and brothers. Sairaag during the civil strife, and the young red-haired swordsman who had befriended them. Seeing Ken-san again and meeting Kaoru, watching them fight, watching Ken-san smile at the temperamental girl in a way he’d never smiled at her. Kaoru cheering their flagging spirits, pulling winning strategies out of impossibility. Aoshi shielding all of them behind his stone body… the fires engulfing Sairaag… Kaoru casting the Giga Slave… Kaoru, with Shishio’s spear of light through her body… Kenshin screaming her name…

“No!” Megumi sobbed. “No one else must die! You mustn’t die!” She placed her hands on Kaoru’s chest. They glowed with white fire, bright as the Sword of Light itself. “COME BACK TO US!”

And Flagoon responded! Answering light streamed from its leaves, brighter than the sun at noon, purer than moonlight. It shone down onto Kaoru’s face through the gaps in the shrine’s roof. It shone on Kenshin and Yahiko, Aoshi and Misao – and it shone on Zanaffar-Shishio, looming over them. Zanaffar’s twin heads roared in pain and defiance.

“Flagoon…” Megumi prayed. “Father… everyone… give Kaoru-chan your strength…”

Her own strength was gone. She collapsed next to Kaoru, and sleep took her.

Outside, Aoshi’s fireball splattered harmlessly against Zanaffar’s aura. “Spells don’t even work!” he hissed.

“And the Sword of Light doesn’t work either,” Misao replied. “What do we do?”

Copy Shishio laughed. “Please, call Kaoru Kamiya back! Without her, none of this means anything! How can I face the Giga Slave?”

Does he really want to surpass the real Shishio that badly? Kenshin wondered. No matter what happens to me, I have to stop him here!

Suddenly, a white horse rushed past and bowled him over. The rider was an old man, his beard tied up in a jaunty pink bow. Yelling, he charged straight at Zanaffar-Shishio.

Kenshin rubbed the back of his head. “Oro? Prince Okina?”

“Jiiya!” yelled Misao.

“Sheesh, we were all ready for a big climax!” Yahiko sighed.

Aoshi placed a marble hand on Kenshin’s shoulder. “I guess the gods aren’t ready to let things turn serious yet.”

“Villain whose body hosts evil!” yelled Okina. “Prepare to die!”

Copy Shishio smirked. Zanaffar’s twin dragon heads reared up, menacing.

“So you’re the one behind all this!” Okina roared. “In the name of the law, I demand your surrender!”

Copy Shishio sweatdropped.

“Okina…” Kenshin sighed.

“What’s your grandfather’s problem?” asked Aoshi, who hadn’t met the pacifist prince before.

Misao beamed with pride. “Isn’t he cool?!”

“I don’t like to fight,” Okina went on, “but if you don’t submit to the law, I’ll show no mercy!”

“Oh? And just what will you do?” Shishio sneered.

“Oh, gonna resist, huh?” Okina grinned. His tonfa snapped out.

“Oh no! Okina-dono doesn’t know what he’s getting into!” Kenshin tried to wave the old man back.

“Jiiya!” Misao cried.

Okina launched himself at Zanaffar-Shishio. “PACIFIST CRUSH!”

Kenshin lunged at the reckless prince and carried him to safety an instant before Zanaffar’s fire-blast struck.

“Jiiya!” Misao ran toward her grandfather, and they exchanged a fierce hug – oblivious to the fact that they were crushing Kenshin under their combined weight.

“You can talk later!” Aoshi told them sternly.

“Okina-dono, daijoubu de gozaru ka?” Kenshin asked.

DARK MIST!

Misao spread her arms wide, and blackness engulfed the entire area.

“For now, run de gozaru yo!” Kenshin ordered. They picked up Okina and raced for the shelter of Flagoon, followed by Okina’s white horse.

A drop of water fell onto Megumi’s face, waking her. She sat up, and quickly checked on Kaoru. To her relief, the girl was breathing regularly and her heartbeat was strong and steady. “Yokatta,” she breathed. Here in this ancient sanctum, among Flagoon’s roots, she had always felt safer than anywhere else. She looked around at the things she had dislodged when she pulled out the old cloak Kaoru lay on – a little girl’s treasures. “My doll… my cup… my necklace…” She held the doll and thought about her father, about how happy she had been as a little girl, about the joy she had felt when she was chosen to become a priestess, the deep peace that flowed through her bond with Flagoon…

But water wasn’t the only thing falling from the ceiling. Flagoon’s roots were making the structure unstable. Dirt and pebbles rained down on the two girls. “It may not be safe here,” Megumi said to herself. “Kaoru-chan, be patient just a little longer.” She picked Kaoru up and ran deeper into the ancient temple.

“Enough hide and seek!” Copy Shishio roared. “Come out and fight me! There’s no place you can run!”

Flagoon’s leaves glowed with shifting patterns of light. Zanaffar spat fire at the great tree.

“I think we got away,” Aoshi panted.

Misao bent over Okina’s leg, her hands glowing with healing energy. “Okay,” she said. “I’ve healed it – but don’t move it for a while!” she ordered.

“Anyway, Okina-dono, what are you doing here de gozaru ka?” Kenshin asked.

“That’s right!” cried Misao. “What are you doing here, Jiiya?”

“Oh, with all the bounty hunters after you guys it didn’t take me long to find out the truth!” the old man cackled. “I was worried about you fighting for your lives, since Misao is such a delicate soul like me…”

“Jiiya! You were that worried about me?”

“What are you saying, Misao?” Okina sounded hurt. “What grandfather doesn’t worry about his only granddaughter?”

“Who’s delicate like who?” Yahiko muttered.

“That’s rude, Yahiko-chan!” Misao squawked.

“Don’t call me chan, weasel girl!” Yahiko retorted.

Misao jumped aside before a fight could develop. “Oh – let me introduce you! The weird-looking guy is Aoshi Shinomori.”

Aoshi turned away. “Don’t point at people. It’s rude.”

Okina looked around. “Where’s that pretty onna-mahoutsukai? I don’t see her here.”

“Kaoru-dono…” Kenshin began.

“She’s being healed,” Aoshi put in. “It’s the fault of that monster out there.”

“What?” Okina roared. “He hurt Kaoru Kamiya? He’s… he’s that powerful?”

Kenshin sweatdropped.

So did Aoshi. “Forget it,” the chimaera muttered. “At least he got it right.”

“It’s okay,” Yahiko reassured Okina – or maybe he was reassuring himself. “Kaoru’s with Megumi. She’ll save her if anybody can.”

“Sou de gozaru yo,” Kenshin agreed. “Kaoru-dono is all right. Sessha can feel it.”

“But if her powers and the Sword of Light aren’t enough,” Okina objected, “how do you plan to get rid of that monster?”

“Maybe if we tried a Megiddo Flare at close range…” Aoshi speculated.

“Don’t be an idiot!” flared Misao. “Megiddo Flare only works on the spirits of the dead! Shishio’s alive – at least this one of him is – and Zanaffar…”

“I don’t see any other way,” Aoshi went on as though he hadn’t even heard her. “As long as black magic doesn’t work…”

“I tell you it’s impossible!” Misao repeated.

“Sessha doesn’t understand magic very well,” Kenshin began, “but isn’t what we need here an Astral attack? What about your Ra-Tilt?”

“Ra-Tilt?” Aoshi and Misao chorused.

“Yeah!” Yahiko agreed. “From what Kaoru told me, it’s the strongest Astral attack there is, as powerful as the Dragon Slave. It doesn’t do anything to humans, but it blasts Mazoku to smithereens on account of they have astral bodies!”

“Yahiko-kun, you forget,” Aoshi admonished. “When we tried Ra-Tilt against Shabranigdo, it didn’t work. And Zanaffar is even more powerful.”

Yahiko sighed and rubbed the back of his head. “Guess I did forget that.”

Still carrying Kaoru’s unconscious body, Megumi trudged along an underground passage beside a crystal stream. “We’re almost there, Kaoru-chan,” she told her unhearing burden. Maybe that… maybe that will be able to stop Zanaffar, she thought. A part of Flagoon, the holy Bless Blade! The stream flowed into a small lake. In its center, a glowing sword hung in the air.

Megumi made Kaoru as comfortable as she could, then stripped off her outer robes and went down to the lake shore. She prayed, and a bridge of golden light extended between her and the sword. With swift, confident steps she crossed the bridge, genuflected briefly before the glowing blade, and took it in her hands. Its light winked out at her touch. “With the Bless Blade, maybe…”

“Going somewhere by yourself?” Kaoru’s voice was weak, but spirited and determined.

Megumi lost control of her bridge spell and plunged into the chilly water. Fortunately, it wasn’t deep. “Kaoru-chan! Kaoru-chan, yokatta!” She waded back to shore and enveloped Kaoru in a wet hug.

Kaoru took quick stock of herself. “I guess I’m okay.” A little sore, but that was to be expected after such a serious wound. She wasn’t expecting Megumi’s embrace, though.

“Kaoru-chan, forgive me! You tried to save me, and…”

“You’re getting me all wet, Megumi!” Kaoru pushed the healer away. “Look, it was my fault I got hurt saving you, understand? Don’t act like some princess who sits around waiting to be rescued!” She looked down at the sword Megumi had brought from the lake. “I’m guessing you want to take that sword and help Kenshin and the others, right?”

Megumi nodded.

“No offense, but if you go you’ll just get in the way.”

Megumi handed her the sheathed blade. “No, I want you to take it…”

“Whoever gets in my way will be blown apart!” roared Copy Shishio. “To surpass the original Shishio I will use any means!” Zanaffar’s dragon heads blasted fireball after fireball into the spreading branches of Flagoon.

“What’s he sayin’?” Yahiko demanded.

Aoshi’s eyes widened. “Could it be that Zanaffar…”

The sounds of Shishio’s attack on the sacred tree echoed through the ancient shrine. Kaoru looked up, as though her gaze could penetrate the mass of stone and wood over her head. “Shishio…” she murmured.

Then she looked down, startled. The blade in her lap was glowing, shining with a pure white radiance that pulled her into it, wrapped tendrils around her very soul, drew her spirit through the roots and branches and leaves of Flagoon. For just a moment, the strength and peace of the great tree filled her. Then the glow faded, and she opened her eyes. “The pain’s gone,” she whispered in awe. “I was still kind of sore – after a wound like that, not even Recovery fixes everything – but now all the pain’s gone. What is this sword?” She peered at the weapon. It didn’t look extraordinary. The blade didn’t even look that strong – it had clearly been made for ceremony rather than for use in battle. Its elaborate silver hilt was set with cabochon emeralds and bound to the scabbard with peace-strings, fraying now with age.

“It’s the Bless Blade,” Megumi replied. “A part of the holy tree Flagoon – and I think it might have Flagoon’s power to absorb Zanaffar’s evil miasma.”

“Absorb?” Kaoru wondered.

“Flagoon grows by absorbing the evil miasma that Zanaffar generates when he cannot attack,” Megumi explained. “I think that may be the key to defeating Zanaffar.”

“What?” Kaoru gasped. Could there really be a way to defeat Zanaffar – one that did not hold the terrible risks of the Giga Slave?

“I saw it!” Megumi declared. “Zanaffar refuses to come close to Flagoon – I’m sure he’s afraid of it absorbing him completely!”

Kaoru looked at the sword again. “The power to absorb his evil… now I get it! Let’s go, Megumi!” She took off at a run.

“Wait for me!” The priestess scrambled to her feet and followed.

“I’ll need your help to take down Zanaffar,” Kaoru told her. “It was lucky we found that sword where we did!”

Megumi turned scarlet. “Actually, it was supposed to be in the main shrine in Sairaag. Years ago, when I was very young, I took it out and hid it here.”

Kaoru facefaulted. “The whole city must have been in an uproar!”

“It was. And then with all the fighting… I was so scared I just left it.”

Kaoru shook her head. “Mattaku! Well, let’s go! Kenshin and the others are waiting!”

“Didn’t you ever do anything crazy when you were younger, Kaoru-chan?” Megumi asked.

Now it was Kaoru’s turn to be embarrassed. “Uh… well…”

The ruins of Old Sairaag echoed with Copy Shishio’s laughter.

NOTES, EXPLANATIONS ETC.

Only one more chapter left! Next, the final showdown between Copy Shishio and the end of Slayers Oro! O-tanoshimi ni!