Seems to me certain fists have always been raging to a certain extent, the only difference being the target. A fluctuating variety of targets I've observed these days too! Seems like every week I hear of someone else being attacked and new wars being started, then being ended abruptly when there's some new target in the crosshairs. No diplomacy, no real deals being negotiated, just pure chaos as fists are swung in every direction, including at the body they belong to. Being in the body of the flailing beast, I've had a rather bumpy ride trying to live in here. One particularly famous game phrase keeps popping into my head every time something new crops up.
"It hurt itself in its confusion!"
I sure hope that isn't a problem YUSUKE has.
It's not for the moment, anyway. Shaolin only has the time to react with a wide alarmed stare as Yusuke plows his fist into his face, sending him skipping along the swamp like a stone.
I wish we could do the same to certain hegemonic monsters in our own world. That would be SO SATISFYING.
Shaolin doesn't respond with anything but grunts and spits as he pushes himself into a sitting position. He gets to his feet and is immediately alarmed AGAIN by a quiver running up them. I'm not sure if Yusuke REALLY hit him that hard or if it's Yusuke's second thundering approach, but...
How in the world did this guy manage to murder 99 martial arts masters??
Shaolin lands on his back in the swamp, with a nasty sloshing sound. Yusuke approaches him yet again, yelling at him to get up. He continues to sit in the mud, though, wiping his bruised jaw with a slimy fist. Shaolin makes a disgusted noise, suggesting he got some mud in his mouth, which is a strangely satisfying thought. He then says that while Yusuke scored a physical strength number of 155, but he's certain the kid easily tops 200 in actual combat.
Yusuke is pulling back for another punch, informing Shaolin that it's just for STARTERS, but the little menace makes a couple of winding motions with his arms from his crouching position, calling this a "Slicing Gale Aegis".
Kagura, eat your heart out.
Botan gapes in her concern, but Genkai looks as placid as ever when she says that Yusuke will be made into hamburger if he tries to charge through.
The air makes a worrying whooshing sound, but Yusuke just roars in rage, and leaps straight at Shaolin, fists outstretched and flying almost like he's SUPERMAN. Shaolin is in disbelief that Yusuke is leaping OVER his buzz saw air, though he's still getting a bit sliced up, with his arms crossed in front of his head as a guard. Shaolin gapes, but Genkai, in a slightly more excited manner, explains to the still speechless Botan at Kuwabara's side that Yusuke is avoiding the worst effects of the vortices by jumping in head-first. I imagine it's a kind of "less surface area" kind of deal, Yusuke turning himself into a long missile shape so that the slices don't hit him broadside.... Has anyone called an ambulance yet?
Yusuke collapses to the side with an exhausted chuckle and a weak declaration that he GOT Shaolin. He shakily gets to his feet, inviting Shaolin to repent for his crimes in Hell. Then when he reaches where Botan is celebrating his victory on the sidelines and Kuwabara is still laying there unconscious, he admits that he's absolutely done, shot, finished, kaput. Botan assures him that he doesn't need to worry about it, because he finished Shaolin in one smashing blow, having avenged Kuwabara's demise in style.
Wait... DEMISE??? Maybe Botan just means that in the sense that he fell in battle, because I'd be surprised if he perished this early in the manga while living out the whole anime. Yusuke wobbles, unsteady on his feet, as Botan marvels at how he really IS done.
But Genkai warns Yusuke in her typical dry manner that this fight is ANYTHING but over. Yusuke makes a questioning noise at her, so she elaborates that if Shaolin really is Rando, then he's just getting warmed up. The chapter is hardly half-over, after all.
Suddenly, some stilted coughs of laughter start to sound behind Yusuke, and a rumble passes through the ground. A voice asks itself how many decades it's been since its owner fought a human as Rando. A hand reaches up, nails lengthening into claws, knuckles cracking, while the voice continues to babble, this time about how it was so unexpected to be unmasked by anyone but Genkai herself. What looks like Shaolin's vest/tunic flutters in the air as it's thrown away, and the voice talks about pleasing being discovered is actually, and how much consideration needs to go into making Yusuke suffer and die. You'd think you'd like to shake the guy by the hand more than kill him if he did something you LIKE, but I guess it's always opposite day for demons or something.
Yusuke slowly turns to look at his ACTUAL enemy.
CHANGED? That is just NOT the same guy! Doesn't even KIND OF look like the disguise.Botan marvels at this other form that represents the real Rando, even seems a little impressed. Genkai, on the other hand, continues to look bored.
Yusuke is trembling, his body already put at its limit, as Rando approaches him, mockingly asking if he's alright, looking as pale as he is. But since Yusuke has never been one to recognize limits, he lunges for Rando, demanding he shut his yap. He proceeds to rapidly punch Rando again and again, but it doesn't appear to affect the heavily muscled target that just stands there stone still with a small smirk. Rando asks now if Yusuke is finished, commenting on how that wasn't anything like his previous attack, barely even registering, no power behind them. Yusuke groans in response, as some fine, silvery threads extend from Rando's lips. At first I thought he was spitting, but...
You can do just about anything with that aura stuff, huh?
Hell, Rando is practically drooling it when he corrects Yusuke, telling him it's an entire aura WEB, actually. He reckons he's probably the only demon who can spin one too, presumably because he stole the technique from a human master, although it DOES seem like something a spider monster might do before a human. In any case, the stuff wraps around first Yusuke's limbs, then his whole body, binding him tightly in what looks to be a sticky, gummy straight jacket so he can't move. Botan and Genkai stare with shock, the latter a bit less than the former, but showing SOME emotion nonetheless. Rando pulls on the rope of it extending out from Yusuke, saying it's tough stuff, so tough that you can't break it no matter how hard you try. He offers a VIOLENT demonstration of this by starting to swing the rope, and a screaming Yusuke with it, around his head.
No, please not again...
We get a close-up right on Rando's cold eye as he says he could swing and swing his victim all day, then zoom out again to see Yusuke slammed into the ground again to emphasize Rando's declaration that the rope of sticky aura would never snap. I guess it's a good thing the ground is soft swampland? Can't be THAT soft, though...Botan agonizes over how Yusuke is helpless and can't escape, but she's clearly in no position to help. Maybe Genkai...? Nah.
Rando drags Yusuke a little through the grass, the boy gagging a little, before announcing that he has an idea. Next thing anyone knows, the rope of aura has been tied up on the branch of a bare tree, and Yusuke is dangling upside down from it over a small pond. Blood rushing to his head, he asks what new sadistic trick this is, and suggests he just kill him, since Rando's got him helpless anyway. Rando says he'd like Yusuke to meet his little friends first, and reaches out an arm, chanting something unreadable. Yusuke sees some shadows emerging from the depths of the pond.
Oh, I hate those SO much.
Rando says they're fish summoned from the demon plane, which is distressingly vague. Also, he's summoned something ELSE: a tiny oni-type demon, which he clutches in his fist though its little mouth is wide in protest. He throws it straight into the pond, saying that the fish also have big appetites, and the little oni shrieks and splashes, munching accompanying its cries. Those stop in short order and the bones of the oni float under Yusuke, picked absolutely clean. It's yet another horrifying DEMONstration, an abundance of which seem to be available to Rando, who points a glowing forefinger at Yusuke and tells him that human flesh is a special treat for those fish.
I mean, if they have to get summoned from the demon plane to get a taste of it, that makes sense.
Botan gasps about Rando's pose, very much in line with Yusuke's when he's about to fire his Reigun. As Rando's forefinger glows brighter, Yusuke also gapes in alarm, speechless. Rando says he loves that expression he's wearing, and Botan laments how the demon learned the Reigun fired ONCE and already figured out how to do it. Genkai agrees that Rando is a quick study, back to a deadpan placid when she admits that he could surpass her, but as an EVIL master. She doesn't seem ENTHUSED about it... but she doesn't seem OPPOSED either.
Rando holds that shooting pose, the light at the tip of his finger growing all the brighter, and says he loves the sounds of humans getting eaten by his demonic piranhas as well. Once that light reaches a blinding pitch...
I'd say RIP to our main character, but we know from EXPERIENCE that Yusuke doesn't rest in peace.So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I don't think I've ever seen a more dramatic transformation out of a disguise than this one, and the other manga I'm covering has youkai regularly turning into animals and shit. It's no wonder the Botan's information on Rando didn't include a physical description; who knows if THIS is even what he really looks like. The weird spider tattoo across his face does strike me as an edgy kind of enhancement rather than his natural appearance, but then again, it's the kind of thing that anyone might have figure out a way to cover if they were getting a job at a convenience store, let alone trying to infiltrate the confidence of a martial arts master.
It's almost not fair that Yusuke looked to be doing so well in the first half of the chapter, only to be fed to demon piranhas in the second. But I suppose that's the point, to show that no matter how righteous one's anger or cause, it'll only give you so much of a boost against an opponent that is just that much more PACKED with resources. This is a creature that has spent years collecting all kinds of master techniques and killing their originators, and he sure is loving showing them off at the moment.
Yusuke really is going to have to pull a Houdini in order to get out of this one, or get his second-wind of luck that helped him win his last match.