Oooh, so close to alliteration across the board. They might have chosen a word like "bellow" to make it slightly poetic, but I suppose these aren't QUITE synonyms. "Roar" has a much more animalistic bent to its meaning, and at the very least, we know that this Byakko character isn't going to be human. Given how interesting Genbu's design was, I'm looking forward to seeing Byakko and how his design manages to make a translator abandon the siren song of a great alliteration.
Is that my tinnitus, or...?
As the boys continue on their way through the castle, Yusuke asks Kurama how he's doing, and Kurama responds that he's still on his feet at least, so it's not so bad. I don't know, people can still be able to walk and yet be in really bad shape. Hiei retorts to this by asserting that Kurama won't be much use in a fight, regardless, and the rest of them will have to deal with what's ahead without him. Kuwabara tells them not to sweat it, because he'll take whoever is next. Yusuke scoffs that he almost FAINTED at the sight of the first guy, but Kuwabara yells for him to shut up, insisting he just wasn't ready
Kuwabara tell Yusuke he wasn't just sitting around while he was training with Genkai, holding up his right hand and saying that he figured out how to manifest his Reiki Sword with just his bare hand through trial and error. On the spot, he does just that, showing off to the others what he's capable of. Hiei says it's not bad - not quite the dead weight he thought Kuwabara was - and while that's about as close to a compliment as Hiei will probably EVER get, Kuwabara flies off the handle again. He brandishes the energy sword at the unimpressed Hiei and asks if he wants a taste of it, Yusuke flatly telling him to cool his shit.
His temper is quick to quell, as he backs down with a rueful grin, saying it's no big deal. It's mostly because he wants to continue showing off his research, which he says didn't stop at the manifestation without aid. He commands the sword to extend with a call for them all to watch.
Yusuke seems impressed that Kuwabara's sword can turn into a spear, which no doubt will make it easier to stay at a greater distance from a particularly aggressive melee enemy. He chuckles that he can extend and retract it at will, and it remains extremely difficult for me not to make some obvious jokes about this.
I mean, I know you hit puberty relatively recently, kiddo, but surely you've figured it out before NOW...
Kuwabara thrusts a thumb at himself, and says that while the first bruiser caught him off guard, he's ready for ANYTHING now. He says "bring it on", but when he dismisses his Reiki Sword, he cradles his forehead in his hand, complaining of dizziness from slinging all that aura around. Annoyed, Yusuke snaps at him to save any other tricks he has for an actual opponent. Gee kid, I hope you don't need a LONG TIME to recharge from that little show-off session!
A massive roar from a great fanged mouth sounds from elsewhere in the castle, making the boys pause and look around in concern. A rumbling passes through the surrounding stone, but it probably only contributes a little to Kuwabara's tremble as he asks what THAT was, characterizing the sound as "otherworldly". I mean, you are in a demon castle, my dude. Kurama informs them that it was Byakko's roar, and it sounds like he's in a pretty shit mood.
A few calls to press on and seconds later, they end up out on a parapet in the open air, connected to another across some distance by a narrow walkway, and what looks like a big ARENA in between. There's a large figure, about three times the size of the little humans, on the opposite side.
That's... just a furry, right? Maybe if he starts munching on walnuts I'll inexplicably take him more seriously.
Byakko curls his clawed fingers in frustration, complaining about being cooped up in this depressing castle, without delicious human flesh to eat. These are the reasons he cites for being so irritable to begin with, but it's an added insult in his eyes for the Underworld to send two puny humans and a couple of traitors to fight them. Shouldn't you be happy that humans, with succulent flesh no doubt, have wandered into this situation? It would seem to address one of your irritants.
If you can win.
The great tiger-man flexes, shouting at them that he slurps down humans by the "six pack", raising ALL KINDS OF QUESTIONS about how humans are packaged and distributed in the supposed demon economy. He further threatens Hiei and Kurama with shredding, and feeding them to the rotten scamps, which I assume are the gutter imps they met down below? An effective communicator Byakko is not.
Yusuke balks, complaining that Byakko's voice is grating enough to make him feel like his innards are being gouged. I don't generally perceive sounds in my guts, but go off my guy. Kuwabara steps forward, declaring he's had enough of Byakko's bullshit, and as Yusuke calls his name in question, Hiei expresses his surprise that Kuwabara is intending to take Byakko all by himself, having assumed all that was just talk. Kuwabara makes a threatening and rude gesture at Hiei, babbling about how one-on-one is how street fighting is done. Yusuke observes his trembling from the side and suggests dryly that it must be from eagerness, because he's not buying this for a solitary second.
Regardless, Kuwabara cracks his knuckles, determined to do what he said he would, which Yusuke just interprets to mean that Kuwabara can't back out now that he's talked himself into a corner.
Byakko questions the single human coming toward him all by himself, then starts laughing, asking if it was the Underworlds plan to make him die from sheer mirth. Kuwabara points at him and demands he cut it out, yelling that they'll see who laughs as soon at Byakko gets his ass down into this arena. Smiling Byakko says he'll pass, and there's no need for him to waste even the minor amount of energy it would take, as he plucks four strands of hair from atop his fluffy head. He tosses them in Kuwabara's direction with blessing to go ahead, and the fluttering hair confuses evokes confusion from the kid. At first.
Damn, I gotta get me some of them.
One of these creatures lunges at Kuwabara, screeching, and Kuwabara screams as he's knocked aside and blood spurts from his chest where he'd been clawed through his uniform. He manifests his Reiki Sword at this point, but Byakko calls this impudence, and gleefully declares it'll be useless against all four of his creatures at once.
Two of them are now bounding for him, and he swings wildly for them, but this appears to be a largely impotent retort.
Pun very much intended.
while Yusuke clenches his fists and teeth in his tension beside him, Hiei placidly states how he's never seen such pathetic sword skills, predicting the creatures will lay him out in a matter of mere moments. Kuwabara crouches, grunting in pain, trembling already from the effort his inept attempts have taken out of him. It's looking BAD, folks.
Yusuke calls for Kuwabara to switch off with him, citing the fact that his shotgun blasts are better at taking out multiple targets, and that Kuwabara's fighting style is just NOT meant for this kind of battle. Byakko laughs that Yusuke is just being polite, suggesting they all jump in at once, even though these runts shouldn't have tried to fight him in the first place. Kuwabara refuses this suggestion himself, though. Face bloodied and cut, he says he's not tagging out until "Fuzzy Fangs" faces him himself. It's a shame Kuwabara can't fight back with his nickname game - it's MUCH more developed than his sword skills.
Kuwabara threatens to KILL Yusuke first if he interferes with the fight; a threat that couldn't be emptier if Kuwabara TRIED. Foot elevated onto the railing on his own personal parapet, Byakko asks if Kuwabara hasn't learned his lesson yet, as though the situation has been grinding on for hours or something. He commands his creatures to rip off Kuwabara's limbs one-by-one, and to leave him the torso and head for his supper. Now I'm imagining Kuwabara as the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and I really wish I had the time to edit out a meme to that effect. Kuwabara is far less amused, balking at the oncoming renewed attack.
That's an entirely fair objection.
Yusuke yells at Kuwabara not to be a jackass and to switch with him, because that sword is not going to be able to take these things out. Kuwabara looks over at Yusuke screaming his name, but instead of responding to this plea, staring down the narrow path between them seems to give him an idea. He starts running back toward Yusuke on the other side of the bridge. Byakko interprets this as Kuwabara losing his nerve, encouraging him to flee back to his companions all he wants, but warning him that it's not going to make any difference; the creatures are going to devour them all anyway.
Meanwhile, Kuwabara is urging himself to RUN RUN RUN, until the moment when he whips around to face the creatures all chasing him across the bridge, organized into a nice, neat little line. He asks Byakko if he wants to see some REAL nerve, and as his team looks on with shock, he commands the glowing Reiki Sword in his hand to grow.
Ew, that's looking pretty obscene. Some sort of "creature centipede" connected with aura instead of a contiguous series of digestive systems.
Byakko admits that this was smart of Kuwabara, but points out this is hardly a killing blow. He draws attention to the fact that his creatures are still hungry, and the one in front lunges further at Kuwabara, willing to work around the energy spear running through its mouth. Cringing, Kuwabara turns tail and runs, the string of creatures trailing after him like a grotesque ribbon. He sprints around the tower, the end of the spear dragging along the stone walls and gouging deep tracks into them as he tries to outrun the hellhounds he's leashed.
Eventually, he catches up the the tip of the spear and ties it off to the handle in his hand.
That's somehow MORE obscene than the panel above, lol.
Vein popping in his temple and vibrating with rage, Byakko growls ferociously, and clenches his clawed fists, telling Kuwabara he should have let the creatures kill him. Kuwabara points at him in challenge, asking what he's REALLY got, so high on his narrow victory over the creatures that he forgot how difficult it was for him to get this far. He demands that Byakko haul his furry butt down and face his opponent himself. I can't tell if Yusuke is grimacing at Kuwabara's overconfidence or if he's baring his teeth at their enemy in a show of defiance.
Either way, I think Byakko is just about fed up.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I'm starting to see a pattern here regarding how these particular bosses present themselves within the story. Much like Genbu, Byakko has started off with a vast cockiness, inviting them all to come at him at once, and when only one of the team advances to face him, he deploys part of his body to assault the offending enemy. Obviously it's not the exact same; Genbu literally blew himself apart, whereas Byakko more delicately creates support for himself with the deliberate plucking of some hairs. Still, they both fight initially only in part as opposed to their WHOLE selves like their opponents are forced to do. It's a unique advantage of battle, and I'm curious to see (or rather, remember) if the others follow this quirky little pattern.
Otherwise, I'm quite bored with Byakko's design. He's just a giant beast-man, and I've seen enough furry content scattered across the internet for it to fail at being novel for me at this point. Combining a general human form with animal features is as old as antiquity, of course, so it's clear that this design wasn't going to be surprising from the beginning, and probably wasn't meant to be. Still, I'll always favor a more creative monster than one that strikes me as conventional. This is no shade on YT, as there's only so much time to develop these guys, but I had to bring it up.
I thought Kuwabara's solution to Byakko's little creatures was pretty interesting, though, because lining them up to spear them all at once took an impeccable sense of timing, if nothing else. Considering he was leading them over to his friends, one of which was injured, this could have gone pretty badly. Not that there was anywhere to go BUT right where the rest of the team was once he had to keep running from the still aggressive creatures, but at least he had them all on a track, so to speak.
And as funny as it was that he managed to tie off his Reiki Spear to its own end to create that disturbing little carousel of creatures around the tower, I have to wonder: How long will that ring of energy last now that it's detached from its source?
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