Jump Chapter 216 - The Two in Black Costumes Part I (7/11/1998)

Thanks to Wuken

Five medium-sized strands fly wildly through the air, and retract back into
the right hand of the
puppeteer, Gein. Aoshi mutters aloud, "Zankousen..." (Cutting Cable Lines).
"Oh, just what I
expected from the Onmitsu Oniwabanshuu Okashira. You certainly do know a
lot, don't you? This
steel wire is littered with fine diamond dust. It can slice meat with just
a touch, and if you are
entangled within it, it can also carve bone as well."

Aoshi responds. "Do you even understand how much pain and suffering this is
causing my
companions?" "It's useless", Gein says in return. "That is something you
cannot avoid, no matter how
hard you try."

Gein lowers his hands to his sides, and calls out in anger, "Where did you
hide my corpse doll!?
Iwanbou #3 is my mechanical masterpiece, and the human doll is my most
beautiful model, and I
desire to have both of them preserved! The latter one is my greatest work,
as it deceived even the
eyes of the Hitokiri Battousai! The corpse doll is proof that my models
rival those of humans, which
are the models of God himself! It would be most disappointing if that doll
rots, and you owe it to
future generations to let it be, even if it is outside of the law!"

"If such a thing happens [the doll rotting, that is], then that's fine",
Aoshi replies calmly. "Now, let me
repeat the question I asked you before."

"Where is Kaoru Kamiya!?"

Gein exhibits a slight bit of shock on his face for a second, then quickly
recollects his thoughts.
"Whatever", he says, breathing a sigh. "Your appearance is the same as
mine. We both are clad in
black costumes which resemble the darkness, so we should be of the same
kind. If only you could
come to understand my artistic soul to even a small degree... but... after
all, you are just an ordinary
human like the rest of them."

"Prepare to return to incompetency, Shinomori Aoshi!"

The Zankouken flies out, splitting gravestones and trees in its path.
Shinomori Aoshi stands still,
quietly. The cables fly toward him, but strike gravestones instead of his
body. Aoshi has dodged all
five diamond-studded cables, and now appears to the right of Gein.

"What?" Gein says in disbelief. "Damn it! That was fluid movement [ryuusui
no ugoki], eh?"

With blood trickling down from the wound on his right cheek, Aoshi says, "A
thing which cuts
through water can pass through something which entangles. It's futile to
try and beat me, Gein. This
is something that YOU cannot avoid, no matter how hard YOU try to."

Gein grins. "Heh heh... with a straight face you say sarcasm that is
impudent... however..."

The puppeteer raises his hands, and the gravestones around Aoshi fly out of
the ground. Aoshi
notices that the gravestones are connected to Gein's Zankousen, and he
manages to dodge the
deluge of stones before they explode on impact behind him. Gein mocks him,
screaming out "If I
cannot entangle the thing which cuts through water, then I will strike him
with a 'spray'!"

Aoshi is thrown to his knees, and in the next second he senses about a
half-dozen gravestones
floating behind him. Gein sends these gravestones violently down on Aoshi.
"Enishi, Heishin, and
you don't give a puppet master the credit he deserves. In the first place,
I was able to control
Iwanbou #3, like at the priest's living quarters at the temple, with
amazing agility. No other person,
when given the task of controlling the doll, can do it so convincingly,
even if he tried his best. With a
single finger, I can support a weight of two hundred kilograms, and I have
just begun to perform the
delicate operation of moving it about with 1/10 of the effort necessary.
This kind of movement is
indeed possible for someone such as me. So, compared to that, manipulating
tombstones isn't
difficult at all. Now then, afterwards..."

"What do you mean, 'afterwards'?"

Shinomori Aoshi stands tall with his two kodachi unsheathed, and the debris
which used to be
gravestones sit there crumble about him. "What's wrong with answering my
question now?"

"The Oniwabanshiki Kodachi Nitouryuu", Gein says. "That attack just now
almost cost you your
arm. I see that your skill has improved. However, that should be a
disappointment to you. While
that alone surpasses my power, from this point on, in this half of the
world, as long as there exist
many who are just like you, there isn't a way that you can settle into the
role of the strongest. In the
300th year of the Edo dynasty, the greatest group lived in the darkness. If
you don't serve the
Onmitsu Oniwabanshuu's strongest Okashira, then that is very disappointing
and extremely
pathetic."

"Do you think you can break my hand and I, Shinomori Aoshi?", Gein says.
"For the benefit of your
beautiful goal, here am I, a new warrior! You surely have no objections to
that, 'You of the world of
darkness'!"

"Sorry, but I do", Aoshi replies. "About what you said about there being
many assuming the role of
the strongest... I don't think that's bad at all. But, about what you said
a while back... when I
entered this new era, the techniques of our clan had to be secretly and
quietly annihilated. However,
they were still used only for greedy men like yourself, until finally, in
this world there came to be a
great number of these individuals that it caused a calamity for us. Looking
at it that way, when we
are allied with them then of course we would have to be consigned to
oblivion with them in the
darkness."

"That is the Onmitsu Oniwabanshuu Okashira's duty... to stand fast and
finish it all to its end."

Aoshi's serious face does not impress the puppet master. "So that's the
answer you got from your
participation in the battle in Kyoto," Gein remarks. He looks eerily at
Aoshi with cold eyes, and
says "Your appearance is the same as mine. We are both clad in black
costumes but it seems like
you and I are completely different creatures of the darkness."

"Splendid! But you belong to a party who opposes and wishes to prevent my
investigation of
'beauty'! I shall eliminate you with this hand!!" Gein reaches back,
preparing to fire another round of
the Zankousen at Aoshi.

He never gets a chance to.

Aoshi kicks the sheath that lay at his feet during the entire time he was
talking, and it flies with a high
velocity towards Gein. "The sheath!!", Gein thinks, as it strikes him
harshly in the right shoulder.
Aoshi dashes towards his opponent immediately afterwards, and crosses his
swords together.

"Oniwabanshuu Kodachi Nitouryuu Gokou Jyuuji!!"

Gein sees the attack coming, and fires the Zankousen upwards with his left
hand, wrapping the
cables around a thick branch of a tree. "How impudent!", he screams, as he
flies up and away from
Aoshi's double-sword swing. The sheath that was hurled at Gein breaks
cleanly in half upon impact
with the ground.

From his high perch atop the tree, Gein mocks Aoshi. "Spinning thread is
another way I can use
these cables. Also, for a doll manipulator, performing with both hands is
basic trait. From this point
in, it will be a true..."

The lower portion of Gein's mask breaks away, revealing an old, withered
man, with an unshaven
chin and age spots on his cheeks. Gein is shocked at how close he came to
getting hit by Aoshi's
Gokou Jyuuji.

Aoshi looks back, and replies with a coldness in his eyes, "That's right.
From here on in, it will be a
true battle of the creatures of darkness".

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