The Seven Deadly Sins

Pride

A muffled scream could be heard. It came from a large compound. The night was still until that moment.

Soon after a man emerged from the building. It could be seen that he was wiping his katana of something with his hakama. If you looked beyond him, you could see the slaughtered corpses.

The man quickly put away his instrument before closing the door behind him. His fiery crimson hair was visible through the pitch-black night. His navy haori had dots of blood as decoration. His white hakama had blood smeared on them from walking among it.

He swiftly made his way across the courtyard. The giant Buddha statue in the middle stared blankly as he walked past, not knowing how many people he killed.

When he reached the end of the gardens, he turned towards the Buddha. Someone hid in its shadow. "What do you want?" He asked harshly.

The person emerged from the shadows. "You don't have to be so rude," The person, scolded lightly, "Battousai."

It was a large man, almost twice the first man's size. He had very rough features. The thing that the first man, Battousai, noticed though was the katana he was holding. The grip was almost too small for him to hold properly. The second man had an arrogant air about him.

"What do you want?" Battousai asked once more.

The unknown man rolled his shoulders in anticipation. "A fight." He raised his katana so it pointed at Battousai. It was almost touching his nose.

"If you do not want to die tonight, you will leave now," Battousai stated bluntly. "I'm not in the mood."

The man just laughed at him. "Imperialist pig! I know I can win against you!"

As soon as he finished his sentence, Battousai lunged at him. His once sheathed sword cut through his neck with ease. His head rolled off his shoulders and onto the ground. The whole action took only a second or two in total.

Battousai calmly cleansed his blade free of blood once more. He glanced at it blankly before putting it away. "Amazing," He heard someone muse.

--

"Kagome! Run back to the well!" Inu-Yasha shouted.

The said girl just kept firing her arrows, fighting off a never-ending sea of demons. Naraku had sent all these demons to steal their small number of shards.

She could see Shippo running towards her. A demon dived from the sky, aiming for the kitsune. Kagome screamed at him to duck. An abnormally large blade sliced through it.

"Damn it Shippo," Inu-Yasha growled.

Sango ran over to the other three, followed by Kirara. "Kagome-chan, if you leave, the demons would leave. You have the shards," Sango tried to convince the miko.

The group heard a yelp of pain. Everyone looked in that direction. "Miroku!" Sango yelled.

The monk was breathing heavily and had a hand place on his chest. It wasn't hard to see the gash that ran across it. Sango urged Kirara to go to his aid.

"Go Kagome," Inu-Yasha told Kagome softly when he saw her sapphire eyes begin to water. "Miroku…" She murmured.

She nodded to Inu-Yasha before making a break into the massive forest. She sprinted through the trees. Some of the demons were following her.

Ducking through a couple more trees, the well could be seen. She used the last bit of energy she had to run to it and jump in. She almost hit the bottom before a familiar blue light surrounded her.

She looked down at herself. Her green hakama her mother had made for her were in shreds. Through the slits she could see tiny streams of blood traveling down her legs. Her juban wasn't any better. Over all fine. She'd been in worse shape before.

I can't wait to take a shower, Kagome thought. I'll have to apologize for the clothes.

The light faded a second after her thoughts. She looked around for the ladder her family had put in so she could climb out easily. It wasn't there. Strange.

She shrugged it off and climbed out with the aid of some wild vines. When she hauled herself over the well's edge, she looked around.

It wasn't what she'd expected to see. She was in the middle of what looked like a courtyard. It was elegant, even if Kagome could barely see due to the lack of light. Kagome looked upward. Black met her eyes. It was night.

She continued her observation and found everything in order. 'Where am I? Or better yet, when am I', Kagome thought to herself. She glanced around again and found no evidence that would help her questions.

Then, as she looked again, she saw something on the ground. She saw that it was blood and followed the trail. It led around a corner of the building. "Imperialist Pig!" she heard someone bark out and turned her head towards her left. Two men stood, one was tall and scruffy, and the other was just a bit taller than she.

Kagome found him interesting. His crimson hair pulled back, except for bangs, and his amber eyes were piercing as he stood his ground against the other man. She could see their glow from where she stood.

She had two trains of thought that started because of him.

The first thought was if Inu-Yasha was alright.

The only reason she had thought of him was because of the unnamed man's eyes. But his eyes were different, they showed nothing, yet everything, all at the same time. As soon as the big man was half way done with his speech she saw the red-head quickly pull his katana out and gracefully sliced upwards through the other man's neck.

Which made her think about how cold hearted people hate annoying lectures, much like Sesshoumaru. The Tai-Youkai wouldn't have given the scruffy man the time of day, he would have just cut him down. Almost like the red-head had done.

It was almost too fast for Kagome to see. It was one of the many tricks she had learned while watching Inu-Yasha, and Sesshoumaru spar, and thankfully, she was glad.

All the while the red-head stood emotionless. 'He must be a youkai,' she thought. She reached out with miko ki, but only found human ki return. She focused her gaze on him, he was breathtaking, she thought the night suited him. Mysterious and free-willed.

She didn't realize she had given away her position.

--

"Show yourself!" Battousai yelled. Someone else was also in the garden,. Why had he not noticed, before? No he would have known. From behind the Buddhist statue a tiny figure emerged.

It was a woman in old clothing. She was wearing old miko garbs, with the exception of her hakama's being dark blue. They were in ruins, the latter went for her bloodstained haori.

He started towards her, and her eyes grew with fear and she turned from him and began to run. He didn't expect how fast she would be. But that was no challenge he could easily outrun her.

He gained speed and was almost upon her, and then she turned around and ducked as he jumped out to slice her with his katana. He missed.

Thenext time he wouldn't.

He stood from his position, and saw her huddled form on the ground; she wasn't going to fight back. Then suddenly as he was upon her, a light came from her and hurled him back. He did a somersault to avoid the trees, and instead of hitting one landed in front of one. He stared at the light pink barrier and watched her.

He watched her for a few moments before she uncoiled herself and looked around, her eyes met his and he wanted nothing more than to slice her into as many pieces as he could.

She went to the ending of the barrier and touched, it reached to her, glowing purple, blue then pink, he could tell she was strengthening it, unconsciously or not, he did not know.

He snarled his anger and came up to where she would have been had the barrier not been in the way and tried to stab it. The barrier didn't relent.

A simple stab would not work, but maybe Ryūtsuisen would.

He backed uo and ran then jumped as he freefell down he raised the sword above his head and then brought it down.

The barrier didn't even move as the force of the hit was reverbrated back into him. He fell and the woman gasped. His head shot up and he saw that there was an open wound on her upperarm, and she was losing blood fast.

Apparently as he was trying to break her barrier, she had tore the right sleeve of her haori off to try and dress the wound. He glared at her.

And then she screamed.

She grasped her head in her hands and fell to the ground. Kneeling and reeling back from the force of whatever was going on in her head. He half expected it to be from the blow, but it couldn't have been, since the barrier protected her.

"What the hell kind of technique is that!?" she screamed at him, "My head fucking hurts you asshole!, how dare you! I didn't attack you, so why the hell are you attacking me!?"

"So I may not have any witnesses." He replied coldly glaring at her, how dare she speak to him that manner. Did she not know to whom she was speaking too? Obviously not.

"Damn you!" she hollared as he tried to ease the pain by rubbing at her temples. "Damn you to the deepest pits in hell!"

"I have commited far to many crimes to not burn in hell, I do not need to be damned." He remarked. And she glared at him.

"If I bring the barrier down will you kill me?" she asked suddenly.

"Yes." He replied without missing a beat.

"What is the date and Era?" she asked. Again another random question.

"September 21, Meiji Era. Why?" he asked.

"Damn well! I fucking hate that damn well! What do you want me to do here!? Become a whore! Fate be damned! I will not become one of those!" she screamed at the heavens and punched at the sky.

After her screaming fit she quieted and looked up at the sky, staring at it. "Just once I would like to just go home, and stay… is that too much to ask?" she asked the heavens, her eyes searching the sky for some sort of answer.

He stared at her; he'd (on more than one occasion) had yelled at the fates for dealing him such harsh blows in his life, but it seemed as if she was fates favorite toy.

Which could only be true, because if it weren't he would kill her in an instant. Not that he wasn't going to anyway.

He watched as examined the sky and then looked as if she were going to cry. Her features turned into a pout as she tried to keep her emotions at bay.

She sighed and looked down at her appearance, "Why couldn't I have had a normal life? Did you're favorite toy make a mistake?" she asked and then sat down and looked away.

He glared at her, waiting for the barrier to drop so he could kill her.

"What Era did you say this was?" she asked not looking at him.

He was caught off guard and was readying another attack, "Meiji." And he struck doing the Ryūtsuisen once more.

This time she looked up and instead of screaming her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fainted.

He only had to wait a few more moments before her barrier dropped, and she was left lying on the ground. He stalked up to her taking the utmost care in trying not to make a sound, as to not awaken her.

He poised his blade under her chin and against her soft neck. She was so pale. More so than he. He stared at her, she was a sight to behold. Beautiful yet not overly so. Her midnight hair contrasting with her light skin, her heart shaped face looking so innocent as the moons rays hit her.

She was beautiful and he hated it.

He put more pressure on the blade, and was about to move to slit her throat, but felt himself freezing. He growled. He was not weak. She should have already been dead by now!

He waited a few moments for his tense body to relax. When it did he tried again, putting a bit more pressure on the blade, but found he could not move. She was more trouble that what she looked like.

Finally, he came to a decision.

He pulled the blade away form her neck and sheathed his katana. He stared at her. Why couldn't he kill her?

There was something about her that spoke to him.

He glared down at her, and heard men coming up behind him. His guard had been down (his glare became more heated as he stared at her).

"Hey, you gonna do her, cause if you ain't we will." One of them said as he tried to push Kenshin aside. At that moment a surge of protectiveness went through him and he struck out.

All his aggressions from earlier came rushing back. He unshealthed his katana and struck at all three unsuspecting men.

He bent down and picked her up, she was so light. Like nothing at all. He kicked one of the bodies out of his way and headed to a place he hated, yet would be the only way to truly rid himself of the girl and get himself some nice, warm sake (all at the same time).

--

He went behind the Inn as to not have attention drawn to him. He called a maid over and told her to retrieve the woman who owned the Inn.

The maid scurried off to do his bidding, and within moments the woman was before him. Kenshin held out his arms and she looked at him with curiosity.

"Who is she?" the old woman asked.

"I don't know?" was his response.

"What did you do to her?" was her next question.

"Nothing of consequence," was his response.

"I don't believe you." Was her statement as she took the girl from his arms.

"What shall I do with you, pretty little thing?" she asked to no one in particular.

"Whatever you wish, she's you're problem now." Was his comment.

"She is not. You brought her here, you will protect her, I cannot. Look at my old bones, withering away as we speak." She stated.

"Fine, but she will be working here, as I work out there. I also get free sake." He bargined.

"Deal," she said and they shook on it, "Now take her inside," and she tossed the girl back at him.

"Old bones, my ass." He growled out and began to walk inside.

A sly grin crossed her face as she watched him walk to his room with the girl. A maid stopped and looked at her, "Well, get back to you're job, I'm not paying you to stare at me!" she growled out as she went inside to get her medical supplies.

Her last thought being, 'Now if only that pride of his doesn't get in the way…'

--

A/n: This is a joint fanfiction between SapphireRyu(me) and NobodyNParticular(cousin).

Also, the old woman is out favorite character! (besides another you will meet in the next chapter) P.s. The old woman doesn't have a name. (yeah she's that cool.)

We will only be posting when we both have gone over the chapters, and have evaluated them to an extent.

Remember this is a joint project, I am not the one to receive reviews. We are.