Prologue

The ground was soaked with crimson blood and all around lay the twisted bodies of Soujiro's family. Their frozen expressions were of pure horror, their clothes blood splattered. Yet 10 year old Soujiro just stood there calmly as the rain beat down on him, his small smile was unwavering. Shishio knew he had uncovered a rare gem, and the potential was obvious enough to him. Shishio stepped forward, maneuvering around the sprawled bodies as he approached Soujiro.

His tone was flat and his expression stayed as hard as it always did, "How do you feel... are you ok?"

Soujiro turned his head to Shishio and nodded, his smile was even larger now.

Shishio started walking away from the scene as Soujiro followed him, "Would you like to come with me?"

"Yes."

They continued walking on in the rain together; they were an odd looking pair indeed. Shishio was wearing no clothing except for the bandages that covered his entire body. In a lot of ways he resembled a sort of mummy, except for the eye and mouth holes. He had been the Japanese government's top assassin, rivaled by none. When they had lost their use for him they knew the only way to get rid of him was to try and kill him. Shishio had been betrayed by his employers; he was shot in the head and lit on fire, left to die as he screamed in the flames. But he lived. He now had a metal plate over his forehead, and the bandages protected his sores and burnt flesh. Soujiro on the other hand had a kind, innocent face. His soft, short black hair clinging to his face from the rain as his blue eyes looked ahead. He looked so small walking beside Shishio, the top of his head only meeting his waist. Soujiro's dirty brown kimono and hakama were splattered with blood.

Shishio continued looking ahead, "The only reason that your family wasn't able to kill you was because I gave you that sword, do you understand?"

Soujiro's voice was soft and weak, "Yes."

Shishio's voice was harsh and stern, "In this world, everything is survival of the fittest. The strong survive and the weak must die. Your family kept you as a slave, beating you like a dog for their amusement. Then, when they had had enough of you, they decided to kill you. It's not just you and your family, everywhere is like that. Right now you're weak, and the strong will exploit you and kill you."

Soujiro looked up at him, "I want to be strong like you."

"If you stay with me, and do what I say, then I will be the only one in the world stronger than you."

Shishio took the sword from Soujiro, they were approaching another home.Soujiro was a little bit confused, "Are we going in there?"

"Yes. We need clothes; we can't go far when you're covered in blood."

Shishio approached the sliding door to the house, and without any apprehension opened it. Just inside the room, a man and a woman had been sleeping on the floor. The man went to sit up, upon seeing the intruders. However, within a fraction of a second and a flick of Shishio's arm, he had been cut in half. Before the woman could even scream, her head was rolling on the floor away from her body. Soujiro's simple smile didn't waver as he followed Shishio into the next room. Inside this room, two boys were sleeping next to each other, side by side. Shishio smoothly cut off their heads as well, the entire scene had hardly taken 5 minutes, and had produced nearly no sound as well.

Soujiro began looking through the folded pairs of clothing that was on the floor near the dead brothers' bodies.

He held up a blue hakama and a white kimono, "Blue is my favorite color. Do you think that this would be good for me to wear?"

Shishio nodded as he began to inspect the items within the house, and as Soujiro started changing. He discovered some folded sheets and tied it to his body, similar in manner to a toga.

Soujiro opened a bamboo basket, finding rice balls inside. "Shishio san, are you hungry?"

"You eat it."

Soujiro was sitting next to one of the dead bodies, seemingly unaffected by it as he started to eat.

Shishio watched him, "Soujiro... you smile, even here?"

Soujiro stopped eating for a moment, "Well, at first I only smiled when I was being beat, because I knew it would shock them and make them stop. Later, because I was on guard and afraid so much, I tried to keep it all the time. It's become habit for me, I hope you don't mind."

"No, I don't mind it at all, I prefer it."

Soujiro went back to eating as Shishio thought to himself. That smile is going to give him a fighting advantage. His opponent won't be able to read his emotions.

"In the morning we'll leave."

It wasn't difficult for Shishio to begin establishing himself. He would simply find the biggest band of thugs in the area, kill their leader, and invite all willing to join him. Money wasn't difficult to come by either; his men would frequently go out and rob wealthy families while they looked for new recruits at the same time. It wasn't long before they had established a small base.

The strongest of Shishio's men was Genya. He was very tall and was well built with massive muscles. Although he was the best that Shishio had at the time, he wasn't exactly top quality. Shishio would have to earn more of a name for himself before he'd be able to attract better skilled and experienced fighters. As it was, Genya's abilities were more attributed to his massive strength than to his skills, although he was decent at the martial arts as well. It was him that Shishio had appointed to start training Soujiro for fighting.

Soujiro had a large weighted bag on his back as he weakly attempted to run as Genya had instructed him to. "I'm not here to play with you Soujiro. You need to run like you're serious or you're going to find my fist in your face."

Soujiro smiled and nodded, "Yes Genya-san."

Soujiro had sweat dripping down his reddened face as he continued to try and make pace.

"Get over here for a second, you're still not trying."

Soujiro made his way over as Genya put another stone into the bag. Soujiro sunk under the added weight.

"Every time you slack off like that I'm going to add more weight, understand? And at this rate, you're going to have a broken back if you don't move it."

Soujiro's thigh muscles were burning unbearable, but he struggled on, never losing his smile.

Genya shook his head, "If Shishio would let me slap you around like I want to, you'd be moving a lot faster than that. And don't think that I wouldn't want to; you piss me off to no end. To think that someone like me has to do such demeaning work as this."

Once Soujiro had been taught the basics and was strong enough, Shishio had taken over in his training. While Genya had done a lot to build up the strength in Soujiro's legs, it had been Shishio who taught him how to execute his incredible speed and swordsmanship. Shishio's power grew quickly and soon more and more skilled members joined him. It was at this time that Genya saw his importance fading as he became outclassed. He left the organization without word, and although Shishio put out the word to kill him if he was seen, he was soon forgotten.

It was roughly 7 years later that Kenshin defeated Soujiro and killed Shishio. Soujiro was now 18, and trying to learn how to live again.

Freedom was Impossible

Soujiro had been traveling from town to town for months now, but he wasn't content to stay in any one place too long. It was an entirely new world to him. When he was with Shishio, he would go to towns like these, but he was always there to assassinate someone. He would coolly sneak him, murder the target, and leave. He had never really been able to walk the streets or eat the local cuisine, nor had he wanted to at that time in his life. He also thought about his encounter with Kenshin constantly. Before meeting him he had been an emotionless killer, but Kenshin had broken him. He forced him to realize that he had never wanted to be a killer, and that although he had been smiling after he killed his family, he was also crying. The flood of pent up emotions that had been unleashed during that confrontation had been unbearable. Not only that, but Kenshin dared to exclaim that the strong had no right to hurt the weak, and that it was the duty of the strong to protect them. Now, here he was, trying to figure it all out again.

Soujiro had just finished eating some fruit he had found growing. He was lucky that it was still summer and he had strong doubts about what he'd do once winter set in.

As he continued to walk on a man emerged from the shadows of a dark street to approach him."You're a hard man to find Seta Soujiro."

How does he know my name? Soujiro noticed that he had a red band of cloth tied around his arm. Ah..

Shishio had long ago established an underground network throughout most of Japan. It was the job of these members to spy on the local officials, and also to pass on important information to any operatives that passed through their locations. However, approaching Shishio's elite to pass on information could be dangerous. It was important to be easily recognized as a member so as not to get one's head cut off. That was the reason behind the red band. Furthermore, the band could be easily detached and hidden when not needed so as not to rouse suspicions from others.

Soujiro continued walking, "Shishio's dead, so you should probably find a new profession."

The man grinned, "Ah yes... but there's someone new now who has taken Shishio's place, and he's requesting that you join him."

Soujiro narrowed his gaze, "Tell him I'm not interested."

The man gave a slight laugh, "Even still, you'll be meeting him soon."

With that, the man pulled off the red band and walked away.Soujiro was puzzled, who could take over? Everyone of any importance was arrested by the government and dealt with. It's probably just some minor war lord trying to make a name from himself... Either way, I need to find a place to sleep tonight.It was getting dark as Soujiro walked outside of town and found a nice removed area by a tree to lie down.

He was just starting to fall asleep when heard a woman scream."HELP! Oh please help me!"

Soujiro sprang to his feet; the young woman was running towards him. "What's wrong!"

Tears were streaming down her face, "There's a man in town, and he tried to rape me! I'm too scared to go back alone, please come with me while I walk home. I'm so scared he'll still be there!"

Soujiro tried to calm her down, "We should probably go to the police, do you know him, or can you remember what he--"

He choked on his words as a rope suddenly tightened around his neck. The woman laughed and stepped back as her accomplished tightened the garrote. He desperately clawed at the rope, a trick! I didn't here him sneak up on me because of her screaming and shouting.Soujiro fell to his knees as he continued to grasp at his neck.

The girl kicked him in his side, "Hurry up and pass out already!"

Soujiro's vision was getting blurry as he desperately tried to cling to consciousness. He reached behind himself and tried to grab at his attackers arms, but he was so weak that he could hardly brush them with his hands. His sight started to fade to black, no damn it, I have to fight this! Soon his hearing faded out too, and then his sense of feeling.