AN: I was so happy to rediscover Rurouni Kenshin, the manga that I loved the most as a child. It seems to get better with time, and as an adult I could better appreciate the historical and psychological undertones that makes the story an incredibly complex and rich work of art. So I couldn't help but dream up stories to continue the lives of their vibrant characters.
This is my first fanfiction, written in collaboration with Chichanz. Hope you enjoy.
4/19/18: Edited to flesh out the scenes & be more reflective of the tone in later chapters.
Chapter 1 - The Awakening
"Mmm…" with dreamy eyes partially closed, an auburn-haired swordsman watched his beautiful young wife bent over a pile of freshly fluffed sheets. She patted down the soft covers of their clean white futon before moving on to the clothes, working at a steady and leisurely pace as though cherishing her mundane task.
Kaoru had insisted on taking over her dutiful husband's signature chore for the day to let him get some rest. So, there he was, sitting outside on the patio on a pleasant summer night, enjoying the slight breeze twirling his bangs. The clear liquid in his teacup was no longer steaming. On its surface, the full moon's reflection beamed, showing-off its perfect symmetry.
The steadily rising heat of recent days signaled that it had been a few months since they'd made their vows on one particularly blooming spring day, and the pair had happily settled down in the dojo afterwards.
Kenshin let out a small sigh. Life couldn't have been better, spending both waking and sleeping hours next to the woman he loved more than life itself. It felt like the times of strife could finally be put far behind them, giving a chance for the blossoming rosiness of two destined soulmates to mature and bear sweet fruit.
Yet, predictably, the world outside hadn't really changed.
His gaze began to shift focus.
A week ago:
Red hair swayed in the wind as the former rurouni walked down a familiar path leading towards the market, one pole slung over his shoulder, balancing two buckets. He was whistling a tune of indeterminate origin, which may have once been sung by a woman who worked the fields on clear blue days before a wave of cholera had passed over their village.
He reached a wide street that was flanked by rows of shops, the scene a riot of colors from the people and wares it contained. His favorite tofu vendor had moved to a larger stall towards the far end of the junction, so he had to walk just a bit further this time. A cacophony of noises surrounded him, with shopkeepers shouting over each other to entice customers inside. In spite of it all, he didn't fail to notice the crash of broken bottles coming all the way from the other end of the road. A ripple of panic started to spread down the boulevard.
He quickened his pace to see what was happening, but the sheer number of people running his way impeded him. There were screams now, and sounds of bodies unceremoniously crashing into wooden structures. Judging by the approximate source of the fuss, some disgruntled men had likely picked fights outside a restaurant in broad daylight. Someone knocked the buckets and pole off his shoulders. It was fine, he thought, since it freed him to move without restraint.
When Kenshin got to a break in the crowd, he glimpsed a small child taking the full impact of a large bottle on his face. The boy fell backwards onto the road, glass shattering on his head cutting into him. Four brawling men were still bellowing their faces red and throwing objects in indiscriminate directions, seemingly oblivious to the collateral damage they had just caused. Just then, a rumble approached from behind that sent the pebbles around their sandals reverberating. "Everyone, get out of the way!" a shrill voice warned urgently.
Kenshin glimpsed a carriage speeding through the thinning crowd at full speed. The rowdy men began running in opposite directions but the bleeding child was still crying in the middle of the road, and the galloping horses didn't have time to stop.
Caught between trying to subdue careless grousers and saving a helpless young one, Kenshin made the obvious choice. He leapt, ducking low to sweep up the boy in one neat motion, just seconds before pounding hooves trampled them. His momentum was far in excess of the width of the street, and as he braced for impact he held the boy tight in his hands. They rolled and crashed into a cart of straw hats, with Kenshin using his body as a shield. "Ororo…" The former rurouni's eyes turned swirly.
"Gasp! Are you two alright? Hang on, we can get some help!" The cart's owner exclaimed from their left.
Being only mildly scuffed, Kenshin was about to politely thank and decline the old man when he detected an anomaly in the small body lying in his arms. The boy wasn't breathing. A glass shard must have driven itself into the little one's brain in the split second that they had rolled on the ground.
"Shotaro? Shotaro! Oh, thank heavens you've got him!" A woman, likely the child's mother, scrambled to a full sprint towards them. Kenshin's heart sank. While the woman was reaching for her son with a look of pure relief and gushing gratitude, the swordsman's throat had turned into a choking lump of stone. Her expression soon changed when she beheld the sight of her boy.
Her inconsolable cries pierced the blue sky.
Kenshin hung his head as he stood over the grieving mother, deaf to the shouts and murmurs of people swirling around them and the police whistles that rang all around.
"This one is sorry for your loss, ma'am," he quietly said, knowing full well it wouldn't do her any good. Like a fading wisp he threaded through the crowd.
Soon enough, the four ex-samurai who started the ruckus would be apprehended and face harsh penalties for property damage and inadvertently injuring eight people, including the little boy. None of that mattered. A child's life was still needlessly lost that day, slipping through his fingers like sand to the wind.
"Kyaah!"
Kaoru's sudden cry startled him out of his reverie. A strong gust had sent the loose clothes flying, throwing a billowing swath of fabric over her face and shoulders. Kaoru waged war with Mother Nature to reclaim what was theirs and when victory was hers, she turned to glance his way with a mix of exasperation and embarrassment, laughing a little. He smiled back reflexively. The brunette shook her head, then set about collecting and folding the rest of the sheets.
As soon as her back was turned, Kenshin's smile faltered. He hadn't told her what happened at the market that bright sunny day. Neither did he mention the instances in the weeks and months prior, when he had jumped into an alley to chase some teenaged youths away from the broken pulp of their peer, nor when he had dived from a bridge to catch the deliberate fall of an orphaned young woman about to be sold into slavery.
He had kept all these things to himself, because the last thing that Kaoru needed now is for her bright new life to be sullied by any more violence.
Inside him, an old murky darkness began to well up. It was a feeling all too familiar and one he could never bring to welcome in their years of acquaintance.
Perhaps I should go back to the forest to release my Ki, he thought.
In the past, Kenshin would have slipped away to the bamboo grove in early mornings before nary another soul stirred. But recently, he had been rather… occupied. Waking up next to a breathtaking wife on the heels of ten long abstinent years marked by aching solitude made it that much harder to tear himself away just to brood alone. Besides, he's happy now isn't he? Why should he entertain his old demons?
Finishing the last of the laundry pieces, Kaoru caught Kenshin's gaze still directed at her. Smiling sweetly, she collected their clothes and stood up sauntering towards him. She planted a little kiss on his temple, drawing a genuine smile to his lips.
Yes, he was happy, and home right by her side. Kenshin wrapped his arm around the slender waist of his wife and they adjourned to their bedroom for the night.
The moon waned overhead and a soundless breeze blew through the starry sky to close their evening, accompanied by a song of cicadas in the background.
Midnight:
Cerulean blue eyes shot open at the sound of heart-wrenchingly pained groans. Kaoru whipped her head around, realizing that it was coming from her husband who now sat up on their futon, head in hands. Is he having nightmares again?
"Kenshin, are you alright?!"
Instinctively she reached her hand out to him in concern, then let out an audible gasp.
Two unmistakably amber orbs stared piercingly back at her as the flame-haired figure sucked in ragged breaths with much difficulty. She recoiled back in fear, heart pounding. Her movement caused him to flinch and a certain look crossed his face, prompting him to get up hurriedly before stumbling out the door.
"Kenshin!" She chased after him, catching his sleeves.
"Let me go, I can't be here like this," he said urgently, darkened eyes flashing at her. With a tug, the cloth was freed of her hand and he was off, leaping over their dojo wall easily once he regained stable footing.
Kaoru fell to the floor on their porch, stunned. Her throat was dry, eyes suddenly teary, and a bolt of panic seized her chest. "Kenshin... wait... come back!" she cried to the wind. It took just another second before she snapped out of her momentary paralysis, knowing she couldn't just sit still. Grabbing a lantern and jacket along with her wooden bokken, she set out in haste.
The raven-haired fighter sped through all their familiar paths: along the river, across the bridge, and through the market streets, calling out his name, hoping to catch a glimpse of red hair in the darkness. She back-tracked through the same paths once more in case she happened to miss him the first time around, but her beloved was nowhere in sight.
She considered waking Yahiko who was staying at the Akabeko to recruit him in the search, but immediately squelched the thought. It seemed wrong to bother him so suddenly at this hour, and besides, she felt a twinge of shame for being unable to handle this on her own. He was her husband after all. She couldn't go running to everyone else when the two of them should've been able to sort things out together first.
Dejected and exhausted from her panicked sprints, Kaoru returned to the dojo. Sleep was out of the option, so she would just have to wait until morning before continuing her search again. She clenched her fists.
She would bring him back no matter what.
Within minutes of leaving the dojo, the ex-hitokiri Battousai had forged a path deep into the bamboo forest, stopping at its center. Closing his eyes, he gathered the embers of his Ki to let out a roaring scream, releasing every ounce of pent-up energy in one spectacular blast. Promptly, the landscape changed around him, bamboo shoots and leaves torn asunder by his outburst whirling sharply in the air. The force drained from his body like steam seeping through vents, and as soon as the darkness had been unleashed, he collapsed to the ground. Scattered leaves drifting through the air landed with a hush on his back.
Dawn broke, bringing shafts of light creeping from the edge of the grove. Its touch illuminated a cross scar peeking through curtains of red and green.
Kenshin awoke with a start, realizing he was blanketed by nature instead of tucked under warm sheets next to his slumbering wife. A dull ache throbbed in his mind, sparing no recollection of having left home. Confused and disoriented, the ex-rurouni brought one foot in front of the other to trek back towards the dojo through the riverside path, where a still-panicked Kaoru found him. The bags under her eyes were dark and puffy. Alarmed, he reached out to put his arms around her.
"Kaoru? What happened?"
She did not reject his advance, which at the very least was a good sign. She hugged him back firmly, then cupped his face and looked up into his eyes. They were pure amethyst.
"You are back," she sniffled, relieved, as she buried herself in his chest. He pulled her in tighter, before releasing her slightly to look at her face. "Kaoru..." he started, the question in his tone.
She looked down, apparently disturbed by what she had witnessed. "You reverted back to Battousai last night."
Kenshin froze. A vague recollection of looking at her fear-stricken face emerged in his mind. "How did this happen?"
Kaoru shook her head, "I'm not sure. I woke up in the middle of the night and you... you had those eyes… and then you left so suddenly."
His gut churned. He remembered going to bed with an unsettled feeling that he'd thought he managed to push aside moments before lapsing to subconsciousness. Standing there in the arms of his beloved seeing the deep pools of worry reflected in her eyes, he knew what he had to do.
"This one is sorry to have frightened you, Kaoru. This one is unworthy of your forgiveness," he apologized sadly.
"Baka!" she squeezed his nose.
"Oro?" he flinched, not quite expecting that reaction.
"Don't you remember? I want to stay with you forever, through thick and thin," her lips were pursed and her face puffed up in indignation, but her eyes showed exactly how much she meant her words.
He smiled in spite of himself. Cute, he thought, as he took in the sight of his breathtakingly strong woman. For just that moment, it felt like nothing had changed. Kenshin gave himself a mental kick for being distracted. Sighing, he drew her body close to his own once more, stroking the soft hair on the back of her head.
"Kaoru, let's go home. We both need rest, that we do," he coaxed.
The brunette was not about to let this slide, and pushed him away to hold at an arm's length. "Yes but... what brought this on? Did you get triggered by another bad omen? Are there more enemies after you?"
"Do not concern yourself with it for now, Kaoru. There are no bad omens, there's not," he tried placating again, to no avail, since Kaoru only tugged at his sleeves with a pleading look.
"Kenshin, please... I am your wife now. Let me share this journey with you."
Her face showed an expression that broke his heart every time – the same one that had marred her beautiful features the night he turned his back and left for Kyoto. He couldn't help but relent.
"This one promises to explain to you when we get back," he said, hugging her again. "So please don't worry, and let's go home."
Kaoru huffed, not quite reassured, but didn't protest anymore as they walked back along sunlit paths bordering shimmering waters of the river. She clutched his arm tightly the whole way.
