A Wanderer's Trail
Chessboard
Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin or its characters. This was written strictly for my own enjoyment.
Plot: Enishi and Soujiro have been running from the law for about a year now. Saito has had enough and sends his best bounty hunters to bring them back dead or alive. Now, our two favorite ex-villains are stuck as criminal partners in order to stay alive.
Author's Note: This is my first Rurouni Kenshin fic, so I would really appreciate both praise and criticism. I got this idea from the many fanfic authors before me that put both Enishi and Soujiro together as traveling partners. Although, the inspiration mainly comes from Sasori's stories and XD's "Yesterday's Shadow is Tomorrow's Twilight". My thanks to them for the inspiration!
--
The two men glared at one another, as they sat not but a few yards away from each other. They had been that way for the past twenty minutes and almost looked like two statues hidden behind the old barn. Neither man had the inspiration, nor the ability to start up a civil conversation. They just sat and glared at each other, until they no longer heard the shouts and footsteps of frustrated policemen. Slowly, they both got up from their previous crouching positions and stretched.
It was still several minutes of glaring before anyone said anything. Finally, the tallest man of the group ran a hand through his greasy white hair. Still glaring, he snarled and a violent expression came over his face. He looked about ready to explode. Instead, he settled for a very polite, "This is all your fault, you idiot! You just had to steal food from that old hag's stand, didn't you?!"
The shorter man, still glaring, gave the older man a broad grin. "Me?" he questioned, "Forgive me, for being hungry after walking three days through the woods! You're the one who had to steal all that sake in broad daylight, Yukishiro-san."
"After traveling all this way with you, you better believe I would steal sake. Your annoying, but at least sake makes you somewhat funny," Enishi said gruffly. "Besides, I would have thought that the legendary Soujiro No Tenken could withstand a little hunger. Pansy."
Smile strained a bit, Soujiro replied, "What about you?! You just couldn't live without that bath, even when we saw that group of policemen patrolling nearby!"
"Hey!" Enishi snapped, "Can I help it if I don't wanna smell like you?"
Grabbing his throbbing head, Soujiro sighed. "Look," he said, "Why don't we blame each other later. Right now, it would be a better investment of our time to find an escape."
"Great observation, genius," Enishi said sarcastically. Thinking a minute, he asked, "You can run, can't you? I'm sure the police wouldn't be able to keep up."
"Then, what will you do, Yukishiro-san ?"
"Run the other way, of course. Why else would I use you as a decoy?"
"Yukishiro-san…."
Suddenly, they heard another police whistle and they jumped head first into the bushes behind them.
"Ridiculous," Enishi hissed out.
"What?" Soujiro whispered back.
"I spent years climbing to the top of the Shanghai mafia, eating rotting meat, fighting to the death, working sleepless nights; only to end up hiding under a bush with a smiling pansy." He hung his head in exasperation.
"Yukishiro-san," Soujiro said, smile strained and voice low, "Perhaps, it is best if we don't talk right now."
"Don't order me around!" Enishi hissed back, heading snapping back up.
The shout of men rustling through some nearby greenery confirmed Soujiro's…erm….suggestion. The two men listened in blissful silence as their hunters came closer and closer.
"I vote we just kill them all, leave the bodies where they fall, and head for the hills," Enishi quietly ventured.
Soujiro sighed, "While that would certainly make my life easier, I do want any more police deaths on my hands. I'm wanted enough as it is."
"So?" Enishi snorted, "Who's going to catch us? Those bumbling idiots?"
Soujiro didn't respond and started to further explore their surroundings with his eyes. Other in the distance, he saw a glimmer of hope in the pitch black of the night.
Pointing his finger towards the left, he exclaimed, "Yukishiro-san, look over there!"
Turning his head, Enishi squinted his eyes in the direction Soujiro motioned towards. After a minute or two, Enishi realized that the moonlight was playing off something in the distance. Looking harder, he smirked when he realized what it was.
"What do you say we knock these femme boys out and hightail it over to that cave, Tenken?"
"Now, that I can live with, Yukishiro-san," Soujiro smiled.
--
A group of about twenty police officers were desperately searching the woods outside of Tokyo. Some held torches for light while the others crawled on hands and knees trying to find the missing criminals.
"Where could they have gone?!" a uniformed police captain demanded.
"I don't know sir, but these are the forbidden woods. It wouldn't be wise to go any farther," one of his men pleaded.
"Those are just old superstitions! I want you to get in there and find them!" his superior ordered.
"Yes, sir," the lower ranked officer replied along with around ten other men searching the woods.
Suddenly, one of the men felt something brush past him. "What was that?!" he shouted spooked.
"What is what?" his partner asked annoyed.
"I felt something run past me!" the other man shouted.
"That's just the booze you had tonight, you drunken moron. Now, help me look and stop fooling around," his partner ordered.
"No really!" the other man protested. "I know I did!"
"Listen you!..."
Suddenly, his partner was silent. The other man watched with terrified eyes as his friend hit the ground with a thud. He looked up from his partner's limp form on the ground, and stared at the pair of emotionless eyes watching him in the darkness.
"I think," a cold, hard voice spoke, "that he should have listened to you."
"I completely agree," another cold, yet quite pleasant voice echoed.
The predator's smile was the last thing the man saw before everything went black.
--
Saito's office was filled with smoke as usual and Cho was surprised he hadn't choked to death yet. He now smelt like smoke, tasted smoke when he ate, and even dreamed of smoke sometimes. Cho shuddered. Now that was disturbing. He was about ready to throw out Saito's cigarettes completely, but Cho valued his life a little bit too much for that.
"Cho," Saito barked, "Stop day dreaming and give me your report."
Cho scowled and was about to speak when the office door burst open.
"Sir!" a panicked policeman shouted running in the room.
"Well, what is it?" Saito demanded as he continued to smoke.
"They got away again, sir," the man said hesitantly.
Putting his cigarette out in the ashtray on his desk, Saito frowned. He sighed. "I figured as much. Those two are beginning to become a real nuisance. It was bad enough when they were running around on their own, but they are a headache together. Well, it is no matter."
Cho and the other man in the room looked at Saito in astonishment. Why hadn't he blown up like all the other times? When had their chief ever been so calm?
"Are you serious?" Cho boldly asked the question on both their minds. "I didn't think you of all people were one to forgive and forget."
"Don't be ridiculous, moron. I simply found another way to deal with them."
Motioning to the officer, Saito said, "You are dismissed. Go tell the captain to call off the search. You won't find them this time."
Astonished, the officer bowed and left. Lighting another cigarette and inhaling, Saito looked out the window.
"Cho," he said, "I want you to take a message to Yamagata."
--
Kenshin surveyed the damage with calm and solemn eyes. He had just been leaving the Akabeko with Kaoru and Yahiko. It was around eight o'clock at night, and Kenshin had been surprised to see so much commotion going on. He excused himself from his friends and walked over to find the cause. Tired, Kaoru had surprisingly agreed to walk home alone. Yahiko, chest puffed up, had gone with her, after Kenshin had asked him to help get her home safely.
He walked over to stand with a small group of other observers. The police mainly ignored him, as he stood hidden in the crowd. A policeman was walking among the group handing out some sort of flyers. When he came to Kenshin, he thrust one into the rurouni's hands. "If you see these men," he said roughly, "inform us immediately." The policemen quickly moved on to the next person and Kenshin glanced down at the paper.
He sighed when he saw the faces of his two former opponents painted under the word "wanted". He had heard from the Oniwabanshu that the two had joined company somewhere along the way, so he wasn't surprised when he saw the poster. He was distressed though, since had also heard from the Tokyo police chief that the two men had caused a great deal of chaos over the past few months. Kenshin knew that Saito was growing tired of the two criminals dealings, and he knew that it wouldn't be long before Saito himself went for their heads. 'Those two are asking for trouble,' he told himself, sighing again.
Looking up from the paper, Kenshin saw a group of men in uniform talking near an old building. All of the men were nursing some kind of cuts and bruises, and they looked exhausted. Sneaking closer, Kenshin hid among some piles of firewood and listened in.
"Finally, Inspector Fujita is going to send someone else to fight those two. I heard they've beaten up more policemen in the past few days, than the yukuza has in a month!" one man with his left arm in a sling said.
"Yeah! Seriously, send someone whose actually a match for them!" another man with a black eye and busted lip added.
"I hear that it will be bounty hunters going after them this time," the first man said.
"Good! Finally, they will be out of our hair," another man added while holding his bruised rips.
Kenshin had heard and seen all he wanted to. The former manslayer tuned the rest of their conversation out. Eyes focused, he looked at the ground and thought a moment.
He owed Enishi and Soujiro both. He owed Enishi a life of peace that he stole from him when he killed Tomoe. He owed Soujiro the chance to find the truth for himself and live according to it. Both men were too young to die, and Kenshin couldn't just stand by and watch it happen.
He had to do something. He seriously doubted that any bounty hunter could kill the notorious White Tiger of Shanghai and the infamous Tenken of the Juppongatana. With Saito, however, he knew that he should always expect the unexpected.
Searching his mind for a solution, he thought of talking to Saito. That thought was immediately abandoned. Kenshin would rather kill a hundred more people, burn Tokyo to ashes, and carry Kaoru off into the night, before he would ever ask Saito for help.
'Well…' he though, 'The third idea isn't so bad.' For a brief moment, his eyes went amber and he grinned happily at that last thought.
Shaking his head, he forced those thoughts away. He reminded himself of the task at hand. Suddenly, he saw something on the ground. Bending down, he swooped up the item and examined it. It was nothing special really. It was a woman's hair comb that must have been dropped earlier in the day. Kenshin was about to set it down on a pile of logs next to him, but his hand stopped and hovered just a few inches above.
Putting it back up to his eye level once more, his eyes widened as something in his mind clicked. 'Yes,' he told himself, 'That just might be the solution.'
Setting the hair comb back down, he headed in the opposite direction of the Kamiya dojo. Walking in the moonlight, he silently strolled towards the edge of town. He silently thanked the higher powers that be; he still had some old friends left. His solemn expression broke into a smile as he headed towards one of the many ghosts from his past.
--
"I swear he wet himself!" Soujiro exclaimed with wide smile.
"I would be surprised, if must of those cowards didn't," Enishi smirked and then chugged another mouthful of sake.
The two penniless outlaws had ended spending the night in the cave that Soujiro had found. After scaring half the Tokyo police force out of their wits, the strange duo (at Enishi's request) had grabbed the hidden stash of booze and food in a nearby shed. Several hours later, they were laughing like old friends and trying to keep the room from spinning. Now nearly drunk out their minds, Soujiro asked a strange question.
"Yukishiro-san, did you ever wonder what would happen, if we did actually get caught one day?"
Turning to look at him with a "yeah like that will ever happen" expression on his face, Enishi replied, "Well, if it were possible, then I guess we would be Saito's dogs. Like those two crazy friends of yours. Um, what were their names again?"
"Kamatari and Cho," Soujiro informed him as flopped down to lie on his back.
"Yeah! Those two," Enishi agreed while turning into the same position. "That would suck wouldn't it?"
"Yeah, it would. But, I wonder, Yukishiro-san," Soujiro said softly, "If it would be better than always having to run from the law and steal."
Flipping over on his side to face the former Tenken, he hollered, "ARE YOU NUTS?! Working as their dogs is the best option, if we got caught!! Worst scenario, they'd torture us and execute us before a jeering crowd as an example!! I didn't survive the Bakumatsu and the streets of Shanghai, just for my death to become an afternoon entertainment!!"
"I guess you're right, Yukishiro-san," Soujiro told the worked up man. "I do think that we should find away to make some money though."
"Hnn," Enishi huffed, and then had concentrated look come across his face. "Come to think of it, I do have one contact that could help us in that area."
"Who?" Soujiro curiously asked.
"An old agent of mine that deals in our kind of work. He could set us up with some jobs."
"Exactly, what kind of jobs, Yukishiro-san?"
Enishi smirked at his companion. "The kind that would suit men like us."
"Huh," was Soujiro's only reply. He turned his gaze upward and stared at the cave ceiling for sometime after that. Even when he heard a drunken Enishi pass out and snore loudly, he continued his staring. His thoughts though, were lost to the world.
--
Kenshin walked down the dark streets of Tokyo and headed towards the outskirts of town. He was about half an hour's walk away from the dojo by now and he knew that the others must be worried. 'Oh, well,' he thought. 'It has to been done tonight and before Saito has a chance to complete whatever plan he has in action.'
Finally, Kenshin came to stand in front of a small, traditional Japanese house. It was pretty and welcoming, but Kenshin new better than anyone else what really waited inside.
Silent as a mouse, Kenshin leaped up on the roof and did a somersault into the backyard. He landed gracefully on his feet in a crouch next to a small koi pond. Straightening himself, he faced the back door and waited a few minutes. Feeling someone watching him, he lightly placed his thumb under the bottom of his sword's hilt. With the quietest of sounds, he flicked his sword about three inches out of the sheath. He smiled when felt a sharp blade wielded by a delicate hand place itself around his neck.
Releasing the hilt of his sword, he placed his hands up in the air and out to the sides. His hands now in a surrendering position, he heard a soft voice coldly demand, "Name yourself and I might let you live."
Smirking with a pair of amber eyes, he replied, "Stranger, huh? Have you no welcome for an old friend, then?"
Feeling his attacker stiffen in surprise, he continued, "I knew I had to get you awake and out here somehow. I thought that this was the easiest way."
--
Removing the blade from his throat, his attacker asked, "After such a long time, why have you sought me out, Battosai?"
"Kasumi-dono," Kenshin replied softly as he turned around to face the speaker of the graceful voice. "I have a great favor to ask of you."
Suddenly, the moonlight flowed across the yard and highlighted the small garden's occupants. Kenshin's surprisingly friendly amber eyes stared at the serene woman before him. Her almond eyes searched his countenance as the wind caused her long, ebony locks to flow around her face.
Looking at him in confusion, her cherry colored lips parted a little and only silence came out. Looking as if she was searching for an answer, her lips closed once again and she tilted her head up.
"Name it."
Kenshin grinned.
--
I hope to get some reviews out of this chapter and my main goal to try and keep everyone in character. I add a lot a description to this chapter, but I later chapter will probably require a bit more details. Anyway, tell me what ya'll think!