Tangled Web of Fate
Fanfiction based off of: Rurouni Kenshin
Original Story: Watsuki Nobuhiro
Prologue
She sat sleeping gently against the corner of hut, a habit of hers that she never quite got rid of over the course of ten years. A moonbeam illuminated her china-doll face, showing off dark bangs that ran to her brow. Long dark strands of hair ran over her shoulders in a loose braid that fell to her waist. Her pale arm was clamped subconsciously around the metal sheath of a katana, her right hand laying in a position that could reach the hilt of the blade in a moment's notice. She was wearing loose red robes and black leggings, the style that most men wore those days. Her bandaged chest rose and fell with every breath in a consistent rhythm.
There was an abrupt knock on the door. Her eyes snapped open immediately. Though she could not have been more than her mid-twenties, her dark eyes shone with understanding and maturity, having seen more blood shed than most people twice her age. She stood up, her left hand clasped over her blade, as she walked quickly over to the door.
"Who is it?" she asked in a tone so soft that it sparked with danger.
"We're here for our money, pretty lady," a coarse voice cackled. "We've seen you here and there, with all those bags, and we know that you're alone! You're no match for us, girlie!"
The door slammed open and she briefly counted ten men, all armed.
"You're no match for us!" the leader repeated, grinning. "You better surrender all your money to us, and come with us quietly! I bet our boss would give us a good heap of cash to us for you!"
She moved deftly and without signal. Her knee connected with the leader's stomach, sending him flying into two of his subordinates and crashing into the open. The group of men immediately stepped back from the door as she stepped into the moonlight. Her dark, cold eyes gleamed as she spoke in the same soft tone, "Do you wish for your lives?"
The men looked uncertainly at each other, and gained confidence as they reminded each other that the opponent was one lone woman. They ran at her with a yell, blades raised over their heads.
She stepped forward with assurance, her blade flashing only twice before those that were before her fell to the ground, dead. She stared intently at the leader.
"Are you sure you still want to stay?" she asked, a hint of a smirk creeping onto her face.
"Are you mocking me, lady?!" he roared. "I'm not like those useless weaklings!"
He ran at her wildly, with no type of formation or style. She caught his blade between her fingers, amused at the surprised eyes of her older opponent.
"Sorry," she said with an apologetic smile, "you asked for it."
Her hilt of her blade rammed into his stomach with such force that he was sent crashing into the trees, unconscious.
"Please take him as well as your dead friends," she said, addressing the astonished remaining two, "and be off this mountain by dawn. If I should find you…" She smirked.
"Wah—we'll be gone, lady, long gone!!"
They ran before her like scared children, carrying the bodies over their shoulders and racing away.
The dangerous woman wiped her sword and sheathed it after their departure. She began to head inside when she heard a branch crack behind her. Grabbing a bow and quiver from nearby the door, she whipped around and notched the arrow.
It was the leader, bloody in the head and stumbling here and there, quite unstable. He looked pitifully humiliated, and was roaring with the fervor of a mortified man.
"Who are you, lady?!" he bellowed. "Tell me your name, so I can track you down and kill you one day without hesitation!"
"There won't be another day," she said curtly, and let the arrow fire, lodging itself into his throat. He fell back with a thud, blood streaming from his throat.
She let out a breath, disgusted, and turned to go back in. Opening the door, her lovely profile slipped gently into the darkness of the room, blending in perfectly with the cool night.
The moon shone gently on the back of a being whose existence began under it. For the rest of the night, the legendary Sokusai slept peacefully under a white moon.