Prologue
Gaiko gazed down at the vision before her. Love and sorrow, grief and hope surged in her mother's heart.
'I created something…I created.'
'No…I am vessel…life has passed through me.'
He was a blessing, but he was cursed with her hair, her eyes…her spirit. On some instinctive level, she knew that this child would bear all her lost intentions and her wondering heart. She knew because, she willed it.
"Please, dear fragile heart, my…Shinta. Find your feet. Don't ever move. Don't ever stop," she gasped between tears.
"Give everything, but keep all within your heart. Don't let anyone see, but let them watch. You will be wanted, you will be needed. You will have everything, but you will have nothing."
"I love you Shinta, endlessly. I hate with a vengeance. I…" she stopped herself, tears rolling down her face, reality came to her once again. She looked up at all the officials who stood before her; this moment was real. Even at this beautiful, blessed moment, her destiny was settled. She would die. Shamed all her life and denied the honor of sacred birth. She had given life. Her bottom lip trembled with anger, thin tan shoulders shaking with sorrow, her eyes blazed with a sudden awed fear.
'Gaiko,' a tiny, fearful voice drew her back. It was her midwife, the Himura girl. So this is the world.
Gaiko's face went cold, her lips drawing into a thin line. All the passion, love and hate that swam in her amber-blue eyes drained away to reveal a depthless, impassionate gaze.
"Take me," she quietly commanded as gracefully laid her tiny baby into the arms of the midwife.
The men and women surrounding her were too shocked and awed to move, they stood gaping at the red, battered beauty that knelt before than. They had come prepared to fight an animal. They had expected to wrench the baby from her thin arms. But now they all stood before her shamefaced, they had dared enter this sacred place, they had looked upon a woman's birth.
With a strength she didn't have Gaiko sprang to her feat, her fiery red tresses swinging about her hips with the force of her movement. Long, dirty, glossy strands sticking to her sweaty face. She ignored the sharp pains cursing throughout her body, the blood running down her legs, the tearing of her heart. The strength of her spirit diminished the pain to a distant ache. She defied the impossible. She would pass over with all the pride that was denied her in this life. She would live on, in the legacy of her son. No one would erase him from this earth; he would give his life, knowingly, when ready.
Gaiko stalked towards her child once again, ignoring the protests around her and the trembling fear in the eyes of the young midwife that held her little Shinta. Touching his tiny cheek with all the gentleness she could muster, she whispered, so soft only his new heart could hear. "You will always live… and you will destroy this life that has harmed me," Gaiko breathed, her quiet voice shaking with intensity, amber-blue eyes gleaming with consternated passion.
Gaiko pulled back. She rose to her feat she locked eyes with those of the trembling midwife. Himura Koshiko could not look away; she had never seen anything as terrifying and beautiful as Gaiko standing before her.
This woman who had been her friend, and slave, her personal inspiration and foreign mystery, was to die. Gaiko didn't speak but the message was clear. With that, Gaiko turned and lead her captors out of the small tent, her head held high to embrace her dishonor.
Author's Note
Mysterious, I know. I was yearning to read a Meiji era RK fiction, so I set out to write my own. My other story is AU, so I figured I couldn't really complain about the lack of Meiji stories if I wasn't contributing. However, I found that the Meiji theme that I wanted to explore wasn't exactly coming to me. I'd wanted to write a Rakunimura piece or a K/K post jinchuu piece. But this idea of Kenshin's origins just wouldn't leave me alone. I don't want to give anything away about this story with a lengthy note, so you'll have to rely on the summary.
Thanks to:
Nahui, MightymightyMunson for beta reading and helping with the summary. Thanks to Akai Kitsune for giving Gaiko her name.