Hey, I meant to get this up earlier, but my Bleach fic sort of got in the way. Ha, started with KatsuKir and made IshiHime instead. I don't own Samurai 7/ Seven Samurai; Akira Kurosawa (the ultimate samurai mastermind) and the people from Gonzo do, not I, the Otaku Samurai...
"I swore I'd protect you, but for a long time I was the one being protected. I can't tell you how much your words -that we'd fall together- gave me the strength to move and grow as a samurai." Katsushiro turned from the graves of the deceased samurai to look at her. A sad smile was on his lips as he spoke. "The 'scent of battle', to please you I yearned for it. But to get it I had to deny my heart..."
Warm tears were pooling in Kirara's brown eyes and streaming down her face. Clear drops of water landed on the leather bands around her wrists. She stared at his green eyes, for they were deeply locked on her, not daring to move away. Kirara wanted to tell him, she wanted to tell him how she now felt.
Her ears slightly pricked at the sound of twigs cracking and leaves rustling. "Are we interrupting?" a deep, very familiar voice inquired the pair.
Katsushiro's gaze was lifted from hers and onto the two figures of Kambei and Shichiroji. He turned his back on them. He didn't notice the woman he had loved so much wiping her eyes of the water streaming down her face. "All this time Sensei, I've wondered what it was you saw in me. What made you choose me as the fifth samurai. And with every injury, every battle, I came closer to the answer. You told me before not to value death, to live on and finish what I've begun. However, for this battle of Kanna, the most noble samurai of us all are these ones here. The four who gave their lives."
Katsushiro looked up at the moon and rose his hand up.
"Are you ashamed of living?"
Staring intently at his palm, Katsushiro clenched his hand to a fist and turned back at them. Kirara had stopped crying and was looking down at the dirt and leaves, holding her water crystal. It was glowing a light aqua blue.
"No." he looked at Shichiroji and then to Kambei. "It means I can fight another battle, and honor their names...just how you have, Sensei."
Without another word, Kambei walked up to Katsushiro and held his katana up to him. From where she was standing, Kirara could hear a gasp coming from Katsushiro.
"I pass this on to you, Okamoto Katsushiro."
Katsushiro seemed to be at a loss for words. "I-I..." gulping and recollecting himself, he grabbed the sword. "I'll use it well."
Strapping the experienced katana to his waist, he pulled his hood onto his head and headed into the forest. This would be the last time staying at Kanna Village...the last time speaking with her...with them.
Kirara didn't say anything as Katsushiro walked past her. His face slightly turned and their eyes shortly locked. His smile was replaced with sorrow. His eyes were full of somber grief. Farther, farther he went into the forest surrounding the south side of Kanna. Finally, until his body couldn't be seen.
Kambei turned around and started walking back towards the village. He would be leaving tomorrow afternoon. Shichiroji silently followed him back. "It seems Shichiroji," Kirara could hear Kambei avow lightly, "that my days as a samurai are over... and his have just begun. The apprentice has finally surpassed the master..." The samurai's voices drifted off into the night.
She took up a sharp intake of air. No! He can't leave like this! Not without me telling him how–
Kirara didn't even finish her train of thought. She ran into the gigantic shadows of trees and earth.
The deep scent of pine needles and sap, combined along with the dry fragrance of the ground's coarse exterior invaded,
Running.
She gasped in air as she came across the cloaked figure she was so desperately and forlornly trying to find. "Katsushiro!!"
He looked surprised as she came up towards him, panting and out of breath. "La-Lady Kirara...?"
"Katsushiro! You can't leave! N-not like this!"
"I'm sorry, Priestess...I must go. There," Katsushiro took a deep breath. "there is no place for me here anymore—"
"There is always a place for you here! You saved us all from the bandits! Why wouldn't you have a home here?"
"Kambei saved you from the bandits. I have never been able to save you...from Ukyo, even back when I first met you in Kogakyo..." His teeth were clenched as he was reminded of all the times he could have, but was just too weak to. "...I was the first one who let go of your hand."
Tears were starting to burn her eyes again.
"Th-that's not true, Katsushiro—"
"Yes it is. I just get in the way...I'm just a burden." Anger was starting to rise in his chest. Why does it matter so much to her that I leave?! She doesn't care for me! "I, I must leave Kanna. You should go back to the village, it's late. Goodbye...milady."
Katsushiro turned from her and started slowly walking away.
"Please..." Kirara was pleading to him. " please stay here...with me..."
That hit a nerve and Katsushiro stopped abruptly with his fists clenched at his sides.
"Why?! Why want me, when you have Kambei?!" he raged. "There's no need for me to be here! You don't have the same feelings for me as Sensei!"
He started to walk again. He wasn't going to stop. Katsushiro didn't understand this. He couldn't understand this. Why, why now? Why did she have to do this when he was so close from leaving the borders of Kanna? Leaving her.
Katsushiro was running away. Like he always did.
"You should of told me way before this had all started..." These were his last words. The last things he was going to say to Kirara before he would be long gone from this place. Kanna Village. A milestone for Okamoto Katsushiro. His samurai path and the path of his new life as one. A real one. "...that you never had an interest in me. I would have stopped from hurting you like I did. I'm sorry for being such a...damned burden! I shall take my leave now. Goodbye— ...Water Priestess."
Kirara was speechless as he disappeared from her blurred vision. She wasn't crying. She was too anguished to cry. The water just dammed in her eyes, daring to pour down but not. They were mocking her.
Katsushiro.
Katsushiro...
"Katsushiro!!
She fell to her knees. Rocks and twigs penetrated the flesh of her knees. She didn't care nor feel the jabs of the many small jagged stones in her legs. All she could feel was her heart crumbling to pieces and decomposing before her. "Katsushiro..." she barely even whispered. Tortured emotions flooded her every being.
Hurt...
Despair...
Sorrow...
Torment...
Her eyes went wide. Realization hit her.
Rejection...
This is how she made him feel when he kissed her. Rejection. This was how it felt? This, this undeniable hurt? This is what she did to him back before the last battle?
And now he did it to her.
This is what Katsushiro felt?...how, how heartless could I have been back then to him?!
Guilt.
Kirara's weary brown eyes opened and lethargically drifted to the window. It was still dark out, and she figured it was around four in the morning. The past events of that day so long ago played through her mind; Kirara saw herself reliving the war and it's tragedies every time she woke up.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw her own tragedies.
She sat up on the futon and turned her head to see Komachi sleeping soundly next to her on her own futon. She was sleeping as she normally did; Komachi was sprawled out on the futon and covers, arms and legs out in an awkward position. Kirara smiled slightly. Her little sister was the type of person who could always make you smile no matter how sad or angry you were.
She looked over at the window again. The moon shone bright white in the wood shutters of the hut. Slivers of light rested on her body as the rest of the room was the dense color of night. Kirara laid her head back down and stared up at the smiling moon.
It had been a little over a year-and-a-half since she last saw him. Since Katsushiro left Kanna Village. She could remember it so well, the first time she had met him. A thief had stolen Rikichi's pack of rice, and Katsushiro quickly brought him to the ground. He then insisted to help pick-up the fallen rice.
Okamoto Katsushiro.
He was the only one that was ever on her mind. It was tearing her apart. She wanted to see him so bad. Kirara wanted to run into his arms and never let go of him. She wanted to tell him she loved him. She wanted him to stoke her hair and reassure her in her despair. Whenever she cried, Kirara wanted Katsushiro to hold her and stay with her. And she wanted to show him that she really did love him back.
Love.
The emotion that either makes or breaks you. And it was breaking her. It would always be breaking her. Mentally. Physically. Emotionally.
She found that over the months, she hasn't been eating as much as she should. Kirara wouldn't be sleeping as much as she should. She would always wake to the same dream. The same forest, the same scene, the same pain. The same tears.
Kirara couldn't live without him near her. Being alone for the past months and feeling this pain of her loss drove her to believe that she really needed him. She really loved him. It wasn't mixed feelings anymore. No doubts. No...distractions.
Kambei and Shichiroji were gone. They departed the afternoon after Katsushiro did.
She didn't know how she wore that smile that day. Kirara just, had to. She needed to be strong for the villagers, even if she wasn't the priestess anymore. They relied on her; and they all knew what happened with Kambei, Katsushiro and her. They didn't speak of it, but Kirara knew that behind closed doors, some did. Some people were never what they seemed.
She was starting to get disgusted of the village. Of the forest. Even though they had prospered greatly since the war, she still saw pain everywhere she looked. Not from the others, but from her. But then, there was also her sister:
Komachi.
Komachi had lost a loved one too. Kirara would still sometimes see Komachi holding the scroll Kikuchiyo had given her. There would still be some tears in her eyes, but Kirara could tell that the girl was happy. She was proud of her loss. The one she had loved saved them all from the flying capital. The death of them all.
Kirara's eyes started to water.
She had made up her mind. She was going to find him. Even if Kirara had lost all chances of him loving her back in return.
She had to make things right. There was no turning back.
And the first stop to look? The place where Kirara and Katsushiro first met:
Kogakyo.
Wow. Normally my first chapters aren't so long. Of course this is only my second story. Wow. Please review! Would be greatly appreciated! Constructive criticism would be nice, no flames. Flames hurt the heart...and your fingers if you hold the match too long (haha that tells ya somethin'). But, if this sucks, do tell me. I know the "Katsushiro-Kirara" thing is sort of cliche, so...yeah. Also, tell me if there are any typos.
It's a work in progress. So work with me. I can't really guarantee fast updates either (sweat drop). Thanks!