Hello!! You can call me Glory! This is my first FanFiction, so constructive criticism only please! I warn you now that I love cliff hangers, making people cry over a good piece of literary work, surprise but happy endings, and I am a full time college student so updates may take a while since class comes first. But other than that! Enjoy the story! (Btw, my notes will be at the end of the chapter from now on because I know that you all just want to get to the story.)

~ Glory Crayons

Disclaimer: I do not own all previous characters and events mentioned in this FanFiction that happen in the Manga/Anime. I do however own my own characters and events that happen in this FanFiction.

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Nisshoku Makkuro

Chapter One: The Woe and Drunkenness of Hiko

Hiko sat in a stupor as the sake began to take its effect, his hair mussed up and greasy and his clothes askew. He didn't really like the weak sake that the brothels sold, but at this point he didn't really give a damn whether he got drunk quickly or not. Over the past months since the death of Shishio he had felt as if he was without a purpose. This had never bothered him before so why did it now? So to dull the emptiness of his pointless existence he turned to sake… and pretty women. Tonight it was Kumiko's turn to cater to his intoxicated body.

"Hey… why don cha go get me summore sake, huh?" He waved the empty flask in front of her heavily make-upped face that all the prostitutes seemed to have these days. She nodded prettily and left for the kitchen to bring him yet another flask of the watered down rice beer. He watched her hips sway heavily to the tune of the warbling singer and drum. He was too busy thinking of how much money he would give her after that he didn't notice a man sit down across the table from him. Hiko shook the hair out of face and attempted to focus on the man that now sat before him. He could tell that he was a fighter, his muscles barely contained in his tight western shirt, and foreign, with his long blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Don ya have any manners?" Hiko questioned the man in his heavily slurred speech. Why would anyone sit next to another in a brothel? Why wasn't he with a woman? When Kumiko returned with the sake she set it on the table between them and left. Now he was pissed.

"See wha ya did?!" He angrily poured the sake and downed another cup. The strange man did nothing except bow slightly but apologetically. His eyes were down cast as he spoke.

"I am seeking a man," he said in almost perfect Japanese, "perhaps you may know where I can find him?"

"Depends on who you're lookin' for…" Hiko hiccupped drunkenly.

"A man of great fighting skill… Master Shishio in fact. I have travelled far to see –"

"Well you wasted your time. Shishio died some time ago." He didn't miss the flash of darkness that crossed the stranger's eyes when he said this, even though his intoxicated eyes he could see that this man was dangerous.

"I am sorry to hear that." The man said almost too calmly. "How did he come to that end?"

"My dumbass apprentice got him…" Hiko blurted that out before the thought even crossed his mind that he should take care with what information he gave out. "Shishio died of his own accord though."

"Your apprentice must be very good then." The man leaned in and poured Hiko another shot of the sake.

"Not anymore…" Hiko was still disappointed in the path that his pupil had taken; even though he turned from it long ago it would still haunt Kenshin for the rest of his life. Hiko knew this and he knew this well. He downed the sake.

"Oh? Tell me, what art do you master in?" The man seemed to be numbing his senses; Hiko forgot to think of him as dangerous. He even forgot that Kenshin wished to remain secret in the whole affair.

"Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu. It is unstoppable!" He proclaimed proudly to the brothel even though no one paid him any heed; they all were used to his drunken rambles. He clapped the foreigner on the shoulder and laughed. After that moment, Hiko had no recollection.

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When he awoke in his small hut on the mountain side he was met with a very unwelcome sight. That man was seated on a small cushion in the corner, in the same place that Kenshin had slept when he was still Hiko's pupil.

"Can I help you?" He asked rudely though the throb of his hangover, yet another unpleasant side effect of the watered down sake from the brothel. He knew that he wasn't with a woman last night, because when he checked his purse he still had all his money… that meant this man payed his debts for the night. Hiko fixed the stranger with a pointed stare.

"Why, I am only here to serve and learn –"

"Look I don't need…" Hiko swerved suddenly from his way out the door to face the blonde person on the cushion. "What did you say?"

After a moment, where the foreigner had a smug smile plastering his too perfect features, he spoke. "I said I am only here to serve and learn… Hiko-sensei." In less than two steps, Hiko was in front of him and lifting him off the ground by the front of his shirt.

"Look! I don't know what happened last night, but I sure as hell am not going to be your sensei!" He spat the word out with utter contempt.

"But I think you will be." Again the man was speaking way too calmly. "You see, I have a written agreement from you." And with that he held out a square piece of parchment. It read:

I, Hiko, promise to take Weirtzen as my pupil and teach him all that I know about Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu in exchange for all my debts being payed. Under no circumstances will I break this bargain. Signed… etc.

Hiko at first thought this was a clever rouse, but he blanched at the sight of his sloppy, yet quite plainly his, name written in his own hand at the bottom. "I have your agreement," the Weirtzen stated flatly, "and a man always keeps his word." Hiko threw the paper in the other's face and stormed out into the yard, cursing him self and the man to hell and wondering what else he might have told the foreigner.

"Well!?" He threw back behind him to the foreigner. As Weirtzen stepped out into the light Hiko thrust a practice sword under his nose. "Damn you to hell."

"I've already been there." was his only reply.

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"DAMN IT!" Weirtzen threw his sword down angrily as Hiko stood before him in the darkening downpour. His eyes grew black under the flashes of lightening. "We had a bargain! I have yet to learn the last technique!"

"And I'm ending it! The technique will die with me and my apprentice!" Hiko shouted above the din of the storm. "I should have never given in to you in the first place! I have no clue what I was thinking!" Hiko turned and sheathed his own sword and started down the mountain for some of the most horrible sake he could think of. Not three steps into his trek, a sword thrust it's self into his view from his chest…

Hiko fell to his knees, blood soaking the ground beneath him. His last thoughts, as the sword was taken back by its master, were on Kenshin. Kami… what have I done? Black emptiness engulfed the swordsman as he fell into the mud.

"So… an apprentice, huh? It's time I visit this… Himura Kenshin." Weirtzen wiped his blade clean on the back of Hiko's robe and disappeared down the mountainside. Thus ended the woe and drunkenness of Hiko.