Blue Jay: Well well well. I never thought I would be back here. Who knew? Anyways, I'm back and I have quite the story here for you all, so enjoy.
Summary: The Bakumatsu proved to be a hard time for everyone. Manslayers, Shinsengumi, Imperialists and those who were loyal to the Tokugawa all suffered during the wars. One man, Shikato Mitagiri, suffered an unimaginable fate by being the top assassin for the Shogunate. Now, 12 years later, Shikato has resurfaced. But he's not planning to rebel against the government. The one he's after is. To put an end to this rebellion, he needs the help of a man. A man with red hair and a cross-shaped scar.
Disclaimer: I do not own a single thing of Kenshin except DVD's. But since everyone can get DVD's of Kenshin, I'll make it clear that I have no legal ownership of Kenshin.
Rurouni Kenshin: Tragedies of the Past, Memories of the Future
Chapter 1: The Recruiting of Sanosuke
------Kyoto, 12 years ago------
It was a dark night. The ground stained with blood. Shadowed in the cover of night a single man pressed forward, clenching onto the sword in his hand, a lifeless look deep within his eyes. He continued to move until he reached the dead bodies of a woman and a young boy. The chaos that lay before him sparked the life he thought lost long ago. He fell to his knees and screamed into the empty abyss. With nothing left inside he glanced into his sword, the firey vision of a reborn man stared back at him.
"You will pay, Shouji. You shall pay..."
------Shanghai, China, 12 years later------
"Hey! Come back here!" A police officer yelled. He proceded to run into a crowd. Searching through the crowd, the police officer stumbled upon a man wearing a white and black shirt that had the symbol for evil on it's back.
"Sanosuke Sagara, you are wanted for charges of assault and vandalism! You are hereby under arrest!"
"Oh well. I guess you got me...not!" Sanosuke said as he punched the officer in the face and started to run off.
The officer, whose nose was now bleeding, got up and screamed out "GET HIM!"
Out of nowhere, 10 chinese officers surrounded Sanosuke. "Heh, you guys are too stubborn for your own good. Well I guess I could go for a good fight. You better get ready, cause here I come!" Sano said. He then charged at them with both fists clenched.
As the fight started, a figure could be seen in the crowd. A man in a dark chinese jacket and medium length hair, to be precise. He took quite an interest in the fight. "Man, this is pathetic!" Sanosuke said as he punched out one officer, then turned around and kicked another in the jaw. He then grabbed a guard by the arm and threw him into two more. "Five down, five to go!" Sanosuke said as he turned to the others, "If you five don't put up a good fight, then I've pretty much bought myself a lousy fight." He then charged at the rest of them as they pulled out swords. Everyone in the crowd gasped as the fight continued. Sanosuke dashed and ducked as sword swings came from every direction.
"Man, these guys suck. They don't even know how to use those weapons properly!" Sano thought to himself. He grabbed one of the officers by the forearm and twisted it until he heard a crack followed by the man's screaming. He then tossed him into another officer as two other officers came up from behind him. Sano turned around and punched both of them in the stomach. He then heard a cry as he turned around and was hit in the face with a sword hilt. The officer smirked a bit, but became scared as the hilt shattered and showed no effect on Sanosuke's face. Sano then hit him 3 times in the chest. A second later, the officer coughed up blood and fell to the ground, unconcious.
"Man, that was a waste of time." he said as he put one hand in his pocket and pulled out his trademark fishbone. With the fishbone in his mouth, he turned to the first officer. "Next time, send me someone decent." He turned around as a whistle could be heard. A larger force came in and chased after Sanosuke. "Guess it's time to run!" He said as he grabbed his bag and started running. But before he made it through the crowd, he felt the presence of the man. As he kept running, he thought to himself "Who was that? He had an aura similar to Kenshin and Saito!" As Sanosuke kept running, the man threw on a black cape and proceeded into the shadowy alleyways. he then started running in the same direction as Sanosuke.
Later, in Hong Kong,
Sanosuke, obviously tired from running all that way, sat in a restaurant. Except for the waitresses, owner and 2 regulars, Sanosuke was the only one there. He took a drink from the bottle of wine he was holding. When he was finished, he looked at the bottle and asked the waitress "Don't you have anything stronger? This stuff is no good."
"Umm...Sure we do!" She replied, "I'll go get some for you."
"Don't bother, miss," they heard as the man came through the door, "I need to speak with him anyways." He then sat down across from Sanosuke in the same booth.
"Can I get you anything?" the waitress asked.
"A bottle of your finest wine, please." he replied.
"One bottle of our finest, coming right up!" she said with a smile.
As she left, the man took off his cape and put the swords that he had on down beside him.
"So you're a swordsman, then?" Sanosuke asked.
"Yes," the man replied "Since I was I child, I was trained in the way of the sword. The Japanese sword, to be precise."
Sanosuke closed his eyes and smirked, "I have a friend who was taught in the ways of the Japanese sword, so I could tell that. So who the hell are you?"
"I'll reveal myself in due time, but I'm not surprised that you could tell that, Sanosuke Sagara."
Sanosuke puts his hands on his knees and looks at him "How do you know me? Have we met somewhere?"
The man looked at him with disappointment, "Moron. I was in the crowd during your little fight today. It seems your crimes back home apply even over here...ahh well. I guess that's what you get for beating up a government official."
Sanosuke laughs a little, saying "Yeah. I guess I shouldn't have...Wait, how did you know about that?" he said, switching to a confused look.
"I know everything about you, Sanosuke. From your date of birth to what you like to drink" He said while pulling out a big bottle from a bag he was carrying. "Here, have some. It's top quality sake from Japan" he said as he pulled out two cups.
Sanosuke looked at the bottle, then back at him "I like you already!" He then grabbed a cup and started drinking.
After the waitress came back with the wine, the man looked at Sanosuke and said "Listen up. I'm not here to get you drunk, ok?"
"Fine, fine. Why are you here then?" the man looked at Sanosuke with alot of seriousness in his eyes
"The real reason is that, well, someone is planning an uprising in Japan. A man who is equal to the likes of Makoto Shishio..."
Sano looks at him "So you need me to help you beat him down?"
"No."
"Then why do you need my help?"
The man looked at the bottle of wine. Inside, he took a deep look into the crimson red wine. "He's risen an army. An army consisting of dangerous warriors from around the globe. According to my sources, 3 of them are former Juppongatana members. That's why I need you. Actually, more than just you. Maybe even him." Sanosuke looked at him and said "But I haven't talked to anyone from Japan until now. How do you know if he's still alive?"
"I have my sources, don't worry. You were the only hard one to find. I know where the rest of them are. So are you in?"
"How can I trust a man who won't tell me his name?" Sano asks.
The man looks at him and lets out a sigh "Ok, here's a simpler idea. We'll have a one-on-one fist fight. No weapons allowed. If you win, I'll tell you my name and you can. But if I win, you join me and I don't have to tell you anything until I feel like it, ok?"
Sano stands up and smacks his fists together "Let's go!"
Later that night...
Outside of town, the man takes his swords out of his belt and puts them against a nearby tree. "Just to let you know, I won't go easy on you." He says.
Sano looks back at him "I wasn't expecting you to."
"You ready?" the man says as he stands there, clothes blowing in the wind.
Sanosuke looks back at him "Let's go!" Sano then charges at him and goes to punch. The man evades the initial punch and backs up. Sano then goes and keeps trying to punch him. The man, while evading every punch, thinks to himself "Hmm...If he's such a great fighter, why are his punches so wild and random?" Sano stops for a second to catch his breath "Why aren'thuff you attacking Huff me?" The man then proceeds to charge at Sanosuke. Sanosuke goes to strike him, but the man disappears before he can strike. "he's fast!" Sano says to himself as he turns around to strike. The man however moves again and hits Sanosuke hard in the back. Sanosuke gets back up and looks at him "Heh...heh...I can take more than that. Come on!" he says as he charges again.
"You're good. A normal man would have been defeated after that attack." The man says as he charges at Sano. he then goes for another shot on Sano, but misses.
"Heh...you fool. You underestimated me. And now, you're gonna pay for it with your name! FUTAE NO KIWAMI!" Sano says as he hits him with a full power Futae No Kiwami. The man fell down to his knees and started bleeding from the mouth.
"Good. I expected this amount of skill from you, Sanosuke." the man said as he appeared behind behind Sano. Sano turned around and wham! He was hit in the gut with a thunderous shot."But...how...?" he said as he fell unconcious.
The man looked up at the sky "Guess we better get back to town. It's getting quite dark out."
The next morning...
Sano woke up in a fancy looking room. He looked around the room and thought to himself "What the hell? Where am I?" He then looked around the room and saw that the man, now dressed in Japanese robes, was sitting on a chair in the same room.
"Good morning, sunshine. I won last night, so get ready. We're leaving in an hour."
"Is this your house?" Sano asked.
"No. I just rented it." he replied.
"Oh. So...where's the food?"
"Heh. Always with the food, eh? Don't worry. The ship we're taking has a cafeteria on board." He said as he got up and went to the door.
"Wait, where are we going?" Sano asked.
"To Kyoto. There's two people there that I need, and you should know who they are."
"Heh, so you're after Capitain Gloom and Lieutenant Jackass then."
"If you're referring to Hajime Saito and Aoshi Shinomori, then you're correct." Sano got up and out of the bed. "Oh and about the name thing..." the man said
Sanosuke turned to him and said "Yeah?"
He replied "It's Shikato Mitagiri. Remember it."
Blue Jay: And wallah! The end of the first chapter. And again, I would love it if someone did character sketches for my new characters. Don't worry I'll post the descriptions. Well, farewell for now. And remember...I'M THE JUGGERNAUT, BITCH! (I love that movie)