Author's note:
In his book of life, Kenshin had some pages of dramatic story about Tomoe. That story made me imagine how if Aoshi had those pages too in his past. So it became the inspiration of this story. Major AoshixOC pairings and MisaoxAoshi for later. There're many flashback scenes in previous chapter and maybe some mild lime scenes for later chapters. Please R&R.
If you have any comments or reviews, please send directly to my e-mail address at kakyou_kuzuki@hotmail.com for I almost never check the reviews submitted at ff.net. Thanks.
Disclaimer : I do not own RK and its characters.
----------------------------------------
UNSPOKEN MEMORY
By Xiao
----------------------------------------
PROLOGUE
THE JOURNAL (Misao's POV)
Life was a river of no return. Moment by moment in our lives passed as the time went by, like the water that flew in that river of no return. Only memories were left in our hearts for helping us to grow. But once I ever thought, why couldn't the past just die? So, there was no more gazing back to those unspoken memories.
It had been two years since Yukishiro Enishi with his jinchuu project made a big chaos at Kamiya Dojo. Bittersweet moments that had happened to me during those two years had made my life become mellower. So many things had changed, either for better or worse.
Aoiya got a bit change too. Aoshi-sama decided to get Oniwabanshuu operated again like before the day he left Aoiya. I was glad, but on the same time I was afraid of what might happen. I was anxious that he would return to his previous dark and unfeeling life that he had ever had as Oniwabanshuu was on duty again. But when I saw the way he was now, I guessed I could throw away that anxiety.
Even though I still could not make him smile yet, and he had not responded to my feeling either, but at least he was more open-hearted now. I knew he needed time to revive from what had happened in the past. I had been waiting for him all this time, I did not mind waiting a bit more.
Everything seemed so perfect, didn't it?
Almost everything...perhaps....
If and only if that day never come. The day when an almost forgotten memory came back again, shattering dream and bringing hope to the nadir.
CHAPTER 1
KANAGAWA PREFECTURE, five years before
The sky above Kanagawa was a bit cloudy and gloomy that day. The wind of early autumn blew, filling the air with smell of dry falling leaves. A young man walked steadily on the street in the middle of Kanagawa. He paced straight ahead, not even paying attention to some young ladies that ogled at him in adoration along the way as he passed by.
He stopped walking just a second before someone collided against his back.
"Gomenasai!" a female voice, belonged to the one who had hit against him, said an apology.
He turned around and found a young lady falling to seated position on the ground.
"Are you OK, miss?" he asked and extended his hand to help her.
"Yes, I think," she reached his hand and stood up quickly. "Thanks."
She cleaned her clothes from the dirt with one hand. He observed her carefully. Her age was about seventeen years old. Even she spoke Japanese fluently, but from her accent, she must be a foreigner. And from her appearance, it could be noticed that she was from China. She wore a mauve silk cheongsam. She was very beautiful. Her glossy raven hair that cascaded straight through her shoulders matched perfectly her dark ebony eyes and her smooth champagne skin. He had never seen the perfect beauty like she was before. But, deep inside her beauty it was concealed a dangerous brilliance. Her eyes showed it, the eyes of a mastermind.
Then he noticed that she was injured. There was a wound on her left shoulder and her right hand holding something smeared with blood, a kind of metal thing. He suddenly grabbed her wrist and lifted her hand.
"What're you doing?" she shouted in surprised.
Her clutch was loosened, he took that metal thing from her hand quickly. It was a kunai, but not a common kunai. It was the type of kunai that was made and used only by the guardian ninja of a specific organization, based in Kanagawa.
"This kunai...."
"It belongs to one of them," she interrupted.
"Them?"
"The guys whom tried to kill me. But they're gone already."
Suddenly, before he asked more, she collapsed and fainted. He caught her body involuntarily as she fell down.
"What hell has happened?" he mumbled as her unconscious body fell in his arms.
Her body had been getting weak already, and now she bled too much.
She opened her eyes slowly as she got back her consciousness. She blinked her eyes and needed a few second to get rid of the blurriness from her sight. Her injured shoulder had been cured and neatly bandaged already, but the pain still stabbed her as she tried to wake up.
"Where am I?" she asked weakly.
"In a hotel. You've been unconscious for a few hours," a voice spoke to her. She turned her head to look at the owner of that voice. Soon her eyes met the ice blue ones of his.
"Ah, sou ka," she said.
"Young lady..." he started to speak in serious tone.
"Yue Ling," she interrupted in whisper.
"Huh? What?"
"My name is Yue Ling," she said a bit louder than her whisper before.
"OK, Yue Ling," he continued as he showed her the kunai that he had taken from her before she fell unconscious. "You know, this kunai is not a common kunai. It's only used by guardian ninja in a specific organization of mafia in Kanagawa."
"I know," she replied softly.
"And they chased you to kill you?" he continued. "Who are you, young lady?"
"You'll know later," was all of her answer.
She got down from the bed as she regained her strength and walked to the door.
"Thanks for your help," she said before she opened the door. "I think we will meet again immediately. Right, Shinomori Aoshi?"
"So, you've known me already, huh?" he sharpened his gaze at her.
She replied with a smirk, then opened the door
"You haven't fully recovered," said him, restraining her. "Are you sure to go?"
"I have to. I still have many things to do," she answered.
She was about to leave the room when she postponed her intention and turned around again. She looked at him for a moment.
"What's up?" he asked.
"You didn't do anything indecent to me while I was unconscious, did you?" she asked without expression.
"What do you mean?" he glared at her.
"You had to take off my clothes when you treat my wound, right? I wondered if you did something....never mind. Just a joke," she replied, still without expression. "I bet you didn't."
He watched her sharply as she was gone like the wind.
She was definitely an unusual girl. She was dangerous. He noticed that behind her perfect mask of beauty, there was a figure of death angel.
"Hannya," Aoshi called his pupil.
"I'm here," answered Hannya. His voice was clearly heard, but his figure was nowhere.
"Investigate all about her," commanded Aoshi. "And do it quickly."
"Yes, okashira."
Aoshi checked out from the hotel ten minutes after Yue Ling was gone.
"Sir, the fee has been paid already," said the receptionist.
"What?"
"Your beautiful Chinese girlfriend has paid it. And she left a message for you."
The receptionist gave Aoshi a notepaper. He took and read it.
See you in Tokyo
xxx Yue Ling
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TOKYO, five years before
On the same day when he ran into Yue Ling, Aoshi got the news that an aristocrat had been killed in Kanagawa at night before he met Yue Ling. He was almost sure that Yue Ling was the one who had killed that aristocrat. The kunai in her hand was enough to prove it, for that aristocrat was someone influence in that organization. And after he got information that her next target could be in Tokyo, he decided to return to Tokyo immediately.
Not too much information about her could be found. But it seemed that she came to Japan for an assassination mission.
"Asakura Kazuki," Aoshi read the name on the front page of a file. He took those papers from his desk. It was a new file, he had not seen it before. "A first class spy and assassin from Shanghai, codename Yue Ling."
So, Yue Ling was just a codename. Her real name was Asakura Kazuki. It was a Japanese name. According to that file, it was written that Yue Ling was born in Kanagawa Prefecture from a Japanese father and a Chinese mother. But, she lived and grew up in Shanghai. She had become a professional spy and assassin since she was in her very young age, thirteen years old.
Aoshi threw the papers back to his desk.
"How interesting," he thought.
"Your betrayal costs a death, you know," a cold voice said to the already dead man in lied in front of her. That man's fresh blood dropped from her rapier to the marble floor. Her figure was almost unseen in the darkness of the night. She wiped the blood that stained her rapier and walked out from the mansion through the window. She left the victim's mansion easily, no one in that mansion knew what had just happened.
She was walking on the bare street when suddenly a figure appeared behind her.
"So, it's really you, Yue Ling," that figure spoke to her.
She turned around.
"As you see, Shinomori," she replied in smile. "By the way, I won't let a troublesome witness."
"Kill me then," he dared.
"You're not my target," she replied. "Even I'm a slayer, I don't kill person without regard to the purpose."
"Purpose? You killed them with a purpose too, huh?"
"Of course. I come to Japan to kill them. They escaped from our organization and went to Japan. Their betrayal harms our organization, and it means death. I am assigned to get rid of them. So, I won't kill you because there are still many people in my list. But you will be in my list too if you endangered my mission. Just go up against me if you think that my mission harms you."
"No, there's something much better I think. Are you interested?"
"Really? It sounds interesting. What do you want?"
"Your capability as a first class spy. It's just a professional deal. Would you like to join me?"
Yue Ling gazed at his eyes for a moment, exploring his mind.
"Fine. I'm sure it'll be a good deal. I want to try it."