The Hitokiri's Legacy
Chapter One: Re-emerging
It was a typical night for the members of Weiss. They'd gotten their orders, gone out to see what they could find, and then located their quarry. But there was something unusual going on with Ran. Every night for the past week, Ran Fujimiya, codename Abyssinian, was awakened from uneasy sleep by nightmares. He wasn't a fidgety person by any stretch of the imagination, but he was spooked. In the nightmares themselves, he was another person; another man in another lifetime. This man had long, blood-red hair, and golden eyes. One look at this man meant death to the beholder.
"Hitokiri………………Battousai………….That is who you are. That is who I was. I am in your blood, Ran, and very soon I will make myself known." The man had said, in an eerie voice, as the moon rose behind him, casting all but his eyes into shadow. And it was the image of those glowing golden eyes that woke Ran from sleep every morning. That image was what Ran carried with him into the fray that night, and proved to be his undoing.
"Abyssinian! Wait for us! Don't be reckless!" Omi shouted, into his communicator. He received nothing but static as a response.
"Dammit! He's gone out of range! What is with him tonight?! He's never been this reckless before!" Youji grumbled, as he finished off some security guards.
"I don't know, but something's driving him to do it. Did you see the way his eyes were before we left?" Ken asked, his end sounding relatively quiet, compared to Omi and Youji's.
"Yeah. They almost seemed to have a gold sheen to them. It was kinda spooky." Omi murmured, as they rushed to catch up with their red-haired leader. They could hear the sounds of dying men, and the sound of steel through flesh and bone, ahead of them. They were not prepared for what they saw next; there, standing in the midst of all the dead men, stood Ran, his katana dripping with blood.
"Abyssinian?" Omi asked, his voice almost a whisper. He got no response.
"Abyssinian, it's time to go. You got our target tonight." Youji said, as he took a step towards the silent assassin. Still no answer. Then Ken reached out and stopped Youji, his eyes widening in fear.
"Balinese, don't get any closer to him. He's not himself." Ken whispered, fearfully.
"What do you mean? Siberian, what is going on?" Youji asked, a bit perturbed that his teammate was so afraid of his leader.
"Take a good look at his eyes." Ken replied, just as Ran turned his gaze to them. Youji gasped and backed up a step, and Ken and Omi did the same; Ran's eyes were no longer their usual purple color, they were now an eerie golden hue.
"That's not Abyssinian……………." Youji muttered, for once in his life sounding frightened.
"Hitokiri Battousai…………….." Omi whispered, his heart in his throat as Ran took a step towards them, eyes glowing as he did so.
"What? What do you mean by that, Bombay?" Youji asked, as they slowly backed away from Ran.
"I'd read that the legendary Hitokiri Battousai had blood-red hair and golden eyes. Abyssinian fits that description now." Omi said, prepared to run when the opportunity presented itself.
"But the real Battousai's been dead for almost a hundred years, Bombay! How could you say that he's standing before us now?!" Youji yelped, as Ran took a swing at them with his bloodied katana.
"It could be that he's related to the Battousai in some way or………." Omi trailed off, as a thought struck him.
"Or what? Spit it out, Bombay!" Ken shouted, tensely.
"Or he's the reincarnated Hitokiri Battousai. Either way, we're in big trouble." Omi said, dodging another swing from the deadly, razor sharp blade, and dashing down the stairs, with Youji and Ken right behind him. Down the flights of stairs they flew, as though a demon was on their tail. They were almost out of the building when Youji let out a yell of pain and fell forward, his back bleeding from a sword wound.
"Ran! It's us! Stop attacking!" Omi pleaded, as Youji lay on his stomach on the pavement, Ken trying to stanch the bleeding with his shirt. Ran stared at them, his soulless golden eyes boring holes into them. Instead of stopping, Ran, or should I say, Hitokiri Battousai, raised his katana again, prepared to deliver the killing blow to the three before him. Before he could, however, someone stopped him. One moment, he was standing before them, the messenger of death himself, the next, he was lying in a crumpled heap before them, with a tall, white-robed man behind him.
"Are you three all right?" the man in white asked, as he looked at them with dark eyes.
"With the exception of Youji, we're fine." Omi said, shakily, as the white-robed man stepped forward and inspected Youji's wound.
"Get this treated immediately, and he should be all right. Just be glad that the baka deshi didn't do anything else." The stranger said, as he gave Ran a look of disdain.
"Baka deshi? Sir, do you know Ran that well?" Ken asked, as he watched the stranger pick Ran up as though he was a child.
"I knew him when he wasn't Ran." The stranger replied, enigmatically, as he started to walk away.
"Wait! Who are you? Where are you taking him?" Omi asked.
"He's too dangerous to keep in this city, while the Battousai within him is emerging. I will keep watch over him, and help him if I can." The stranger said, avoiding Omi's question completely.
"But who are you? How did you know about the Battousai emerging tonight?" Youji asked, ignoring the searing pain in his back as he spoke. The stranger paused and cast a glance over his shoulder at Youji.
"If you must know, then this is my name; Hiko Seijuro the Thirteenth, master of the Hiten Mitserugi Ryu." The stranger said, before disappearing into the night, taking Ran with him.
"Guys, things have just gotten a whole hell of a lot harder to understand." Youji muttered.
"What do you mean, Youji?" Ken asked, as he and Omi helped Youji to his feet.
"Hiko Seijuro the Thirteenth……………Master of the Hiten Mitserugi Ryu…….was supposed to have died almost a hundred years ago. He wasn't even supposed to be here, yet he was." Youji said, with disbelief in his voice.
"But has he been reborn? Or was that really the original Hiko Seijuro?" Omi asked.
"He was real. I don't know how, but I believe he was the real thing. All we can do now is trust him." Ken said, as they all looked in the direction the mysterious sword master had gone in.
"Hmm. Interesting." Schuldich murmured, as he sat back in his chair.
"What is?" Crawford asked, irritably.
"Something's up with our old friend Abyssinian. Something inside of him is waking up." Schuldich said, with a smirk.
"What's waking up?" Nagi asked, from across the table. He'd been trying to catch up on homework, but now was interested in what his fellow assassins had to say.
"Something deadly." Schuldich replied, looking genuinely amused by what he'd discovered.
"Well? What is it, Schuldich?" Crawford asked, impatiently.
"Hitokiri Battousai. The manslayer has been reborn." Schuldich said, looking around the table, gauging his companions' reactions. Crawford gave him his 'Please explain' look, while Nagi just paled, his eyes wide with dread. Out of the four Schwartz assassins, only Nagi truly knew what that meant, and he was filled with fear at he thought. The manslayer has returned after almost a century. And he was after blood.