Sword Summit
by: MrFoshizzlePro
Author's Note: Hello my friends ^-^ I am still working on 'Generation A Smile', but I just had a nagging urge to write this little story up :) I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it :)
Disclaimer: Nobuhiro Watsuki owns all rights to Rurouni Kenshin. I own nothing, nor do I claim anything except my fanfiction ^^;
Prologue
Farewells
The infuriated auburn haired teen trudged through the thick forest, ignoring the commands of his superior that gradually went quieter the farther away he walked. His hands grip around the katanas hilt tightened until his knuckles turned a pale white. He growled.
So many people are suffering, thought Kenshin angrily. And all shishou does is idly stand aside and watch it happen!
Kenshin thrashed away an overhanging tree branch and moved on.
Shishou says I'm thick headed... I'll show him how wrong he really is!
Meanwhile, a tall muscled man stood on the rocky ledge of the mountain glaring off into the forest where his deshi had run off to. His cloak blew briskly in the wind. Only the rhythmatic drum of the waterfall could be heard now. Hiko had long since ceased calling his hot-headed apprentice to return.
Hiko snorted, annoyed. Let him believe what he wants, he told himself, whisking his cape out of his way and following Kenshin's path back to the house. He'll get the sense knocked back into him later.
Later on, however, the heat from the earlier argument rose back up at the table during dinner.
Kenshin was eating his meal silently while keeping his gaze dodged away from his shishou sitting across from him at the table. Hiko copied his pupil's actions, maintaining his focus on his food rather than making eye contact with the red head. They sat, heads bent low, in bitter solitude.
Kenshin shifted his elbow over the tabletop, hitting it against a sake jug and causing it to crash to the floor in a spray of broken pieces. Hiko slammed his fists down hard. The objects lying across the table's surface rattled by the contact. Kenshin bolted to his feet immediatly, his eyes glaring flecks of amber as they locked with his master's.
Hiko boomed, "Baka, watch where you place your elbows!"
"Me?!" Kenshin fired back. "How about you watch who you're yelling at!"
"I'm the master here and I can yell at you as much as I damn well please!"
Kenshin's teeth clenched with rage. Hiko sat back and picked up his cup of sake. "Clean up the mess," he ordered. "And afterwards, you can chop some more firewood to stoke the fire. We're running low fast so I suggest you pick up the pace!"
Huffing, the young deshi stomped away to fetch the broom. Kenshin's anger was beginning to slowly boil in his veins. He could feel it rising inside him once again, and he invited it in as it came. Kenshin reappeared moments later and started the task of clearing the jagged bits of pottery scattered about.
Hiko observed the boys swift and heated strides over the brim of his cup. He thought, The baka still doesn't get it. The power of Hiten Mitsurugi can only aid one side or the next; either way, the side a swordsman chooses will affect him in more ways than one.
"He can be mad at me all he wants-" Hiko added aloud in a murmur. He took a sip of the alcohol and set it down with a soft clk! and rested his chin overtop his clasped fists. "-but holding a childish grudge against me won't solve anything."
"Well then, what will solve anything shishou?"
Hiko twisted his head around. His attention settled upon Kenshin. He was frowning, eyes narrowed and broom clenched in hand. Kenshin waited for an answer to escape his master's lips.
Kenshin turned away. "Thought not," he muttered. "You preach all you want about the teachings and disciplines of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, yet when it comes to your apprentice seeking guidance from his only master, you choose to stay silent." He began to leave to deposit the broken pottery outside, but the sound of his master's voice broke through the quiet at long last and he halted in mid-step to listen.
Hiko said, "So long as you are my apprentice, you'll learn in time why we don't go helping people here and there. Major consequences will rise from a man's every action no matter what their action may be. The ideals that you believe in will be put to the test, and at that point, you tell me whether or not I gave you fair warning of what your future will become."
The absence of sound met by Kenshin's master's statement was almost deafening. Hiko sighed inaudibly, but Kenshin remained unmoved where he stood, silent and transfixed in thought. The broom clattered loudly to the floor. Kenshin bowed his head low, his red bangs hiding away all sight of his quivering eyes.
"Then I guess I'm not your apprentice anymore..." whispered Kenshin.
"What?"
"You heard me!" He turned on his heels abruptly, prepared to face his master with all the anger and irritation that had been bottled inside himself all afternoon. "I'm done dealing with everything you put me through! You expect me to watch these people live and die through this age and not do anything to stop it, but I won't!"
"I'll use Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu to save these people once and for all. With this sword and your teachings, I guarantee that I will end all agony surrounding the Bakumatsu of terror and bloodshed to bring about a new age filled with peace!"
"You're out of your mind if you think you can go about doing this so selfishly!"
"I don't care. I'm leaving tonight and that's that." Kenshin strode out the door and into the pitch black of the night. "Sayonara, shishou," he called. "The next time you see me, I'll prove to be a better swordsman than you could ever be and I will show you that you're the one who's wrong!"
Hiko pushed aside the screen and watched his apprentice go without hesitation. "That's fine!" he called back. "Go and use your own selfishness to help others. If you think I'll be there to save you this time, you're dead wrong!"
One day shishou, Kenshin thought with a small smile. One day, this baka deshi will prove you wrong.
He'll get himself killed out there. Hiko sat back at the table and took a swig of sake from his last jug. And even if Kenshin manages to survive through all that... he will surely live through the pits of Hell itself for all the sins he will cause.
- Tsuzuku -
Japanese Terms Used and Their Meanings:
Shishou - Master, teacher, etc. It is similar in meaning to sensei, but is a term used by Kenshin to address his master.
deshi - A term used by Hiko meaning apprentice.
baka - means foolish or idiot; stupid.
sake - a japanese alcoholic drink.
Bakumatsu - A period in Japan that is one of the most unsteady and romanticized part of Japanese history. It is the age of the last samurai and of intense fighting between ishin shishi who were supporters of the emperor from Satsuma and Choshu, and those who were supporters of the shogunate known as the Shinsengumi.