Prologue
I do not own Rurouni Kenshin, I'm merely inspired by it.
He closed his eyes, inhaling the sharp scent of fresh blood, emanating from behind the wooden door. The feeling that he ignored, that something was amiss culminated in the scene he was yet to behold, and he was aware of it. He was not alone.
His subtle anger hardened to a lump in his throat as he slowly opened his feline eyes and kicked open the door. His amber eyes burned more fiercely than the approaching lanterns as they drank in the scene before him. Blood splashed the walls, and the tatamis were bloated with it. The body of the old tyrant lay crumpled in a corner, his mouth horribly disfigured in a frozen scream, as his neck gaped open.
The leaves outside in the garden rustled, and his head snapped in that direction. The figure blended into the darkness of the trees in the wind, but not before he glimpsed the fellow amber orbs, their own lantern in the eerie darkness of the Tokugawa era. This was not amateur, and definitely not coincidental.
The whistles grew louder, throwing him off balance for a moment before he himself fled into the darkness. The thoughts pounded in his head, in time to his footfalls on the dirt path, as he contemplated betrayal within the organization. Betrayal…he needed to inform Katsura.
He ran, a demon shadow of the night to the headquarters to report of betrayal.