Flying Dragons
"So you've arrived."
A man sat in front of a kiln where he watched the flames licked his plates and vases, which he crafted from hand, as he sipped his sake. Years ago, the man might haven enjoyed the experience, but now, it just seemed he was doing it out of habit. Change had broken him, and even he worried about what more would do to him.
It was when he heard quiet footsteps from the outskirts of his clearing that he placed the bottle down and reached for his sword. The ki of the visitor was not the same as it was when it left here so many seasons ago. It was strong, but it was no longer as bright. It still had the ability to push a broken man back onto the road of life, but even strong ki had its limitations. Secretly, he worried if it the ki even managed this time. It certainly will not be able to do it again.
The footsteps stopped a few meters away from the man, but they weren't afraid. These footsteps knew their destinations, and even if they didn't know what waited for them in the end, they kept walking. The man wondered if he should acknowledge the figure behind him. Perhaps it was because he was still fuming with rage or hurt or fear.
"Has the almighty Battousai decided that my life endangers the revolution as well?" the man instantly wished he could cut the bitterness out of his voice because suddenly, the figure suddenly lost the confidence it gathered.
He heard the figure take a breath, and the man had thought words would be next, but only silence followed. Suddenly, there was movement. The man, thinking it truly was an attack, turned around and was shock to see what was in front of him.
The Battousai, the most feared samurai during the revolution, had dropped his sword on the ground and was kneeling to him. No, not kneeling, it was a bow. This was humiliation for the boy.
"Shishou, I- forgive me, please. I'm sorry. I-I didn't know. I couldn't have known. And now it's over and I- I just, it's just," the boy cried out. The man that once stood there disappeared the moment the sword was dropped. The golden eyes that he heard so many rumors about were nowhere to be seen, and instead the violet ones he knew so well were almost glowing in the darkness.
The man had never seen such humiliation from the boy. There were days during the child's youth that he had wished he had, and then, maybe then, he could have stopped him from joining the revolution. However, the fact the he's seeing now broke the heart that he had hardened and forged in the fire of his rage. It was his stubborn nature that stopped him from taking the broken boy and sheltering him once again from the evils of the world.
Instead of doing that, the man simply sat back down and watched the boy in front of him break apart. He was confused. He was angry. He was torn. The man was not used to taking care of people like this. He hardly knew what to do with his emotions.
"Sit up Kenshin," the man ordered. The boy in front of him stopped uttering incomprehensible noises and swallowed. Sitting on his knees, Kenshin took another breath, but he did not dare look at his master in the eyes and decided that looking to the ground would be the best substitute.
"Take a deep breath," the master ordered. The child did so.
"Now tell me everything you saw," the master requested and sat there in fear of what he might hear. He himself had saw the evils of the world, which is why he decided that the world could just rot for all he cared, but now it has rotted his pupil. There was a chance he could still save him, but he needed to know. He needed to know not just for the boy's sake, but to rest perhaps a few of his fears.
The boy, still not choosing to look up, bit his lip and stayed silent for a little while.
"Kenshin!" the man barked. In response, Kenshin flinched and began shaking.
"It was like everything you told me Shishou. I saw men do terrible things to all who stood in their path. Everyday, it was like I was with the slavers again, except I was now one of them. They took women to do terrible things to them. They took… prizes sometimes as well. I saw horrible acts of cruelty to everyone who was not part of the Ishin Shishi. Then there was the blood. Oh god, the blood. I look down, and I still see it staining my hands. It wasn't like hunting Shishou. These lives were wasted. I remember you telling me that no one wins in a war, and there is no larger truth than that Shishou," the boy told him, and the man just sagged his shoulders. It seemed like the world had dragged the pupil he knew so well into its hell, and it looked as if the boy was too lost to ever return.
"Everyday since my first mission, I remember our argument. I remember every word you said too. I can recall how you told me that the world is full of an evil I will never be able to comprehend. Or did you say that?" the boy began laughing in the most broken of way, "Look at me Shishou. I left as a boy of dreams, and now I return to you broken hoping you of all people will be able to fix me."
And the man did. So desperately did he want to help the boy in front of him that he would hunt down any oni to trade his ruined soul if it would save the one in front of him. However, the man knew that it wouldn't be enough. The boy's soul was lost in corruption, and only he would be able to fix the parts.
"Kenshin," the master began, his voice softer than it ever has been. This was the boy he expected to see after it buried hundreds and hundreds of bodies. This was the boy he expected after he was lost in the woods for three days. There are men in this world who would have broken so much sooner in the boy's life had they lived it. The fact that this revolution was what broke his spirit after it endured so much before spoke volumes to the master.
"I'm sorry to have bothered you Shishou. I will leave now. I will not place the burden of my atonement on your shoulders. Even with your strength, I don't think that the two of us will be able to lift it," Kenshin explained and began to stand up.
"Sit! Goddamnit Kenshin. I'm not going to let you leave after over five years of thinking what I would have done to make you stay!" the man said before he even realized what he was saying.
The child in front of him paused and for the first time, the man saw those violet eyes that he didn't know he missed. Long ago, he would have said that those eyes were pure and so full of life. Now, he could hardly make out the color. The glow that it had as he was talked was so dim now. It was as if the glow was connected to the amount of life the boy still had in him.
"Shishou?" the boy questioned, but he was not standing. Good. That was a start.
"Hiko," the man answered back. When the boy looked confused the man sighed.
"You've stopped being my student long ago. At least refer to me as such," Hiko explained, and he couldn't help but be a little hurt when his prior-student didn't even fight against the change.
"Yes Hiko-san," Kenshin replied.
For a moment, Hiko didn't even know what he should be doing. This was not taught when he was becoming a swordsman. He was taught quite the opposite in fact. He didn't deal with emotions. To deal with emotions meant that his heart was becoming weak to the whim of the world, and he couldn't allow it to control him like it had his student. Something in the back of Hiko's mind told him that it was never as hardened as he had thought it was.
Pushing that thought aside, Hiko wondered how one would fix something like Kenshin. He couldn't throw him away like he did with bad pottery pieces, but he also couldn't shelter him here. The rot had already affected Kenshin, it would continue to decompose all that he was unless Hiko figured out a way to eliminate it.
Wait, atonement. What did this idiot mean by that word?
"Where did you plan to go?" Hiko asked.
Kenshin opened his mouth, but then closed it as if he had never thought about that before.
"I suppose anywhere other than Kyoto. I guess I would have chosen a road and simply follow it until the end of time and then turn around to follow another trail," Kenshin answered as if it made perfect sense. Hiko tried his best not to smack him in the head for such an idiotic plan.
"And this atonement of yours. What exactly did you have in mind?"
"Helping people I guess?" Kenshin replied vaguely.
"With what?"
"My sword?"
"Isn't that what got you in this mess in the first place?" Hiko asked frankly, but Kenshin shook his head.
"I made a vow long ago to not kill after the war; however, I can not protect if I have no sword. Instead, a friend gifted me with this: a sakabatou."
Reaching for his sword, Kenshin showed his master exactly what he meant. Unlike a normal katana, this sword was made backwards. However, only the blade was backwards, and the hilt was still facing front. This way, it made it seem like the sword's purpose truly was to protect instead of killing. It was a dreamer's sword if he had ever saw one.
But if the idiot had wanted a sword that didn't kill, then why didn't he just chose a shinai or something of a similar nature. Hell, even if the kid wasn't good at it, Kenshin still knew hand-to-hand combat, and from his structure, that would hardly even cause blood flow. The question was still in the air: why did Kenshin still require a sword.
As Hiko observed his student, for a moment, he saw his answer. Those eyes, once unfocused and lost, were suddenly focused and clear as soon as he touched the sword. Although Kenshin had said he vowed to never kill again, something within Kenshin was still very prepared to kill. He assumed that it was the killer that had taken residence within Kenshin. It was a persona the boy undoubtedly created in order to protect his part of himself until the war was over. However, the killer was not willing to die along with the weaker part of him.
At that moment, Hiko had made his mind up. He realized that the Kenshin he once knew was not lost. Instead, he was just fractured. His mind was divided and if Hiko could just figure out a way to merge those fractured parts of his mind, perhaps the Kenshin he once knew would come back. Or at the very least, the boy would be fixed.
"This journey, how long do you plan on going on it?" Hiko asked but not really caring what the answer was.
"I have killed many people Hiko-san. Perhaps years," Kenshin replied. Hiko nodded. At least this boy knew that he had a long way to go to make any sort of penance.
"Well, we've better get moving, shouldn't we?" Hiko responded and stood up and went into his home. It will be a long time before he would be able to rest here again. He vaguely wondered if he should visit his Shishou for strength.
"Hiko-san?" Kenshin asked as if he hadn't expected his master to do exactly what he came here for.
"What? The sins of a student are also the sins of a master. If you used the Hiten Mitsurugi for evil, then I should at least be the judge of your atonement, should I not?" Hiko lied. He knew he just needed a reason to come along because that would all Kenshin would need to bring him along. The boy was weak; he needed someone the help him walk his journey when things got low.
"I suppose," Kenshin agreed hesitantly, and began standing up.
Outside, the sun had yet to rise and the moon was shining down on the clearing with full brightness. Taking a small bag with materials that should last them until they reach the next town, Hiko walked out of the hut and shut the door. No one ever did come around here, but he would hate to see this place come to ruin. Perhaps he'll ask the old man down the mountain to check in every once a while.
Standing in front of the former hitokiri, Hiko sized up his former apprentice. They had their work ahead of them, but one does not walk a thousand miles without taking the first steps.
"Well, what are you waiting for? If we head out now, we should be able to reach a town before nightfall," Hiko said, slightly annoyed that the boy in front of him was still gaping at him like a fish.
After a moment, however, Kenshin nodded and turned around. As they made their way down the mountain, Kenshin would sometimes turn around to make sure his former master was still following. It was a habit that even as a child Kenshin did.
Do not worry. At least for now, I won't let you out of my sights again. We'll journey the world together. This time, I will show you beauty instead of the hell you saw last time. Hiko thought and quietly smiled to himself. Even though this journey was Kenshin's atonement as a hitokiri, this was also his atonement for his abandonment.
And as the both of them left Kyoto as the sun began to rise, Hiko prayed to any deity that was willing to listen, that they were successful.
This was for RuroKen week Day 4: Debate.
I wanted to take a different take on this and instead focus on THE DEBATE in Rurouni Kenshin, you know, the one that started this all, I wanted to focus more on the aftermath of it all. I think had Kenshin talked to Hiko before he left the war, I think we would have had a different story. Imagine just the first scene of Rurouni Kenshin but with both Kenshin and Hiko. I would love to see that!