Declaimer: Standard Declaimer apply
Chapter 1
Blood was everywhere. The pounding in his head wouldn't cease and let him focus. It was all not unlike a hallucination, the haziness, and blurriness. His vision shook, seeing a demon, only identifiable by a distinct shade of red whenever he stopped before he disappeared again. He saw four flashes of a blade before Omaru's body split into many parts. Then, the red blur flew through the air and landed on kanjo, whose lifeless eyes already stared at him before the body even hit the ground.
"Takada-Sama, please get out of…" the desperate plea of Souji was cut short when the tip of a blade was thrust through his jugular as blood sprayed onto the face of his remorseless killer. The man named Takada braced himself against the image of his closest subordinates, the best of the best from the Shogun's army, lying in the cobble stoned street, dead, and held the sword in his hand a little tighter.
The assailant pulled his sword out of his victim's neck and narrowly avoided a swing aimed at his head. He took several steps back when the Samurai named Takada launched a series of thrusts at his vitals. With a mighty cry, Takada raised the weapon over his head and brought it down. But then, he couldn't feel the weight of the blade at all. He saw his hands still clutching the sword he so wanted to kill the assassin with, fly away from his body.
For a split second, he met the eyes of his soon-to-be killer, and they understood each other.
"Kamiya, you're requested by Genbei Kawakami at the Bakura tea-house tonight." Hibino said through the thin paper door to the room of her most prized Geisha.
Kaoru looked up from her book and ran a hand down the front of her kimono to smoothen out the wrinkles that would have gathered. But the course material that met her skin wasn't the cool texture of silk, but the rough make of a Gi worn by Samurais.
"Hai" She answered instinctively, "I will get ready now." She said, reaching for her makeup drawer and retrieving a small brush. She dipped it in a box of white powder and began to apply gently to her face in the mirror.
"Don't be late, it starts in half an hour, I'll send Megumi to help with your hair." Hibino's voice disappeared.
By the time Megumi rushed in through the shoji with an armful of combs and glue and decorations for her hair, Kaoru had already finished applying a ghostly white, mask-like makeup to her face.
Megumi settled behind her and began furiously combing through her hair.
"You know, I would never dream of being this quick with makeup," Kaoru's hairdresser said thoughtfully, "but a tanuki has to be good for something."
"What do you mean by that, miss Megumi?" Kaoru retorted. If she got one cent every time she used that retort against her rival Geisha, she wouldn't need a Dana to be rich. The woman behind her deftly twisted her hair into a tight bun after applying a moderate amount of hot glue to it and chuckled. "By the way," Kaoru said, finding a more interesting topic, "I picked this Kimono for tonight, what do you think?" She ran her hand down the silk white kimono lying beside her on the tatami mat.
"Don't you think it's too elegant for the occasion?" Megumi said as she added a pearl to Kaoru's hair, "It's the one you wore to the performance, isn't it?"
"Yes, but I like it, it's easy to wear." Kaoru smiled as she played with the fake undergarment stitched to the inside of the kimono, "with this, there's no need to wear layers of unnecessary clothing every time I go out."
"Lazy as always, but do as you like." Megumi said, still fussing over her hair, "Be a good girl, don't cause too much trouble. Okay?"
The moon hung low in the midnight sky as Kaoru shuffled along the streets of Gion towards Bakura teahouse. The tall sandals she wore made an obnoxious clacking noise against the stone path as she walked. She winced; only Geishas would be allowed to wear something so elegantly useless. Those Shinsengumi would probably laugh at me if they saw me in this; this dangerously obstructive Kimono that not only tries its best to stop the workings of my lungs, but also my legs from moving anywhere past five inches each time, and these stupid sandals designed for anything but walking…but at least this white make up should be valuable in scaring off enemies, like vampires and Ishins. Kaoru rolled her eyes as she kept walking.
She felt eyes on her. Looking up expecting to see masked men bearing swords and chains, but what greeted her were the numerous customers to Gion, especially this late at night, glancing interestedly in her direction. Sometimes it was just too easy; men are vulnerable to seduction and alcohol like children to candy, and if you put the two together, they'll answer any of your questions. Wealthy and well-off, married men often frequented the Gion district to seek company that they couldn't find in their wives. Not the kind of company that required a bed, but the kind that required tea and sitting mats.
She slipped out of her sandals and left them at the brightly-lit entrance of the Bakura tea-house. She was greeted by a Maiko she came to know by the name of Tsubame. The shy girl timidly blushed when Kaoru smiled wamrly.
"I'll show you to the room Kamiya-san." She whispered, head bowed. She led Kaoru up a flight of stairs. The cheerful chattering of men and laughter of their Geishas could be heard everywhere.
"Good evening everyone." Kaoru slid open the shoji to the brightly lit room and called out cheerfully. All eyes in the room were on her. She instantly spotted the man named Katsura; she had been told about his appearances and behavior. He was sitting in the very back of the room, and what appeared to be some of his guards were sitting around the large table on either side of him, already being entertained by some younger Geishas. She smiled and bowed low in her kneeled position.
"Why, if it isn't the beautiful Kamiya," Katsura said politely, "an old friend of mine had said he'd request your company for me, but I didn't think that he would be able to pull it off." He sat back and smiled.
Kaoru lifted her face from the floor and returned his smile with her own. She recognized the beautiful woman sitting beside Katsura. She was the most famous Geisha in Japan, also known as the Genius Geisha. Her name was Ikumatsu. She was the dancer of the Dance of Darkness at the mere age of eight before Kaoru for 15 years running. In addition, her previous Dana was the Daimyo of the Kyoto prefecture, who paid her over 15 million yen for her company, she was only 18 at the time, and that was five years ago. It was a record that hasn't since been touched. Now in her mid 20s, Ikumatsu, as the most renowned Geisha in Gion and all of Japan, hasn't sought another Dana, and there are rumors of her early retirement going around.
"Good night, Ikumatsu-sama." Kaoru bowed again, "I see that these are your Maikos?"
"How good of you to join us, Kamiya-san," Ikumatsu said with the grace of a royal, "perhaps you could teach my Maikos something, they hardly listen to me anymore."
Kaoru grinned, "Hai." Ikumatsu smiled and skidded over to make some tea.
It was then that she saw someone sitting behind Katsura, someone she failed to see on her first sweep across the room. He had his inhumanly red hair tied neatly into a high ponytail. He wore a beautiful midnight blue Kimono and snow-white hakama. A long sword was resting lazily on his right shoulder and a Wakizashi was most likely lying beside his left hip where the table was blocking her view. She looked to his face, and was struck speechless momentarily.
He was staring right at her. She had the creepy feeling that he was staring right through Katsura at her even before Ikumatsu moved out of the way.
If she thought the color of his hair was strange, his eyes were a shade of deep amber bordering on yellow and red that she had never seen in someone's eyes before. It chilled her to the bone. The rest of his face was angular and refined, making his overall appearance resemble that of an overgrown fox.
She must have been staring at the strange Samurai for too long, since Katsura's introduction quickly cut into her thoughts.
"Let me introduce my nephew to you, Kamiya-san, this is Shinta Himura." At the mention of his name, the man named Shinta gave her a curt nod. Kaoru was stunned with the efficiency with which he carried himself. She bowed again in return. He doesn't look like a Shinta at all. "He is helping me run my businesses here in Kyoto, he's quite good at it as well." Katsura laughed.
"It's nice to meet you, Himura-san." She said timidly and avoided his piercing gaze when she looked up.
"Likewise." Shinta replied monotonously.
She shuffled over to a man already being entertained by one of Ikumatsu's Maikos, his name was Kanryuu. She sat beside him, picked up a small jar of Sake and poured it into an empty saucer for him.
"May I ask what your name is, sir?" The man was clad in a suit of gray and wore rectangular western glasses. He pushed the rims higher up onto his nose. She could see through his shyness by the way his hand shook unsteadily, or maybe he was just drunk.
"My name is Kanryuu," He replied, "my, you look beautiful tonight, Kamiya-san." The whiny element in his voice annoyed her.
"Oh no, it must be the light playing tricks on your eyes." She said, half hiding her face with her hand shyly. Her joke seemed to work too well, as Kanryuu pulled back and guffawed crazily. Yup, he's definitely drunk.
Everyone else in the room laughed. Except one, whose only reaction was a lifted eyebrow.
She stalked her assignment quietly, watching through blue eyes every movement that the businessman made on his way to his destination. He was dressed unnaturally in a gray, tailored suit and matching trousers that reminded her of the outfit that the foreigners often wore when they made their obnoxious trek through Kyoto. His polished leather heels clicked on the stone covered path as he walked. Kanryuu Takeda wasn't aware of the keen eyes watching him from the shadows, shadows cast by the occasional lantern hanging lazily on the door frames of closed shops.
He stopped at a turn and surveyed the emptied, midnight footpaths carefully. Aside from the mumbled and distant nonsense from drunkards, and the occasional howl of dogs, the street was completely silent. The night fell like a hypnotic blanket over the slowly darkening city of Kyoto. Kanryuu turned onto a smaller street and walked a little faster. She doesn't think that he noticed her, but maybe they were finally getting close.
Another day, another assignment. This one is just like any other, follow an assignment closely until he led her to whatever the Ishin were plotting, and then, if necessary, kill everyone and report back to…
Kanryuu stopped, and she crouched lower against the whitewashed wall to conceal herself. The arms dealer up ahead looked from left to right to see no one following him. He is certainly cautious. Kanryuu knocked on the door in front of him. She listened carefully for a sound, but there was none; the house would have appeared empty if she didn't feel the anxiety that emanated from within. Several people approached the gate and one mumbled something through the wooden gate.
"La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo" Kanryuu said in an undertone towards the closed gate, it sounded like some kind of password to the one who watched and listened intently from a few meters away. The door opened a nudge and a mumbled "you're late" was heard.
The gate slid open to let Kanryuu inside. She launched herself up and over the wall surrounding the compound. Landing deftly amongst a crowd of plants. She quickly ducked behind a small bush to conceal herself. She peeked out from behind her cover to survey the courtyard she was in. At the gate a few meters in front of her, two guards were talking to Kanryuu intently, so her drop from the roof was luckily unnoticed. A group of men approached from the main house, half hidden in the night by their dark Gis and gray hakama, they spoke in an undertone that she couldn't hear clearly.
"What are you talking about?" She heard, "they couldn't possibly have imagined a single person could kill those three within hours unnoticed." She felt a prickling sensation at the edge of her sense when he spoke and ignored it in favor of listening in more intently. "Don't tell me those Bakufu are onto us already."
"That's exactly what I'm saying, you'd be surprised what money can buy you. Information in this case" A faint sneer lit Kanryuu's face as he spoke, "I also have extensive knowledge of how you Ishin work through my information network."
"Are you going to betray us?!" One of the men clad in Gi raised his tone angrily and moved to draw the sword at his side.
"No, not at all, Mr. Soseki, all I'm saying is that with a little financial aid, I could be a rich source of information for your branch of the Ishin." He put his hands on either side of his hips and leaned closer to the man he was talking to. "The Shogun is onto you, and soon enough they'll be going after that assassin that you have, the one that killed Takada."
"How, how could they know?!"
"The Shinsengumi has a shady unit that no one knows about," Kanryuu said, "even my people can't get heads or tails of this unit when trying to investigate them." He placed his hand under his chin thoughtfully and wondered aloud, "but they have activities in Gion, and..."
It was all the information she could allow them to exchange. She launched from her crouch into the fray. Her sword was drawn and connected with the first guard even before anyone noticed. Her first victim grunted and flew right into the second guard and they both crashed to the ground in a cloud of dust. The man who was talking to Kanryuu drew his swords hastily and shouted to alert the rest of the guards. Suddenly, more presences flared from within the main house. The attacker lunged and swept the legs out from underneath the man named Soseki. She flipped out of the arc of the last man's blade and spun, bringing her hilt hard into the side of his face, dislodging his jaw from the skull. Like his companions, he fell in a heap, dead to the world.
She glanced at the house; no less than 20 armed swordsmen were leaping down from the raised porch and running towards her, slowly circling her. She looked at Kanryuu, he was already on the ground, fear and confusion written clearly on his face, and a puddle of liquid was gathering between his legs, his jaw opened and closed, as if trying to form unspoken words.
All of the sentries charged at once. She flipped out of the way and was behind one of them before they could find her again. She unsheathed her short sword and drew the unsuspecting guard into her, blade braced against his neck.
"Let me go with Kanryuu, or I'll kill this man." She was circled again and it moved as she moved. She pressed the blade deeper into his neck, drawing a thin line of blood, "I'll really kill him!"
Too late, Kanryuu, who was now outside of her influence, crawled onto his feet and began running desperately in the opposite direction, out the gate. Her assignment was getting away. She drew back a slender arm and slammed it into the back of her hostage's neck, he instantly fell limp in her arms, and she pushed him into several enemies. She sheathed her short sword and favored the longer blade again. Spinning and twisting inside the crowd of assailants, the blade slammed into a man's teeth, and she felt his dentures shattering through her sword, she ducked under a swipe at her head, turned, and drove her closed fist hard into his stomach. He grunted painfully and dropped.
Instead of thinning, the crowd was only growing, even as the number of bodies littering the floor grew. Another slew of guards fell, but a whole new set surrounded her. She reached into her dark outfit and retrieved several small bombs. The guards all visibly flinched and backed away. A devious grin lit her face moments before her flash bombs detonated at her feet in a brilliant magnesium flash.
When their eyes cleared, the attacker was already gone. The men on the ground groaned and cursed.
"That Kanryuu has been gone for a long time." Katsura wondered aloud while taking a small sip of his sake. "Perhaps he realized he is no match for you, Kamiya-san."
"H.. hai." The geisha named Kamiya replied humbly, bowing her head.
"Is something the matter?" Katsura looked worried. "Are you not feeling well?"
"No… I just…" she blushed.
"You choked on the tea you were drinking?" Kamiya met the eyes of the speaker. Shinta.
"Hai!"
"My, Kamiya-san, that's not very graceful indeed." Ikumatsu smiled.
"There are still lots of things I need to learn." Kamiya replied, wearing a shy smile. Shinta scooted closer to Katsura and whispered something in his ear, to which the older man nodded subtly so that the Kamiya sitting in front of them didn't notice.
Kanryuu stared through the gap in the boards, shivering and sweating profusely. The fact that the entire surface of his trousers was soiled and smelled of urine didn't help matters in any way. He'd heard what the Bakufu did to traitors, and the thought of it happening to him made him infinitely fearful. He was sure that the assailant was someone from Bakufu's secret intelligence unit. The assassin appeared out of nowhere and took down the Ishins easily enough, and when he made his escape, the assassin had already killed some more guards. Only a captain of the Shinsengumi could be that skilled, and they only acted in groups.
This is why his shivering only increased when the faint sound of footsteps approached. It was slow and deliberate, making the arms dealer even more anxious, he cowered further back against the filthy wooden wall in his hiding spot amongst the trash and waited, teeth clattering.
The footsteps suddenly stopped, and he couldn't hear anything. A light female voice spoke softly merely meters from his hiding spot.
"Are you going to come out, or am I going to have to drag you out from that filthy place?" The distaste in her voice was more than enough to elicit a small squeak from the arms dealer, and at that, he knew all was lost. The next instant saw the complete obliteration of his hiding spot, with a sweep of the sword, every piece of waste, including Kanryuu's rimmed glasses, was blown away. The assassin, whom he presumed to be a man, was actually a girl, and as she sheathed her sword, she also gave him a kick in the foot. "Get up and make it easier on yourself, I don't want to hurt you, I don't want to touch you either."
The drug dealer, through blurred vision, crawled onto his feet obediently; head bowed, and waited as the assassin rummaged in her gi to find a small signal flare. She set it on the ground and lit it with a match. A couple of seconds later, the flare lit and whistled into the air as a brilliant green orb. Kanryuu turned and ran, but before he could even take his second step, a hand was around the back of his collar and hauled him easily to the ground.
"The Shinsengumi will come pick you up soon," she said simply as she began to tie his hands behind his back, "wait here for them to arrive, running now won't help but get you killed, not everyone is as nice as I am." He could hear her quickly scribbling a note and felt her shoving the small parchment in between the ropes tying his hands. She turned to leave. Then, as if remembering something, she turned around and said: "When you give them the name of the assassin that killed Takada, I will be sent after him, so I suggest you not resist, and be easy on yourself." Her voice faded and she was gone.
Before he fainted, all the information he had collected fell into place. He knew, at that moment, exactly who the girl was. Too bad he wouldn't be able to sell that information to the Ishin anymore.
To Be Continued
A/N: So, how'd you like it?