Ch. 2-The Phantom
Kenshin let out a whistle. Asami opened her eyes, and… wait, she was alive! Except for a small cut along her tail…
"What did you do, Kenshin? I thought you were going to…"
"Kill you?" he said quietly. "No, I may be an assassin, but I'm not heartless. If anything, I'd let one of my comrades finish you off. No, I did something, but you won't like it… yet."
"What? Just tell me what you did!"
"I… saved you. You don't need to know anything else, princess."
She looked around. "So can I leave?"
"No. I'm sorry, but you cannot." He started walking back to the village, and she ran to catch up to him, the chains slowing her down. "Oh, I'll undo those."
He aimed a powerful jet of water which sliced through the chains easily. The two of them walked into the center. The Absol looked alarmed, and went over to Kenshin. "I thought I told you to take her out, Kenshin."
Kenshin froze, then blinked at Asami. "I've made her part of me. We did the blood exchange."
The rest of them gasped. Hideki quieted them all down. "Why, Kenshin? This doesn't seem well thought out. If our code didn't allow this, the punishment would be severe. But…" He took a deep breath, "I have no choice."
Kenshin nodded, but the rest of the pokemon cast him suspicious glances.
"Kenshin! Tell me, what the hell did you do? And don't say you saved me! Tell me what you did to keep me from getting killed. And don't say you convinced them."
Kenshin looked at her, then said, "I made you my mate. I told them that you were my choice, and, being the son of our leader, I have a lot of options."
"What? Why, you tried to kill me! I am so pissed off… your mind would be crazy right now if you didn't have that stupid immunity…"
He nodded. "I would be upset too. And I'm very sorry, princess."
"So now I'm your fucking mate? And I can't leave?"
"You can leave now," he said quietly. "I'll just have to live with my decision."
"What's that supposed to mean? What could possibly be worse than what you just did to me?"
He glared at her, then said, "I sacrificed my right to mate. You're my official mate, and we can only have one mate in our life. So you can run away, and I'll accept it, but at least be grateful!"
He spun around, and stalked off into the forest. Asami looked around, and walked towards the opposite direction. And, again, she started crying as she ran through the forest. She immediately regretted doing that, and, before she knew it, she was lost. She sat down on a log, and started to weep. She was now married to a mute assassin sent to kill her, and had been partially raped by a guy who was nearly twice her age. She took a deep breath, and tried her best to think logically. Think happy thoughts. You could be married to Chu, that pervert. Thinking about that didn't help. Kenshin really had treated her with only kindness ever since he had been captured, and had saved her from being 'actually' raped. But that was beyond the point!
She heard the bushes rustling behind her, and got ready to shout at Kenshin when he would come out, but instead, her mouth opened in shock. It was Mitsuki, her long lost Glaceon friend!
"Asami? Is that you?"
"Mitsuki! I thought you were dead!"
"Well, sure looks like I'm alive!" The two embraced each other.
"So, what's going on? What are you doing here?"
"I can ask you the same thing. But I'll go first. You must have known, my parents were going to set me up into arranged marriage. Of course, you know me, I didn't want to do that! So I ran away one night, and have been living in this forest! Sorry for not telling you…"
"Wait, how… don't the Black Rain tribe attack you?"
"No, they leave me alone. We seem to be on good terms. They don't bother me, I leave them alone. It's harmony. But now, tell me your story!"
She spoke, telling her every detail. "And so now I'm practically married. I'm so pissed off at that goddam assassin! I would wring his neck if he was here!"
"So, you're pissed off at him, but not your rapist? Woah there!"
Asami was surprised. "Would you like it if you were forced into marriage?"
"Well, no. But he did save your life. If you're going to head back, at least thank him. He went out of his way to save you twice. He could have let you get raped, and he could have murdered you. Besides, you can still get married. Nobody has to know you married some homicidal Vaporeon."
"Alright, but you come with me!" Asami laughed for the first time in awhile, and knew she had to find Kenshin.
Mitsuki was about to follow her when she sniffed. "Hang on… I smell something…" The Glaceon had been known throughout the kingdom for her excellent sense of smell, and Asami paused. "I smell… ghost… no, dark type… quadripedal… and… it's fe… no, male."
Asami looked around. "Can you tell the species?"
"Not yet…"
As if on cue, the bushes in that direction started shaking. "Let's get him!" shouted Asami, and the two of them followed the trail of shaking bushes. Whoever had been watching them was astonishingly fast. Asami personally thought it had to be Chu, that creep, but it could also be Hideki, the leader of the tribe. They never would have caught whoever it was if there hadn't been a cliff overlooking a waterfall. He was cornered! When they caught up, they saw something she hadn't expected. An Umbreon! In fact, he looked like the same one from the attack!
"You! Hey, you're that Umbreon who I beat down!"
"Shut up! I would've gone harder if Kenshin hadn't told me not to kill you! And you… you're that Glaceon, aren't you? I've heard about you!"
Mitsuki sniffed. "Well, I haven't heard about you," said Mitsuki.
"Wait, you know Kenshin?" said Asami.
"Yeah. He's my best friend. By the way, I'm Ko. I saw how he saved you. You're lucky. He could have killed you in an instant if he didn't have such a good conscience."
"Okay, Ko, Asami here needs to find Kenshin. Where would he be?"
He chuckled. "Kenshin is here. You can't smell him, Glaceon?"
"No… I, AAH!" She shrieked as the Vaporeon fell down from an overhanging tree.
"What?" he asked casually.
Asami cleared her throat. "Kenshin… I wanted to say thank you for rescuing me, and helping me after I ran into here. I was just upset, but yeah, thanks."
He nodded, and turned to Ko. "Take princess Asami home, please."
"Sure. Does your friend want to come?"
Mitsuki shook her head. "I'm living out here now. But do come visit, Asami." The two of them hugged, and Mituki said, "Find someone who you truly care about. Don't be married away by other's wishes, and be careful out there."
Asami nodded. "Same for you, Mitsuki. I'll miss you again."
Ko and Kenshin watched silently. Kenshin shot one last glance at Asami, with some unreadable expression deep within his eyes before turning around and heading back to the town.
"We can go now, Ko. Bye Mitsuki!"
"Bye!"
Ko and Asami slowly walked underneath the trees, but rather than feeling happy, Asami felt hesitant about leaving the forest. Probably just miss Mitsuki. She is my best friend after all. Ko also seemed to be hesitant about leaving the forest, looking back every so often.
"So… do you come here often?" asked Asami. "You seem hesitant."
"Not too often. This is near the place where your friend… Mitsuki lives I think. We give her space."
"Yeah, Mitsuki has always been a free thinker. Her parents wanted to marry her away, but she refused, and came to live here."
Ko looked thoughtful. "Married away? Like arranged? Wow, that must be pretty harsh. In our tribe, normally, within it, if a guy wants to marry a girl, he must beat her in combat. But if he wants to marry an outsider, like you, he would have to do a small blood exchange."
"Oh, so that's why he cut my tail… I see…"
"Sorry to change the subject, but your friend, how old is she?"
"Oh, exactly one week younger than me. Why?"
He paused thoughtfully. "She seemed… young."
"Well, yeah. Although you only look a year older than me. But I'm sort of married to a guy who is about seven months older than me, and, age wise, that isn't so weird. A few months more difference doesn't matter."
He continued walking. "So... you know what, never mind. Hey, that's your village right?" He pointed to a wall, and Asami nodded.
"I've got it from here. Thanks."
He nodded, and backed away into the trees. Asami sighed. She would probably not be going back there again, into the forest with the tribe. She took one last look back, then dashed towards the walls.
The guard opened the main gate, and Asami stopped awhile to look at the cherry blossom garden, which seemed ready to bloom soon.
"Asami!" She turned to see her stepmother running towards her. "Dear, are you alright? I heard you and Prince Chu went into the forest. I thought they caught you…" She hugged Asami. Asami's stepmother was everything she would have hoped for from a real mother; caring, beautiful, and generous. Asami always looked up to her. "My, where is that prince?"
"Prince? Ah… don't mention him! That pervert tried to rape me the moment we got into the forest!"
"What? Oh, that's a terrible, terrible thing to do! Are you alright? I imagine that must have been so traumatizing…"
"Konachi, I'm fine. Where's dad?"
"Asami? My daughter…" She heard her fathers voice, and turned around to hug him. "I heard something about that prince Chu. I suspected he had a good heart, but it seems I was naïve…" He huffed. "Did you find that Vaporeon?"
Asami contemplated telling her father, but she would have to tell him everything if she did. So she replied, "No. Didn't catch anything even related to him. Decided it was getting late, and headed back here."
Her father frowned, then said, "Is that so? Well, you can head upstairs. There is a cup of Oran tea for you, daughter."
She yawned, and said, "Thank you mom and dad." She kissed both of them on the cheek, and walked up to her room.
She heard her father whisper to her mother. "Our daughter is becoming a very fine lady. We must find her a good mate."
Konachi replied, "You have me. What do you say we head up and 'make up'?"
Her father chuckled. "You bet!"
Asami was so grossed out by that thought that she ran up to her room. "I'll never be married away! I won't ever become like that!" she said indignantly. She flopped onto her bed, and sighed loudly. By now, it was nighttime, and Asami was just about falling asleep when she realized how dirty she was. Running from the pervert, running after Ko, she had done a lot today. She quietly decided to head to the nearby hot spring. The hot spring was right at the edge of the forest, but people frequently visited the spring. It was sort of an agreement that it was neutral ground, and pokemon would never fight there.
She arrived there relatively quickly, and bathed herself quickly. There was nobody there, which was good. She didn't want any townspeople watching a princess bathe. It certainly did relax her, and she looked at the trees at the edge of the forest. The branches swayed in the wind ominously, and Asami shivered as the breeze hit her fur. She quickly finished up, then groomed herself before leaving the spring. She looked back at the spring and gasped. It was him! Kenshin! Just one spring away! His eyes seemed unblinking as they looked back at her. Her heart seemed to stop, but she didn't know if it was from fear or surprise, or something else. Then he vaporized into night wind.
"Wait!" she said, without knowing why, but he was gone with the breeze.
I will try update ASAP. Please review!