Disclaimer: Owned by whoever owns it not me. Don't sue please I'm poor.
Intertwined
By Beer-monster
Chapter 3: Continuation
" When love is lost," Shinji said softly.
Shinji's breath was fast and shallow. He could still feel the blood run over his
fingers and the dead weight of the woman in his arms.The fragments of Kenshin's
memories were now scattered, but the emotional wounds still remained. In the instant
that he saw Tomoe's body, Kenshin felt so much pain that Shinji had thought a man's
heart would explode under the stress.
He then noticed his eyes stung with unshed tears. He blinked them back
hurriedly, and saw Rei watching him, her head tilted as she regarded him with red eyes
like a curious hawk.
" Uh...I...I'm sorry Rei. I shouldn't..."
" What did you see?," she interupted flatly.
" What...huh?" he stuttered.
" For several seconds you were breathing rapidly and raggedly. Your vision
seemed detached from your surroundings and your pupils dilated. I assumed you
experienced a vision or flashback of some sort." She might as well have been reading a
passage from a schoolbook for all the emotion in her voice.
" Uh..well yeah... but..."
" So what did you see?" she persisted.
" I saw Kenshin. He k...killed a woman. A woman he cared for deeply."
" Was it Kaoru?"
" No...it was someone else. A woman named Tomoe."
" Tomoe?"
" Yes, he seemed to love her."
Rei seemed to consider this before saying. " But I thought he loved Kaoru."
Shinji noticed a tightness to her voice, she seemed angry. Angry at Kenshin, as if he
was cheating on her... on Kaoru.
" No. This was before then. He only had one scar on his cheek. No cross."
Rei tilted her head again to process these details in her mind. Her face was as
indifferent as ever, but Shinji could tell she was analysing his story from every logical
angle. Watching her was like watching the flashing of binary codes upon a super-
computer (like the magi) as it calculated vertices and probabilites to find the solution.
There was a cold, yet serene beauty about her as she did do. Like the beauty an
engineer finds in the running of a well-oiled machine, but this was far more astounding.
The whole process lasted no more than a tenth of the second, such is the speed of
human thought.
" Why did he kill her" she asked.
Shinji thought back to the vision. Trying to relive every detail. He saw the
slash, felt the splatter of blood. But saw no reason for it. In fact it was hard to see at
all.
" He couldn't see, his sight was all blurry. Perhaps it was an accident."
" An accident," Rei said.
" Yes. I can't see how he would do it on purpose."
" Perhaps she deserved it. Perhaps she betrayed him."
Shinji just shook his head slightly before, continuing nervously. Hs low self-
esteem, berating him for even thinking of disagreeing with another person, particularly
one as smart and beautiful as Rei.
" I...It wouldn't matter. He...he loved her."
" As much as he loved Kaoru," she asked. A hint of challenge in her voice.
" Well I think so."
Rei sniffed in what seemed to be annoyance and indignation. Shinji thought he
was hearing things -after all this was Rei- and carried on.
" But it was different."
" Different?," she said, going back to her usual flat but a little curious tone.
" Well...that is...he just felt different about her."
" Perhaps she was a relative, his sister," Rei suggested as if trying to convince
herself.
" No, it wasn't like that. It was romantic love just..." he broke of and sighed
dejectedly. This was ludicrous, with all of his problems he was trying to figure out the
live of a century long dead samurai, and failing.
" What's the point," he said quietly. " Why am I trying to determine the
emotions of some dead man when I can't even sort out my own."
He looked at Rei, who was watching him through those brilliant red eyes again.
There seemed to be the smallest ghost of a smile on her pale lips, inperceptable to
anyone who had never seen her smile before. She nodded at him in what seemed to be
agreement, the action so small it did not even phase her azure hair.
" Good question," she said. Something in her voice suggested she felt the same
way. Once again Shinji's self-confidence kicked ( or lack there of) and he thought he
was hearing things again. After all who would agree with him or share his feelings.
" We should return to class," she said after a while.
" Huh?" Shinji uttered after not paying attention to her.
" Our designated lunch period is almost over."
" Oh." He pulled himself to his feet and started to frenziedly brush blades of
grass from his uniform pants. He then turned to Rei and offered her his hand, in what
he thought was a chivarous way. Rei just stared at his outstretched hand as if she had
never seen the five-digited appendage before and was wondering what it was. Finally
she stood up on her own and smoothed out the pleats in her dark skirt.
Shinji blushed bright red with embarrassment while similtaneously sighing with
disappointment. Deciding he looked a complete moron with his arm outstetched, he
retracted it and stuffed it into he trouser pocket before following Rei back into school.
They made their way back to their class in silence. Shinji because he was too
nervous to think of anything to say, and Rei because, well because she was Rei and
silence had always come easy to her. They came to room 2-A, Shinji turned the door
handle and walked in.
The serenity quivered and then shattered like an opera glass hit by a Soprano's
highest song. It was broken by the loud cry of " GO ON " coming from the ever loud
Touji Suzahara.
As usual Shinji's automatic response to having the attention of his whole class
firmly centred on him and Rei, was to have a minor nervous breakdown.This caused
him to babble non-sensibly, with all his attempts at speach illegible except for the
occasional, rapid utterances of " What?" " Why?" and the ever-present " Huh?". As
for Rei she just stood there calmly, tilting her head and raising a blue eyebrow in what
could be called puzzlement. She thought, not for the first time, that the human race
was incredibly weird and that it was a miracle it was not extinct.
Meanwhile Touji continued shouting, " WHAHAAAY! Lets hear it for Ikari
the super-stud. He's pulled himself quite a babe there, if a little on the intimidating,
scary, ice-queen side."
" Touji," Hikari said tightly.
" Gosh, who would a thought it. Shinji and Rei," Keisuke said pushing his
glasses further up the bridge of his nose. " I thought for sure he'd end up with Asuka."
This statement was greeted by a warning glare from Hikari, a nod of
agreement from Touji and an angry " Hmmph!" from Asuka herself. This of course
was an opening that Touji could not resist.
" Jealous Asuka.Worried someone else might be taking your sweet baka Shinji
away."
Asuka for a moment looked mortified and more than a little hurt. Her blue eyes
opened wide as she considered his words.
Touji smiled he thought.
Hikari also noticed her friends mournful expression and her heart went out to
Asuka.
Noticing that evryone was now looking at her, she quickly made a cover-up by
putting on her " Arrogant, German Harpy" mask.
" Well I say they deserve each other. Baka Shinji and Wonder girl the two most
stoic and boring people on the planet." She decided to use sarcasm a favourite tool of
hers. " The fires of their passion will be devastating I'm sure. What with all the dirty
talking they're bound to do."
A couple of boys giggled. The girls however were far too occupied with
targeting dirty looks at Rei. A couple of them where slowly grinding there teeth
together. Others were discussing Rei, Shinji, and how cruel life and the world was.
" Dammit she's so lucky."
" Slag!"
" What could he see in her she's so quiet and scary."
" Oh Shin-chan."
That last one made Keisuke worry, something in that girls tone indicated that
she was a couple a gunmen short of a posse. he thought.
Shinji by now had regained his ability to speak clearly, if not gracefully. He
began waving in hands in front of him as if to ward of Touji's congratulations and the
curious, gossip-driven questions of his classmates. While he did this he began spouting
denials and even sweating a bit.
" No its not what you think. We didn't do anything. We were just talking. I
wouldn't do anything like that.," he babbled.
" See," Touji proclaimed waving his finger in the air with imagined triumph."
" He wouldn't be denying it so forcefully unless he was embarassed. He just doesn't
want anyone to know about his and Rei's little fling."
" That's not it at all," Shinji protested loudly.
" Then why are you blushing."
Shinji felt the warmth in his cheeks, which ironically made him more
embarassed and more desperate to sort this mess out.
" Nothing happened," he said through gritted teeth, now getting rather
irritated.
" That is correct," came a soft voice.
Every turned to see Rei standing there as she was before, calmly and serenely.
Only now she was talking.
" Shinji-kun is correct, we displayed none of the type of romantic behaviour
you are insinuating. We were merely talking." The looked at the rest of the class, most
of whose reactions where minor face-faults. That is except for a few girls who sighed
collectively, in relief that Shinji was still on the market.
Rei weaved her way between the gawping teenagers and sat at her seat. Taking
up her usual pose, of resting her arms in her lap as she stared unblinking out of the
window.
The other students seeing that the spectacle was over returnde to their own
seats, gossiping about Shinji and Rei and trying to guess who Shinji really liked. Touji
and Keisuke made their way over to Shinji, who was still slightly dumbfounded by the
whole experience.
" So you really did nothing with her?" Touji asked.
" Of course not," Shinji replied.
Keisuke adjusted his glasses and looked over at Touji. Touji returned the stare
evenly and nodded with determination. Together the rose their arms and
simultaneously walloped the back of Shinji's head., sending the young Ikari sprawling
face first on the floor, legs and arms stuck in the air at uncomfortable angles.
" IDIOT," they bothed yelled. Together they both stepped on their friends
prone body and went to their seat.
Shinji remained on the floor showing no signs of life other than a weak " Oro!".
As he lay there he thought that maybe it was time to take up drinking.
To be continued.
AN- This chapter is dedicated to Kimberly, whose recent review has reminded me how
popular this fic was and how I've been neglecting it. You see I kinda forgot what
happens next. I know where I want to go with this story but I can't remember how to
get there. As I soon as I do remember I'll try to get the next chapter up. In the
meantime if you enjoy my writing I have written two other fics in two there anime
series. They are Forver Autumn from Rurouni Kenshin and On my own from Ranma
1/2. You may think this is a plug but I would really appreciate your reviews about my
other fics and your opinions about my work. I hope I can get another chapter of this up
soon after my Gundam fic which is in progress.
Intertwined
By Beer-monster
Chapter 3: Continuation
" When love is lost," Shinji said softly.
Shinji's breath was fast and shallow. He could still feel the blood run over his
fingers and the dead weight of the woman in his arms.The fragments of Kenshin's
memories were now scattered, but the emotional wounds still remained. In the instant
that he saw Tomoe's body, Kenshin felt so much pain that Shinji had thought a man's
heart would explode under the stress.
He then noticed his eyes stung with unshed tears. He blinked them back
hurriedly, and saw Rei watching him, her head tilted as she regarded him with red eyes
like a curious hawk.
" Uh...I...I'm sorry Rei. I shouldn't..."
" What did you see?," she interupted flatly.
" What...huh?" he stuttered.
" For several seconds you were breathing rapidly and raggedly. Your vision
seemed detached from your surroundings and your pupils dilated. I assumed you
experienced a vision or flashback of some sort." She might as well have been reading a
passage from a schoolbook for all the emotion in her voice.
" Uh..well yeah... but..."
" So what did you see?" she persisted.
" I saw Kenshin. He k...killed a woman. A woman he cared for deeply."
" Was it Kaoru?"
" No...it was someone else. A woman named Tomoe."
" Tomoe?"
" Yes, he seemed to love her."
Rei seemed to consider this before saying. " But I thought he loved Kaoru."
Shinji noticed a tightness to her voice, she seemed angry. Angry at Kenshin, as if he
was cheating on her... on Kaoru.
" No. This was before then. He only had one scar on his cheek. No cross."
Rei tilted her head again to process these details in her mind. Her face was as
indifferent as ever, but Shinji could tell she was analysing his story from every logical
angle. Watching her was like watching the flashing of binary codes upon a super-
computer (like the magi) as it calculated vertices and probabilites to find the solution.
There was a cold, yet serene beauty about her as she did do. Like the beauty an
engineer finds in the running of a well-oiled machine, but this was far more astounding.
The whole process lasted no more than a tenth of the second, such is the speed of
human thought.
" Why did he kill her" she asked.
Shinji thought back to the vision. Trying to relive every detail. He saw the
slash, felt the splatter of blood. But saw no reason for it. In fact it was hard to see at
all.
" He couldn't see, his sight was all blurry. Perhaps it was an accident."
" An accident," Rei said.
" Yes. I can't see how he would do it on purpose."
" Perhaps she deserved it. Perhaps she betrayed him."
Shinji just shook his head slightly before, continuing nervously. Hs low self-
esteem, berating him for even thinking of disagreeing with another person, particularly
one as smart and beautiful as Rei.
" I...It wouldn't matter. He...he loved her."
" As much as he loved Kaoru," she asked. A hint of challenge in her voice.
" Well I think so."
Rei sniffed in what seemed to be annoyance and indignation. Shinji thought he
was hearing things -after all this was Rei- and carried on.
" But it was different."
" Different?," she said, going back to her usual flat but a little curious tone.
" Well...that is...he just felt different about her."
" Perhaps she was a relative, his sister," Rei suggested as if trying to convince
herself.
" No, it wasn't like that. It was romantic love just..." he broke of and sighed
dejectedly. This was ludicrous, with all of his problems he was trying to figure out the
live of a century long dead samurai, and failing.
" What's the point," he said quietly. " Why am I trying to determine the
emotions of some dead man when I can't even sort out my own."
He looked at Rei, who was watching him through those brilliant red eyes again.
There seemed to be the smallest ghost of a smile on her pale lips, inperceptable to
anyone who had never seen her smile before. She nodded at him in what seemed to be
agreement, the action so small it did not even phase her azure hair.
" Good question," she said. Something in her voice suggested she felt the same
way. Once again Shinji's self-confidence kicked ( or lack there of) and he thought he
was hearing things again. After all who would agree with him or share his feelings.
" We should return to class," she said after a while.
" Huh?" Shinji uttered after not paying attention to her.
" Our designated lunch period is almost over."
" Oh." He pulled himself to his feet and started to frenziedly brush blades of
grass from his uniform pants. He then turned to Rei and offered her his hand, in what
he thought was a chivarous way. Rei just stared at his outstretched hand as if she had
never seen the five-digited appendage before and was wondering what it was. Finally
she stood up on her own and smoothed out the pleats in her dark skirt.
Shinji blushed bright red with embarrassment while similtaneously sighing with
disappointment. Deciding he looked a complete moron with his arm outstetched, he
retracted it and stuffed it into he trouser pocket before following Rei back into school.
They made their way back to their class in silence. Shinji because he was too
nervous to think of anything to say, and Rei because, well because she was Rei and
silence had always come easy to her. They came to room 2-A, Shinji turned the door
handle and walked in.
The serenity quivered and then shattered like an opera glass hit by a Soprano's
highest song. It was broken by the loud cry of " GO ON " coming from the ever loud
Touji Suzahara.
As usual Shinji's automatic response to having the attention of his whole class
firmly centred on him and Rei, was to have a minor nervous breakdown.This caused
him to babble non-sensibly, with all his attempts at speach illegible except for the
occasional, rapid utterances of " What?" " Why?" and the ever-present " Huh?". As
for Rei she just stood there calmly, tilting her head and raising a blue eyebrow in what
could be called puzzlement. She thought, not for the first time, that the human race
was incredibly weird and that it was a miracle it was not extinct.
Meanwhile Touji continued shouting, " WHAHAAAY! Lets hear it for Ikari
the super-stud. He's pulled himself quite a babe there, if a little on the intimidating,
scary, ice-queen side."
" Touji," Hikari said tightly.
" Gosh, who would a thought it. Shinji and Rei," Keisuke said pushing his
glasses further up the bridge of his nose. " I thought for sure he'd end up with Asuka."
This statement was greeted by a warning glare from Hikari, a nod of
agreement from Touji and an angry " Hmmph!" from Asuka herself. This of course
was an opening that Touji could not resist.
" Jealous Asuka.Worried someone else might be taking your sweet baka Shinji
away."
Asuka for a moment looked mortified and more than a little hurt. Her blue eyes
opened wide as she considered his words.
Touji smiled he thought.
Hikari also noticed her friends mournful expression and her heart went out to
Asuka.
Noticing that evryone was now looking at her, she quickly made a cover-up by
putting on her " Arrogant, German Harpy" mask.
" Well I say they deserve each other. Baka Shinji and Wonder girl the two most
stoic and boring people on the planet." She decided to use sarcasm a favourite tool of
hers. " The fires of their passion will be devastating I'm sure. What with all the dirty
talking they're bound to do."
A couple of boys giggled. The girls however were far too occupied with
targeting dirty looks at Rei. A couple of them where slowly grinding there teeth
together. Others were discussing Rei, Shinji, and how cruel life and the world was.
" Dammit she's so lucky."
" Slag!"
" What could he see in her she's so quiet and scary."
" Oh Shin-chan."
That last one made Keisuke worry, something in that girls tone indicated that
she was a couple a gunmen short of a posse. he thought.
Shinji by now had regained his ability to speak clearly, if not gracefully. He
began waving in hands in front of him as if to ward of Touji's congratulations and the
curious, gossip-driven questions of his classmates. While he did this he began spouting
denials and even sweating a bit.
" No its not what you think. We didn't do anything. We were just talking. I
wouldn't do anything like that.," he babbled.
" See," Touji proclaimed waving his finger in the air with imagined triumph."
" He wouldn't be denying it so forcefully unless he was embarassed. He just doesn't
want anyone to know about his and Rei's little fling."
" That's not it at all," Shinji protested loudly.
" Then why are you blushing."
Shinji felt the warmth in his cheeks, which ironically made him more
embarassed and more desperate to sort this mess out.
" Nothing happened," he said through gritted teeth, now getting rather
irritated.
" That is correct," came a soft voice.
Every turned to see Rei standing there as she was before, calmly and serenely.
Only now she was talking.
" Shinji-kun is correct, we displayed none of the type of romantic behaviour
you are insinuating. We were merely talking." The looked at the rest of the class, most
of whose reactions where minor face-faults. That is except for a few girls who sighed
collectively, in relief that Shinji was still on the market.
Rei weaved her way between the gawping teenagers and sat at her seat. Taking
up her usual pose, of resting her arms in her lap as she stared unblinking out of the
window.
The other students seeing that the spectacle was over returnde to their own
seats, gossiping about Shinji and Rei and trying to guess who Shinji really liked. Touji
and Keisuke made their way over to Shinji, who was still slightly dumbfounded by the
whole experience.
" So you really did nothing with her?" Touji asked.
" Of course not," Shinji replied.
Keisuke adjusted his glasses and looked over at Touji. Touji returned the stare
evenly and nodded with determination. Together the rose their arms and
simultaneously walloped the back of Shinji's head., sending the young Ikari sprawling
face first on the floor, legs and arms stuck in the air at uncomfortable angles.
" IDIOT," they bothed yelled. Together they both stepped on their friends
prone body and went to their seat.
Shinji remained on the floor showing no signs of life other than a weak " Oro!".
As he lay there he thought that maybe it was time to take up drinking.
To be continued.
AN- This chapter is dedicated to Kimberly, whose recent review has reminded me how
popular this fic was and how I've been neglecting it. You see I kinda forgot what
happens next. I know where I want to go with this story but I can't remember how to
get there. As I soon as I do remember I'll try to get the next chapter up. In the
meantime if you enjoy my writing I have written two other fics in two there anime
series. They are Forver Autumn from Rurouni Kenshin and On my own from Ranma
1/2. You may think this is a plug but I would really appreciate your reviews about my
other fics and your opinions about my work. I hope I can get another chapter of this up
soon after my Gundam fic which is in progress.