Kenshin & Familiar Of Zero: The Wandering Familiar
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I do not own Familiar Of Zero or Rorouni Kenshin/Samurai X
AN: Hello again to everyone reading my story, and thank you to the people that have left me reviews.
*Action*
"Dialogue"
'Inner thoughts'
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Chapter Four
Scars of the past
After finishing their shopping in an uncomfortable silence, Kenshin and Tabitha made their way back to the academy and into her room. He unpacked some of the items and is now standing next to her window.
He has been reflecting over the events that just transpired while they were out while occasionally looking back at the blue-haired girl that summoned him.
She is currently sitting quietly at her table and seems to be reading a book.
'Why doesn't she say anything? It didn't seem like that man was there to look out for her well-being. There is something more here that she hasn't told me about yet. I know I have secrets from my past, but this is troublesome.' He thinks.
Then, he takes another look back and finds something peculiar. He lets out a small sigh.
"Miss Tabitha, I know that I cannot read your language, but even I can tell when you are reading a book upside down."
The petite girl gets startled out of her own thoughts from hearing his voice for the first time in what seemed like forever. She looks up at him in slight bewilderment.
Then he repeats what he had just said to her again. She quickly looks down at her open book and realizes that she did have it upside down. A light blush of embarrassment comes upon her face, but she still says nothing. She flips her book around and tries to pretend that didn't happen.
He reaches for the book from the top and goes to pull it away from the girl before him, but he finds it oddly hard to pull it away from her as she clenches it tightly. She tries to keep staring into the book. After a few more tugs, he is finally able to pry the book away from her.
She finally looks up at him and he could see the tension in her eyes.
"I am not one to pry into a person's past. I have my own issues. But I feel that this is something that we need to talk about, that I do."
"Alright." She quietly replies.
"Who is your uncle and why would he have someone following you?"
She fights back all of the emotions stirring in her body and coldly begins to explain.
"My uncle is King Joseph of Galia. He is my father's brother. My father, Charles, was chosen for the throne over him. My father died from a poison arrow while out hunting. He took over the throne."
'That sounds like the work of an assassin to me.' Kenshin thinks as he rubs his chin.
"Was the person who shot the arrow ever found?"
She shakes her head.
"What about your mother? Wouldn't she have ruled the country in his place?"
"My mother drank a poisoned drink that was meant for me and it turned her crazy. She doesn't even recognize me as her daughter anymore. She calls a doll by my name. My name isn't Tabitha. It is really Charlotte."
His eyes slowly get wider and wider with every detail she adds to her story.
"I am not fond of this Joseph fellow. Why aren't you doing anything?"
She looks slightly away.
"I am bound to do his wishes if I want to keep seeing my mother. Even if she is not herself anymore, she is still alive. So, he has kept me out of the picture by sending me to this school under an alias. He has also sent me on impossible missions. There is a person named Sheffield that runs his errands for him and she gives me the tasks."
Kenshin frowns in disgust and sorrow.
"How could a relative use his own niece like that?"
'This must be why she tries to keep to herself, and why she didn't fear death when I had my sword against her neck.' Kenshin reflects.
She doesn't reply.
A long moment of silence fills the already thick atmosphere as though time was standing still. She looks down at the table and he stares out the window.
Eventually, Tabitha speaks as she looks up.
"What about you, Kenshin?"
He closes his eyes while letting out another sigh.
"It is only fair." He replies.
Then he opens his eyes back up and faces her.
"I told you that I am a wanderer. I am that now. But, as Saito so blatantly stated, I was much more than that."
She intently focuses on him while trying to distract herself momentarily from her own troubles in fear of breaking from mental anguish.
"The names that Saito mentioned are all true. I detest being called those names, but I am the person he talked about. My country was fighting against itself against corrupt politicians. There was a change going on in my country, and I got wrapped up in it. I became an assassin. I am Battousai the manslayer. I have also been called the red devil. It was not only because of my red hair, but also because of the trail of blood left behind me. I killed a countless amount of people. Yes, I did kill a noble in broad daylight."
"And your lover?" She boldly asks.
He frowns.
"Are you sure that you have time for this?"
"You listened to me. Now I will listen to you, no matter what it is you have to say."
"It is a complicated story, that it is. It started off before I even met her, Tomoe." He begins.
He looks out her window again and up to the sky as the memories flash through his mind.
"There was a man that she was engaged to. He was assigned to guard duty for a man that I was sent to assassinate. The man told his guards to flee, but they still tried to defend him. They all died by my sword that night. The fiance spoke her name as he died. Be fore he died, He had also managed to make one of the cuts along my cheek."
'How am I supposed to feel that the man standing before me, the man I summoned, was an assassin?'
"During a night that I was attacked myself, I accidentally ran into a woman walking on a rainy night. She made a comment to me about making the rain red. I helped after she had collapsed. I did not know at the time that I had slain her fiancé until much later. Her and I fell in love over time. And she even saved my humanity. I would have gotten lost if it were not for her. She was my sheath."
'His sheath. A metaphor.'
"We had spent time together in hiding and pretended to be married. I was informed that she was a spy for a group that was out for my blood. The man that told me this also turned out to be a traitor amongst our midst. I was told she wanted to avenge her fiancé. But this was a ploy and a trick to break my mind. She was, in fact, a spy, but she had no longer wanted to kill me after our time together. We had become lovers."
'I have a feeling that this is where things get ugly.'
"I had woken up one morning and she was gone. I went after her distraught. I didn't know what to think. She and I were both tricked. She was used to lure me to a trap. They took advantage my week state and relentlessly attacked me. I was badly wounded, but I kept moving forward. In an attempt to save my live, she jumped between the leader of the group trying to kill me and I. She ended up being slashed by my own blade in the process. As she was dying in my arms, she made the other cut in my cheek."
Even though she didn't show it, his story pained her heart.
"That's a sad story." She tells him.
He looks back over to her.
"That it is. I will never forget her. She has been one of the most important people in my life, and I am the one that killed her. After that, I finished what I had started, but then I turned into a wanderer after that."
The rest of the evening goes by rather quietly with an atmosphere that was chokingly thick. Both of the room's occupants reflecting on the thoughts of not only their own pasts, but each-others.
Night seemed to come quickly, and they eventually just settle in for the night. He settles onto a thick pad that resembles a Japanese futon, and partially covers up with a blanket as he leans against her book case as he did the night before.
He gives her some final glances before closing his heavy eyes.
'What should I do, Tomoe? Should I help her? I cannot stand the man that claims to be her uncle. She did not deserve this life. But if I do this, then I may end up having to break my vow and kill again. What should I do?'
Those are his final thoughts before drifting off into a slumber.
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Kenshin is in a dimly lit room. He is naked with a woman that is also naked in his arms.
The woman has long, dark hair. Her bangs go down to eye level. She has pale skin. They lie with a large blanket wrapped around the both of them while sitting upright.
The room is silent until the girl speaks up ever so softly.
"Kenshin?" She says softly.
He looks down and her and she turns to look up at him.
"Yes, Tomoe?"
"Save her."
He gives her a puzzled look. She slowly raises her hand up to his left cheek. He could hear blanket softly shift with her movement. He closes his eyes to her touch.
"Kenshin?" She says to him.
He finds something odd about her voice now. It no longer sounds exactly like her voice.
"Kenshin?"
He hears the voice say again.
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"Kenshin?" Tabitha says to get his attention.
A moment of pause as he slightly stirs.
"Kenshin?" She softly says again.
His eyes start to open his eyes and he sees Tabitha bending over to him while he sits on the futon.
He realizes that the voice he heard calling his name was Tabitha and that he was just having a dream about Tomoe.
"Your scar. It's bleeding." She states.
In her hand is a small cloth that she places over the scar on his left cheek. It soaks up the blood that was coming from it. His hand grazes against hers as he holds the cloth.
"Is this normal?" She asks as she stands back up.
He pulls the cloth away and sees an -shaped blood mark on the cloth.
"No. It has not bled in years."
'This must be my sign. Thank you, Tomoe. I now know what I have to do. Perhaps this is what she meant by the familiar being decided upon the wishes of the one who summons it.' He thinks to himself.
He stands up and gives Tabitha a determined stare.
"Miss Tabitha."
"Yes, Kenshin?"
"What do you want?"
She cants her head to the side in slight confusion. Then she replies with the first thing that pops into her head as to what he might be asking about.
"For breakfast?"
He runs his hand over his face.
"I suppose that might be a good question too, considering we didn't eat dinner, but that is not what I am asking about. What do you want to achieve? What do you want for yourself, for your mother, and for your uncle?"
She narrows her eyebrows as she focuses on the question that has now stirred up every emotion that she has been holding back. They boil to the surface.
Her fists clench and her teeth momentarily clench as well.
"I want. . . I want. . . I want my mother back. I want her sane again. I want my life back. I want to be free from this jailed life that I am living. I want my uncle taken off the throne. It's not fair that he's done all of this and doesn't pay the consequences."
She fights back her emotions and the tears that with to well up in her eyes.
He nods in acknowledgment of her desires.
"Very well. Then I will vow to you to help you achieve all of those things. We will take that man whom I refuse to call your uncle out of power."
"Do you really mean that? Can we actually do this?"
He nods.
"It would not be the first time that I have dealt with corrupt nobles after all, but we will need to prepare for this. You will have to make the greatest preparations of all, though."
"What do you mean?"
"You will need to prepare for what may come from us taking him out of power."
"What are you suggesting?"
He gives her a serious look.
"We go straight after him."
"You plan on taking on the whole country."
"If I have to, yes. But that is not exactly what I am thinking. I was an assassin. I will cut off the snakes head directly."
"Shouldn't I be the one to do that? It is my problem after all."
"No. I have something more important for you to do. You will need to protect your mother. As soon as it is figured out what we are up to, it is likely that she will be targeted as she is defenseless in her current state. I would rather do this alone anyways. It is easier this way for me. I will not have to worry about accidentally injuring you if you aren't around. Besides, my hands are already sullied."
'I still can't believe how he has killed so many at his age.'
"That doesn't make it any better. What about curing my mother?"
"We will have to worry about that afterwards. We must first take out the most necessary task first. We will leave in three days."
Her eyes go wide.
"Three days? Why so soon? Shouldn't we plan a little more?"
"We will need to plan, but we need to take advantage of the situation. I will need your brains for the planning. If we wait too long, then he will start observing me and planning on how to take measures against me. No. I don't want that. I am already at a disadvantage because I am not able to cast magic. We need the element of surprise. I am used to working like that anyways. I was sent out on a moment's notice and had to act quickly. Three days should be good. You will have to skip class though. I need to train to fight against mages."
"How are you so sure that we can do this? I want to believe you, but we are going against great odds."
"I have permission, and I refuse to not only let you down, but I also refuse to lose against someone like him. I shall swing my sword for you."
All of a sudden, their stomachs grumble.
"I suppose we should wait to do this til after our bellies have been filled." He states
"Agreed." She replies.
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After breakfast. Principal Osmond's office.
"Why is it that you wish to take three days off?" Old Osmond asks while stroking his beard.
"My familiar is only an up and coming swordsman. He is not yet very acquainted with the sword enough to my standards though. He is rather, sub par."
Her face is very stoic and serious looking.
Kenshin raises an eyebrow.
'Sub par.' He muses.
"I wish to train him hard over the next few days and then return to my school duties."
'What is she planning on doing? If she goes out of line, Joseph will not let things go unpunished. I know this all too well.' Miss Longueville, the green-haired girl, thinks to herself as she stays busy with papers at her own desk.
"Your grades and abilities are exceptional. As long as I have your word that you will return to your studies after these three days, then you have my permission."
She bows her head.
"Thank you."
Kenshin takes the cue and bows his head as well.
"It is nice to have met you, Kenshin Himura."
"It is nice to have met you as well, Mr. Osmond." Kenshin replies.
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In a training portion of the courtyard, Kenshin and Tabitha are well within a hard training regimen.
After his experience at the shopping district, Kenshin realized that the runes all over his body help his speed as if the wind is pushing him faster.
To prevent him from getting too close, Tabitha casts a spell to create a wall between her and him.
"Earth, robust mother, answer my wishes and become a moving wall."
A wall of earth begins forming building up.
Kenshin stops running and his runes glow again as he unsheathes his sword and swings at the wall. His sword strike leaves a glow in it's wake with the speed at which he makes it. With incredible speed, he not only slices at the wall, but Tabitha notices that his swing acts as though he had casted wind strike along with it. The blast of wind causes some of the shards of rock to fly away.
His eyes go wide.
"This is certainly new, that it is."
"Agreed. Perhaps the wind force that has added to your speed, has also inadvertently added to your sword strikes." Adds the blue-haired girl.
"I will have to take this into consideration." He says while looking at his sword.
Then, he looks back at her and gives her a curious stare.
"Is something wrong?" She politely asks.
"What was that whole thing about my sword technique being sub-par?"
She shrugs.
"It sounded good, and he did believe it."
"That he did." He replies amusingly.
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A/N: Thank you for reading another chapter of my fanfiction.
Here is a list of my other stories
My 'History's Strongest Devil Disciple Kenichi' story is at chapter 13
My 'Kenichi: Not Just Her Disciple' story is at chapter 11 - Complete
My 'Monster Musume: Drago's Quest' story is at chapter 4 - Complete
My 'Familiar Of Zero: Saving Grace' story is at Chapter 79 - Complete
My 'Teknoman And A Succubus' story is at chapter 3