If I had time to think, Battousai mused in one stutter-flash between strikes, I might really be in trouble.
As it was, while a brothel-bedroom door exploded inward from sword and kick and the four of them bolted inside with metal squealing on their heels, his mind insisted on tossing up a number of very pointed questions for one genki Goth lab tech he really didn't have time to think about. Such as, how long had ninja training run in the family, was it traditional or a recently-reclaimed heritage, and hadn't anyone in the extended family realized that telling Target Alpha what Aoshi was really capable of might have narrowed down their search from random Kin feeding on college students to one deliberately out to Infect intelligent, trained security and infiltration experts-
"Window!" he snapped, ignoring the grunting and now yelping couple on the bed. Then not ignoring them, as emptiness snarled in his senses and he flipped his blade to slice-
The half-naked man shrieked, lurching as shocks from a spine turned circuitry brushed his arm, eyes wide and white at the blood foaming onto his lap.
:Oh gods.:
The Beijings must have had... use privileges.
:We should burn this place to the ground!:
Temper, my own. Breathe. Fight. Live.
:Yahiko...:
Ignoring the john, Beshimi tore down a poster to reveal a boarded-up window, started ripping boards free with vicious curses.
Onmitsu indeed. Never stand and fight when you can flee.
Skirmishers weren't that different. Hitokiri weren't.
Which was possibly the only thing keeping all of them alive, as Megumi added her own desperate yanks to Beshimi's efforts, and Battousai spun to add a deadly slice to Aoshi's dance to hold the door.
He's good, Battousai realized as the Okashira slashed the Achilles' wires of one Virus, clawed the armored throat of another that had made it in close. He's very good. This could be... interesting.
If they lived.
Keep the initiative. Keep moving. Lack of space and height were more deadly enemies than any Virus; lethal as Hiten Mitsurugi was, it needed vertical distance and room for speed. Both of which were in critically short supply.
But he'd fought in narrower alleys in Kyoto. He could fight here.
Thank the kami Kenshin's short...
A flicker of indignation. Battousai would have rolled his eyes, if he'd had time to spare. We are short. Live with it. Because if I didn't know this height-
Sandal-soles struck the ceiling, drove him down past Beshimi's flying venom to crush a metal spine in one shattering blow.
-We wouldn't be alive.
A Dog tore in past them as other Virus occupied their blades; loosed one metallic hiss as it charged for the Witch-
"Bad dog!" Smack went Megumi's board on wet wires. "Go away!"
Whimpering in spellbound confusion, the Dog wandered back into the blender that was the doorway, torn to bits in three heartbeats as Kin and Virus slashed at each other.
:...I think Yahiko would call this a "knife fight in a phone booth".:
The cub plays too many video games!
:Isn't that my line?:
If he'd had time, Battousai would have smiled. Next time, we take the daisho...
---------
So many of them, Kenshin thought numbly, sidestepping the metal flash of the Okashira's kodachi. For a hasty, unspoken truce, he had the impression they were doing pretty well so far; Megumi was shattering glass behind them, Aoshi was taking the mid-level targets while he worked low and high, and Beshimi's venom-darts hadn't clipped his gi more than once. Too many of them. How did I miss-?
One of the Beijings-who-wasn't fell to Aoshi's blade, blood and oil spurting, and Kenshin felt like pounding his head against a handy wall. Of course. He'd been looking so hard for the onmitsu and their prisoners, a few newly-infected Virus had slipped under his attention.
The others must have been out of range, waiting for their plants' signals-
A breeze gusted in, and he abandoned the door. Time to go!
"What- wait-" A stumbling, as if the man they'd fought around couldn't decide whether to run or dress or hide under the bed. "Help me!"
Kenshin was already in the shattered window. Beshimi and Megumi were out, working their way down the brick wall; Aoshi hard on his heels. We can't leave him!
:Yes. We will.:
Even half-expecting it, the sudden loss of himself hit like a hammer.
Battousai sheathed his blade and twisted them out into the night, claws finding holds with preternatural ease.
:We will die if we stay, Kenshin. We will die.
:And we would not save him.
:I do not expect you to forgive me. But you are my own, my heart - and I will not let you die for a fool!:
He's a human being, Kenshin protested, awash in the chill ruthlessness of the blade, feeling his arguments skim over steel like waves over sand. You're not an assassin. This isn't a war. This isn't Kyoto!
:Is it not?:
Memories of blood swept him under.
---------
Hands gripping the windowsill, more Virus pouring into the room in a metal-mesh grinding wave, Aoshi shut out the shriek and gurgle of fed-on humanity and cast his self to the wind.
Shifting... melting...
White wings cutting the breeze, the Ubo soared into the night. Antennae picked up scents of blood and tar and metal; faceted eyes saw clearly in the ultraviolet light filtering down through night clouds; what passed for ears caught the ultrasonic squeak of nearby bats.
Wonderful. One more thing to worry about.
He'd been caught by a daredevil of a bat before. It had hurt.
Though given the shock the fuzzball had suffered when its would-be prey had suddenly plunged in a proboscis and starting drinking its blood - well, that night-flyer would never go near a white butterfly again.
Fabric swooshed, and bats were suddenly the least of his worries. A butterfly net?!?
He dove and spun, silken threads dislodging a snowy dust of scales from his wings. Spinning eyes caught metal-and-flesh forms clambering out the shattered window, another flash of dark fabric, still more metal bodies swarming across the wall like spiders, wires clinging to brick and mortar where thick metal fingers couldn't grip.
This... isn't a random attack, Aoshi realized, as Battousai and Beshimi started fighting with venom and claws, badly hampered by the need to both guard Megumi and hang onto the wall. This was planned.
Why?
Later. He soared near Megumi, shifted-
Plucked her free of the wall and dropped, cushioning the impact for mortal flesh. Two near-soundless impacts struck in his wake; Aoshi didn't look, but ran on. Louder bodies were dropping off the building, metal deforming only a moment as it struck concrete, rebounding to leap in pursuit.
If we can get to a crowd... even Virus knows it can't be caught by humans-
A slender metal figure stepped out of the shadows only yards away, fingers splayed in an odd, hooked sign, and the Witch in his arms whimpered. "No - not that!"
Pain - utter, blinding pain-
The world went black.
---------
Eyes tearing, Battousai kept his grip on his hilt, blinking away dark sparkles of resisted magic. "Exploding Orbs," he rasped over the radio to Sano, judging the bitter currents of black magic about them and the metal female now advancing on their small group. "Kami. How did Virus-?"
Dread clutched his heart, and he glanced at his companions. Who'd stopped, just as he had - but were making no move to run again. A quiet keen was coming from Megumi, as if her own flesh and blood had murdered itself before her eyes.
"'Sai?" Sano said tensely.
Blood dripped from empty sockets like the last drops of hope. "Sano." Oh gods. "Everyone else is blind."
Carefully, Aoshi set Megumi down. Closed what was left of his eyes, and drew his kodachi, head tilted to listen. Beshimi stumbled to him, catching himself on the Okashira's trenchcoat, to stand straight and shivering.
It won't be enough. Sick at heart, Battousai felt and saw Virus closing in.
"There is no escape."
A nightmare chorus from a dozen metal throats. Yet strongest, somehow, was the female who'd blinded his allies. "Who are you?"
"We are Virus."
"No," Megumi whispered. "You were Ayumi... Ayumi Kinshi..."
"That designation has no meaning.
"It is useless to resist us.
"Submit."
"Never." The Okashira's voice was pure ice. "Battousai. Han'nya says you were the blade even the Shogunate feared. The Demon of Kyoto." Poised, claws and kodachi gleamed dark in the night. "We will protect Takani."
Steel arms almost in range, Battousai reached within, to the blood-swept presence in his soul. Kenshin, I'm - sorry.
:...I want to live.:
Then we have no choice. Breathing deep, he let everything but the hitokiri fall away. Remember.
"Irrational."
Remember Kyoto.
"We are Virus."
Remember Toba Fushimi.
"You do not know the depths of our power-"
Steel sang free.
---------
Aoshi's cousin, Han'nya thought, ghosting through the nighttime crowd in mild shock. Misao's bus was now blocks away - but given what he'd seen of her spirit already this night, he had no doubt she'd make it home safe. That tiny, stubborn, Target Alpha firebrand of a girl... is Aoshi's cousin.
Well, third or fourth cousin, as humans reckoned such details. But obviously of the same determined, ninja-trained clan, for those who took the time to see. A clan she would not name, even under Domination.
Not that she had to.
:Do you fear to look on me?: Han'nya had challenged her telepathically, feeling her quick glances as they walked to the bus stop.
Unwillingly, Misao had shaken her head. :You look - just like Grandpa's stories...:
Stories? Who in all the world would tell stories of Han'nya, Animate ninja of Edo-that-was? More, who would write such stories, as he saw in flickers of her mind's eyes; tales clearly illustrated with the horned demon-mask, the striped-arm costume?
But in what served him for a heart, he already knew.
The Oniwabanshuu. The mortal Oniwabanshuu.
The lost ones, who'd fled Japan in the wake of the Manchurian invasion. Those led by Makimachi Shin'ichi, who'd read the winds of politics, the growing brutality their children were suffering in the nation's schools, so like that their centuries-old ancestors had suffered under daimyo cruelty, and decided it was time to return to ninjas' ancient roots. And flee.
But there are no hidden villages anymore. Even the depths of the mountains cannot hold secrets now...
Makimachi must have bolted to America instead, willing to risk life among gaijin rather than see the ways of his clan die. For ninjutsu required a certain independence of thought, a willingness to hide and dissemble - and above all, keep a cool head. All traits Japan of that time had been bent on stamping out of her children.
There was a Shinomori among the missing, Han'nya recalled. It was thought she only died on a mission, as so many of us did - but her body was never found. If she faked her death, and joined Makimachi...
Aoshi is one of my clan. And I never knew!
Not by blood, no; parts of the flesh-and-steel construct that had been brought to life as Han'nya might have once been human, but he had never been mortal enough to sire children. But clan was more than blood. It was teachings. Sympathies. The shared convictions of what was right, and what was unforgivable.
It was the green eyes that had thrown him. Who'd ever heard of a ninja born with green eyes?
Three generations here. Time enough to blend anew, as onmitsu always have; even with the blood of the samurai.
But blended or not, changed or not - our clan is here. Within our reach. We don't have to be alone anymore.
I must tell Aoshi.
Carefully, of course. And outside the others' hearing. One trained to become Okashira would have been taught what threat even friendly Kin might pose to his clan. And gifted as he was, Aoshi was still young. He could not know the strength of vows between onmitsu; how loyalty to the clan would bind a Kin even when all human morality gave way under inhuman hunger.
We would not hurt them. We would never hurt them.
But Aoshi would not have known that. So of course, the young Ubo would have done the only thing he could to protect his family - even from himself.
Silence. Irrevocable. Eternal. Abandon the clan, and pray the hunger never draws you back to those you love...
No wonder he could not find joy among us.
Well, enough of that! Han'nya bared his teeth as he approached the brothel from the rear, eager to face this challenge. Onmitsu were onmitsu, and Oniwabanshuu Oniwabanshuu, no matter how many decades severed them. He would make a time to speak to his leader, and reveal what he knew; and Okashira that he was, the young Ubo would see what lies were no longer needed. Kin and mortal would rejoin, as they should never have been parted-
Rage blazed through his senses, shattering pleasant contemplation to icy fear.
Ken-ki, the Animate realized, shaking off the shivers as his ears caught the sickening shear of steel through wire and metal. Channeled. Controlled. Amaterasu's own gentle hand, guiding all the fury of a tsunami...
"Armor won't save you!"
The low, lethal growl of a dragon backed to the wall. Interspersed with lightning-crackle, the whip of shuriken, and the soft snap of cloth as its wearer moved faster than the eye could see.
The Demon of Kyoto.
Gut in knots, Han'nya ascended the nearby wall, climbing well above eye level to continue toward the fight. Against ordinary assailants, it would buy him crucial seconds; against Battousai - well. It sounded as if he were battling on the ground, but Kyoto's rumors had sworn the man could run the roofs as well as any ninja, and leap like a mountain cat. The Shinsengumi themselves, that most lethal samurai and Kin corps, had tried to trap him in Kyoto's mazes of walls - and failed...
Aoshi was the first bloodied figure to catch his eye, as Han'nya slipped around the last corner into the alley. Blood was smeared and drying on his cheeks, as it was on Beshimi's; but the two fought on, striking at any Virus ears and nose knew was close. Between them Megumi clenched and unclenched her hands, apparently unable to aim a spell without eyes to see. Metal had fallen in bright-shattered pieces all around them, limbs and gutted torsos twitching in tangled piles against a hapless dumpster. Wires reached out in spasms, like anemones caught on dry sand, searching for any last source of bioelectricity to hold off Final Death.
And Death was here, dancing under the streetlights.
Kami...
A knot of Virus surged in on itself - only to split apart, oil and gore flying. Han'nya barely caught a glimpse of red blurring out of it, to leap skyward and land a blow that drove its hapless victim a foot into the asphalt.
And the blaze of red was gone again, chunks of black tar flung up by a slice of steel across the alley floor to blast a woman-shaped Virus into a handy wall. Blue fire sparked in its hands, thrown off by the blow; a Virus near where Battousai had been collapsed, asphalt shattering as the creature's weight suddenly increased by a ton.
Heavyweight? Han'nya nearly fell off the wall in shock. Virus can't use magic!
Wind snapped, and Battousai was back, grimly cleaving the fire-touched Virus from collarbone to ribs in one clean kesagiri.
But the survivors had waited for that. They pounced.
"Useless.
"We are Virus.
"We are one."
"One will, yes." Amber blazed as he struggled against the wires. "But not one memory! She was Ayumi. And you, who care so little for the weave of human souls - you have lost!"
Hissing metal raised claws and wires to Drain-
And Han'nya twisted his hand, twisting reality - not about Battousai, but along the alley floor around him.
Asphalt glistened, suddenly slick with rain that would not fall for an hour or more. A Virus lost its balance, teetered-
Battousai let himself slip, skidding out of the deadly circle on oil-slick water. Slashed off the wires trying to bite into him with one swift skim of his blade; smashed a Virus' jaw with a swing of his saya.
Three more swift blows, and silence fell.
Sword still drawn, Battousai panted for breath among the wreckage, amber fading back to steel-blue as he searched for and found Han'nya in the shadows. "So."
"So." The Animate inclined his head, granting his opponent that last honor before he struck. A pity. Had you been fresh, I could never have defeated you-
"Stop."
Han'nya blinked. :Okashira...?:
:Virus was among the Beijings. Kanryuu's security is compromised. I doubt they could have gotten past Shikijou unnoticed; still, we will need to check him as well.:
Han'nya nodded. The were-tiger who made their fourth could never have been taken easily; but if Virus had gotten to the Beijings, he could have been taken. It would be easy enough to check otherwise - Virus could not manifest a were-creature's Edges - but until it was checked, they had to assume he might not be theirs.
:We may have lost Hyottoko,: Aoshi went on. :I cannot afford to lose you.:
:You know...?:
:I heard. And through your eyes, I see.:
Yes. He could see, as Han'nya now saw. Even if Han'nya could not quite believe.
I could take three Virus, and live. Together, the Oniwabanshuu could take even the numbers scattered here. But to do so alone...
Steel whispered into its sheath. "Aoshi." The breaths were still labored, but slowing now. Flecks of violet faded into that steadfast gaze, like twilight struggling against sunset. "We have... fought honorably together. I know... that does not hold against an onmitsu's duty. But allow me the grace... to speak to that duty."
Eyeless, the Ubo tensed. "Speak, then."
"If we fight now, Virus is rid of two enemies." Violet left Aoshi, skimmed Beshimi, and settled on Han'nya. "But if Megumi-dono and I are allowed to leave this night... Sanosuke will leave Hyottoko's remains, intact, out of the sun where you may retrieve him."
"Say whaaat?" A faint yelp came over Battousai's ear-piece.
Aoshi inclined his head. "Agreed."
"What?" Beshimi yelped.
Calmly, Han'nya planted metal claws on the Rakshasa's shoulder and lifted him aside. The redhead nodded his thanks, and stepped past to take Takani's hand. "Let's get you to a doctor, Megumi-dono. I know one with healing spells..."
"We can't just let them walk away!" Beshimi fumed as the pair made their way out of sight.
"Duty does not allow us the luxury of another confrontation," Han'nya said levelly. "Not tonight." He let himself chuckle. "And we know where they live."
Beshimi growled under his breath, stumbling back toward the brothel where they could find prey to feed on, and so begin healing.
"Han'nya."
About to head up the wall to watch for any stray enemies, Han'nya hesitated. "Okashira?"
"Tell me about Battousai." Wiping his kodachi clean, Aoshi sheathed it, knuckles white. "Tell me everything."
---------
All right, Megumi told herself fiercely, making her darkened way down the Chinatown sidewalk. I have cash on me. I know where I am... more or less. Blindness isn't permanent if you know the right spell. Which I do. All I need is a cab, an herb store, and a day to work the ritual in a hotel that doesn't ask too many questions-
"Going somewhere?"
"Eeep!"
A clawed hand gently touched hers, doing nothing for the shivery feeling of all her hair standing on end. "I have found a bus stop. Come."
This man is bad for my heart. But Megumi followed, letting him take her hand like any two lovebirds out for a late-night stroll.
"Not safe to walk alone at night," Kenshin went on with apparent cheer, guiding her around a cracked segment of concrete. "Especially when Virus is after one personally."
He knows.
"The New York Clave is no ally of Kin or humans, yet I think word would have spread if one of their own covens had been destroyed," Kenshin said softly. "Which makes the Root Magic Sano and I found - unclaimed magic - all the more puzzling." A pause. "Unclaimed, that is, save by Virus. Whom all believe cannot use magic, any more than any Kin besides Sorcerers can... yet did."
He knows.
"Most Kin believe Target Alpha hates them all, equally," the swordsman continued. "Yet most Kin tend to gather with their own kind, or with those of like beliefs to their own, and so never know the true breadth and reach of their own society. While the mortal agents of Target Alpha, much like our Marshals, meet it all - but especially that part of it which delights in murder. Such as the Morningstar Corporation, who plan to take over humankind from within its own corporations. And Red Moonrise, who slaughtered humans so freely Target Alpha destroyed every Kin in Boulder, Colorado to find the guilty ones. And Solution 2000."
"Who?" Megumi ventured weakly.
"Sorcerers, who wish to wipe all that is inhuman from the face of the world, and who believe the ability to do magic is proof of humanity."
Megumi snorted.
"Indeed. But that is what they believe. And so they gather among them, as human, even some Kin who can work magic. I know of at least one Daemon and a Stone Animate among their ranks."
Megumi licked dry lips as they neared the slight echo that had to be a bus shelter, trying not to taste blood. "But that's..."
"Not impossible. No matter what most Kin believe." Kenshin squeezed her hand lightly. "Let me clean this, or we will never find a ride..." A spit-damp tissue moved over her face, removing the worst of the gore. "All that is needed is the knowledge to pattern the spell, and a source of power linked to the Kin who wishes to cast it. Such as - perhaps - a pool of ritual magic, designed to gather a slow flow of power from the life of city."
Megumi swallowed dryly.
"And the knowledge itself," Kenshin went on quietly, "would come with consuming the soul and will of a coven member linked to that pool. As Ayumi was."
She wanted to weep.
The soft swoosh of bloodied tissue landing in a trash can was lost in the rumble of a cross-town bus. Kenshin led her deftly up the steps, deposited change for them both, and guided her down the crowded aisle to an empty seat.
"If I knew Virus waited for me on the streets, I too might hesitate to leave Kanryuu's protection," the swordsman concluded. "No matter what I might be forced to endure. Or... to do."
He knows...
But there was no hate in his voice. No punishing tightness in his grip, as his hand held hers. None of the thousand little hurts Kanryuu had inflicted on her over the years.
He can't... he can't still... care?
Breath hitching, Megumi sank back into the seat. "I didn't know it was out there," she whispered. "Not at first."
---------
"Generation upon generation of healer-Witches, from the Heian age in Aizu to here and now," Dr. Gensai recounted as he fussed over Yahiko's bandages. "Men, women, children - all Takanis studied the ways of healing. Kin or human, whatever their class; a patient was a patient, and treated accordingly."
Trying not to fidget, Sano perched on a chair and listened. Reinforcements with various R&D gizmos up to and including rocket launchers had pulled out Uramura's survivors; faced with them and oncoming police sirens, Virus had faded out of sight like a circuit-laced chameleon. He ought to be making good on Kenshin's promise, and doing something about Hyottoko...
Hell with that. We've got hours before sunrise. Until they're back here safe, I don't have to do a damn thing for that lump of clay.
"Megumi's father, Ryuusei Takani, was even more fervent than most," Gensai went on. "He saw the advances being made in Western medicine and uprooted his whole family to study here, in the United States." He shook his head. "You have no idea what a risk that was; leaving the covens you knew behind, to try and coexist with those of another country."
"Big one," Sanosuke filled in at the matching questioning looks from Kaoru and Yahiko. "Kind of like juggling knives with people you just met."
"Yes, well; just when Ryuusei had his medical degree and was about to return to Japan... Hexenbanner struck." Gensai looked grim. "Megumi's father was killed. Her mother and two brothers, missing. But by some stroke of fortune, or... mercy... they left the youngest child alive." He shook his head. "And alone."
Like I was alone, before Captain Sagara found me.
No. He was not going to feel sorry for her. Not if what he suspected was true.
"I can only imagine what happened to her after that," Gensai sighed. "But five years ago she reappeared, briefly, as an apothecary's assistant on the outskirts of Chinatown. An apothecary who was also a Flamen of a coven who actively avoided the New York Clave. I met him once, never quite trusted him... but before I ever had a chance to meet her, he was murdered."
"Murdered?" Kaoru pounced.
"Missing, according to police reports; murdered, according to word among the Crowleys," Gensai nodded. "No one wants to point a finger as to who might have done it, - which is telling in and of itself."
"As in, a guy like Takeda Kanryuu," Sano said flatly.
"Quite likely," Gensai acknowledged. "Though that in itself doesn't account for the rest of his coven. Who do truly seem to be missing, and no one knows where..."
---------
"Five years ago, I had no eye for people," Megumi said bleakly. "The Flamen I served had been working with Kanryuu."
There were other people on the bus; she could hear them, smell them, feel their footsteps as they changed seats. But around Kenshin there seemed to be a comforting space of silence; as if they truly were alone, in the safest place in the world.
"At first, I thought it was only small magics. Simple talismans, such as covens sell everywhere. Even the... more complex items we created, were not evil. Not in themselves. Secret, of course; the coven had been operating under the New York Clave's nose for years, supporting a business that competed with Stuart & Grimm, of course they were secretive.
"But we worked with herbs as well, and that-"
Her throat closed up. For a moment, she thought that gentle hand would touch hers again.
And if it did, she knew she would break.
Silence. Only silence.
"Kanryuu obtained raw opium; I'm not sure where, or how. The coven would enchant it to bring out its full potency, and sell it back. Efficient. Until the Flamen crafted a recipe to create this." Megumi let a paper packet fall into her hand. Such a light thing, to damn her soul. "Spider's Web. Stronger than heroin, yet undetectable to drug tests as sugar. If it were ever distributed in quantity... New York would only be the beginning."
She could see it as if it was yesterday; the Flamen's fallen form, the blood dripping from Kanryuu's blade.
"Kanryuu wanted to mass-produce. But the Flamen wouldn't give up the method - he wanted the profits for our coven. They fought; Kanryuu accidentally..."
Now the hand did touch hers; a gentle grip, demanding nothing.
"After that, I was the only one who knew the enchantment."
A stop. Megumi tensed as bodies moved, wondering which of them might be Virus. How can I know?
But Kenshin had known. Somehow.
"They told me I was making medicine to save lives." Her fingers bit into leather. "When I learned the truth, I wanted to die."
And now the tears were coming, despite all she tried to do to stop them. "But I couldn't. I..."
"Kanryuu thought he had slain your coven," Kenshin said softly. "But he had not."
"Most of them, he did," she whispered. "But Ayumi, a few of the others... I don't know, Kanryuu took me to Connecticut right after the killings, so all I know is what I overheard from security... they vanished." Breathe. And hold it. And breathe. "I was - still linked to the pool, Kanryuu didn't know, and I kept feeling this tugging..."
Megumi bit her lip, using the pain to fight down the fear. "I was - allowed the ingredients for divination, eventually. After I proved what a good little bird I was. And that's when I knew."
"Virus has your coven's pool."
Tight-lipped, she nodded.
"And it wants you as well."
"I guess it doesn't like little power-blocking rituals," Megumi said dryly. "I can't keep it out entirely. But I can tamp down the flow. Make sure it only touches a little at a time. And I - I can't do that if I'm dead..."
A bitter smile played over her face. "Noble sacrifice, isn't it? Don't be fooled. There's nothing noble about me. I just... couldn't die. Because if I live, if I... keep working... somehow, someday, I might find my mother and my brothers. And for that-" I can't. I can't, you'll hate me, you should hate me-
I have to.
"For five years, I've made drugs to send people to their deaths."
A soft sigh. She tensed for the blow-
Scented with oil and rain, an arm drew her into a delicate hug.
"Kenshin... what...?"
"A month ago, I would never have understood," he said quietly.
Understood? What's there to understand? I'm horrible, I'm evil - I've perverted everything I've ever known...
"But death came for me, only because I was there, and I chose to kill rather than submit. I chose that, Megumi-dono. As you did."
I - what? I did submit, I-
"Kanryuu would have no reason to pursue you... if you had given him what he wanted."
Wordless, she froze.
"He killed your teacher, destroyed your coven, enslaved you - all to obtain the formula he desires. But you resist to the last. You know the method. And Kanryuu does not."
I...
"Because of you," that soft, impossibly gentle voice went on, "New York is not lost."
It hurt. Oh gods, it hurt. "You can't forgive... so many people..."
"I know." The pain in his voice cut her like shattered glass. "But I also know that for those lives, for five years, you have suffered." Kenshin released her. "Come home, Megumi-dono. Come remember what it is to be free."
Free. Impossible word. Almost impossible even to dream. "I don't deserve-"
The side of a clawed finger touched her lips.
That quickly, it was gone again. She would have blinked, had she dared. "But... when the others know..."
"They do." A smile shone in Kenshin's voice. "If Sano has been keeping them up to date- Sanosuke Sagara, what have I told you about using such language around my brother?"
---------
Translations and info:
Clave - group of thirteen covens.
Daimyo - "great name"; leader of a powerful samurai clan.
Flamen - in NightLife, highest-ranking male Witch of a coven.
Genki - energetic.
Hexenbanner - international organization that hunts Witches and Sorcerers.
Kami - gods, spirits.
Ken-ki - "sword spirit"; sometimes thought of as the "battle aura" of a particularly skilled and fierce swordsman.
Kesagiri - "scarf cut"; diagonal across the body.
Kodachi - longer than a wakizashi, shorter than a katana.
Saya - sheath.
