29
Crumbling, Fighting, and Seawater
Kenshin woke to the feel of a cup pressed against his lips. It was water this time, not sake, and he drank thirstily.
"Go back to sleep," his master's voice said. Kenshin did, and woke up again a little later, awareness moving sluggishly through a soft, drowsy heat that he recognized but couldn't name. Someone was handling his left hand and arm again. Unprepared for the pain, he cried out softly, and was hushed again by Hiko.
So he took a deep, steadying breath and lay still with his eyes closed, trying to think of something past the pain as his master deep-cleansed the wound on his hand with sake, softening the scabbing in the alcohol and removing it with a cloth to get to the raw flesh beneath.
Nearly in tears again, Kenshin thought it was over when he felt the hand being wrapped again in fresh bandaging, but as soon as this was finished, instead of allowing him to pull the arm close to his chest again, Hiko stretched the arm out and began to probe the bone until he located the source of the fracture. It took every ounce of willpower Kenshin still possessed to remain still.
"Broken once and then broken again recently after it began to heal," he heard Hiko murmur, and Saito grunted in answer. He had been there when it had happened the second time.
Then Hiko began to massage the muscles of the arm. Distressed, Kenshin could keep still no longer and writhed involuntarily, grasping his master's arm with his good hand.
"Relax," Hiko said sharply. It was not the command of the tone that made Kenshin obey him but rather the way his master's hand was suddenly on his forehead, smoothing back the overgrown bangs. The surprise a caress given for no more than the sake of a caress was surprising enough that Kenshin let go and lay still for a while under the cool, calloused palm.
"He's sick, isn't he?"
"Yes," Hiko said in a deadpan tone that Kenshin had come to notice he used a lot when speaking with Saito. "It's not very bad. The fever is small."
"For now," Saito said.
Oh. Kenshin smiled to himself, realizing that he hadn't been petted but actually checked for fever. Well, that did make a great deal more sense, didn't it?
The hand left his forehead and then Hiko started the massage again. It hurt so much at first Kenshin's back arched a little, especially when the large, strong fingers got close to the fracture. But gradually the massage, which continued to his bicep and shoulder and then moved back again all the way to his wrist, became easier and began to relax the muscles that Kenshin had not even noticed were so knotted and cramped in the first place.
"Kenshin, do you want to lose this arm?" Hiko grumbled under his breath.
"You should have taken him out of here." Saito again.
Hiko chuckled humorlessly. "Kenshin, we should leave soon, shouldn't we?"
Kenshin cracked open his eyes and looked up at Hiko. "N-not without Kaoru-dono and Sano and everyone," he said.
"That's what I thought."
Saito shrugged slightly, as if seeing no point in wasting breath or energy on an ultimately futile argument.
Kenshin smiled slightly and closed his eyes. The torchlight hurt them a little today. Hiko's ministrations had eased a lot of his pain, and he had almost fallen asleep again until he felt a tugging at his waist. The feeling of his pants loosening frightened him into wakefulness and his eyes flew open, staring up in a fear he hadn't meant to communicate to one of the people he trusted most. "W-why?"
Hiko withdrew his hands slowly, watching Kenshin with a strange look on his face. "I'm going to check the wounds on your stomach and legs," he said slowly.
Kenshin had already forgotten the wolves and that he had taken injuries from a fight with them. Sometimes his hurts could blur together so that he usually didn't even think about individual ones. But now that he did remember the wolves, he remembered in fine detail. The crushing teeth, the choking stink of breath and the filthy coat scraping against his skin, and the ragged toe-claws raking into his flesh. Forgetting where he was, he shivered.
The feel of his shoulder being gripped brought him back to the present. Hiko was leaning over him a little more, the same strange look on his face. "You know I won't harm you, Kenshin."
At once, Kenshin's heart throbbed with guilt. "I...I know, Master. Sano wasn't going to h-hurt me either. I d-don't know why... I'm sorry."
Hiko searched Kenshin's eyes carefully. He opened his mouth, but whatever he might have said, he seemed to change his mind and shut it again. Saito was standing behind the dark-haired swordsman, a thoughtful look on his face as well.
Suddenly uncomfortable, and now very aware both of the older men were thinking of something he had missed entirely, Kenshin opened his own mouth to ask what was going on. Hiko interrupted him.
"Never mind, Kenshin." He raised his hand again and passed them over his apprentice's eyes, forcing them to close. "Just rest some more. I'll see to your wounds after you're asleep."
Confused, Kenshin shook his head under Hiko's hand. "But you can--"
"Kenshin," Hiko said warningly.
Kenshin sighed. "Yes, Master."
His dreams were as dark and full of shadows as the tunnels and shafts where he had dwelled for so long. He could see glints and glimmers, the gloss of Kaoru's hair and the shine from her eyes. He tried reaching for her, but the earth had parted between them. He could almost touch the tips of her fingers as she stretched her arm out to him...
He almost woke once, with the sting of alcohol on his wounds, but the burning died again, and he sank back again.
After the stairs, there were more winding twists and turns, which Hiko was trying to navigate from the directions pried from an unwilling man. It seemed that even as terrified as that man had been at the time, either he had seen fit to deceive Hiko to an extent or it was simply too easy to get turned around in the labyrinth. It was, after all, a labyrinth. There was even the option that Oaka hadn't known his way around as well as he let on.
Whatever the case, a bad choice at some point was made, and Hiko, Kenshin, and Saito found themselves stepping directly into a broad cave that minotaurs were using as a camp. It was littered with their crude weapons, rotten, discarded bovine masks, bones, bits of food, and heavily sleeping bodies sprawled atop each other for warmth. Acts of debauchery were occurring in the darker corners.
They were not spotted, and were able to quietly back out before they were noticed. No one remarked on the decision to retreat. The goal was to leave, not go looking for trouble, not with a wounded man to protect and others to seek out. From what Hiko had learned so far, this place the minotaurs knew well, and their numbers were astounding. No, it was best to avoid trouble when possible. Enough that was unavoidable would come along.
Then there were the wild animals that should not have even been on the tiniest islands of the archipelago at all, let alone deep under one. Kenshin had acquired a fear of wolves, something that concerned his master greatly. Under the circumstances, perhaps he couldn't blame his apprentice for flinching and shuddering as the wolf howls echoed eerily through the caverns between tunnels, but... Kenshin had a simple, direct way of dealing with his fears, even when he was a boy. A fear, once faced, was conquered. Something faced and fought was not to be feared again. Fear was not supposed to lengthen and deepen with exposure. Not like this. Not for Kenshin.
They sensed wolves moving in the deep shadows, but they seemed content to keep their distance. For now. Hiko wondered if there was anything else here, and disliked the images of meeting with starving, half-mad bears or big cats in these dark, close quarters.
Like Saito, Hiko observed that the labyrinth bore a disheartening similarity to hell. He hoped that Kenshin's friends had at least managed to stay together.
Hiko was a better swordsman than he was a tracker--as was Saito. In fact, though never to be admitted by either of the older men, Kenshin was the more talented in that area. But not exactly up to it right now. He was no longer good for much. Hiko kept him on small amounts of sake to dull his pain and stave off the chill, but most of it he saved for the wounds. Infection was no less a battle to be fought than anything else they had encountered, and many, many times it crossed the master's mind that he might be making a mistake not removing Kenshin from this place while he still could.
Still, it seemed useless to consider it. With that sapphire-eyed kenjutsu teacher somewhere here, Kenshin would never look to his healing until he was sure everyone and anyone else was all right first.
Kenshin was stubborn as a pig. That was something no trauma could change.
Injured, malnourished, and now lightly ill, it was unwise to let the forced march be governed by how much Kenshin could take at once so as Sanosuke had, Hiko took to carrying him a good deal, using the warmth of his cloak, steady movement and general quiet and the measures of sake to lull Kenshin into much-needed sleep. It was a deep enough sleep that Kenshin seemed a little heavier and his face was relaxed, if not quite peaceful. He murmured and stirred from time to time. It was again striking how young he looked. Smaller and more vulnerable than his master could ever remember him being.
Looking down into his apprentice's sleeping face stirred up more of that little uncomfortable something that had driven Hiko from his mountain the first place. He tried to ignore it. It was distracting, and yet another thing secondary to survival.
Except, he reminded himself grimly, if he really believed that matters of the heart were less important than survival, he would have done as Saito had suggested and taken Kenshin out of the labyrinth before going on to find the others. However much a nuisance it was to lug the little redhead through the tunnels, Hiko still could not convince himself that it was a mistake.
Kenshin continued to sleep while the older men walked on, attempting to get back to the last place Saito had his bearings. It was already difficult because they were trying to get back there by a different way, and the chances that Kaoru and the others had remained in the same place were very, very slim. The best hope would be that they might meet them coming down even as they headed in an upward, and if not then among them they might be able to pick up their trail. Tracking people in the dark on barren rock was no simple matter, but not entirely hopeless.
The tunnel came to another fork, and Hiko chose a rightward path, Saito following behind him without a word. He glanced down at Kenshin again, the redhead still sleeping deeply. And Hiko sighed, partly for the quiet, and partly because it was the very still and the peace that always came before something particularly troublesome happened.
Saito sensed the moment coming at roughly the same time. Or perhaps, not being as distracted by his thoughts as his companion, a little sooner, because he stopped walking and gave a calm warning just before the walls trembled around them and dust from the ceiling began to shake loose.
The drums had begun again. It was not the first time Hiko had heard them, but they were disturbing, disorienting, and any and all variations of disconcerting. Which may very well indeed have been the point, and yet another reason not to like this place.
Kenshin had woken at the sudden noise, and when Hiko glanced down to check on him he found his apprentice's unusually open, lightly frightened face staring up at him, his manner quiet and looking for direction.
Hiko considered setting him on his feet now that he was awake and had had a little rest, but changed his mind as a larger chunk of rock smashed on the floor next to his boot. So many of these tunnels were becoming more and more unstable all the time. He supposed it was purposeful, that maybe the terrible pounding was also a warning, something to strike fear into the wretches forced to live here, and perhaps even communication to anyone who could understand further away, since he had noticed small changes in the tempo from time to time.
With another sigh of annoyance, Hiko held his apprentice tightly to his chest, protecting his head, and began to move quickly and cautiously while parts of the island fell around them.
Saito moved up beside him. "I think--" he began, and then stopped, ending the broken sentence with a cold expletive instead.
It wasn't as if they had had anywhere else to go when the pounding had begun. There was only forward and back. The decision to go forward had been of a matter of course, even of instinct. The need to move rather than think had been immediate.
That didn't change the fact that Hiko agreed wholeheartedly with Saito's last sentiment when he realized they had run directly into the minotaurs who were pounding on the walls with their great stone hammers.
The ones in front seemed surprised, breaking their rhythm enough to stare, though how they were seeing through their bull heads was unknown. Hiko, though, did not waste time in gaping or surprise. There was a narrow tunnel off the main one they had been traveling, and he darted for it, Saito close at his side.
They were being pursued now. Hiko did a mental count as he ran. Based on the ones he had seen and the sounds of running feet behind him, their numbers weren't anything that he couldn't handle alone, never mind alongside a man such as Saito Hajime. But not with Kenshin to protect and in such tight quarters.
The small tunnel opened up into a wide groove. Hiko was reminded of a meadow after emerging from forest, but now was not the time to think of missing fresh air and plant scents. With only a second to look around, he discovered a grooved corner, cast in shadow. He crossed to it in rapid strides and deposited Kenshin, still wrapped in the cloak into the groove.
He took another few precious seconds to kneel beside his apprentice, who was fumbling one-handed at the cloak, trying to free himself. Hiko caught his hand to stop him.
"Stay here," he ordered in no uncertain terms, and with such force that Kenshin pressed back a little into the wall. His face was set with both hurt and stubbornness, and there was little time to attend to either.
Hiko knew Kenshin would not willingly sit in what he would obviously perceive in this moment to be safety while others fought. The problem was, he wasn't going to be safe sitting in this spot. There was only the hope of keeping him from further injury. The more hits one took, the more hits one would take. That was a lesson he had tried to teach Kenshin, but never one the redhead could seem to actively follow. Saying it again now would be even more of a waste of breath than the first time Hiko had said it.
There really wasn't time for this. Hoarse bellows and shouts accompanied the pounding footfalls. At least the hammers had stopped in favor of running to catch up with their prey.
With no inspiration coming to his aid, Hiko went with the basics. "You're tired, injured, one-armed, and lame. You don't have your weapon. So stay here and don't draw attention to yourself. It'll be over quickly."
The same expression was still set on Kenshin's face. It was going to take something a little stronger than the truth to convince him to keep out of danger.
"Time's up," Saito said as the quickest runners barreled into the place they had chosen to make their stand.
Hiko took a deep breath, and said softly, "Please."
Taken aback, the stubbornness slid away from Kenshin's pale face. If anything would get to him, that would. That was all the time he had for driving the argument home.
He was up and spinning around, drawing his sword.
Hiko Seijuro had yet to meet his better in a fight, but he knew disadvantages when he saw them. There was poor lighting. The torch Saito had been carrying was set on the ground, and the minotaurs seemed to be carrying their own lights, so that a little more gathered into the room, and the shadows bounced wildly. They were in an area wider than the tunnels, but it was still so enclosed. There would not be a lot of room for dodging and none at all for jumping.
The first that came at him carried a spear. The spear was longer than the minotaur was tall and made of misshapen but tough wood. It was tipped with a sharpened, jagged stone, but just because it wasn't steel didn't mean it wouldn't pierce.
And just because the weapon was crude-looking didn't mean the man beneath the bull mask wasn't expert in its use. Hiko saw that from the first move when the minotaur thrust for his throat. It was a shrewd move, and faster than the swordsman had ever expected, but he turned it with his sword and in the same movement arched his blade to cut at the minotaurs thigh.
The monster abandoned his attack and leapt back swiftly. In the wake of his movement, another jumped at Hiko in his place, a rusting sword in his fist. He cut low at Hiko's legs, a clumsy move that was easily deflected.
But it was only a distraction. The spearman had an even greater disadvantage than Hiko in these close quarters for the length of the spear. In the hands of one competent, the spear was a deadly and versatile weapon, but only if the spearman had room to maneuver. Otherwise, it was really only useful for fighting in formation, shoulder-to-shoulder with other spearmen in battle.
Proving once and for all that these minotaurs were more than capable of thought, the spearman took the opportunity that Hiko was busy with his comrade and grasped his spear sideways and snapped it neatly over his knee. One might have thought he had just destroyed his weapon, but Hiko's eyes saw nothing of the sort as his opponent now grasped the part of the spear with the point in his left hand and the right a sturdy club. He now had two short, maneuverable weapons.
His fellow stepped back, and the first minotaur attacked again with the same incredible speed in a combination attack, cutting high low and in between. Hiko of course blocked the cuts efficiently and replied well in kind.
Killing the minotaur was an accident, but somehow wasn't entirely unavoidable. If the madman was his only opponent, it would have been a simple matter to spare him, but the minotaur was intent on killing him, and brutal and efficient in his movements.
But not beyond mistakes. A thrust at his torso that Hiko had expected to be blocked pierced through. Hiko drew his weapon back swiftly to be ready, as other minotaurs stepped over the body of their fallen brother and moved toward him.
Hiko would shed no tears over the death of that one, or of any of these others, but he bit back a curse and shot a quick look in Kenshin's direction. The last thing he needed right now was for that little fool to get all bent out of shape because he was sitting there watching people die. The only way that Kenshin would just sit for it was if he was dead as well.
The tenth of a second he took to look his apprentice's way, Hiko could see that Kenshin had obeyed him and stayed where he was supposed to. He was still tightly wrapped in the cloak, and while Hiko had told him not to draw attention to himself, he wished now he had also instructed Kenshin to be ready to move if he had to.
He also saw that Kenshin had not seen him kill a man nor was he even watching the fight or anything going on around him. Instead, his face was turned up, eyes on the ceiling and his mouth slightly open.
Hiko did not have time to wonder what was so fascinating about the ceiling that it had Kenshin completely ignoring the fight, but with another covert glance at Saito, who was slaying at his leisure, whatever it was that had stolen his student's attention, it wasn't entirely a bad thing.
But he knew better than to dismiss it entirely.
Before he could get back into the fight, though, the pounding started again. Most of the minotaurs that had not already engaged Hiko or Saito had withdrawn back into the tunnel.
But the ones who had engaged them continued to fight, now more fiercely than ever.
What...?
"MASTER!"
Hiko pivoted sideways, knocking away a downward stroke, and swiftly looked in Kenshin's direction.
The redhead was on his feet and edging forward, Hiko's cloak caught around his bad arm and dragging on the ground.
At first, Hiko wondered angrily what it would take to get him to stay put, but then he saw Kenshin was not as interested in joining the battle as he was in directing his master's attention. When he raised his good hand, Hiko thought he might have pointed at the ceiling since he was so fixated with it a moment ago. But instead Kenshin was looking toward the tunnel from where they had come.
Saito was looking as well, watching as the pounding of hammers ceased. And the reason: because the tunnels had just collapsed directly on top of the ones who wielded them.
Everyone froze, except for the remaining minotaurs and the island itself as more of the ceiling began to cave in.
Hiko dispatched his remaining attackers grimly, keeping part of an eye on Kenshin. Their fighting had been impressive before, but now he realized that they obviously did not care at all for their lives. They were destroying this island, and everyone within was going to die in only a matter of days, including themselves, as they collapsed level after level of the labyrinth. Some people could even be trapped in pockets of air, until that air ran out. Or in areas with some ventilation, to thirst and starve to death.
With every passing moment, it seemed that hell could grow worse.
Then, Saito's voice rang out, sharp like a gunshot. "Move from there, fool! Move!"
Hiko swung toward Kenshin again, knowing by instinct at exactly which "fool" Saito was shouting.
Kenshin's back was against the wall for balance, and the stupid boy was even more tangled in the cloak than before as he edged slightly along the wall, his face once again turned upward.
For only a second, Hiko was boggled. If Kenshin, like Saito, was seeing that the ceiling was about to fall, then why the hell wasn't he moving out of there?
Because I told him not to.
Hiko swore violently and took out his final two charges in a sweeping arc as he bellowed, "Kenshin, come away from there! Come here!"
At his voice, Kenshin finally reacted, tearing his eyes away from the crumbling stalactites, bundling the cloak into his arms and darting in Hiko's direction.
It was in this short moment that Hiko had the time to wonder where all this easy obedience had been years ago when he had needed it. But then the dark-haired swordsman was intercepted by another minotaur, at the same moment Kenshin's way was likewise blocked by another. Kenshin, without defense, backed up again several steps.
There wasn't time for this. Not everyone in this tunnel intended to die, and if they were to live a more stable area had to be found and quickly.
Hiko's new minotaur was a much clumsier fighter than the first he had faced. When he raised a club high over his head, Hiko simply ran him through. Again, Kenshin's attention was fixed elsewhere, and he did not see. He kept slowly backing away, his own minotaur advancing. Hiko's blade sang as he slammed it back into its sheath, and it rang out in a completely different note as he clenched his fist at the guard, tucked in his thumb and snapped it out again. His sword flew from the sheath with all the force and accuracy of an arrow, except that flying out hilt-first made it non-deadly.
The only way it could be when the target was right before Kenshin's eyes. The hilt of Hiko's sword caught the minotaur between the shoulder blades, causing the man beneath the bull mask to howl in agony and then surprise as the pressure point Hiko had aimed for numbed his arms and upper back. Hiko was on him before he could turn or perhaps lash at Kenshin, bringing his wooden sheath down on the minotaur's shoulder at his neck. The man crumpled.
Hiko knew the minotaur would probably die anyway, simply in the cave-in. But Kenshin wasn't going to be around to see it, and maybe there was even a prayer of him not recalling this later on.
For now, whatever happened and its consequences could be dealt with later. If there was a later.
Hiko snatched up his sword from the place it had fallen in one hand and grabbed Kenshin in the other. He tore down tunnel, partly supporting and partly carrying the redhead, parts of the island crashing around them. He had not forgotten Saito, but there was no going back and he wasn't willing to break his stride to look over his shoulder to look for him. He did not doubt that a man like Saito would survive a place like this. He had been closer to the stairs when he had seen and shouted at Kenshin, and might have made it to safety by running back down them.
For now, Hiko had enough to do securing his own survival and Kenshin's.
The tunnel broke off into a choice of three directions. There was little time for choosing, and fantastically less time to get there as Hiko was forced to twist away from another cascade of falling chucks of island.
Veering to the left, and hauling Kenshin along, Hiko chose the smallest tunnel, one short enough that he would have to stoop a little. He chose it because it had been formed in a rounding arch, and it was closer to the ground. It would be more stable than the higher tunnels to the right.
He grabbed Kenshin and spun him around, the redhead following his lead but blinded by his own overgrown hair. It didn't matter. If there had been time to explain, then there would have been time to do anything else other than what Hiko had in mind this very moment. In another heartbeat they would both be buried under rock. Hiko used the heartbeat to shove Kenshin backwards through the small tunnel.
Then the island was coming down around his ears and he was going under, unable any longer to stop that from happening. But he could not afford to become pinned. It was either stay on his feet or die.
Bowing his body to protect his head and vitals, he thrust his sword into the wall and slammed the palm of his other hand against the stone of the opposite wall. He locked his knees. There was going to be more injury this way, he knew, and there was, as it all kept falling and his back was nothing but bruises and points of pain and his head was bleeding, blood pooling up behind his ears and running down his neck. The weight on his back and shoulders increased. The pressure became incredible, but he would not go down.
The silence that came was sudden and as heavy as the stone and the darkness. Hiko was hurting enough now to quietly curse himself, parts of his mind demanding to know just why he had taken that extra second to turn Kenshin around before shoving him through the tunnel opening. The answer: because he hadn't wanted Kenshin to try to catch himself on the broken arm and mutilated hand. Amid the ringing in his ears, he cursed himself for stupidity and sentimentality. The boy was going to be the death of him after all. Or maybe it didn't matter anyway, because if that little tunnel had collapsed as well, Kenshin's pathetic body could never withstand this. Immediately or by degrees, he would have been crushed to death. And how had Saito faired?
"Master!? Master!" That was Kenshin, and Hiko's relief that he was correct in guessing the small tunnel would not collapse contrasted with the panic and fear that had pitched Kenshin's voice into a near scream.
"I'm here, Kenshin," he said loudly. His voice, trapped with him in the rubble, was loud in his ears. "Are you hurt?"
"No." His student's voice was shaking with relief. "I'm n-not hurt. Are you all right, Master?"
"Fine," Hiko said through gritted teeth. Vaguely it occurred to him that this was a lie, but he didn't have time to either worry about injury or explain anything to Kenshin. As a test, he lowered his left arm. Rocks shifted, and there was a small amount of relief to his left shoulder. His right arm was still trapped, with the point of his sword still embedded in the wall. He was still unwilling to release hold of his weapon--and possibly lose it--unless there was no other choice.
He heard the sound of shifting from not far away.
"What are you doing?"
Hiko only just heard the soft, patient sigh. "I'm trying to dig you out, Master."
"With one arm."
"If I h-have to. Do...do you see S-saito?"
"No." Hiko's knees began to tremble with strain. "One problem at a time, Kenshin."
Several minutes passed with no further talking, all breath saved for digging and shifting, the slow and careful movement of chunks of stone as both men tried to dig out a path without causing further collapse.
They both froze when they heard the blending murmur of human voices.
Hiko strained his hearing, but he could not discern the words, only hear the rise and fall of heated chatter.
"Kaoru-dono?" Kenshin said softly, hopefully.
Hiko didn't think so. Of course, Kenshin would know the sense of her more intimately than he would, but he could not pick her up anywhere. Moreover these people...they seemed angry. Wrathful. Violent.
They weren't friends.
"Master?" Kenshin's voice was quiet and uncertain. He realized his friends weren't among the ones coming this way.
Hiko shifted his body again, trying to wedge his elbow into space in the rubble. Perhaps with a little purchase he could begin to tease his way out by climbing upwards a little instead of trying to burrow out toward Kenshin like before. He needed to get unburied very, very soon.
He swore softly, doubling his efforts to ease upward. It was more effectual than the burrowing had been, but at the same time the pressure on his shoulders and back was all the greater. Sharp and jagged edges tore his clothes and bit into his skin. He was finally able to move one of his legs, edging a boot up and pushing the toe of it into the rocks. A little more weight was off the one knee and some was eased off his sword arm, at the cost of more strain on the other knee.
And it was slow, far too slow. The voices were nearer.
"Kenshin, is there a place for you to hide?" he grunted. "A place for you to keep out of sight?"
"No, Master. There's n-nowhere t-to go, but a-ahead."
Hiko hissed under his breath as a jagged edge of stone began to press into a spot under his ribs. "You're in clear view?"
"Yes." Kenshin's voice had become strange. "Master, you c-can't move at all? You're very stuck?"
"Kenshin, if I wasn't 'very stuck', I wouldn't still be here."
"Ah," Kenshin said, and this little sound was even stranger than what he had said before. As was the empty silence that followed.
"Kenshin?" Hiko twisted, then wished he hadn't as the rubble that was on him was disturbed and much of it rolled in to crush his lower back.
"Kenshin!" Hiko said out loud, and evidently to absolutely no one. "Tell me you didn't run off--"
Because if he did, Hiko was going to forego such a slow torture as honey and anthills and go for the simplicity of just beating the little bastard until he couldn't stand up. At least if he couldn't walk, it would be easier to keep up with him, and there was a chance he might do fewer stupid things! What did he think he was going to do?! Crippled and half-witted and weaponless--if there was a mob out there…
"KENSHIN!"
Nothing. No answer. He was gone.
Hiko turned the air blue with curses, but forced himself to remain patient and continued to claw his way upward. Patience that lasted only for a few moments until Kenshin, sounding far away, cried out.
Hiko stopped moving, listening with his jaw clenched as Kenshin's echo rebounded. But it didn't sound like he was crying out in pain or fear. He had called out a word. It sounded like, "Second!"
What...?
Hiko ground his raised boot into the rocks and began shoving himself upward again. Minutes trickled by, and he gradually became aware that something else was trickling too. Water. He could feel thin lines of liquid dropping on his face and one shoulder that had been partly bare where his clothing was ripping against the rocks. It was neither blood nor sweat. He could taste it on his lips. It was not fresh water, but salt water.
Seawater. That was bad. Very bad. If the island had been so damaged by now that water was leaking inside...
Damn it, Kenshin!
By the time Hiko managed to excavate himself, all the sounds of voices and the shuffle of walking were completely gone. There was no sign of Kenshin except for Hiko's cloak, which was folded neatly and laid by the wall. Leaning over to pick it up aggravated many of his new injuries, but this didn't bother him as much as the wetness that he discovered now on his hip and thigh. He gritted his teeth as he twisted out a small shard of clay that had gotten embedded in his skin. The sake was gone now, jar and all.
Saito came upon him as he was pulling the cloak on over his torn shirt. A look on the Wolf's bruised and scraped visage and torn uniform told him that he had also not quite escaped from the rocks unscathed.
The two of them stared at each other for a moment without speaking.
It might have been an excellent time for an I-told-you-so on Saito's part. But he didn't take it. He only dusted at his shirt and strode past Hiko. "Let's go."
Quietly seething, Hiko fastened on his cloak and shot a last glance at the place where he had been trapped. Abruptly, another chunk of rock fell from the ceiling and smashed into the pile the noise of it unpleasant and oddly shrill. The sound of dripping water could be clearly heard. Reminders these parts would have to be evacuated, and soon.
He turned and followed Saito.
The both of them hurried, as much because parts of the ceiling still fell and the tunnels still trembled with slight, worrisome vibrations as to find Kenshin again.
When Hiko once again heard voices, he adjusted their course without a second thought, until several minutes of jogging brought him up on the last thing he expected to see.
He stopped short of them, momentarily without speech to see not a group of people he wanted to find now, but the group of people he had actually wanted to find an hour ago. Kamiya Kaoru and her friends stood in a circle, bruised and disheveled, and appearing to interrogate a ragged, rodent-faced man.
Faces turned his way as he and Saito approached.
"Hiko-san!" the weasel-girl shrieked, and she and Kaoru and even the boy...the expressions of shock and pure hope on their faces would have, even a couple of hours ago, fueled his ego but right now Hiko's conceit was quite dampened.
The Kamiya girl rushed to him, stumbling over stones in her path. Then she noticed Saito beside him and her face changed again, tearing her eyes from one man to the other, taking in their faces and appearance.
"Wh-where…" she said, voice cracking… "Where is Kenshin?"
Author's note:
Don't kill me yet, else I won't be able to finish the story. ; Kenshin actually has a very good excuse for disappearing. Truly.
