Kenshin gazed at the body of the dead gnoll as it lay at Drizzt's feet. He almost didn't hear the angels approach as he tried to move past the familiar feelings welling up inside of him.
The battousai threatened him now. He knew he had to keep it under control. He hadn't broken his vow; he told himself. Drizzt had been the one who made the killing blow. But maybe because Kenshin, perceptive as he was, could sense that his new friend was so much like him, he still felt as if he himself had made the death blow.
Kenshin had upheld his vow not to kill since the days of the revolution. He'd thrown away his killing blade, taken up the reverse blade sword, and become the wanderer who could protect others with one sword. But now, all of that felt blown away with a single act of violence and the battousai that he once was threatened to return.
Drizzt turned to him, his scimitar dripping with blood. He looked at the samurai with concern and spoke softly. His language was still foreign to Kenshin, but his facial expression said enough. He shared Kenshin's guilt at having to kill this monster, despite its intention to kill them.
But as Drizzt continued to speak, he glanced beyond Kenshin as two more newcomers came out of the clearing. Kenshin regarded the two strange beings then. They seemed human enough, seemed to be Westerners by the samurai's limited knowledge of the lands beyond Japan.
It had long since become apparent to Kenshin that he was no longer in Japan. The beings he had encountered so far seemed to dispel any notion that he was still anywhere near his home. How he came to be here was irrelevant to him at the moment.
Both the man and the woman seemed injured. The man was gripping his arm, a bloodstain was apparent on his upper arm. The woman limped slightly, a blood stain visible on her torn trousers.
Drizzt stepped forward, and they both gripped their weapons in response. Drizzt held up his hands, showing that he had no hostile intent. "Drizzt Do'urden," he introduced, indicating to himself. "Kenshin," he said, motioning to the samurai. He spoke slowly and cautiously, doubting that any of them could speak Drow.
The two regarded one another, and then the woman stepped forward. She lifted a hand and Kenshin tensed for a potential attack. He didn't want to have to hurt another person, and he held himself in check, waiting. The woman closed her eyes and mumbled a few words in a language that Kenshin couldn't possibly decipher, and immediately, a mist of magic and energy swirled around her, rustling her hair, and then it leaped around, snaking around the four of them.
As Kenshin felt the energy surrounding him, he took in a breath. Moments later, the energy dissipated, and he glanced about, curiously.
"It's a spell," the woman explained in the common tongue, a language that Kenshin shouldn't understand, but instantly could. "It allows us all to understand a single language. It's temporary but now we can communicate."
With that, the woman turned to Drizzt. "We were sent to find the drow that has been haunting the nearby village," she began. "My name is Hannah, and this is Castiel."
Drizzt sighed and was about to respond when Roddy and his dog suddenly burst through the trees, holding his axe menacingly at the dark elf. "It's about time I caught ye!" he exclaimed. "Thought ye could get away with yer crimes!"
"I think perhaps there are some misunderstandings," Kenshin spoke up, trying to diffuse the tension, though the obviously agitated human was more than ready for a fight. "I don't know how I came to be so far off course from where I was, but I assure you that my friend here has been nothing other than kind. We do not speak one another's languages, so it was hard to communicate, but we were making progress."
"Hold your dog back, Roddy," Hannah commanded firmly. The man huffed angrily, but complied. "I think perhaps we should make camp."
"Our cave isn't far from here," Drizzt offered. "We will share our fish."
The drow led everyone back to the cave that he and Kenshin had been sharing, and soon, they all gathered around a roaring fire and enjoyed the fish Drizzt and Kenshin had caught. As they all sat comfortably- though Roddy sat a few feet away from everyone, muttering curses at Drizzt and eying his every move- the drow spoke.
"I came here only a few months ago," he explained. "To the surface. I know you will find it hard to believe, but I am not associated with Menzoberranzan or any other drow city. I am a renegade. I came only to live out my principles, principles that are hard to follow in the cities of the drow."
"He lies!" Roddy exclaimed. "Look what he did to me ear! Killed my dog!"
"I only attacked to defend myself," Drizzt explained calmly. "I have seen the villagers. But I didn't kill them, though I tracked down and killed their murderers."
"And you are human?" Castiel asked, turning his attention to Kenshin. The Samurai nodded.
"I don't know how I came to be in this land," Kenshin explained. "My friends and I were on our way back to Tokyo when we got separated. I found myself here."
"We are angels," Castiel explained. "But we are from the same earth you are from. Although… I sense that the time may not be so apparent. What year was it when you were in Japan?"
Kenshin shrugged. "It was 1878 when last I checked," he responded. He was reminded of everything that had transpired in the recent months of his life. How he had defeated Makoto Shishio without losing himself to Battousai, how he had been forced to return to Kyoto to stop this man bent on conquest and oppression of the weak.
After defeating Shishio, it seemed that Kenshin could finally have peace. That he could go on being the wanderer, with his friends close at his side. But now, with no notice, he was flung into this world and his friends were gone. He didn't know where Sanosuke, Megumi or Kaoru could be. He didn't know if they were somewhere on this world too or if he was alone among strangers.
But he suspected these angels were similar. They had both been dropped from wherever they had come from, into this land. Kenshin saw this as perhaps a destiny needing to be fulfilled. Maybe he was here because someone somewhere in this world needed his help. And maybe he had found these friends because he would need them and they would need him.
"It was 2020 on Earth when I was there last," Castiel explained, confirming his suspicion. Kenshin was a relic from another era. "I don't know why all of this has happened, but I suspect Chuck has something to do with it."
"Chuck?" Hannah questioned. She quickly explained that although she was from the same place as Castiel, that she had been living in this world for four years.
"He must want us all on this planet for some sinister purpose. Perhaps to keep us out of the way of his plans for Earth."
A silence fell between them and Kenshin glanced at each expression as the glow of the fire cast orange shadows on them. He leaned forward. "I suspect that whatever the reason for being here, there is something in this world for us to discover."
"I was seeking revenge," Drizzt admitted with a shrug. "The six graves I showed you belonged to six elves I found slaughtered in the forest. I buried them and now I am trying to find their killer."
"We found the bodies of those who were sent to capture you," Hannah spoke up. "Slain, it looked like gnolls."
"I regret having to kill the gnolls, I regret having to kill anyone," Drizzt lamented and Kenshin felt that familiar pull in his own heart at those words. So his friend was like him after all. "And when I saw the slain family, I couldn't quell my need to avenge them, so I tracked the barghests as well. Maybe that was wrong, I'm not sure. But it felt right at the time."
"You are unfamiliar with the surface, it would seem," Hannah explained, leaning forward. "Don't regret ridding this place of filth. There are creatures that are beyond any sort of redemption. Orcs, gnolls, trolls, they all have very little sentience and only live to hurt and destroy."
Kenshin let that sink in. He had vowed never to take a human life again, and he only took animal life for his own sustenance. He refused to take joy in killing and he believed that anything that has sentience can be redeemed. He didn't know how to justify killing even evil creatures.
But perhaps this world was different. After all, things like gnolls, orcs, or any other thing didn't exist on Earth. Kenshin realized then that he had a lot to learn about this world and about his own heart and mind. If he broke his vow, even once, then he feared the battousai within his heart would take over and he would succumb, returning to the killer he once was. He was afraid, afraid of that one uncertainty.
But whatever happened, he would stay close to these new friends. He learned much that night. He learned Drizzt had left his people because the drow were known for their evilness. But if one single drow could be good, then could the drow be redeemed as well? Kenshin struggled with the moral implications suggested there, and Drizzt did as well, admitting to a vow of his own to never take the life of another drow.
Kenshin learned that Hannah had left her life on Earth behind and lived with elves. That she was on her way to Sundabar to find a way to save them. He and Drizzt eagerly agreed to go with her. Roddy protested relentlessly, but the four of them agreed to leave him behind in Maldobar and continue on their way.
Kenshin would find answers, and he would try to reason with the battousai within him. He understood that this world would test his own resolve. Would he be able to go on being Kenshin Himura the wanderer, or would he be forced, slowly but surely, to return to the life of battousai the manslayer?
The samurai was uncertain, but as he lay down to sleep that night, he thought he would find the answers in these friends he had found. Drizzt, the drow, and Castiel and Hannah the angels, all three of them had struggles of their own. The four of them had just met, but he understood that they were destined to meet.