Kokoro No Itami Nakunaru Made Zutto: The Will of the Rurouni
By: Hitokiri Gentatsu
Author's Note/Disclaimers: All the usual disclaimers apply. Please R/R.
Chapter Four: Waking Nightmare
"Fighting can start a chain reaction and lead to more fighting."
Himura Kenshin
Seisou Hen
Fansub
Kenshin was dreaming of that time again and the dream was full of the sound of screams and smell of blood. Every night was the same, a never-ending nightmare supplied by his sleeping mind from his own past. He saw every victims' face, heard every scream and remembered every location of every battle he had been involved in. The dreams came and went, never leaving him in peace for more than a day and never allowing him to forget who he had become in order to bring the new era of peace into being.
This dream was darker and contained more blood than most of them did. It was a dark night with no moon and he had just finished a job. He was cleaning the blood from his katana when a troop of Shinsengumi rounded the corner ahead of him. When they spotted him and his 'work' all hell broke loose.
"It's the Battousai!"
"You will pay for this with your life."
"After him…"
Kenshin had taken off in the opposite direction, cursing his run of bad luck. This had been the fourth time in the last few days that he had been discovered by some of the Shogunate forces.
"There is definantly a traitor in our midst, someone who knows my exact movements."
There were not many people who knew this kind of information; only the people at the top of the Choshu clan would know these things. He continued to run, his mind working furiously on the problem of the traitor within and on finding a way out of the maze that made up Kyoto's back alleys. He passed by several intersections, knowing that there were people in them, whether friend or foe he didn't know but he was not about to involve them in his fight if it came to that.
Finally, after several of these had been passed, he ducked into an unilluminated alley that was devoid of any presence that he could sense. He slipped silently into the shadows, his amber eyes scanning the area before he made his way slowly down the alley. After a few minutes, he turned and looked back at the alley's entrance but saw and heard nothing.
"Did I finally lose them?" he wondered as he continued to slip down the alley, concealed by the shadows.
When he judged that he was far enough into the alley not to be seen or heard by his pursuers, he leapt silently onto the roof of the nearest building and began running along these, jumping from roof to roof, as silently and gracefully as a cat. He moved swiftly and surely, having done so too many time in the past to count always certain that he could walk this path blindfolded if necessary.
That was why it was a surprise when the tile he landed on four houses down began to slip from under his foot. He felt himself beginning to fall from the roof and crouched low in an attempt to minimize the impact and its damage. His landing was as controlled as it could be given the circumstances but even with that he landed hard and heard his ankle pop as a shooting pain traveled up his leg.
"Kuso!" he muttered softly as he fell to the ground in a heap.
The impact of the fall he had taken had sprained or possibly broken his left ankle. He tried to stand but found that his ankle would hold no weight at all so he sat back down where he had fallen, his mind now occupied with the problem of how best to return to their base. He examined the ankle carefully and grimaced in pain when he touched a particularly sensitive area.
"Kuso!" he muttered again darkly, as he removed his gi to get at the white inner kimono he wore beneath it.
He tore strips from this and used them to bind up his ankle tightly to prevent any more damage to it. He tried to stand again and found that if he used his sheathed katana like a crutch he might be able to make it back to the inn. He hobbled down the alley slowly, trying to make the least amount of noise possible still inwardly cursing his luck.
"It seems as you luck has run out, Hitokiri," said a voice from the shadows, echoing his dark thoughts.
Kenshin turned his head and placed a hand on the hilt of his katana as a shadow detached itself from a nearby wall. He caught a glimpse of a shadowy face but nothing more. The other man's katana caught a glint of faint light as it was pointed at Kenshin's face. Kenshin's eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed at the man becoming shimmering amber orbs of coldness and rage.
"So the mighty dragon has had his wings clipped?" the man sneered and stared pointedly at Kenshin's injured ankle. "How unlucky you must be and how lucky I am. The very person I was sent to find falls right into my lap. You have saved me the trouble of searching for you, Hitokiri. Now you will receive Heaven's Justice and die. I will have the honor of being the one who finally defeated the legendary Hitokiri Battousai. I hope you are prepared from the next life, murderer."
The man raised his sword at the seemingly helpless Hitokiri Battousai but failed to notice the rage that had overcome his intended victim. Kenshin felt the hitokiri's coldness envelope him in its shadowy embrace. The man charged forward with a yell and made an overhead slash at him. Battousai waited, helpless to do anything about moving out of the way of the oncoming attack. Faster than the eye could see, the charging man was cut completely in half by Battousai's attack before the man had even taken two steps toward him and the man's body fell to the ground with a sodden thud. His blood sprayed all over the ground, the wall of a house and splattered around Battousai, covering him in its sticky, metallic wetness. The Hitokiri Battousai rose from his crouch and flicked the blood off his sword before cleaning and then resheathing the blade. He gazed down at the body with dispassionate amber eyes.
"Foolish boy but you were brave. I hope you find peace in the next life," he said, his eyes hovering between amber and violet. He turned and walked calmly down the alleyway, ignoring both the blood that covered him and the pain in his ankle.
He had gone perhaps a quarter mile and had entered the alley that lead to the inn, when his ankle gave out under him and he fell to the ground again. He sat there a moment stunned and then took careful note of his surroundings. There were no side intersections in this area and any number of places an assassin could be hiding. He couldn't sense anyone but that meant very little. He hid himself deeper into the shadows and his gaze traveling the visible length of the alley seeking enemies but finding none visible. His mind came up with plans on how best to proceed and he threw out several of them in the end deciding that his best bet was to remain where he was until near sunrise when most of the Bakufu's ninja assassins would be gone.
He had just moved even farther into the shadows and had prepared himself for a long wait when he heard the sound of moving feet coming from the direction he had just come from. They were moving toward him quietly but he could still hear them. Someone's muffled coughing helped him to identify who they were.
"Okita Shoshi and the first Shinsengumi squad…damn," he thought as he tried to calculate his chances of surviving if he had to fight.
Those chances were not very good with his injured ankle cutting his fighting abilities in half but he resolved to fight. He may be a hitokiri but he was also a samurai in service to Choshu and a samurai never fled from an enemy. He waited in tense silence for them to appear in his field of vision, his hand grasping the hilt of his katana to still its trembling. Just as he was sure things could get no worse he heard the sound of running feet and angry voices. He looked around the doorframe and saw a familiar silhouette at the alley's entrance, blocking his only path to freedom.
"Check every doorway and the roof as well. The Battousai cannot have gone far. I want him taken alive if possible but if you have to then kill him." Saito's voice echoed down the alley.
"Kuso," Kenshin muttered savagely, while his heart fluttered in his chest.
There was no chance of escape now and it was only a matter of time before he was discovered. Fear assailed him then and though the hand on his sword hilt was steady, his other hand trembled with fear.
"So this is how it ends but its no more than I expected," a detached part of his mind thought. "Well, I will see to it that it costs them greatly to take me down."
His hand clinched into a fist and he closed his eyes, calling to the hitokiri within one last time before it ended. When he opened them again, they were twin pools of amber fire and the hitokiri's cool detachment settled over him like a shroud. He rose swiftly to his feet and scanned the alleyway, picking random targets from the shadows. Just as he was about to spring, he heard the sound of a sword slicing through a body and a dull thud followed by a scream that rent the air…
Kenshin jerked awake and found that his body was covered in sweat and there was a familiar scent in the air. It flooded his senses with its sweet odor and it was so thick in the air that he could almost taste it. His amber eyes glowed in the darkness of the room and his mouth was bared in a snarl. His eyes scanned the area for the source of the smell but could not seem to locate it. Then he looked down at himself and the sword in his hand. In an instant the hitokiri vanished and Kenshin saw, to his horror, that his hands were covered in blood and that it was also dripping from the sleeves of his sleeping robe. His bloodstained hands held the hilt of his sakabatou in a vice-like grip, the blade of which was reversed so that the edged side faced outward. It was stained crimson with fresh blood.
Kenshin's purple eyes widened in shocked surprise and his mouth opened in a silent scream. His mind refused to acknowledge the truth of what he was seeing and he seemed to be frozen to the spot. He felt and heard wind rushing in his ears and then all was darkness. His last coherent thought was: "Have I broken my vow and failed her?"
