Usual Authors Note: This fic has the following - yaoi, shonen ai, sex, molestation, and a whole lotta spookiness. Adult supervision recommended.
disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin. That is of course, unless everything I know is WRONG!
Much thanksis: Much thanks to Nemmy-chan who beta'd this and is hopefully in it for the long run. You're a doll hun! ^.^v
Lupine Chapter One - His Return To TokyoA howling wind ripped past Sanosuke as though it had a will to knock him away. But Sanosuke had a will of his own, and he kept moving forward. It seemed the more he kept walking into the wind, the harder the wind blew. Yet still Sanosuke walked on. He would have it. No matter how hard the wind blew, he would reach it. It didn't matter to him if nature itself didn't want him to reach it; he defied it. He wouldn't back down now, not when it was so close.
His fingers trembled as they inched towards his goal. Centimeter by centimeter he drew closer until he could almost feel It's touch at the tips of his fingers.
"Sanosuke..." the wind howled.
He was almost there. He stretched and strained, his arms reaching towards It.
"Sanosuke!"
There was a pounding, like a drum, three times.
"No, not yet," Sanosuke thought. He felt the wind rip him away just as his fingers were about to grasp It, all his effort against the wind ripped away by a rude awakening.
"Sanosuke!"
The pounding came again, three times on the door. Sanosuke sat upright on his futon, sweat beading from his skin. He panted as though he had been drowning and shivered like he had just come out of the water on a cold day. He blinked, rubbed his eyes, and focused himself back into reality.
He ran his fingers through his wild, sun-browned hair and let out a frustrated breath. The dream had come to him for the third night in a row. It was always the same: he ran against the wind to reach "it". The problem was, Sanosuke didn't know what "it" was, and after three nights of the same dream, what "it" was remained a mystery to him, regardless of how close he had gotten to "it". Yet in his dream he wanted it so badly he fought against the very winds themselves.
Sanosuke shivered.
Three loud bangs came again at the door, followed by an impatient "Sanosuke!". Growling, Sanosuke stood, walked towards the door, remembered he had to put pants on, walked back, dressed, then walked back to the door.
"What is it?" Sanosuke mumbled as he slid open the screen, his Osaka accent even rougher with a hoarse morning voice.
Sanosuke had to look down to see the man that had so insisted on seeing him. He was a frog of a man, who looked like he was always squatting, was waist-high standing next to Sanosuke and had dark emotionless eyes. Although he was stubbly, you could see that he was going for the heavy sideburns look. His hair was very curly at the edge, but the rest of his hair was straight and oiled back.
"I'd like to know when exactly I'm going to get my money back, Zanza," the money lender spat, able to glare Sanosuke in the eye, despite their considerable size differences.
Sanosuke twitched and ground his teeth together.
"Yeah, whatever Magori," Sanosuke mumbled, "Give me a week. A friend of mine is going south with me for a job. I'll have the money after that."
Magori raised a suspicious, and very hairy, eyebrow. "I know you better than that. You'll probably gamble it all off by the time you get back to Tokyo. You know Zanza, I'm beginning to wonder if you even know the weight of the word 'debt'."
Sneering, Sanosuke slid the door shut, but at the last moment Magori's hand blocked the screen. His small black eyes peered through the crack in the door.
"I'm serious, Zanza," Magori growled, spitting out Sanosuke's nickname like it was something unpalatable. "It's either get me the money, or I make big trouble for you."
Sanosuke raised a brow and looked down at Magori.
"Big trouble?"
Magori scowled, the lines in his forehead bunching up together.
"Goodbye Magori," Sanosuke said, and shut the screen the rest of the way.
Thoughts of Magori and the dream buried deep in the back of his mind, Sanosuke headed out to gamble. Despite the fact that he had debts, he thought a few rounds of dice between friends would be good for himself. He grabbed what little money he had lying around, and headed off.
"Sano!" a familiar voice called out to him. Up ahead of Sanosuke was a tall, thin man with long, straight hair. Like Sanosuke, he also wore a headband, though instead of being red it was a green flowered pattern. This man was Katsuhiro, an old friend of Sanosuke's from their days in the Sekihoutai.
"Katsu!" Sanosuke yelled back, waving to his friend.
"Where the hell have you been? I got questions about our trip," Katsu told Sanosuke.
"Well I might've been able to get a hold of you, if you didn't spend all your friggin' time on that damned newspaper of yours," Sanosuke snapped back.
"Yeah, yeah. Let's go play a game or two," Katsu laughed, waving Sano ino the gambling house.
As Sanosuke lifted his leg to step inside, something caught in the corner of his eye. Almost like a shadow creeping through time from the past, a figure stepped into a nearby alleyway. It was too convenient. It couldn't possibly be who Sanosuke thought it was. But a strong mixture of excitement, and, mostly, annoyance, made Sanosuke certain of who he was.
"Sanosuke, are you coming in or not?" voices rang from inside.
Sanosuke blocked them completely from his mind. The strong urge to gamble had all but disappeared. His eyes were wide and focused now only on the place where the shadow had retreated.
"Ah, Katsu? Hold a spot for me will ya? I gotta ... do somethin'," Sano said, stepping back out into the dusty Tokyo street.
Katsuhiro called after him, but Sanosuke ignored him and kept walking towards an alleyway. That was where he had seen his vision vanish around a corner. Sanosuke found the alley deserted. Defeated, his shoulders slumped and he scratched his head in confusion.
"I coulda sworn I saw..." Sanosuke thought. But his thought was interuped as a shadow flickered across the alleyway wall. A mischievous smile spread across Sanosuke's lips.
Being as quiet and sneaky as it was in his power to be, he made his way to the end of the alleyway. Voices came from around the corner; hushed, angry tones spoken with low pitch. Sanosuke made no effort to pay attention to the words that were spoken. He was too excited to think of anything but the potential that lay around the corner. It would finally be the day he once again fought Saitou Hajime.
Although it had been a year since he'd seen Saitou, his profile as he retreated into the alleyway was unmistakable, even if it was for a second. It wouldn't be easy to forget the face of the man who unveiled his very weakness, showed it to him, and disappeared into the shadows, leaving the score between them unsettled.
In that moment Sanosuke saw his opportunity to finish what was started over a year ago. Filled with boyish excitement, Sanosuke bit his lip and thought of the victory he was about to win.
"Just you wait Saitou," Sanosuke thought, "My Futae no Kiwami has improved so much I'm more than a match for your Gotatsu!"
With a roar, Sanosuke jumped arond the corner.
"I knew it was you! Thought you could pass through Tokyo without running into Sagara Sanosuke?"
The silence that followed Sanosuke's outcry was thick enough to bite. Saitou Hajime stood in the alleyway, his stare intent, but fixated elsewhere than at Sanosuke. He looked like a statue as he stood motionless. The shadows took away the effect of age and wear so that his skin seemed white. Saitou's hair was slicked back perfectly, except for the four stubborn strings of hair that outlined his face, the darkness of his hair contrasting to the way his skin seemed to glow at that moment. He was obviously on police business, because he was wearing the uniform of the Meiji government police force. With one exception of course: instead of a sabre, Saitou had the same sword he used when he was the leader of the third squad Shinsengumi; back when he was known to be Saitou Hajime, not Special Officer Gorou Fujita.
As for what Saitou's amber eyes were locked onto, it was another man, somebody Sanosuke had never seen before. This man was a few inches shorter than Saitou and perhaps an inch or so shorter than Sanosuke, but he was imposing enough to look just as tall. His waist length black hair was held in a loose tie, so his hair fell like a hood around his face. He was also pale, but in a sickly way. His icy eyes held a deep chasm of uncaring void, not unlike the eyes of Shinomori Aoshi. He was psychotic, and Sanosuke could tell just by looking at him. He had an aura of ruthless danger and cunning about him. He didn't seem like the kind of person you would want to be caught in a dark alley with, but that was where Sanosuke found himself.
"Hey ..." Sanosuke said, his voice shaking as it seemed to be out of his control at that moment. His senses were telling him that he had arrived someplace he shouldn't be, but the thoughts of the unfinished fight kept him where he was. "What's going on? You already stirring up new trouble?"
"Get lost, ahou." Saitou said, his voice commanding and quiet all at once.
A vein popped to life in Sanosuke's head as anger colored his skin red. "My name is Sanosuke, not ahou!" Sanosuke growled, puffing up like a dog. "Listen to me Miburo, we're going to finish what we started a year ago. You and me, toe-to-toe, right now!"
"It doesn't matter anymore, it's in the past," Saitou said, still not looking away from the man whom Sanosuke was now totally ignoring.
Sanosuke opened his mouth to speak, but was interupted. "And the past is dead, isn't it Saitou?" said the stranger. If Sanosuke had thought his eyes held dangerous insanity, it didn't hold a candle to his voice. His voice held the kind of calm crazy that was so unpredictable, you never knew when they were going to snap.
Sanosuke eyed the stranger cautiously, but then his emotion of unease turned to something he was more comfortable with: anger. "This isn't any of your business, asshole! You just stay out of it! I'm talking to..."
"We were in the middle of a conversation," the stranger said, turning his icy green eyes to Sanosuke. They were unblinking and inhuman. Sanosuke felt a shiver run down his spine, for the alleyway seemed so much darker and smaller than it had just a moment before.
"Stop this now," Saitou commanded as a whisper to the stranger. "Get out of here now, ahou," Saitou said, as an order to Sanosuke. "If you'd like, you can win by default."
"What!? I didn't spend all this time becoming stronger so you could blow me off like this!" Sanosuke roared back.
The stranger took a few steps away, clutching his head. He spoke low, so that it was almost impossible to hear him. "You know it's very rude to interrupt a private conversation ... very rude ..."
"That's swell buddy, but this isn't about you. This is between me an' him," Sanosuke said, pointing with his thumb to Saitou.
"Rude boy ..."
The stranger turned and charged so fast that Sano had no time to react. Sanosuke's arms only jerked up instinctively, trying to at least shield himself. He went down so quickly that there was no vision, only the sensation of falling, and then the pain of his skull slamming against the alley floor. The weight of the man was upon him, and he heard the sick sounds of skin against skin, and bones cracking. He attempted to fight back, until he felt his head being slammed into the floor with unnatural force. The pain came in a fierce wave, but he was too far gone to feel any of it. Sanosuke's eyes rolled back and he looked to the only place he could: the sky. There was a part of him that could still feel the pain being inflicted upon him, yet another part of him, a peice put there to protect him, thinking: "My, what pretty clouds"
Sanosuke's head was held between the stranger's hands. There was one wide smile from him before he crushed Sanosuke's head against the ground again. The world swam through Sanosuke's eyes like water. The shadow of the stranger lingered above Sanosuke like a shroud and his shadow seemed to spread and spread until everything in sight was swallowed into darkness.