PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZE review. I need some motivation.
Saa, anyhow, I've decided to alternate chapters from now on. I'll write one chapter of Pay Attn. and one chapter of Rended, working back and forth. 'Kay?
Jaa, here we go...
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Disclaimer: Don't sue me dog gone it. PLEEZE. I've got enough on my plate and I'm WAY past full.
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Chapter 7
I don't believe it, he thought furiously. I only had four last night and I 'm out?! Che...
Saitoh walked with a quick, angry stride down the hallway to ask if anyone had a cigarette. He would have to buy some at the next town if no one else had one. And that was not going to make him very happy.
He stormed into the room across from his own. "Does one of you here have a cigarette?"
"N-no," one man stuttered, eyeing his weapon and fierce glare.
"Ahou ga. I'm not asking if you're breaking the rules, I'm asking if you have one I could use!"
"S-sumimasen, kedo..."
Saitoh growled, turned, his cloak sweeping, and went to check the next
room.
Che.
~~~~~~
Himura's eyes snapped open.
He was coming.
Quietly he made his way out from under the sleeping captain's arm and peered out into the hall. He couldn't see him, but one of the doors was open, and he knew he was there.
The boy crawled back over past the sleeping men and nudged Haiyashii. "Oi. Wake up," he whispered urgently. "Wake up!"
"Hum?" The captain squinted at him, taking a deep breath and stretching. "Whsap?"
"Shh. It's him." Haiyashii looked at the boy. "The captain of the third squad of Shinsengumi," he urged him. "He's coming, and he's checking the rooms."
"Does he know...?" The captain sat up slowly.
"No, I don't think so, he's looking for something. Knowing that bastard he probably ran out of cigarettes. Come on, let's get out of here while he's still searching the other rooms."
Haiyashii quickly packed up what little they had and joined Himura just inside the door frame.
As they watched, Mibu's Wolf left one of the rooms and headed for the next, fuming. "Okay, on three we head for the door," the boy muttered. "Wait...wait..."
Suddenly Saitoh stopped.
A knowing grin spread across his face. Slowly the Shinsengumi captain
turned toward their door.
"Shimatta, he's recognized my ki," Himura cursed. He pulled out his sword.
"Stand back, I'm gonna have to do this."
"Kid, you can't take him in your condition," Haiyashii protested in a whisper. "You only just started walking yesterday. Let's sneak out the back."
"No, he'd be on us by then. Just stay back and follow my lead."
Saitoh continued to walk forward, smiling. He seemed to be enjoying this.
I'll bet he is, Himura thought bitterly. He knows I'm here and he knows he
can take me. K'so.
"Oi, Battousai! Turning into a coward, are we?" Mibu's Wolf shouted,
knowing he would wake everyone in the inn. "Why don't you come out now
and we'll settle this like we were meant to? I promise you'll die
honorably."
Himura didn't move, knowing Saitoh's taunts were to get him to attack.
"Why didn't you challenge me before, Saitoh?" he called back. "If I recall correctly you've wanted me dead for a long while, and yet you choose now, when I'm not at my best, to challenge me to a duel? Am I the coward?"
Saitoh's grin disappeared.
Heads were poking out from various doors. Meanwhile the other men in the room were watching the whole thing completely confused.
"What does that kid think he's doing?"
"What the heck's going on around here?" A few were beginning to figure it out, but it didn't matter now. The smart ones stayed against the back wall.
If the Shinsengumi captain wasn't pissed off before, he sure was now.
"Ahou! Let's see how much of a coward I am when I have you skewered on the end my katana, Battousai!" he screamed back, raging.
Himura ran through his options and finally made his decision. "Haiyashii, you run out after me," he said tersely. "If I'm not outside in five minutes, then I'm dead." Haiyashii stared at the hitokiri. He glared back. "Don't even think about it. Just follow me and then go!"
"Come on Battousai, I'm waiting!"
Himura took a deep breath and ran. With a battle cry he planted a huge blow on Saitoh's shoulder, only to be knocked down like a rag doll.
The hitokiri looked up just in time to avoid a gatotsu that nearly got him through the chest.
"Himura!" He saw Haiyashii still watching him from the door.
"What are you doing?!" he yelled. "Get out of here now!"
"I..." The captain stood there completely unsure of what to do.
"Feh," Saitoh spat, a grin spreading across his face. He was going to turn into Okita if this kept up. Mibu's Wolf smiled wider still as he thought of something priceless.
"So...Who's your friend?"
Himura's eyes snapped wide open. His breath caught in his throat.
Saitoh lunged forward in a blinding flash of white and blue and headed
straight for Haiyashii.
"No!" Himura screamed. With a fwap! from his saya he tripped Saitoh and yanked him away from the captain, who unsheathed his katana.
As the man fell he aimed his sword at Battousai's head, twisting in a
desperate effort to defeat him before--
Ka-WHAM!
Abruptly he was hit from both front and behind with the hilt of a katana and a Do Ryuu Sen, expertly aimed. Saitoh gave a groan and kept his blow as steady as he could before he passed out. He smiled as he watched a thick line of blood appear across the hitokiri's neck. Then he saw no more as the world went black.
No one else in the inn could see either. The ki from the Do Ryuu Sen had kicked up such a cloud of smoke and dust that people began running from their rooms just so they could breathe.
Haiyashii struggled past the scurrying occupants of the inn, calling for Himura. "Kid? Kid! Where are you?! Answer me!"
Through a brief parting in the smoke Haiyashii saw the boy standing over Saitoh's prone form, sword raised high. Then he disappeared.
"Kid! Himura!"
The captain ran throught the thick cloud of dust and searched for him. Suddenly running past Saitoh, he saw that the hitokiri had fallen to his kness, his saya and sword discarded, one hand to his throat. Haiyashii reached for him, coughing. "Himura--Himura, you alright?"
The boy's head turned towards him and Haiyashii almost yelped aloud.
His throat was gushing blood all down his front. The last-minute blow from Mibu's Wolf was aimed just high enough to hole his jugular. He was literally holding his own neck shut, pinching the white, blood-soaked skin between two fingers. "Let's get out of here," he rasped, his voice low and distorted, gravelly. "Come on."
The two men ran from the collapsing left wall out of the hole his move had made. People stopped along the road and gathered around the opening, whispering to each other and wondering what all the commotion was about. Kenshin and Haiyashii fled silently from the scene into the smoke-clouded street and headed straight for the heart of Kyoto. Almost two seconds after they disappeared, a large group of men in white and blue-green exploded from the gap, voices raised in anger, katana glinting in the new sunlight.
It didn't matter how long they looked though. The two men were already too far ahead of them to even be glimpsed by the warriors.
Three miles later, Himura slowed down his pace enough to get a word out of him.
"Oi, Himura, wait!" He grabbed the boy's shoulder. His hand was immediately dripping and his pull was so strong that Himura almost fell backward. He slapped the captain's hand away.
"What in the name of all the Kami did you think you were doing?" he ground out, his low voice laced with slow-burning fury. Haiyashii almost cringed as he heard that tone, the same tone as from before in the cave, emerge from the hitokiri's bleeding throat.
"I could've taken him he was no big dealyoucouldhavebeenkilledyouIDIOT--" He stopped himself. The boy's voice was strangely detached, as though he were thinking about something else, or were miles away.
Haiyashii gathered his courage. "Kid, don't be ridiculous," he said sternly. "You're bleeding all over. We need to stop, we need to bandage you--"
"NO." Himura whirled away, walking unsteadily as he paced himself for the road. "We--have to get--to Katsura-san--we--"
"Kid, stop right now!" Haiyashii said furiously. He scooped Himura up and began walking in the same direction as before. He looked up at the captain, his eyes fierce and glowing.
"Put me down!"
"No. Kid, right now you're a danger to yourself," he said firmly. "You saved me now I save you. That's how it works. Besides, we have a job to do. Remember?"
Battousai's eyes focused suddenly, losing some of their blinding light. "Katsura-san...yes...have to get to Kyoto." He seemed to have gained a little of his conscious mind. "We have to tell Katsura-san of the situation. He thinks I'm dead; I have to tell him I can still be of use."
"Alright then, let's go. But first we have to get you patched up, you're losing way too much blood." The boy had loosened his grip on the vein, and it was starting to leak down his gi again.
As if it had only just happened he suddenly realized he felt weak. Slowly he leaned his head on Haiyashii's shoulder. The bounce of his pace lulled him back to sleep, giving him at least some of the rest he so desperately needed.
And this time he slept comfortably, knowing he could rest and still
complete his duty for the people of Japan.
Exactly thirty-two minutes later they stopped at the large double-doors
of another inn.
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"Saa, so we will need to win that front in order to--"
"Sumimasen, Katsura-san?" The man turned his head to her slowly. "Yes?"
"Demo, there are two men outside that just arrived at the inn." The white-faced woman looked nervous. "It's Himura-san."
"What?!" one of his associates said, shocked. "But...it can't be! The Battousai has been dead for over two weeks!"
"That's right! The Shogunate ambush blew him away!" another regal-looking man remarked, eyes wide. "He was totally destroyed."
He turned slightly. "Katsura-san, surely..."
The man looked only slightly surprised.
"Let them in," he ordered. "I will determine for myself if he is dead or not."
The other men looked slightly chastened, bowing. "Hai, Katsura-san."
The door shuffled open to reveal a haggard, black-bearded man in his early forties, wearing a soldier's garb, battered and muddy and carrying a blood-stained, redheaded boy in his arms.
The man bowed to Katsura, and he nodded in acknowledgement. The other five men backed away as gently the captain laid Himura before Katsura, keeping his body propped up from the waist. "Kid," he whispered to him. "Wake up, we're here. We made it. Look."
The boy lifted his head. He was covered in blood and looked exhausted, but as he saw Katsura's face he looked relieved. "Katsura-san," he said hoarsely. " I..." He seemed to be searching for something appropriate and important to say.
Finally, he opened his mouth and uttered a single sentence.
"...Tada ima."
With that the hitokiri passed out. Katsura smiled at the prone Battousai.
"Hai. Okaeri nasai, Himura." The captain looked at him wonderingly.
How could anyone feel so comfortable with staying in the midst of a war?
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DON'T KILL MEEEEEEEEEEE!! I don't wanna die! I can't write fics if I die!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!
(Haah haah)
Okay, oaky de, oaky, okay, back to writing, I know.
Please R & R! (By the way, that means read and review. At least I think it
does, I only just recently figured that out. Doy...)