Kokoro No Itami Nakunaru Made Zutto: Sanctuary
By: Hitokiri Gentatsu
A/N: Well, here it is finally. The next chapter of 'Sanctuary' that some of you have been waiting months for. Sorry for the long wait but I had several things come up plus I had developed a bad writer's block on this one. Gomen nasai. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and please don't forget to review. Arigatou. Also, I do not own Rurouni Kenshin.
Chapter Five: Face of the Past
"The smell of blood…it won't come off."
Hitokiri Battousai
Haishidiya moved swiftly but silently downstream, keeping to the shadows and searching for any sign that Kenshin had managed to pull himself from the flow of the river. The surrounding forest was uncommonly silent around him and that plus the frantic worry that laced his heart had is nerves on edge. He had searched nearly everywhere along the river but there was no sign of Kenshin nor of his attackers and seemingly no place the young swordsman could be except still in the river, carried away be the wash of the current.
Haishidiya moved his lips in silent prayer for the soul of the man he hardly knew and continued to walk. That was when he saw it, a small indentation in the sandy bank of the river. He knelt down to examine it farther. On closer examination it looked like it could be a footprint but it was too unclear for him to know for certain. However, this clue led him to a second, more certain one. The sand nearby was discolored and it smelled faintly metallic.
"Blood," he thought as memories he believed to be long buried under prayerful meditation came to the fore. He could feel the warm stickiness of blood on his hands again and, unconsciously, he rubbed them as if to remove the stain of it from them.
"That was the past," he thought vehemently. "That person is gone now. He is dead and buried."
Haishidiya felt the urge to hold a katana again and his hands clinched and unclenched as he knelt there with his eyes closed and memories of his past life flooding his senses. In desperation, he began to repeat a sutra he had learned when he first decided to throw that past away and become a monk. Almost immediately he felt himself begin to calm and, after a few moments, he was able to open his eyes again as the memories were locked away once more within the deep recesses of his mind.
He looked around the area, searching for other clues as to the direction Kenshin might have went in, if indeed this vague indentation was from his foot. At first there was nothing that told him anything useful and there was no sign that anyone other than animals had passed through the area. He combed the riverside for several feet in both directions but found nothing.
"Shimmatta," he cursed softly. "Where could he have gone? He couldn't have gotten far in his condition."
The monk scanned the nearby woods again and paused in his search if the riverbank when something caught his eye. There was a bright piece of fabric amid the dark green leaves of a bush. Haishidiya pulled the fabric from the bush, finding it was a scrap of magenta cloth. Below this he found another indentation in the soft ground followed by two more headed east.
Haishidiya walked slowly, following the minute clues left behind by the wounded Kenshin: a spot of blood here, a piece of cloth there, until he came upon a house. Kenshin's trail stopped at the gate of the estate. His heart froze inside his chest.
"Please Buddha…don't let him have ended up there."
He studied the gate for a moment but heard nothing from beyond it. Then he made to walk passed the estate but instead headed into the surrounding forest of bamboo, hoping to see a way to enter the estate besides the front gate, all the while hearing the frantic beating of his own heart.
"Please Buddha protect Himura."
*
Battousai sat on the porch, his arms folded across his chest and his eyes closed. To all appearances he was sleeping, his head bowed so that his fiery hair concealed his eyes. But he was not sleeping; instead he was deep in thought. Memories had started to come back to him and he was trying to sort them all out, hoping to discover who he was. He was trying to find the source of the uneasiness he'd been experiencing ever since his arrival at the estate.
On the surface everything appeared to be normal and there seemed to be no one in the Yamashiro estate that wanted him harmed. Everyone had been extremely polite to him and even helpful. He could sense nothing evil in anyone nor in their intentions and that's what was making him uneasy. The people on the Yamashiro estate seemed to be unreadable to him, their ki blurred and indistinct. This was triggering a memory in him.
"It's almost as if…" Battousai's thoughts trailed off. "They couldn't possibly be…"
*
After an hour of trying to figure out what was bothering him about the people, Battousai gave up and went to sleep, hoping that he would remember more of his past. His night was full of nightmares. Blood soaked battlefields and the stench of death surrounded him. Nameless faces haunted his dreams and he called out to those hazy people, wanting to know who they were, but they remained silent. Then, abruptly, the dreams changed from the blood and fire of the battlefield and alleys, to a landscape of fridged, pristine white marred by the stain of warm blood. He could hear an anguished cry and felt warm tears fall from his eyes. A soft, feminine voice whispered brokenly and the smell of white plumes hung heavily in the air.
-"It's better this way…so please don't cry…forgive me beloved."
Her voice carried all the love she had for him but had been too afraid to express in words before. He bowed his head and watched the life go out of her dark eyes, his hand on his stinging left cheek.
"Tomoe?" his voice sounded lost, as he bent over her still form to hold it one last time.
Slowly, he lifted her in his arms, cradling her gently against him and turned his back on the place of her death. Somehow he picked up her purple scarf and his bloodstained sword, taking them all back to the small house that had become their home. The trees and snow around him blurred as he walked, tears coursing down his cheeks. He bent his head over her still form and whispered softly.
"I will never kill again. When this war is over, I will never take another human life. I promise this to you, Tomoe…my only love…I swear it.-
Kenshin jerked awake, memories flooding his thoughts in a sudden rush. He knew who he was now and where he was. He was Himura Kenshin and he was in Aizu recovering from a self-inflicted wound. Some former Aizu samurai, who had beat him badly and left him to drown had cornered him at the river. He had been the Hitokiri Battousai and now he knew why he was unable to read the ki of the other people of the house.
"They are ninja…" he whispered.
"So we are and now it is time for you to join the ranks of the dead, Hitokiri Battousai!"
*
Haishidiya felt the flare of multiple ki coming from the house and above it, standing out like a beacon, was the ki of the former Hitokiri Battousai.
"Please Buddha…" he whispered as he ran toward the house, wishing he carried a sword instead of the walking staff he now carried.
He ran toward the house and jumped to the top of the wall. Looking below him, he saw ten men surrounding Himura and several more shadowy figures stealthily approaching the young swordsman's position.
"Himura!" Haishidiya shouted and Kenshin's head whipped around to find the monk pointing at a position behind him and to his left.
Quicker than the eyes could see, Kenshin was on his feet and had moved out the range of their trap. He glared at the men in front of him, his eyes shifting from violet to a cold blue, flecked with amber. He gripped the sakabatou's hilt tightly with his bandaged right hand, ignoring the pain that it caused when he did so. The voice of Battousai was in his ears, whispering incessantly that these men, these ninja were still enemies that needed to be eliminated.
Battousai's voice grew stronger as Kenshin narrowed his eyes a fraction, the golden flecks becoming more pronounced.
-"Flip the blade over and we will exact revenge for what they did to use in the woods.-" Battousai's cold voice sent shivers down Kenshin's spine.
::I will not. They are not my enemies anymore. I left that life behind me when I left Kyoto.:: he thought fiercely at Battousai even as the ninja began to close again.
"Hitokiri Battousai. How strange we should meet again after all this time," a deep voice cut through the air and the advancing ninja parted to lot their leader through.
Kenshin's eyes widened for a moment in recognition before narrowing again, becoming more golden still.
"You!" he hissed coldly.
The man smiled a disarming smile but said nothing for a moment, studying Kenshin with a critical eye.
"You're not doing so good are you?" he said matter-of-factly.
Kenshin felt the Battousai's anger flare but he strove to remain in control of it. He would not allow Battousai to have control of the situation this time. Instead, he glared at the man through narrowed bluish eyes, trying to gage his opponent's strength. The tall man laughed, highly amused by Kenshin's struggle to contain the hitokiri's rage and the ninja nearby took up his amused laughter.
Battousai's eyes turned brilliant gold and his face became a mask of hatred. That man was responsible for the deaths of many highly placed Ishinshishi in the past. He had crossed swords with the man several times in Kyoto and the memory of their last encounter still seemed fresh in Battousai's mind.
*
-The streets were teeming with Shinsengumi and their Aizu allies. They were searching desperately for the stores of arms and the secret meeting place of the Ishinshishi forces said to be on the march for Kyoto. Little did they know that the advance force was already in place.
Battousai crouched in an intersecting alley with several other men, waiting to make their move. Battousai stayed somewhat away from the others, concentrating on the enemy, and they watched him, fear in their eyes. None of the men he was with had actually seen him fight but they all knew his reputation as a cold-blooded killer with no mercy and they had all heard stories about him.
Battousai watched the mouth of the alley, his amber eyes glowing in the faint light and the men shivered, hoping that when the battle came Battousai would remember the difference between friend and foe. Most of the men believed Himura was a little mad, especially in the midst of battle. It was rumored that he became as cold and sharp as the blade he carried at his side and that he killed without remorse for his actions.
Battousai tensed and shifted slightly and the men were just able to make out the sword scars that where etched into his left cheek. They, like countless others before them, wondered about that scar. When the young assassin had gone into hiding after the 'Troubles in Kyoto', he'd only had one scar there, which was the gift of a bodyguard he's slain during an assignment. When he'd returned to Kyoto once the danger was passed, he bore two scars, the second of which slashed across the first making the whole cross shaped. No one knew who had given him that scar but it was rumored that before each battle he would touch it and say one word, so softly that no one had been able to catch it.
Battousai felt the men's scrutiny but he chose to ignore it. His hand went to the scar on his cheek and, as he brushed a hand over it, he whispered: "I promise Tomoe." The men behind him thought they saw the amber glow fade from his eyes for a moment before it returned. Then he turned away from them and watched the mouth of the alley. The foe was coming upon them from the east and south. Battousai could feel their ki searching for his party's own and he smirked, feeling himself growing numb as the killer within him tensed, waiting for the attack.
He waited, with his men behind him. The other samurai tensed in anticipation of the battle to come but their face remained impassive as they waited for Battousai's signal. Battousai narrowed his eyes and counted in his head, ready to spring into action at the first sign of the enemy.
The faint scrap of a sandal overhead and the jerk of Battousai's head were all the warning the other Ishin received before the enemy struck. Several ninja descended on the party from above, while an equal number of samurai rushed the alley. Battousai moved to face the samurai, noting that their clothing all bore the crest of the Lord of Aizu.
"These ninja are probably in his pay as well," a distant part of his mind, thought as he traded blows with the leader of the samurai.
After twenty minutes, all of the samurai were dead and a barely winded Battousai turned to help the rest of the Ishin in their fight with the ninja. With surprise he noticed that two of the ninja lay dead. His companions were not bad swordsmen then. He smiled coldly and moved to their aid but found his way blocked by the leader if the ninja.
He smiled at Battousai, raising his katana in salute, but said nothing. Battousai's eyes narrowed and his smile turned into a sneer. He took up battou-jutsu stance and waited for the ninja to make a move. He just stood there, smiling at Battousai with barely concealed contempt. Battousai glared back at the man, saying nothing and still waiting. When he was unable to wait any longer he moved toward the ninja leader, who for some strange reason remained still. Battousai went into a spin that would add momentum to his strike. As he came out of the second part of the spin, he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder and saw the ninja leader seeming to blur in front of him. He swung his katana at the man but it failed to connect.
Battousai spun around and then felt himself slump to the ground his sword clattering uselessly to the stone beside him. He glared up at the ninja leader and tried to find his sword, but everything around him began to waver in and out of focus. The ninja leader stood before him with his arms folded in front of him, his mouth curved into a sinister smile. Battousai grimaced, feeling a cold burning fire in his veins.-
*
Kenshin was still not sure how he managed to return to headquarters or even how he'd managed to survive the deadly poison that had coursed through his veins that night. One thing was absolutely certain though: that ninja leader and the man who stood in front of him were one and the same.
"Now we will finish what was started during the height of the Bakumatsu and this time you will die." The man's cold laughter floated in the air between them.