Long overdue disclaimer: Only this fic is mine. The only thing I got from
the Seven Days TV show is a title and a vague concept, not much else.
Watsuki owns the Kenshin-gumi, and Sony owns Daigoro. ^_^
Aye, Naomi, aye! I agree with you! (Oh, you might wanna read "What Dreams May Come" by suiren, in my faves list. It's a fic based on that stuff. SAD stuff!) Sorry about that, Chiki, that verb got away. Sorry for the delay, Crystal. Don't die yet! This installment got finished a few days ago, but I can't get it just right (this is the most important installment after all), then I got kinda busy. Hi, kraci, kabayan! Hope you could check out Commercial Life too. ^_^
Hold your breath folks. We've come full circle.
.....................
October 7
It had not happened yet. Still, it did not make sense.
Most especially to Kenshin.
Why was it still happening? This parade, this awful parade?
Why was he still getting up early, without waking Kaoru, peacefully asleep in a futon beside his, to make a final inspection?
Why was he still walking out the door, away from Kaoru?
WHY?
Because he was Himura Kenshin, and Himura Kenshin never backed out on his word.
He promised to keep Kaoru alive, and by Heaven he will keep his word. Until the last minute that he can.
He found one of the policemen already inspecting the parade route, so he joined him. He trusted this man pretty well; the chief had spoken highly of him. He began to speak to him.
"Listen and pay attention to everything I tell you while we walk. The ambassador's life may depend on it. Now see here...."
Kenshin calmly pointed here and there, potential security breaches. As they approached the scene where Kenshin recalled the incident happened, he stopped walking, and made the policeman stop as well. "Keep a man on that roof, near that tree, beside that window," he pointed here and there with a shaking finger. "Place your best men at this point. Keep several sharpshooters on the ready. And please, I beg you," he entreated the man, "Keep a close eye on the ambassador and Kaoru-dono....."
"No problem, sir," the policeman only replied. They continued to walk the rest of the parade route.
After two hours, Kenshin was back at the Kamiya dojo, ready to fetch Kaoru and the boys.
"Tadaima! (I'm home!) Where is everybody? Kaoru-dono! Where are you? Kaoru-- ------dono......"
Kaoru appeared in front of the practice area. She was wearing a new kimono for the occasion, beaming with pride and wearing a wide smile. Her hair was tied back in a new indigo ribbon, her favorite color. She knew that Kenshin liked her with that color.
Kenshin quaked in his socks. His knees shook. His face paled. His head spun. It was THAT new kimono, THAT new ribbon.
He felt Kaoru prop him up. "Are you alright?"
The memory of that day came back and slapped his face hard. He talked as if in a dream again. "It will happen....it will happen....she is not for me to save......not for me....."
Kaoru knew that words would not help. She put a finger to his lips to quiet him, and wrapped an arm around his waist. She leaned her head above his heart, and held him silently for ten whole minutes.
Then she slowly let go and offered her hand. "Come on. The ambassador is waiting for you."
When Kenshin and Kaoru arrived at the designated start of the route, people had begun to gather. The sidewalks had been cordoned off for the parade. Sayama was there, inspecting his troops, checking the cords, watching the other police, looking at Kenshin.
Four horses were ready and waiting. The tallest and largest one went to the American ambassador. The three smaller ones were for the interpreter, Kenshin, and Kaoru. It was arranged that the ambassador be accompanied by his official bodyguard, and his interpreter be accompanied by Kamiya-san. It kept Kaoru from being directly in Kenshin's view, but it was better, much better, than the original arrangement.
The band began to play and march up the avenue. It was followed by a troop of marching soldiers. The mayor and his wife rode by on an open carriage, and waved to the happy crowd. A few more important government heads passed by as well. Then the American ambassador came into view. The crowd waved flags of Japan and the United States and cheered loudly.
Kenshin looked behind for a few seconds. He was happy and relieved to see Kaoru, as she smiled at the crowd, waved joyfully, and relished the parade. How he wished and pleaded to the heavens that she would stay this way.
The entourage had just passed Kenshin's friends. Sanosuke shouted at him, and boasted to bystanders that he knew the redhead beside the Ambassador personally. Yahiko was waving at him frantically.
Unlike before, Kenshin turned white as a sheet, and moved his eyes back and forth across the crowd and through the buildings.
The minutes were ticking closer, and the parade was inching closer, ever closer, to that fateful event.
Kenshin got off the horse and began to walk. If he still had to do what he had to do, it was still a better position to do it in.
He was not mistaken.
The nightmare began again.
As Kenshin looked up at the house roofs, he noticed a man in black waiting in a tree, wearing a sinister look. As the entourage marched nearer and nearer the tree, he saw other similarly dressed men on the rooftops and highest windows of nearby buildings. 10 feet from the tree, Kenshin made out a pistol sticking out----and aiming at the Ambassador.
"EVERYBODY, HEAD DOWN!"
Shots rang through the air. Bullets ricocheted through the pavement. Kenshin was quick on his heels. He pulled the ambassador off the horse and covered him with his small body. More shots were fired, and civilians were killed. A few men and soldiers had fallen on the street. Kenshin was calm, but the Ambassador was completely in shock. Then, silence.
Kenshin helped the gaijin off the pavement, and reassured him in his most respectful Niponggo that he is secure. This was quickly translated, and the ambassador was much relieved to be protected by this little man.
It was EXACTLY like the first time. His careful planning had failed.
At least Kaoru was still alright and rather near him.......
"AAAAAAAA!"
KAORU-DONO!
"Nobody move! Or the woman gets it!"
Kenshin froze, standing in front of the ambassador.
Sayama was holding his Kaoru-dono by the neck, and cocked a pistol at the side of her head. He had punched the interpreter straight through the cheek and let him fall of his horse. He pulled Kaoru off her small horse, and avoided her furious kicks and punches like a veteran.
Now he recognized the man from the last time. He did not see him before; he only saw him after he fell on the street, shot by a policeman. This was the man Kaoru saw, that made her run to Kenshin, and forced her to act as a human shield.
"My demands were simple yesterday, Himura-san. Now you've made them more complicated. Hand over the ambassador, or your little lady is no more. You cannot protect them both."
"Kenshin," Kaoru weakly begged under Sayama's firm hold, "don't give in....stay with him....Kenshin...."
"What a brave woman! But unless you comply, another brave soul becomes an angel!"
Trust your friends, Kenshin! The message rang in Kenshin's ears. Trust your friends!
The sound of twenty cocked pistols unexpectedly surrounded hostage and hostage-taker. "Lower your weapon, Sayama!" Of all people, it was Saitou who barked the order. "You are surrounded!"
Kenshin looked at Saitou with much gratitude.
"Stop staring at me like I was a hero," Saitou grunted at him. "Your statement simply connected with other evidence. I still don't care about the raccoon woman."
Nonetheless, Kenshin gave him a thankful smile.
"I am not afraid of you!" Sayama shouted back, and tightened his hold on Kaoru. "I will make the foreigner pay for his crimes! Do as I say, or this woman dies!"
"Daijobu, Himura-san," the ambassador said. Then in English, "I will comply. I did not understand what he said, but it seems that he wants me."
"IIE!" Kenshin shouted for Sayama to hear. He spread out his arms to shield the ambassador even more.
But he was at a loss what to do next. If he left the ambassador's side, he would be killed. But if he stayed with him, 7 days back into the past will have been in vain.
He was abruptly tapped on the shoulder. It was Daigoro, cap and glasses askew, breathing hard after having run the length of the parade route.
"You told me that I helped you get----back----to stop an assassination. Let me help you again. Leave the ambassador to me. I can speak English, and I will guard him with my life. Now go to Kaoru-san."
Kenshin did not believe what he was hearing. He still stood frozen in front of the ambassador. But Daigoro cocked his hat and placed himself in Kenshin's position.
"Hurry, Himura-san! GO!"
Kenshin nodded his thanks. Step by step he inched closer to Sayama and his hostage. "Sayama-dono, this is not necessary..."
"Just hand over the gaijin!" Sayama shouted, and pressed the pistol deeper into Kaoru's right temple. "He will die for his brother's crimes to our family!"
The police surrounding them had not moved, for fear of harming both a woman and the American ambassador. But they had kept their pistols cocked and aimed at Sayama.
"What is he talking about, Himura-san?" Daigoro asked in behalf of the ambassador.
"It seems that the ambassador's brother got Sayama's family bankrupt, by using foreign tricks," Kenshin replied without turning his back on Sayama, still walking closer to him.
Some hasty translation and discussion ensued, then Daigoro shouted back, "The ambassador's brother is already in jail in America for other illegal business deals. The ambassador also says that he is willing to give his family any compensation he considers necessary to repay the losses. He is ready to discuss it, once everyone is safe...."
"He will pay with his life!" Sayama wildly replied. "We will stop foreign interference into this country, and I will start with him! Now don't make it any harder for yourself, Himura-san! One step closer and your little lady gets a bullet through her skull!"
Kaoru bravely kept still, but beads of cold sweat spread all over her face. "Don't worry about me, Kenshin. Protect him....."
"No, Kaoru-dono. I promised....." Kenshin called out, nailed to his position, fearful of reliving the past.
A tall man in white quickly came at a run and stopped beside Kenshin. "Need a little help, pal? Lemme handle him, and you take care of jo-chan."
Kenshin only looked at Sanosuke with comprehension.
"On three..." Sanosuke directed. "One...two......THREE!"
From the left Sanosuke charged, grabbed the pistol away from the hostage and gave Sayama a hard right hook. From the right Kenshin plucked Kaoru away from Sayama and carried her by the waist toward Daigoro in less than 10 seconds.
But Sayama was too fast and too desperate for the two of them. He landed a straight punch at Sanosuke, gained control of his pistol.
BANG!
The crowd ducked. Several shouts of terror were heard. Two other shots were fired. A policeman just barely heard a man cry aloud, barely saw him fall head first and knock his head against the hard stone pavement.
"KENSHIN!"
Kaoru managed to catch herself in time. But Kenshin...he was not moving!
Kaoru looked despairingly at her lifeless protector.
"Oh, no," Daigoro groaned beside her. "7 days, to stop an assassination. I never thought that those 7 days would cost a life....."
"It's not true, say it isn't," Sanosuke added. "He was alright only a few minutes ago------where the heck is Megumi?!"
Yahiko was gone, running through the avenues, shouting for a doctor, yelling for Megumi. Sanosuke had forced him to stay put during the hostage situation. But as everyone was in a panic, only Yahiko had sense enough to run like the wind for a doctor.
Kaoru felt blood from the fresh wound to his head. She cried at the unnaturally peaceful face, as if he was in another quiet dream.
Himura Kenshin never backed out on his word. He will keep his word. Until the last minute he can.
"Kenshin! Talk to me! It did not happen! You did save me....Kenshin!"
Nothing.
............
If it tells you anything, I have one more installment before I end Seven Days. ^_^ I'm sorry to have to do this, but you have to wait a few days to know how it all ends. My apologies, and I hope you all come back one last time.
Aye, Naomi, aye! I agree with you! (Oh, you might wanna read "What Dreams May Come" by suiren, in my faves list. It's a fic based on that stuff. SAD stuff!) Sorry about that, Chiki, that verb got away. Sorry for the delay, Crystal. Don't die yet! This installment got finished a few days ago, but I can't get it just right (this is the most important installment after all), then I got kinda busy. Hi, kraci, kabayan! Hope you could check out Commercial Life too. ^_^
Hold your breath folks. We've come full circle.
.....................
October 7
It had not happened yet. Still, it did not make sense.
Most especially to Kenshin.
Why was it still happening? This parade, this awful parade?
Why was he still getting up early, without waking Kaoru, peacefully asleep in a futon beside his, to make a final inspection?
Why was he still walking out the door, away from Kaoru?
WHY?
Because he was Himura Kenshin, and Himura Kenshin never backed out on his word.
He promised to keep Kaoru alive, and by Heaven he will keep his word. Until the last minute that he can.
He found one of the policemen already inspecting the parade route, so he joined him. He trusted this man pretty well; the chief had spoken highly of him. He began to speak to him.
"Listen and pay attention to everything I tell you while we walk. The ambassador's life may depend on it. Now see here...."
Kenshin calmly pointed here and there, potential security breaches. As they approached the scene where Kenshin recalled the incident happened, he stopped walking, and made the policeman stop as well. "Keep a man on that roof, near that tree, beside that window," he pointed here and there with a shaking finger. "Place your best men at this point. Keep several sharpshooters on the ready. And please, I beg you," he entreated the man, "Keep a close eye on the ambassador and Kaoru-dono....."
"No problem, sir," the policeman only replied. They continued to walk the rest of the parade route.
After two hours, Kenshin was back at the Kamiya dojo, ready to fetch Kaoru and the boys.
"Tadaima! (I'm home!) Where is everybody? Kaoru-dono! Where are you? Kaoru-- ------dono......"
Kaoru appeared in front of the practice area. She was wearing a new kimono for the occasion, beaming with pride and wearing a wide smile. Her hair was tied back in a new indigo ribbon, her favorite color. She knew that Kenshin liked her with that color.
Kenshin quaked in his socks. His knees shook. His face paled. His head spun. It was THAT new kimono, THAT new ribbon.
He felt Kaoru prop him up. "Are you alright?"
The memory of that day came back and slapped his face hard. He talked as if in a dream again. "It will happen....it will happen....she is not for me to save......not for me....."
Kaoru knew that words would not help. She put a finger to his lips to quiet him, and wrapped an arm around his waist. She leaned her head above his heart, and held him silently for ten whole minutes.
Then she slowly let go and offered her hand. "Come on. The ambassador is waiting for you."
When Kenshin and Kaoru arrived at the designated start of the route, people had begun to gather. The sidewalks had been cordoned off for the parade. Sayama was there, inspecting his troops, checking the cords, watching the other police, looking at Kenshin.
Four horses were ready and waiting. The tallest and largest one went to the American ambassador. The three smaller ones were for the interpreter, Kenshin, and Kaoru. It was arranged that the ambassador be accompanied by his official bodyguard, and his interpreter be accompanied by Kamiya-san. It kept Kaoru from being directly in Kenshin's view, but it was better, much better, than the original arrangement.
The band began to play and march up the avenue. It was followed by a troop of marching soldiers. The mayor and his wife rode by on an open carriage, and waved to the happy crowd. A few more important government heads passed by as well. Then the American ambassador came into view. The crowd waved flags of Japan and the United States and cheered loudly.
Kenshin looked behind for a few seconds. He was happy and relieved to see Kaoru, as she smiled at the crowd, waved joyfully, and relished the parade. How he wished and pleaded to the heavens that she would stay this way.
The entourage had just passed Kenshin's friends. Sanosuke shouted at him, and boasted to bystanders that he knew the redhead beside the Ambassador personally. Yahiko was waving at him frantically.
Unlike before, Kenshin turned white as a sheet, and moved his eyes back and forth across the crowd and through the buildings.
The minutes were ticking closer, and the parade was inching closer, ever closer, to that fateful event.
Kenshin got off the horse and began to walk. If he still had to do what he had to do, it was still a better position to do it in.
He was not mistaken.
The nightmare began again.
As Kenshin looked up at the house roofs, he noticed a man in black waiting in a tree, wearing a sinister look. As the entourage marched nearer and nearer the tree, he saw other similarly dressed men on the rooftops and highest windows of nearby buildings. 10 feet from the tree, Kenshin made out a pistol sticking out----and aiming at the Ambassador.
"EVERYBODY, HEAD DOWN!"
Shots rang through the air. Bullets ricocheted through the pavement. Kenshin was quick on his heels. He pulled the ambassador off the horse and covered him with his small body. More shots were fired, and civilians were killed. A few men and soldiers had fallen on the street. Kenshin was calm, but the Ambassador was completely in shock. Then, silence.
Kenshin helped the gaijin off the pavement, and reassured him in his most respectful Niponggo that he is secure. This was quickly translated, and the ambassador was much relieved to be protected by this little man.
It was EXACTLY like the first time. His careful planning had failed.
At least Kaoru was still alright and rather near him.......
"AAAAAAAA!"
KAORU-DONO!
"Nobody move! Or the woman gets it!"
Kenshin froze, standing in front of the ambassador.
Sayama was holding his Kaoru-dono by the neck, and cocked a pistol at the side of her head. He had punched the interpreter straight through the cheek and let him fall of his horse. He pulled Kaoru off her small horse, and avoided her furious kicks and punches like a veteran.
Now he recognized the man from the last time. He did not see him before; he only saw him after he fell on the street, shot by a policeman. This was the man Kaoru saw, that made her run to Kenshin, and forced her to act as a human shield.
"My demands were simple yesterday, Himura-san. Now you've made them more complicated. Hand over the ambassador, or your little lady is no more. You cannot protect them both."
"Kenshin," Kaoru weakly begged under Sayama's firm hold, "don't give in....stay with him....Kenshin...."
"What a brave woman! But unless you comply, another brave soul becomes an angel!"
Trust your friends, Kenshin! The message rang in Kenshin's ears. Trust your friends!
The sound of twenty cocked pistols unexpectedly surrounded hostage and hostage-taker. "Lower your weapon, Sayama!" Of all people, it was Saitou who barked the order. "You are surrounded!"
Kenshin looked at Saitou with much gratitude.
"Stop staring at me like I was a hero," Saitou grunted at him. "Your statement simply connected with other evidence. I still don't care about the raccoon woman."
Nonetheless, Kenshin gave him a thankful smile.
"I am not afraid of you!" Sayama shouted back, and tightened his hold on Kaoru. "I will make the foreigner pay for his crimes! Do as I say, or this woman dies!"
"Daijobu, Himura-san," the ambassador said. Then in English, "I will comply. I did not understand what he said, but it seems that he wants me."
"IIE!" Kenshin shouted for Sayama to hear. He spread out his arms to shield the ambassador even more.
But he was at a loss what to do next. If he left the ambassador's side, he would be killed. But if he stayed with him, 7 days back into the past will have been in vain.
He was abruptly tapped on the shoulder. It was Daigoro, cap and glasses askew, breathing hard after having run the length of the parade route.
"You told me that I helped you get----back----to stop an assassination. Let me help you again. Leave the ambassador to me. I can speak English, and I will guard him with my life. Now go to Kaoru-san."
Kenshin did not believe what he was hearing. He still stood frozen in front of the ambassador. But Daigoro cocked his hat and placed himself in Kenshin's position.
"Hurry, Himura-san! GO!"
Kenshin nodded his thanks. Step by step he inched closer to Sayama and his hostage. "Sayama-dono, this is not necessary..."
"Just hand over the gaijin!" Sayama shouted, and pressed the pistol deeper into Kaoru's right temple. "He will die for his brother's crimes to our family!"
The police surrounding them had not moved, for fear of harming both a woman and the American ambassador. But they had kept their pistols cocked and aimed at Sayama.
"What is he talking about, Himura-san?" Daigoro asked in behalf of the ambassador.
"It seems that the ambassador's brother got Sayama's family bankrupt, by using foreign tricks," Kenshin replied without turning his back on Sayama, still walking closer to him.
Some hasty translation and discussion ensued, then Daigoro shouted back, "The ambassador's brother is already in jail in America for other illegal business deals. The ambassador also says that he is willing to give his family any compensation he considers necessary to repay the losses. He is ready to discuss it, once everyone is safe...."
"He will pay with his life!" Sayama wildly replied. "We will stop foreign interference into this country, and I will start with him! Now don't make it any harder for yourself, Himura-san! One step closer and your little lady gets a bullet through her skull!"
Kaoru bravely kept still, but beads of cold sweat spread all over her face. "Don't worry about me, Kenshin. Protect him....."
"No, Kaoru-dono. I promised....." Kenshin called out, nailed to his position, fearful of reliving the past.
A tall man in white quickly came at a run and stopped beside Kenshin. "Need a little help, pal? Lemme handle him, and you take care of jo-chan."
Kenshin only looked at Sanosuke with comprehension.
"On three..." Sanosuke directed. "One...two......THREE!"
From the left Sanosuke charged, grabbed the pistol away from the hostage and gave Sayama a hard right hook. From the right Kenshin plucked Kaoru away from Sayama and carried her by the waist toward Daigoro in less than 10 seconds.
But Sayama was too fast and too desperate for the two of them. He landed a straight punch at Sanosuke, gained control of his pistol.
BANG!
The crowd ducked. Several shouts of terror were heard. Two other shots were fired. A policeman just barely heard a man cry aloud, barely saw him fall head first and knock his head against the hard stone pavement.
"KENSHIN!"
Kaoru managed to catch herself in time. But Kenshin...he was not moving!
Kaoru looked despairingly at her lifeless protector.
"Oh, no," Daigoro groaned beside her. "7 days, to stop an assassination. I never thought that those 7 days would cost a life....."
"It's not true, say it isn't," Sanosuke added. "He was alright only a few minutes ago------where the heck is Megumi?!"
Yahiko was gone, running through the avenues, shouting for a doctor, yelling for Megumi. Sanosuke had forced him to stay put during the hostage situation. But as everyone was in a panic, only Yahiko had sense enough to run like the wind for a doctor.
Kaoru felt blood from the fresh wound to his head. She cried at the unnaturally peaceful face, as if he was in another quiet dream.
Himura Kenshin never backed out on his word. He will keep his word. Until the last minute he can.
"Kenshin! Talk to me! It did not happen! You did save me....Kenshin!"
Nothing.
............
If it tells you anything, I have one more installment before I end Seven Days. ^_^ I'm sorry to have to do this, but you have to wait a few days to know how it all ends. My apologies, and I hope you all come back one last time.