Author's Note: I won't be able to update very much anymore because of school, but I do plan to finish this fic, I guarantee it. Anyway, in this chapter will be action packed, it's Mina and Shion versus Saito Hajime, enjoy it! Oh, and another thing, the rating will change after this chapter to 'R' because the level of violence increases (actually, this chapter is fairly violent, I should've changed the rating for this chapter but whatever) and an attempted rape scene coming up in a few chapters. With that said, enjoy the show!



Chapter 10: Narrow Eyes of Mibu



It was already night when I had arrived in the city, the bustling streets were as empty as a bar after happy hour. There were no winds that night, the sky was as desolate as the streets, not a flicker of light, nor a moon to shine down into the city. The only thing I could see that night was my breath as it turned into mist for a moment before dissolving into the musty streets. The sound of absolute silence lay in every corner; nothing else came into my ears. I couldn't even hear the sounds my feet made when they touched the ground, it was pure silence.

"There's no turning back now," I told myself, my left hand clutching the curved case of my katana.

I took a step forward, silence echoed again. I took a second step, again, silence. A third step, quickly followed by a fourth, and then the steps followed one after another, not a second of hesitation between. I was running down the street, the winds sliding passed my face and body as I did so. Soon my eye caught a glimpse of sky blue with white lining. My steps began to die down, turning my run into a walk. With my toes leading my feet and then the rest of my body, I found my back pressed against a corner. I could hear their conversation through my left ear, it was merely a whisper though.

"You men, go down to the bridge," I overheard one of the Wolves barking orders, "you five, come with me."

When the Wolves began to separate, my head then lay flat against the wall just as my body. The Alpha Dog and five of his men were going in the opposite direction of where I stood, the rest of them heading toward the east. I slid against the farthest corner of the wall so the corner of my eye could catch a glimpse of where they were headed. My eye waved left and right, scouting for any other wolves or hazards. Nothing. The coast was clear. That was when I struck.

"What the?!" one of the Wolves turned around in time to catch a glimpse of his murderer.

"Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, Ryu-Kan-Sen-Tsumuji!" I flew at the man, drawing my blade so that the sharpened edge of steel engraved itself in the back of the man's skull.

A blast of ruby red sprayed from the newly opened bone, illuminating the city in a crimson glow. The other Wolves had found me out by then as I removed the steel slab from the newly-made gap in the man's head. The sound of steel sliding through wood followed, their shimmering blades almost blinding me once they saw the red light. Shutting my eyes for a split second, I dashed at the closest Wolf, the blunt edge of my katana resting against my left hand as I swung it upward toward the man's throat.

"Ryu-Shou-Sen!" I screamed as the Wolf's jaw and face plummeted to the stone floor, his body still standing for a few seconds as more crimson oozed down the crater where the man's visage once stood.

As soon as the body fell onto it's back, I dashed forward to plunge my sword into the torso of the closest Wolf. The white lining had become tainted with red as I slowly twisted the blade to the side, his face scrunching with each turn the slab of steel took. Once the blade was parallel to the ground, I pried it outward, along with a slab of meat marinated in blood. I used my foot to peel the torn muscle off my blade, kicking it off along with the corpse as a crimson substance leaked from the hole in his torso. Turning around, I found another blade coming in my direction. Ducking from the Hirazuki, I spun my body until it was behind my new opponent, plunging the blade in the space between the man's skull and body. Raising the sword upward with all my might, a large crack opened, splitting his neck and head in two, right down the middle. The entire city must've been illuminated with blood now, I swear that I could see everything clearly that night after I killed that man. Even with the entire area covered in the crimson light, I noticed the remaining Wolf had disappeared as the leader still stood in the same exact spot once this fight had begun. Then I saw him, from the reflection of my blade, his sword pointed upward, falling toward my skull. I didn't have time to react, and I wanted to shield myself from the oncoming onslaught, but the only way I could was by shutting my eyes to hide myself from my own death. A warm liquid ran down my face in the same instant my eyes shut, but the odd thing was I had not felt a thing. A small thud followed, yet my body was still standing. Leaving the darkness and returning to the night's crimson glow, I found my assailant on the ground, covered in the water of the Sanzu. Next to the corpse was a bloodied blade, a small river flowing down the sharpened edge. My eyes slowly made it's way upward to find it's owner, and to my amazement, it was...

"Azumi Shion?" I looked at the person who saved me with a puzzled look on my face.

"Baka!" she yelled at me. "You ruined my plan! Not only did I miss my opportunity to eliminate the target because of your brashness, I had to save your sorry ass as well!"

"Not so lady-like right now, are you?" I brushed her lecture aside.

"We can finish this later," Shion said as she readied her naginata, the shorter blade pointed at the lone Wolf standing before us, "Saito Hajime, on behalf of the Satsuma Clan, I must kill you."

"This should be interesting," the Wolf grunted, his katana slowly creeping out of it's sheath.

Once the curved steel was fully exposed, his left hand wrapped around the end of the sword's hilt, his right taking to the tip of the sword's edge. He arched forward, putting pressure on his right leg as it bent and his left leg stretched forward. I had never seen that stance before, it was different from the Shinsengumi's Hirazuki stance. I knew this would be trouble, I thought maybe I should let Shion handle this one. I took a step back, and my body began to turn, but then I lay frozen in place once six words escaped the Wolf's lips.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked. "Are you going to run away? You shouldn't have even come here in the first place, the battlefield is no place for little girls."

"Little girl...," the words began boiling my temper.

How I hated that name, ever since Shion had called me that the other day. The words just angered me whenever I would hear them. Shion, that stupid trend setter, there was no way I was that flat back then! Why did everyone have to make fun of figure after Shion had made her stupid ass remarks?!

"Himura-san, get out of here," Shion ordered, her naginata never leaving her side as she spoke, "this mission doesn't involve you, return to the camp, now!"

"Himura," Saito repeated my name, "are you by any chance related to the Battousai? You must be. You were with him during that attack a few days ago. Hmph, go ahead and run, Kensai, although you'll disgrace your family's name in the process."

Run away, I thought about a second. I had asked myself, "what am I doing here?", and my answer was "I don't know." Was I going to back down, was I going to run, no, of course not. I can never run away, I can't run away. Would Kenshin run away from a dog, of course not, so why should I?

"...No one's running away," I turned back to the Wolf, the grip on my blade tightening, "I will stay here and fight!" I said as I took the lower half of the hilt into my left hand.

"Fine, then let's go!" Saito screamed as the blade of his sword glided through the air, his body closely following his sword's path.

The blade was headed for Shion, and it found one of the edges of her naginata. With the arch of his arm and a push forward with his entire body, Saito managed to lock Shion in place for a moment and was then able to tackle her to the side with his shoulder after. I went for a Ryu-Tsui-Sen after, but to my shock, he had seen it coming. His blade was now pointed upward; it was to meet me before me sword could meet him, and with my arms above my head, there was no hope in blocking. Yet Shion came to rescue again, her naginata going for a side swipe, but it struck nothing but air. Saito had jumped to the side, cancelling his attack and saving my life at the same time. By the time I had landed, I noticed his sword was parallel with the ground again. In true Shinsengumi fashion, he was going to use the same attack again and again until he lost or died. Shion must've seen this as she flipped the blade of her naginata so that the longer edge was facing upward, allowing her to strike faster with an angle attack. Even if he was able to block her first swing, Shion could've easily spun her weapon one hundred-eighty degrees in a second to follow up with a second angle attack with the shorter blade. Shion also had a reach advantage since her naginata was obviously longer than Saito's katana, but there was one problem. The problem was neither Shion nor I, knew who Saito was targeting next, it was either her or me. I had to prepare as well. I only had one attack that could have any hope against his lunge.

"Battoujutsu," Saito recognized my stance as I slid my katana back into it's sheath.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Shion asked me under her breath. "Your Battoujutsu couldn't even defeat me when you tried it last night."

"I have an idea," I told Shion, ignoring her advice to change tactics.

I had just remembered the second step to Battoujutsu at that moment. Since my sword and sheath were removed from my belt, I could use the Sou-Ryu-Sen. When I fought Shion, I had forgotten to swing my sheath after the failed sword swing. I thought that wasn't going to happen this time. Saito had made the first move. He was dashing toward me and I was ready to draw my blade. The sword darted out of it's case as I pulled it out, and as expected, it missed. My sword had missed Saito's by split second, and his sword was about to find my heart. Without hesitating, I swung the sheath with my left, striking his shoulder with all my might. It would've been a good move, but then I realized I wasn't his real target. The sheath swing caused Saito to spin in Shion's direction, his blade slicing her chest in a crescent motion. A path of crimson began to line the air, Shion falling in it's opposite direction, her face meeting the tiled road first. Saito had recovered from his spin in the very same instant, the sharpened edge painted with red.

"You bastard!" I readied my sword again.

"You're pathetic, Kensai," Saito taunted, wiping his blade clean with a piece of cloth, "your brother would've easily seen this coming. Here's a little hint for the next time you fight, always stand at least twenty steps away from your ally in a battlefield to ensure they aren't hit by a ricochet attack."

"Che, I don't need your advice!" I spat, my fingers balling against my sword so hard that my muscles ached.

"There's something going on over here!" I heard voices coming from nearby.

"Wonderful," Saito sighed, "I guess I have no choice but to let this one slide. We'll meet again, and next time you won't be so lucky!" Saito said as he disappeared into the shadows.

"Dammit all..." Shion coughed as I looked back to her.

I looked at her cut that was stretched parallel to one half of her bust, it didn't look very life threatening from where I could see it, but it obviously weakened her enough so she couldn't fight for a while. Saito planned this out too well, he knew my inexperience would hinder Shion somehow. The least I could do to make it up to Shion was to stay by her side, putting aside my hatred for her at the moment.

"You okay?" I asked, helping her to her feet.

"Nothing too serious," she answered. "Why are you helping me, Himura-san?" she asked as the footsteps came closer, "I thought you hated me."

"Like you told me last night," I repeated her words, "no grudges are to be carried into a fight. I just consider you an unwanted prize from my fight."

"That's good enough," Shion sighed as the source of the footsteps caught up with us.

"Mina," I immediately recognized the leader of the patrol, "what are you doing here, I thought you went out for a walk."

"Would I really go out this late at night for a walk, Kenshin?" I answered.

"Ugh...," Shion began coughing again, the river of blood on her chest began falling to the stone ground.

"Shion-dono!" Kenshin quickly saw her injury. "We need a medic here!" Kenshin called to his men.

"You go with them now," I told Shion as I passed her over to a group of Kenshin's men, "you'll be all right."

The men carried Shion toward the direction of the camp as Kenshin and I still stood in place, watching her be carried off into the distance. Once I couldn't see her anymore, my hatred had returned, my back turning toward the direction she disappeared.

"So, Mina, you and Shion-dono are getting along now, that you are," Kenshin smiled as he looked at me.

"Nani?! Me care about her, no way, Brother!" I yelled at Kenshin. "She was injured and I just can't just let anyone die, no matter how much I hate them! This didn't mean anything, okay, I just did my good deed for the day!"

"I understand," Kenshin said as he looked back in Shion's direction, "I'll just leave it at that, that I will."

"Hai, that you should," I suddenly blurted my brother's motto.



Chapter 10 Liner Notes



(Nothing to explain here.)



(Next time: "I am forever stuck in the world of violence, I can never leave. As I chase down the monsters of this world, I am chased by that creature. Drenched in blood, it senses my presence, yearning for the ruby elixir. And then, it catches up with me, pulling me further into this strange world..." -Himura Mina)



Author's note: Well, how was it? If you ask me, it's kinda lacking some details in some areas, I wrote this chapter as soon as I got back from school so I was kinda sleepy while typing this. So leave me a review, but not a flame. Remember, the rating will change with the next update to 'R', and the violence is only to get more gruesome, but I'll try to keep it as tame as possible.