Tanuki To Ryuu
Ok, I wrote a WHOLE CHAPTER at work, but it didn't save on my floppy
right so it's lost D'oh! Now I must write it ALL OVER AGAIN! DAMMIT!
Oh well, that's the way Fanfic goes...
Chapter 21: Pawns on the Battlefield, a new player?
"[How long has he been like this?]" The leader of four men asked
in a foreign tongue. They were all gazing down at Yukishiro Enishi,
who sat propped against a wall with Tomoe's diary clutched in his hands.
Enishi though did not even take notice of the four men standing over him
as they contemplated his fate.
"[Not more than three months,]" the second man, about the same
height but with a more slender build than the leader, answered. "[This
place reeks of loss, death, and contemplation; a true purgatory.
Whatever drove him here must have truly shattered his soul.]" Enishi
ignored their commentary about his life and defeat and kept staring at
that book clutched in his hands; his only connection to his sister.
"[Not that there was much of a soul to begin with,]" the third
man, a good head taller than the group, said with utter disdain. "[You
said yourself that his smuggling organization had to be dealt with,
possibly costing us an extra 6 months delay. Now that the arms ring
has been broken, along with its leader, we should go onward with our
plans. As for the man-child,]" the tall man shot Enishi another look
of disdain before continuing, "[He should be taken out of his misery and
sent to a real purgatory. His victims deserve that much,]"
"[I thought we decided that we would avoid unnecessary
bloodshed!]" The leader shouted to the tall man as he turned and faced
him. "[If we can avoid killing, we shall! Besides,]" the leader
gestured at Enishi, who was still unaware of the men around him, "[could
you really slay one that looks so pathetic?]" The tall man submitted
and turned his head.
"[Fine,]" the tall man stated. "[Remember, this man threatened
to kill you a year ago.]"
The leader nodded, "[Yeah, I know,]" he said in firm resolution.
The tall man then fixed his gaze into the leader's eyes and added,
"[Also remember we only joined forces because we both happen to agree on
the same justice our people deserve. After the goal is accomplished,
we WILL settle the score,]"
"[Of course,]" the leader answered icily. He then regarded the
catatonic Enishi once again and spoke to the broken man. "Who defeated
you so soundly?" the leader asked Enishi in Japanese. Enishi lifted
his head up, yet ignored the men in front of him.
"My defeat? My fault, my sins... never see her again," Enishi
babbled. "No smile, no frown,"
"[We can learn nothing from him!]" The fourth man, who was an
inch or two taller than the leader, shouted in frustration. "[It
leaves a sour taste in my mouth, but I agree with ole-sharkface. Lets
'off' him and get started,]"
"[His ramblings are infuriating, my friend, but please hold your
judgements until we learn more,]" the leader said softly to discourage
his comrades from hasty action. The leader then noticed the second man
was giving Enishi a thorough visual examination and asked him, "[You
found something?]"
"[Despite the lack of reason in his words, his injuries speak a
great deal about the one who defeated him,]" the second man observed.
"[His left arm, for instance, shows signs of great stress upon it,
almost to the point of it being torn out of the socket. His face bears
signs of a slightly older injury, perhaps from an earlier fight,
possibly from a punch. The injury to his ear, though,]" the second man
stated as he knelt down to get a good look at Enishi's left ear, "[I
happen to believe he crushed his own eardrum. A self-inflicted
wound.]" The second man stood up and faced the group. "[Whomever he
faced must have known about Yukishiro Enishi's odd nerve abnormality and
found an advantage in it. If the victor were Japanese, then it would
most definitely interfere with our plans. I advise that we head back
to base and research on the local schools and see if there is anything
known about a man strong enough to bring Enishi down,]"
"[You always speak of research and plans! This man knows the
answer and he needs encouragement to share them!]" the fourth man
shouted. He then bent down and picked Enishi up by his collar and
shook him while shouting in Japanese. "Who did you fight against!?"
the gruff man shouted.
"Loss?" Enishi pondered, still in a daze. "I... lost her
because of my sins... the blood and the numbness..."
"Arrg! This is getting us nowhere!" the fourth man shouted as
he punched Enishi in the gut, propelling the former arms smuggler
against the wall he sat against just a few seconds before. Enishi slid
down the wall and back to his sitting position and muttered again more
coherently.
"Pain... it is nice... to feel again," Enishi said as he
clutched his stomach, then he looked right at the man who punched him
and his eyes finally acknowledged their existance. "Who did I fight?
I cannot say the name or I would offend her... she loved him... I hated
him. I knew nothing. Near the sea the tiger stands little chance
against a dragon."
"Who is the tiger?" the leader asked as he began to get a grasp
of Enishi's words. Enishi turned his head and looked at the leader
curiously as if he tried to remember something.
"A tiger foolishly strong and righteous... a foolish tiger was
I," Enishi said in a little rhyme.
"And the dragon?" the third man, large with merciless eyes
asked.
"No... I cannot say his name without hate and she would never
forgive me for that. I would damn that name for eternity if I could,
yet I know nothing of the man... the dragon." Enishi muttered with rage.
The leader sighed and pondered what to do. He hated violence but the
defeat of Enishi meant there was another faction at work, one that was
strong enough to hamper his goal. He needed to know a name.
"[See if his tongue can loosen,]" the leader said, dejected as
he motioned for the fourth man, the one closest to a friend, to step in.
Before a blow could be thrown, Oibore ran in-between Enishi and the
group with his hands held up.
"Wait! Do not harm my son any further! If it is a name you
wish to know, I will tell you," Oibore said in defense of his estranged
son.
"And what name is that?" the leader asked.
"The one who defeated Enishi was..."
***
"KENSHIN!!!" Kaoru shouted as she saw her husband enveloped in
the small explosion. She then heard the roar of the strange wheeled-
vehicles and turned back to the rider that charged straight towards her
and contemplated whether or not if she should hide as Kenshin asked her
to earlier, or stay and help. The decision was a quick one as Kaoru
charged towards the vehicle and leapt up towards it. The rider tried
to whip his pistol out fast enough to utilize it, but was a bit too late
as Kaoru dismounted him with a firm swing of her bokken. Kaoru slid to
a stop in the snow and turned back to the flaming debris of that other
vehicle in desperate hopes of seeing Kenshin.
Her hopes were answered when Kenshin stepped out of the flames,
his shirt slightly scorched with a furious look in his eyes. Kenshin
dashed through the snow towards Kaoru in a fury. Another rider got
close and tried to cut Kenshin off but he slashed the vehicle's wheel
right off, veering the rider wide off course and into a snow embankment.
Kenshin slid in place next to Kaoru and turned to see the remaining
vehicles regroup and line up, each rider taking out their pistols and
revving up the steam engines of their massive vehicles.
"I thought I asked you to hide if they had guns," Kenshin said
to his wife.
"I wasn't about to leave you here alone! You said you won't
leave me, so I won't leave you either!" Kaoru countered. Kenshin
smiled at this.
"I'm glad you stayed," Kenshin said fondly as he turned back to
the riders and held his sword over his head. The riders shouted a
charge order in their language and sped straight towards Kenshin and
Kaoru. "Hiten Misturugi Ryu, Yuki Do Ryu Sen!" Kenshin announced as he
slashed into the snow at an angle and speed strong enough to cause a
large avalanche of snow to explode into the faces of the riders,
dismounting them from their strange vehicles and throwing those vehicles
over, leaving both man and machine covered in a layer of snow. "Well
then, I guess we should go find those hotsprings," Kenshin said casually
with a smile as he sheathed his sakabato.
"Wait! Don't you want to ask them why they are here or why they
attacked us?" Kaoru asked her husband.
"I doubt they would understand Japanese," Kenshin replied.
"Besides, those steam engines should not function properly once covered
in snow and upturned. I think it is safe to say that the situation is
handled."
"Well, I guess that's true," Kaoru pondered as she started
walking with Kenshin in the direction towards the inn they were directed
towards. "What do you think it is?"
"Nothing that would truly involve us I believe," Kenshin
answered. "I would not venture in a situation I know little about.
Besides," Kenshin added with a grin as he put an arm around Kaoru's
shoulders, "I caught you, so tell me something embarrassing about your
past,"
"Hey, that's not fair!" Kaoru protested.
***
Keiko swept the snow off the porch of her inn and looked out in
the unforgiving snow and sighed. The recent rumors of demons on the
hillside and in the mines have scared away nearly all of miners and
townspeople except the most stubborn, like her. The trouble was that
all the business expected from vacationers has fallen down to almost
nothing due to the very same rumors and things looked bleak to Keiko.
That was, until in the distance of the falling snow Keiko saw the
silhouette of two people walking towards her inn.
As the two came closer into view, Keiko couldn't believe her
eyes. The man had long red hair and a cross-shaped scar on his cheek
and his clothes seemed slightly burned and the woman was dressed in a
more masculine manner than usual carrying a sword bundle. The two
walked right up to Keiko and the man said, "Good evening, can we please
have a room?"
***
Kenshin sat in the hotsprings and let the water sooth him. The
fact that his wife was massaging his neck did little to hurt the process
of relaxation. "Kenshin?" Kaoru said as she rubbed Kenshin's
shoulders.
"Mmm?" Kenshin questioned in response.
"What language do you think they were speaking?" Kaoru asked. "It
didn't sound French or English. It sure wasn't Chinese or any other
language I heard before.
"I'm not sure," Kenshin replied. "It had a hint of something my master
once said was Slavic. But I thought we were going to forget about that
and enjoy this soak. Which brings me to another point. When do I get
to give you a massage?"
"I think them riders y'all fought earlier is a tad more interesting than
a massage," a male voice with a strong kansai accent said at the doorway
of the inn. Kaoru shrieked and used Kenshin to hide herself and
Kenshin turned and saw Katana hunter Cho leaning against the doorframe
with a grin in his face.
"Cho!" Kenshin shouted as he glared at the man. "You have two minutes
to explain yourself before I beat you senseless."
"Hey hey!" Cho shouted defensively as he held his palms up. "If I'm
not whipped by one, it's the other. I was sent here by the Meiji
government to investigate reports of demons in Hokkaido. The most
commonly reporter events were men riding demon horses between the mines
and the docks and a large earth demon deep within the mines themselves.
I'm bettin' those riders you took out earlier today were them demon
horses. That's half a report right there,"
"Very well," Kenshin answered as he stood out of the hotspring and put a
towel on and picked up his sakabato. "Prepare yourself, Cho!" Kenshin
shouted as he unsheathed his sword.
"Wha?" Cho shouted in confusion. "But I explained!"
"Yes, but I made no promise that your explanation would save you
from a beating," Kenshin stated. "There should be a penalty for
barging in when Kaoru is undressed." Cho gulped in fear.
***
Half an hour later, Kenshin and Kaoru were sitting at a table
enjoying dinner while Cho sat across from them in bandages. "Ya'll
know that wasn't very fair," Cho complained.
"Kenshin, may I?" Kaoru asked sweetly as she grabbed her bokken.
"Alright alright, I give!" Cho finally surrendered. "Anyways,
I was gonna scout out those mines tomorrow and see what this demon
hoopla is all about. Y'all are welcome to join me."
***
Oibore and Enishi sat on the wall next to each other as the four
men left the dilapidated village in peace. Enishi sighed in both pain
and confusion then spoke clearly to his father. "Father, do you think
it was wise to tell those men everything?"
"Oh, heheh," Oibore laughed his usual old coot laugh with little
worry and said, "There is no doubt in my mind that he will overcome this
foe!"
***
Alright! Just in case you were wondering, the four men that
approached Enishi are NOT the villains for THIS arc, but for the NEXT!
A little foreshadowing I'd say. It took me 4 days to rewrite this
chapter after I lost it, so please do be kind as its not as good as the
ORIGINAL Chapter 21 I wrote.
Ok, I wrote a WHOLE CHAPTER at work, but it didn't save on my floppy
right so it's lost D'oh! Now I must write it ALL OVER AGAIN! DAMMIT!
Oh well, that's the way Fanfic goes...
Chapter 21: Pawns on the Battlefield, a new player?
"[How long has he been like this?]" The leader of four men asked
in a foreign tongue. They were all gazing down at Yukishiro Enishi,
who sat propped against a wall with Tomoe's diary clutched in his hands.
Enishi though did not even take notice of the four men standing over him
as they contemplated his fate.
"[Not more than three months,]" the second man, about the same
height but with a more slender build than the leader, answered. "[This
place reeks of loss, death, and contemplation; a true purgatory.
Whatever drove him here must have truly shattered his soul.]" Enishi
ignored their commentary about his life and defeat and kept staring at
that book clutched in his hands; his only connection to his sister.
"[Not that there was much of a soul to begin with,]" the third
man, a good head taller than the group, said with utter disdain. "[You
said yourself that his smuggling organization had to be dealt with,
possibly costing us an extra 6 months delay. Now that the arms ring
has been broken, along with its leader, we should go onward with our
plans. As for the man-child,]" the tall man shot Enishi another look
of disdain before continuing, "[He should be taken out of his misery and
sent to a real purgatory. His victims deserve that much,]"
"[I thought we decided that we would avoid unnecessary
bloodshed!]" The leader shouted to the tall man as he turned and faced
him. "[If we can avoid killing, we shall! Besides,]" the leader
gestured at Enishi, who was still unaware of the men around him, "[could
you really slay one that looks so pathetic?]" The tall man submitted
and turned his head.
"[Fine,]" the tall man stated. "[Remember, this man threatened
to kill you a year ago.]"
The leader nodded, "[Yeah, I know,]" he said in firm resolution.
The tall man then fixed his gaze into the leader's eyes and added,
"[Also remember we only joined forces because we both happen to agree on
the same justice our people deserve. After the goal is accomplished,
we WILL settle the score,]"
"[Of course,]" the leader answered icily. He then regarded the
catatonic Enishi once again and spoke to the broken man. "Who defeated
you so soundly?" the leader asked Enishi in Japanese. Enishi lifted
his head up, yet ignored the men in front of him.
"My defeat? My fault, my sins... never see her again," Enishi
babbled. "No smile, no frown,"
"[We can learn nothing from him!]" The fourth man, who was an
inch or two taller than the leader, shouted in frustration. "[It
leaves a sour taste in my mouth, but I agree with ole-sharkface. Lets
'off' him and get started,]"
"[His ramblings are infuriating, my friend, but please hold your
judgements until we learn more,]" the leader said softly to discourage
his comrades from hasty action. The leader then noticed the second man
was giving Enishi a thorough visual examination and asked him, "[You
found something?]"
"[Despite the lack of reason in his words, his injuries speak a
great deal about the one who defeated him,]" the second man observed.
"[His left arm, for instance, shows signs of great stress upon it,
almost to the point of it being torn out of the socket. His face bears
signs of a slightly older injury, perhaps from an earlier fight,
possibly from a punch. The injury to his ear, though,]" the second man
stated as he knelt down to get a good look at Enishi's left ear, "[I
happen to believe he crushed his own eardrum. A self-inflicted
wound.]" The second man stood up and faced the group. "[Whomever he
faced must have known about Yukishiro Enishi's odd nerve abnormality and
found an advantage in it. If the victor were Japanese, then it would
most definitely interfere with our plans. I advise that we head back
to base and research on the local schools and see if there is anything
known about a man strong enough to bring Enishi down,]"
"[You always speak of research and plans! This man knows the
answer and he needs encouragement to share them!]" the fourth man
shouted. He then bent down and picked Enishi up by his collar and
shook him while shouting in Japanese. "Who did you fight against!?"
the gruff man shouted.
"Loss?" Enishi pondered, still in a daze. "I... lost her
because of my sins... the blood and the numbness..."
"Arrg! This is getting us nowhere!" the fourth man shouted as
he punched Enishi in the gut, propelling the former arms smuggler
against the wall he sat against just a few seconds before. Enishi slid
down the wall and back to his sitting position and muttered again more
coherently.
"Pain... it is nice... to feel again," Enishi said as he
clutched his stomach, then he looked right at the man who punched him
and his eyes finally acknowledged their existance. "Who did I fight?
I cannot say the name or I would offend her... she loved him... I hated
him. I knew nothing. Near the sea the tiger stands little chance
against a dragon."
"Who is the tiger?" the leader asked as he began to get a grasp
of Enishi's words. Enishi turned his head and looked at the leader
curiously as if he tried to remember something.
"A tiger foolishly strong and righteous... a foolish tiger was
I," Enishi said in a little rhyme.
"And the dragon?" the third man, large with merciless eyes
asked.
"No... I cannot say his name without hate and she would never
forgive me for that. I would damn that name for eternity if I could,
yet I know nothing of the man... the dragon." Enishi muttered with rage.
The leader sighed and pondered what to do. He hated violence but the
defeat of Enishi meant there was another faction at work, one that was
strong enough to hamper his goal. He needed to know a name.
"[See if his tongue can loosen,]" the leader said, dejected as
he motioned for the fourth man, the one closest to a friend, to step in.
Before a blow could be thrown, Oibore ran in-between Enishi and the
group with his hands held up.
"Wait! Do not harm my son any further! If it is a name you
wish to know, I will tell you," Oibore said in defense of his estranged
son.
"And what name is that?" the leader asked.
"The one who defeated Enishi was..."
***
"KENSHIN!!!" Kaoru shouted as she saw her husband enveloped in
the small explosion. She then heard the roar of the strange wheeled-
vehicles and turned back to the rider that charged straight towards her
and contemplated whether or not if she should hide as Kenshin asked her
to earlier, or stay and help. The decision was a quick one as Kaoru
charged towards the vehicle and leapt up towards it. The rider tried
to whip his pistol out fast enough to utilize it, but was a bit too late
as Kaoru dismounted him with a firm swing of her bokken. Kaoru slid to
a stop in the snow and turned back to the flaming debris of that other
vehicle in desperate hopes of seeing Kenshin.
Her hopes were answered when Kenshin stepped out of the flames,
his shirt slightly scorched with a furious look in his eyes. Kenshin
dashed through the snow towards Kaoru in a fury. Another rider got
close and tried to cut Kenshin off but he slashed the vehicle's wheel
right off, veering the rider wide off course and into a snow embankment.
Kenshin slid in place next to Kaoru and turned to see the remaining
vehicles regroup and line up, each rider taking out their pistols and
revving up the steam engines of their massive vehicles.
"I thought I asked you to hide if they had guns," Kenshin said
to his wife.
"I wasn't about to leave you here alone! You said you won't
leave me, so I won't leave you either!" Kaoru countered. Kenshin
smiled at this.
"I'm glad you stayed," Kenshin said fondly as he turned back to
the riders and held his sword over his head. The riders shouted a
charge order in their language and sped straight towards Kenshin and
Kaoru. "Hiten Misturugi Ryu, Yuki Do Ryu Sen!" Kenshin announced as he
slashed into the snow at an angle and speed strong enough to cause a
large avalanche of snow to explode into the faces of the riders,
dismounting them from their strange vehicles and throwing those vehicles
over, leaving both man and machine covered in a layer of snow. "Well
then, I guess we should go find those hotsprings," Kenshin said casually
with a smile as he sheathed his sakabato.
"Wait! Don't you want to ask them why they are here or why they
attacked us?" Kaoru asked her husband.
"I doubt they would understand Japanese," Kenshin replied.
"Besides, those steam engines should not function properly once covered
in snow and upturned. I think it is safe to say that the situation is
handled."
"Well, I guess that's true," Kaoru pondered as she started
walking with Kenshin in the direction towards the inn they were directed
towards. "What do you think it is?"
"Nothing that would truly involve us I believe," Kenshin
answered. "I would not venture in a situation I know little about.
Besides," Kenshin added with a grin as he put an arm around Kaoru's
shoulders, "I caught you, so tell me something embarrassing about your
past,"
"Hey, that's not fair!" Kaoru protested.
***
Keiko swept the snow off the porch of her inn and looked out in
the unforgiving snow and sighed. The recent rumors of demons on the
hillside and in the mines have scared away nearly all of miners and
townspeople except the most stubborn, like her. The trouble was that
all the business expected from vacationers has fallen down to almost
nothing due to the very same rumors and things looked bleak to Keiko.
That was, until in the distance of the falling snow Keiko saw the
silhouette of two people walking towards her inn.
As the two came closer into view, Keiko couldn't believe her
eyes. The man had long red hair and a cross-shaped scar on his cheek
and his clothes seemed slightly burned and the woman was dressed in a
more masculine manner than usual carrying a sword bundle. The two
walked right up to Keiko and the man said, "Good evening, can we please
have a room?"
***
Kenshin sat in the hotsprings and let the water sooth him. The
fact that his wife was massaging his neck did little to hurt the process
of relaxation. "Kenshin?" Kaoru said as she rubbed Kenshin's
shoulders.
"Mmm?" Kenshin questioned in response.
"What language do you think they were speaking?" Kaoru asked. "It
didn't sound French or English. It sure wasn't Chinese or any other
language I heard before.
"I'm not sure," Kenshin replied. "It had a hint of something my master
once said was Slavic. But I thought we were going to forget about that
and enjoy this soak. Which brings me to another point. When do I get
to give you a massage?"
"I think them riders y'all fought earlier is a tad more interesting than
a massage," a male voice with a strong kansai accent said at the doorway
of the inn. Kaoru shrieked and used Kenshin to hide herself and
Kenshin turned and saw Katana hunter Cho leaning against the doorframe
with a grin in his face.
"Cho!" Kenshin shouted as he glared at the man. "You have two minutes
to explain yourself before I beat you senseless."
"Hey hey!" Cho shouted defensively as he held his palms up. "If I'm
not whipped by one, it's the other. I was sent here by the Meiji
government to investigate reports of demons in Hokkaido. The most
commonly reporter events were men riding demon horses between the mines
and the docks and a large earth demon deep within the mines themselves.
I'm bettin' those riders you took out earlier today were them demon
horses. That's half a report right there,"
"Very well," Kenshin answered as he stood out of the hotspring and put a
towel on and picked up his sakabato. "Prepare yourself, Cho!" Kenshin
shouted as he unsheathed his sword.
"Wha?" Cho shouted in confusion. "But I explained!"
"Yes, but I made no promise that your explanation would save you
from a beating," Kenshin stated. "There should be a penalty for
barging in when Kaoru is undressed." Cho gulped in fear.
***
Half an hour later, Kenshin and Kaoru were sitting at a table
enjoying dinner while Cho sat across from them in bandages. "Ya'll
know that wasn't very fair," Cho complained.
"Kenshin, may I?" Kaoru asked sweetly as she grabbed her bokken.
"Alright alright, I give!" Cho finally surrendered. "Anyways,
I was gonna scout out those mines tomorrow and see what this demon
hoopla is all about. Y'all are welcome to join me."
***
Oibore and Enishi sat on the wall next to each other as the four
men left the dilapidated village in peace. Enishi sighed in both pain
and confusion then spoke clearly to his father. "Father, do you think
it was wise to tell those men everything?"
"Oh, heheh," Oibore laughed his usual old coot laugh with little
worry and said, "There is no doubt in my mind that he will overcome this
foe!"
***
Alright! Just in case you were wondering, the four men that
approached Enishi are NOT the villains for THIS arc, but for the NEXT!
A little foreshadowing I'd say. It took me 4 days to rewrite this
chapter after I lost it, so please do be kind as its not as good as the
ORIGINAL Chapter 21 I wrote.