Iwata: "my motto is to eat a lot, sleep, and breeze through life!"


THROUGH THE EYES OF A HITOKIRI.
(Through the eyes of a Manslayer)

Disclaimer: I Shan-Chan, unfortunately do not own the beautiful Samurai X/Rurouni Kenshin OVA and I don't think i ever will.
WARNINGS: If you have not seen past Episode 3 of the OVA then i suggest you don't read this as it contains some spoilers!
The Rant: Alright all you Non-Yaoi fans! i have written a peice that has NO yaoi in it. (all the usual readers of Shan-chan's fics die). I believe that Kenshin and Tomoe were made to be in the OVA ^-^ (Although i did detest it at first) so now you can read the story and get it over with. Oh, by the way, this was a Year 12 English assignment i handed up and got full marks for ^-^.
The sky is empty; it has no meaning to anyone any more.
A long time ago people would look to the sky and wonder what it was. But they don't anymore.
Things mattered to people back then, honor, courage, dying for what was believed in.
People were trained in the ancient arts that had been passed on from generation to generation. Education was priceless and money was hardly a problem.
People would greet you on the street; you could recognize everyone almost by voice alone.
The world started to turn sour. People were dying on the streets, being murdered for believing what was right or wrong, hoards of men and women died every night for no apparent reason. Children were stolen from their mother's arms and taken to be raised as assassins or ninja.
I was apart of this world. I had helped create this world.
The revolution was at hand, finally the Edo period would come to an end.
The Shinsengumi clan were slaughtering patriots by the handful, anyone that was suspected died by their sword.
The only person to stand between the Mibu and the end of the revolution was Katsura.
Katsura was the leader of the Choshu clan and one of the most powerful men in Japan at that time. He raised me as an assassin, but he did not get someone to steal me from my mother's arms. I was an orphan, my parents died when I was young. I was sold to a group of slave traders, they were slaughtered a few days later, and a man saved me.
His name was Sejuro Hiko. He trained me in the ancient art of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.
Only 14 people had ever known this technique.
I left him one day. Even news of the wars had reached Hiko's quiet home in one of the most isolated parts of Japan.
I wanted to help the people of the world.
"The first rule of Hiten Mitsurugi: the sword swung in my name shall be swung for the people of the world, to prevent the shedding of innocent blood"
One sword couldn't stop them all.
A man stumbled across me while I was trying to get to Edo. He told me to come with him.
He sheltered me and fed me and then finally asked why such a young boy carried a sword.
"This is no ordinary sword, it is powered by the Hiten Mitsurugi technique, I left my master in hopes that I would be able to use the sword of master Hiten Mitsurugi to save the innocent people from death and destruction"
The man was speechless.
He then found his tongue and told me that I could protect people if I joined his Kehetai. I agreed.
It was raining the day I got taken away from Takatsuki and his Kehetai. I was called up to show my skills. Another man saw my prowess with the sword and told Takatsuki that he wanted me to join in with his clan.
The next day I was gone. The next day I killed.
I never did know what they talked about in that little room. I became an assassin for the Choshu clan and killed a man at the age of fourteen. From that moment on I never thought about anything.
I lost the life I once had, I became cold and ruthless, and I was acknowledged from the people I had killed.
Katsura had a field chief; he was the second person I met from Choshu clan. His name was Iizuka. He soon became almost like a friend.
Iizuka once told me I was actually getting better at killing people. When I asked what was meant he simply smiled and said; "You don't give them time to scream anymore".
Then I met a girl.
She somehow got under my skin. My focus on killing was getting blurred.
All the time I was killing I kept telling myself that people somewhere else were happy because I killed a threat.
She told me different.
Many months ago I was cut by a man, I vertical gash across my left cheek. It has never stopped bleeding. Seasons have passed and the wound refuses to heal.
I am a haunted man. The man I killed was haunting me from beyond the grave.
She told me that I had caused the sky to bleed, for the bloody rain to fall; she told me I was a cold-blooded murderer, and she showed me how miserable someone could be when a person was killed.
I found out, the man that wounded me was to be wedded, to her.
I was the one who had been causing her tears to fall; I had been the main source of her suffering.
Then she told me she loved me.
I was unworthy of that gift, the gift to be loved. I told her that as she lay in her endless sleep created by me. I had killed her. I loved her and let her die. It was my sword that cut her in two. I wept tears of anguish but it didn't atone for my sins. She completed the cut her betrothed gave me with a horizontal gash across the first one.
And now as I sit here in the graveyard, somewhere in the time of the revolution, a seventeen year old boy who has done so much yet seen so little, I reminisce about the time when I wished I had never met Sejuro Hiko, Takatsuki, Kogoro Katsura or Tomoe Yukoshira.
I reminisce about the time when I never was Hitokiri Batousai. Because if none of these thing ever happened, I would have been dead and the memories of the dead that I carried with me wherever I went would be lighter and I would be happier.
And as I closed my eyes to sleep, I could feel your arms wrapping around my body and I almost cried with joy.
OWARI!

There, I hope you liked that. This has been my first peice in many many months. i just haven't had the time or patientce to sit down and finnish something. Oh well, i promise there will be a whole lot more to read soon ^-^.

~Shan-Chan~