Tales of the Mitsurugi Dragon: Shadow of Shadows

By: Hitokiri Gentatsu

A/N: I think I will continue with this one for a while. I seem to be having writer's block on 'Sanctuary' at the moment. Gomen nasai. Anyway enjoy chapter four.

Chapter Four: Knowing the Enemy

"I do what I do to create a better world. That's all I need to know."

Hitokiri Battousai

Kenshin's heart fluttered in his chest at the coldness of the voice.

"Kuso! Why tonight?" he thought as he turned his head to regard the shadowy figure with one narrowed amber eye. "So another soul wishes for death tonight."

Battousai's voice was cold, showing no emotion as he sized up his new opponent. The man was taller than himself, with piercing, gray eyes. Battousai could see daisho at the man's waist and, as his opponent stepped into the faint light, he could see that the man was dressed in dark colors, much like his own. Battousai turned swiftly to face the man, his face an emotionless mask and his left hand gripping his saya so hard that his knuckles were white.

The man chuckled and Battousai's eyes narrowed farther, his right hand wrapping around the hilt of his katana and his mouth set in a snarl.

"You're the famed Hitokiri Battousai?" The tone of his voice made the man's question sound more like an insult then a question and Battousai crouched into battoujutsu stance. "You are nothing but a child, pretending to be a man, a mere peasant playing at being a samurai."

"Come…" Battousai growled, his eyes glowing bright amber. "If you wish so badly to die tonight."

The man barked a laugh and charged at him with a smirk on his face. Battousai waited to draw his sword until the last possible moment but when did so; he was surprised to find himself swinging at empty air. Too late, he felt the man move in behind him and felt the pain as a wound opened up on his back.

He leapt out of the way of a blow meant to sever his head from his body, feeling the blood trickling down, staining the back of his gi. The man advanced again, aiming a slash at Battousai's stomach, which he easily avoided. Battousai gave the man no chance to recover from his previous attack before launching one of his own. He charged the man, hoping to end the battle quickly with the Ryu Shou Sen. The man blocked it and the stunned hitokiri felt his opponent's fist hit him in the stomach. He growled low in his throat but made no sign of the pain he was in. Instead, he blocked the man's sword with the hilt of his wakazashi and sliced the man across the ribcage. The blow would have been a killing one if the man hadn't stepped back at the last moment.

"Who are you?" Battousai demanded. "And what do you want?"

The man glared at him with intense hatred burning in his eyes. "I will avenge my father's death! You killed him or don't you remember that bright and sunny day six months past? At the shrine…I saw you murder him!"

Battousai's eyes widened, remembering his first kill six months ago.

--The shrine had been peaceful and still, wrapped in silence as deafening as a shout, when Kenshin arrived there. He passed through the gate and thought about what little he had been told. His target would be alone in the shrine, Katsura had said. All Kenshin had to do was go in, kill the man and someone else would take care of the rest. He stood in the shadows and waited for the man…no, his target, anxious to do a good job and a little frightened of the prospect. Despite what he had told Katsura, he had never actually used his sword against a living opponent with the intent of taking another's life, he had never killed anyone before. He looked down at his hands for a moment and briefly wondered what he was getting himself into but then his target arrived on the scene, just as Katsura had said he would.

Kenshin blocked all other thoughts from his mind and advanced on the man, who was unaware of the danger, he was in. The man's surprised scream was cut short as Kenshin's katana reached his heart. For a few moments after, Kenshin stood, looking up at the sky, feeling something stir awake that he had not realized was there. Something dangerous –-

"That man was you father?" he said quietly.

His opponent's answer was to charge him again. The two fought on in silence, the only sound being the ringing of their two swords as they connected. Neither man had been able to get passed the other's defenses but for a few times. Each man sported shallow cuts that were not serious for all the blood that came from them. Battousai gripped his the hilt of his katana, which was wet with sweat and blood, waiting for the man's next attack. He could feel the wall of a building behind him and smirked inwardly.

"Now we end this," he thought as he raised a foot, resting it against the wall behind him.

His opponent charged and, using the leverage his foot on the wall gave him, he sprang forward at the same instant. The extra leverage put more strength behind his next blow and made his already quick movements little more than a blur. His opponent had no chance and the Battousai heard, rather than saw, the man's head fly from his body. He landed some distance away from the body and flicked the blood from his sword before sheathing it again. Battousai never looked back at the body, though he did mutter a quick prayer for the man as he walked down the alley away from the inn. His chest was burning and sharp pains were traveling across it as his broken ribs made themselves felt. Kenshin's amber eyes cooled to a bluish-violet and he wrapped an arm around his ribs again, praying there was no one else about to ambush him this night.

"The inn will have to wail till morning," he thought, knowing better than to threaten the safety of the other Ishin.

He walked down the alley, taking the first intersection he came to and traveled along that path for perhaps half an hour. This alley brought him out on one of the main roads, which was still busy despite the lateness of the hour. Here he lost himself in the crowd and let it carry him the rest of the way to his next destination.

After a few moments travel, he slipped down another alley and onto another street, this one as devoid of people as the other one had been full. He kept his senses alert for danger and kept as much as possible to the shadows as he made his way down the street. After few moments, he knocked on the door of a non-descript house and, after whispering his name and clan, was admitted by a stony faced man and his son.

"I require shelter for the night," he said quietly and the man nodded.

The silent man led Kenshin to a small room at the back of the house.

"Arigatou," Kenshin said softly, bowing at the man, who made a quick bow in return before departing, having never once said a word to his guest

Kenshin sighed and slide a window open, to stare at the sky. He tensed for a moment as the door slide open behind him.

"Father said to bring you this and to ask if there is anything else, Himura-san." The boy's voice held respect and Kenshin smiled at the bitter irony of that.

"I require nothing more," he replied softly, as he turned to see some food on a tray and a roll of bandages beside a bucket of water.

The boy bowed his way out of the room, leaving Kenshin alone. He cleaned the wound on his back as best he could and wrapped bandages tightly around his broken ribs and the cut. Then he sat down to eat the food he'd been given, before leaning against the wall and falling into a light sleep.

*

He awoke with a start, his hand going immediately for the katana that rested against his shoulder. His eyes blinked rapidly when he realized that there were no enemies out for his blood, except for the ones in his own head. He slowed his breathing and looked out the window, seeing that it was nearly sunrise.

He quickly rose and shook out his clothing, wincing a little at the pain this simply movement caused to his back and ribs. He slipped from the room and out onto the street before the man and his son woke.

"No need to put them in any farther danger."

He followed a long circuitous route back to the inn, making certain he was not followed.

"Himura-san…you're hurt…"

Kenshin waved the innkeeper's frantic attempts to help him away and asked her where Iizuka might be found.

"Who knows where that man has gotten to…Now, please let me tend to those wounds…"

Kenshin was just weary enough to let her change the bandages and apply some medicine on his wounds. By the time she was finished he felt almost like his old self and certainly more alive then he had a moment before. He went back to his rooms and assured her that he would not be going on any 'special jobs' for anyone in the near future.

"I just hope I can convince Katsura-san of this," he thought, wincing again as his ribs protested his movements.

An hour later, he went out in search of Iizuka. After searching most of his regular haunts, Kenshin found him at a market stall flirting with one of the girls who worked there. He barely paid attention to the girl, who had started to flirt with him in the hopes of making Iizuka jealous, and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. Iizuka's eyes widened for a moment in surprise before he excused himself to follow Kenshin.

"Himura, what happened? Everyone thought you had been killed," he said, sounding genuinely concerned for the young hitokiri.

"Nothing I couldn't handle but Katsura-san is correct…I need to be more careful."

Iizuka remained silent, taking a quick look around the marketplace. "Let me buy you a drink."

Kenshin shook his head. "No, I need to speak to Katsura-san now. The job given to me was not completed."

He said this in a voice barely above a whisper and his hand balled into a fist, as a surge of rage swept over him. He held it in check and the only outward sign of it was his clenched fist and a momentary amber glow in his eyes. Iizuka moved back at Himura's enraged look but then moved closer to the hitokiri.

"Katsura-san is in one of his safe houses. I'll take you there as soon as I eat. I'm famished." Iizuka paused at one of the stalls to buy some food and then sat to eat it.

Kenshin's eyes narrowed impatiently, but he sat down next to him, glad that he had already eaten. His eyes darted around the marketplace, scanning the crowd from under the fall of his hair, seemingly unconcerned. Suddenly, he stiffened, although no one else would have noticed that he did so. Kenshin's eyes widened a fraction. There had been a familiar face in the crowd. Kenshin scanned the crowd again but the man had vanished. Kenshin shook his head. He had seen the man's face somewhere before, somewhere recently.

"But where?"

Kenshin had learned, early on, to keep an eye out for anything unusual or out of place. That was the way a hitokiri survived. He had heard the other men talking, marveling at the fact that he had lasted as long as he had as hitokiri, when most others barely lasted two months. The reason for his 'success' as a hitokiri was that he possessed an uncanny awareness of his surroundings and a near perfect memory. This, combined with the god-like speed of his Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu, made him the 'perfect' hitokiri.

He knew who belonged in the market at this time of day and that man he had seen was not one of the 'regulars'. An alarm was going off inside his head and he kept his sense on alert as he and Iizuka left the market. Iizuka lead him down a side street and then back again to the main one. Kenshin followed, paying little attention to where they were going; still puzzling over the familiar face he had seen in the crowd.

Suddenly, his head snapped up and he slide into the shadows of nearby alley as a troop of samurai came into view. Iizuka kept walking as if nothing were amiss. Kenshin watched as he allowed the troop to pass him, his head bowed in respect for those of higher rank. The troop came closer and Kenshin could see that they were samurai allied with the Aizu clan. He moved farther back into the shadows as they came abreast of his hiding place. He could hear them talking as they passed him.

"Damn Battousai! I want to take his head!" one muttered darkly.


"Calm yourself, Yusuke. Our lord will soon be avenged…just as soon as…"

The voices trailed off as they moved out of Kenshin's hearing range. Kenshin longed to follow them and hear the rest of the conversation but there was no way for him to do so without being seen. His eyes followed the Aizu samurai and he memorized the face of the one who had made the threat against him.

After they had passed out of sight, Kenshin left the shadowy embrace of the alley and followed the path Iizuka had taken. He met the man at the next street and they continued to the safe house in silence.