OK people, here's the quick recap, well not really a recap just old info that you probably forgot already but would be crucial to understand this chapter fully. These were in the prologue and Chapter 14, so you guys probably forgot it already due to the tortoise-speed updates ^.^ My fault!
The laboratory where Project Messiah was kept exploded 8 years ago. Karl Remnick didn't have much explanation, almost all info on him were speculations. Vincent's weapon, main gauche, is a left-handed dagger.For a detailed info on the weapons please skim through the last part of Chapter 14.
Waa..semi-spoilers.. More like hints I guess. So go on and read, for it to make more sense. Enjoy!
There'll be a few curses thrown in here, so yeah, just to let you know.
Other Side of the Moon
Disclosure Chapter 15Part B
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"The scars you cannot see are the ones that never heal."
--unknown
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Kenshin charged at Vincent in full speed, his katana aiming straight towards Vincent's upper chest. Vincent blocked it perfectly with his main gauche, and managed to push Kenshin's sword to the left while trying to deliver a punch at Kenshin's torso using his free hand. Kenshin avoided the attack just in time by jumping a couple of feet away from the foreigner.
"Not bad," praised Vincent as he lowered his weapon to his side.
"You're not bad yourself," replied Kenshin, moving to a defensive stance.
This time it was Vincent who attacked. He used his speed to try and hit Kenshin from behind, however Kenshin's speed was equal if not faster; Vincent's attempt was in vain.
"I have no time for this, as you already know. I didn't come here to spar with you. Let's get this over with," demanded Kenshin.
"Fine with me," complied Vincent.
Both men charged at each other at top speed, Kenshin's right hand was ready to draw the sword at the precise moment, while Vincent held his sword steadily at his side. Kenshin used his advantage over their weapons' difference in weight, to deliver a swifter attack on his opponent. Kenshin had finished giving Vincent a large deep cut on his left arm, even before the young foreigner was able to raise his dagger.
However, Vincent perfectly aware of the disadvantages of carrying a heavier weapon, took advantage of their close distance to deliver a punch right on Kenshin's ribs with the hand carrying the sword. The presence of the crossbar made the punch very, very powerful.
Kenshin instantly fell on his knees as some of his ribs were broken in two, and panted heavily for air.
. : : + : : .
Aoshi was avoiding Marguerite's consecutive attacks. Her eyes were playful yet glinting, indicating that she was having fun. He would avoid the attack by jumping to the opposite side of her slash, only to be followed by another slash in a few seconds' time.
'Her attacks are swift and neat however, it needs the opponent to be within her arms' reach. I can use this to my advantage,' Aoshi thought before dodging yet another slashing attack, and then ran towards the opposite end of the room giving him time to unsheathe his twin kodachis.
He suddenly changed directions, and quickly headed back to Marguerite's direction, who was anticipating his approach. Aoshi again changed directions and decided to run around Marguerite causing the girl to lose her concentration momentarily, and before she knew it, one of Aoshi's sword was flying northeast of her position with great speed.
. : : + : : .
"Every area has been secured captain. All the necessary blueprints have been sent too," reported Megumi.
"Good job. Now get out of there and come back here," he ordered.
"But captain, Kaoru's still here!" Misao argued. "Wouldn't helping the guys, make Kaoru's rescue more efficient?"
"We've been through with this Makimachi. That's the other team's job. Now you two come back here, and help them from here, understand?" ordered Saito.
"Hai," Megumi answered for the both of them.
. : : + : : .
Kaoru was pushed towards a chair, and was forced to sit on it. She resisted quite a lot, but to no avail, her struggles were deemed useless. Though her mind was still adamant about the whole thing, she could not deny that she was physically helpless at the moment. After a number of attempts, she stopped struggling and finally settled stiffly on the chair and spoke, "Fine, I won't try to get up from this chair anymore, but that doesn't mean that I'll actually play the game."
"Should I say that I was expecting this?" Kanryu answered with dried up patience. "I've made the proper preparations Kamiya," he said hard. "Look at the screen at the upper left hand side of the room."
For a while, Kaoru refused to follow the man's order, but curiosity was eating her. Hesitantly, she turned her head towards the mentioned screen.
She took a huge intake of breath.
. : : + : : .
Soujiro was breathing hard. Karl Remnick has proved to be a very tough opponent, and no matter what tactic he came up with, Remnick seemed to be one step ahead of him. He was still catching his breath and thinking of another possible attack when his thoughts were interrupted by Remnick himself.
"It looks like you are getting tired Seta-san," he started.
Soujiro remained quiet and waited patiently to see where this is heading to.
"I am getting a little bored myself, why don't we end this match now?" he explained in a rather lazy way.
"I would be glad too," Soujiro replied, determined not to let the other man taunt him any longer.
With all his remaining energy, Soujiro managed to run towards Remnick in his usual top speed, but to his surprise, his attack was blocked by a strong punch to his chest. The impact threw Soujiro a few meters away, allowing him to crash on the floor, and finally against the wall. Soujiro was starting to cough blood, and was struggling to stand up again, with one hand holding against the wall behind him for support, while his other hand was held tightly against his torso, trying to control the pain brought about by a few broken ribs.
Remnick slowly approached Soujiro, not saying a word, just steadily heading towards his direction. Soujiro, decently aware of the situation, tried to summon a defensive stance, almost pitifully. Movements unfaltering, Remnick continued his approach until he was a couple of feet from Soujiro. He forcefully grabbed the arm supporting Soujiro's weight and twisted it painfully behind the young officer. Soujiro winced in pain but refused to surrender in defeat. In defense, he raised his free hand in an attempt to push the foreign opponent away. Remnick caught Soujiro's fist perfectly and twisted this arm far enough for the shoulder to be broken.
Soujiro screamed in pain.
"Pathetic," Remnick spatted before grabbing Soujiro's head and banging it repeatedly, against the wall Soujiro used to support his weight, until he lost all consciousness.
. : : + : : .
Sano aggressively attacked Johann, who blocked the forceful attack like it was nothing. Johann gracefully jumped a few steps back after stopping Sano's attempt.
'Annoying bastard,' thought Sano, before spitting at the side and charging towards Johann once more.
It seemed like Johann could read Sano's attack beforehand, for as previously, he simply moved to the side, allowing Sano to completely deliver his attack on pure air.
"Annoying," breathed Sano.
"I did not mean to annoy anyone. I was simply evading a perfectly predictable attack," taunted the young man.
"Shut up!" yelled Sano as he charged once more.
'What the?' thought a pissed off, surprised Sano.
Johann did not avoid the attack this time; suspiciously, he simply stood there right on Sano's aim.
'Whatever man, I don't know what you're trying to pull here, but I'll show you,' he thought cockily just before he saw Johann leap towards him and soon felt a cold metal blade pressed against his abdomen.
Johann smirked and leered at Sano while he pushed his rapier even deeper, until it was still sticking out Sano's back, "I'm sure this only resolved your thought of me being an annoying bastard," he taunted softly at Sano's right ear, before pulling out his sword.
"Sure does," replied Sano while attempting to bring a smirk to his lips. He summoned all his might to ignore the pain caused by the serious injury, grabbed Johann's hand, and prevented him from retrieving his sword from his torso while simultaneously delivering a strong uppercut to the face right in front of him.
The sudden impact threw Johann against the wall, and gave Sano enough time to compose himself. He swiftly removed the blade from his body and threw it to the side. He tried to stand upright and attempted to clear his rapidly diminishing vision due to the loss of blood. 'This doesn't look good,' he thought as the images continue to look blurry.
'That was quite a punch,' thought Johann as his hand reached for his jaw, and rubbed the sore, or probably broken section.
. : : + : : .
"Ah, now it seems I have gained your full attention, and perhaps cooperation," he spoke.
"You wouldn't dare," she replied furiously.
"Are you challenging my capabilities, shall I try and prove it then to your highness?" he mocked once more.
"You monster! How could you involve them to this? They have nothing to do with it!" she exploded.
"Eh? Don't they? I think they are the ones who are most affected, ne?"
Kaoru looked up at the screen again, eyes softening at the sight of the little kindergartners.
"Where are they?" she asked.
"Of course, in school. Little kids, should not skip school don't you think? Of course my men are guarding them quite well, in case something unexpected happens to my plan."
"And what would you do if something unexpected happens with this plan?" she asked spitefully.
"Of course, the little brats have to take the blow, just because another brat refused to cooperate."
Kaoru remained silent for a while and pondered. 'If I keep my current stand, he'll hurt those kids, but if I cooperate then he'll have absolute control over everyone. It will surely affect more people than these kids. But am I willing to sacrifice a dozen kids' lives for the world? It surely does not sound much of a competition when you think of the possible massive consequence if he sets off Messiah. But still agreeing would mean the salvation of these kids.'
"Ayaaa.. the little princess is playing all noble. Let me guess…" Kanryu offered before pausing for effect.
"You're debating whether the action of saving those kids would be justified granting that it would jeopardize the remaining population," explained Kanryu in her behalf.
Kaoru merely sneered at him, trying to deny his allegations.
"I have to commend my top advisor for predicting this. Ah--- such innocent minds---
think so differently from mine," he said while walking around. "Of course we were ready for this too!" he added almost too cheerfully.
. : : + : : .
Marguerite with her quick reflexes, used her sharp tiger claws to defend herself and sent the sword flying to the other end of the room.
"Damn it!" she screamed once she realized that she had allowed her sight to be taken off of her opponent. That was when she felt a deep pang on her left side. Aoshi had charged towards Marguerite a second after he threw his sword from above. Aoshi delivered another blow on Marguerite, right after the first one. His high kick sent Marguerite flying to the other end of the hallway, the impact causing the wound on Marguerite's side to cover the wall with blood.
"Marguerite!" Johann yelled, awarely allowing his opponent to take advantage of the scene.
"You're opponent is me, idiot," reminded Sano, who has now successfully regained his footing.
Marguerite was still slumped on the floor, breathing heavily, barely moving, with a huge puddle of blood around her. "It hurts Johann," she spoke softly.
"Looks like you have this match Sagara," said Johann, not bearing to see his sister in such condition anymore. He rushed to her aid and withdrew from his fight.
. : : + : : .
The two men were panting hard. Vincent has a large, deep cut on his left arm, and losing a lot of blood. Kenshin was not doing a whole lot better either. He has a couple of broken bones brought about by Vincent's powerful punch. Once again, both of them charged at the same time. Kenshin had his sword drawn ready to slash. He jumped above Vincent and was ready to deliver an attack, when he saw Vincent's attempt to block his attack. Kenshin's sword met Vincent's dagger. The clashing metal, making screeching sounds, refused to pull from each other, and when it seemed that the katana was overpowering the other, two blades sprung away from the dagger's center blade.
'Shit, forgot about this,' cursed Kenshin.
Before Kenshin had the chance to pull his sword away, Vincent quickly twisted his hold on dagger and broke Kenshin's katana in half. The two jumped away from each other again and tried to catch their breath.
"Better surrender now, you can't do anything with a broken sword," said Vincent.
"Says who?" replied Kenshin as he charged at Vincent once more, with his broken sword in hand.
'What's this guy up to?' thought Vincent.
He raised his dagger in front of him in defense as he waited for Kenshin's attack, but a surprise hit him when he saw Kenshin exchange his hold of his sword to his left hand rather than his right, and used his sword's sheath against his weapon. Kenshin managed to push back Vincent's dagger to one side with the sheathe on his right hand, while using the broken sword on his left hand, to stab Vincent's wide open right side.
The fight was finally over.
. : : + : : .
"It's about time, man! Kaoru's probably losing patience waiting right now," joked Sano, while still clutching at his wound.
"Are you both alright?" asked Aoshi casually while giving Tae the signal to give them the directions.
"Yeah, we'll live," answered Sano for the both of them.
Kenshin was glancing back and forth before finally asking, "Where's Soujiro?"
"I don't know, but the orders are to go to Kaoru's location immediately, that is our top priority," relayed the officer. "Come on, this way," Aoshi lead the two hesitant teenagers.
. : : + : : .
"How is Marguerite doing?" asked Vincent.
"She's doing better now I think," Johann replied as he finished bandaging Marguerite's wounds.
"I'm ok, sorry for making you withdraw," apologized the little girl.
"Forget about it," her brother answered dearly.
"Where's Karl, anyway?" Marguerite asked as she scanned the place.
"I think, he's doing something we are not aware about," her brother provided, as he finished wrapping his own wounds.
"It seems like we were left here to do nothing," she pouted, after throwing Johann a questioning look.
"Do you want to look for Kaoru's friend?" Vincent asked casually as he stared out the window.
. : : + : : .
"Ah Remnick, you're back. I assume everything is in place?" Kanryu greeted.
"Of course," Karl answered politely.
"Nothing less should be suspected with the genius strategist of this century huh?" teased Kanryu. "It wasn't a mistake to make you the head of this project. After all, you're the one with first hand experience with the Project Messiah," added Kanryu.
"First-hand experience?" mimicked Kaoru.
"Ah, so Remnick hasn't told you yet? He was there when the research lab burned to smithereens.
Guess who caused it in the first place?" answered Kanryu.
"What are you saying?? That's impossible, Karl would have been just a boy then!" outburst Kaoru.
"And your point Kamiya-san?" questioned Karl cynically.
"Enough with this talk. Kamiya-san, would you like to look at the screen at your right?"
With not much choice, Kaoru obeyed, turning her head slowly, only to curse her luck once more.
"Soujiro," she stifled.
"So how about an answer now Kamiya-san?"
'Someone please do something. Please don't make this nightmare come true.'
Kaoru nodded regrettably.
Author's notes:
The fighting scenes were hard too. This was my first time to write an action-filled chapter. Plus since there's a bunch of medieval weapons here, I had to use a ton of imagination to see them in action . Sometimes not just imagination, you should have seen me fight with imaginary opponents using imaginary weapons just to come up with how Kenshin will block or something like that o.O
More would be explained in the following chapters. OK just to let you know, there's probably just a couple of chapters left.
Oh and, did you know that this fic won in the Nikki Awards? Errrrmm..actually I think it's not really valid since there were such a small number of people who voted in the category this was nominated in. Well, that's just what I think, so what do you think? Should I be happy and celebrate coz I actually won?? Hehe. Hmm… now that I think about it, I was extremely happy just by the fact that someone actually nominated this fic, so I guess it doesn't really matter. Thanks to those handful who voted! Anyways, the award sites are good places to hunt for the best RK fanfics written last year, and also reader participation is important, since hello…it is a reader's choice award. So go check them out.
Hmm..lastly, can someone suggest a good host? Not too expensive and reliable, but with a good amount of bandwidth? Thanks.
Did somebody actually read all that a/n?? ^^;;
Yipeey..reviews make me naturally high..so come on…come on…click that button!
