Chapter 4: A Challenge and A Quest
Part One
Author's Note: okay people. my story is turning out just the way i planned. if you are mad about my previous Yahiko refernces and such...well too bad, it sux to be you don't it? ^_^ i like my story so far. my other major story is coming along pretty good too. i am also thinking of starting on an FF8 story as well. mabye even a yu-yu-hakusho or gundam wing is in order. oh yeah! back to the RK. i have a set plan for this story, so sit fast readers. i know you are mad about the transformation yahiko has made, but please let my story unfold as it will because all will be explained in due time. ::drumbroll:: on to chapter four!! ^_^
Disclaimer: I don't own this series. i wish i did...excuse me whilst i go and pout >_
-Mickeal Asplin
The atmosphere in the room was foreboding to say the least. Perhaps it was Miho who felt the most uncomfortable, for she had spent only a week with them and was wondering wether it was apropraite to join this conversation or not. When no one had asked her to leave, she decided to stay, for she had become good freinds with Yahiko in the short time.
Her train of thought was cut short when Kaoru angrily broke the silence.
"Why?! I just want a damn explanation Yahiko!!" They had never seen Kaoru mad before. Of course she had been mad at Yahiko for insults, she had been accusing of Kenshin, she had been miffed from Sano's comments now and then, she had even gotten angry and Miho once or twice. But they had never seen her mad. Not like this.
The anger she felt could not be expressed by any human words no matter the extent. Every part of her entire being felt as if it danced with the livid flames of hatred. She was consumed by the entire emotion and felt as if this feeling engulfed her mind, her body, her whole being. She was the embodiment of anger. She was an emotion masquerading as a human. Her words were thrown around carelessly with rashness and cared not who was hurt from her. Her voice was terrible to behold and her gaze was fixed to kill. Had she a sword, she would have maimed all in her path.
Yahiko was staring straight at her. For all the flack that he had been getting for the past hour or so, he was keeping himself amazingly in check. He lowered his head a little, but held Kaoru's gaze.
"I had.....to..."
"Bull shit." It was making everyone in the room uncomfortable, the way she threw her words about. She rarely used profanity.
"Look, I had my reasons, ok?" Yahiko glared at her, raising his voice.
"No! Not ok! I want an answer! NOW!" She advanced at him and stopped a few feet away. She was mad, but not violent.
"I gave you one!!" He was on his feet as well.
"Yahiko. Kaoru. Sit." It was not a request. They both turned to face Kenshin. They looked back at each other, and slowly they sat down.
Kenshin had been standing in the corner with his head down, listening to the conversation. But now he was looking slightly up so that all one might see was his angry glare.
His eyes fixed on Yahiko and he remained quiet for a few moments.
"I trust you Yahiko. I trust you are telling the truth, and that matters."
Yahiko snorted. "Ha!" Kenshin could not tell if this was in scorn or amusement.
"Its true. You know so very little...of the way things are. The world. It is a-" there was a pause, "bad...place without trust. It builds lives and takes them away. I want you to know that I trust you."
Yahiko looked at the ground, no longer able to bear Kenshin's gaze. "If it matters so much, why can't we just forget about it."
It was fast, but not so fast you couldn't see it coming. Later, Kaoru would wonder if she had even told her hand to do it.
It happened as if in slow motion. Her hand rose and struck him across the face. Yahiko's head was turned the direction of the blow and a florid red mark was already beginning to appear on his cheek.
"Don't you ever think that I will forget this." Her voice was cold, inhuman with fury. It held neither remorse for the blow or sympathy for Yahiko. "I will never. For as long as I live. I wish you knew. What it was like, to have to see all the paon and suffering, to know what its like to work all of your life trying to scramble at the small and shattered remains of a dying era. To actually know what everyone else has been through, and not just be a stupid selfish little boy with no honor. Your so ignorant."
The room was silent.
Yahiko looked up at her. "I have my honor. And I have my reasons. I'm...I'm sorry Kaoru." His voice faltered.
She glared at him. "You, you, you little brat!" She stood up violently. "How dare you try and apologize!" Now she was getting tears in her eyes. "You can't just say sorry and make it all go away! I helped you!!! What have you ever done for me? NOTHING!" She was crying now. Her words came out angry and sad, her voice getting louder with every word.
"Kaoru!" Sano tried to step in.
She turned on him and lashed out blindly in her frustration. "You! Your just on his side! You don't care about it one little bit, do you?!" she hiccupped. Then she turned back to face Yahiko, with tears streaming down her cheeks. "You are a selfish little brat! You have no honor! You have never done anything honorable your entire life!!! You have no claim to my school!" Kenshin tried to grab her, but she rushed past him and slammed the door behind her. They listened to her crying die down the hallway.
Miho took this opportunity to leave and try to calm Kaoru down.
Kenshin slowly turned back to face Yahiko. "She doesn't mean-"
"Oh save it!!!" Yahiko sprang to his feet and bursted out the door that led onto the terrace. He hid his face so Kenshin and Sano would not see him cry.
It was later that evening. Dinner had been a strange affair. Miho had been forced to make it as Kaoru had not come out of her room since the fight that morning. No one had thought to disturb her in her present state. Yahiko and Sano were the only two who decided to show. Kenshin had been called to town earlier that day.
The conversation was sparce and uneasy.
"Um..." Miho swallowed her food and tried to think of a safe topic for conversation. "It looks like snow. Maybe sometime this week."
Neither of the two guys said anything.
Yahiko ate his food slowly, as if cherishing every mouthfull. Sano was only acting normal, or atleast normal to Miho.
She watched Sano eat from the corner of her eyes and let her thoughtr trail.
What does he hate about me so much? I know I must have said something wrong. He is always like this, I suppose. But no, I see him laugh and joke with the others...why is he so indifferent towards me? Is it something I did? She let her thoughts stop abruptly when the door opened behind them all.
Kenshin stood in the doorway, his chest and left arm covered in blood.
Sano stood up quickly. "Kenshin!"
Yahiko slowly dropped his bowl and stared. Miho gasped and stood up to offer help to Kenshin, but he smiled and shrugged her off.
"It's nothing. Really" He sat down at the table, wincing a little. He had a large cut that ripped through his clothes all alongside his left shoulder. It was long and the blood from it had dripped all along his front side, but they could tell from the look of it that it was not very deep.
"What?...What happened in town, Kenshin?" Miho offered him a bowl of warm soup and looked at him with concern.
"Well...it was strange really..."
Kenshin walked along the dusty path, humming some old lullaby under his breath. The sun was just beginning to hint at setting. He looked up at the sky, his thoughts on the conversation from that morning.
Why, I wonder. Why did he do it? I just can't think of a logical explanation.
He shrugged his shoulders and decided to let himself relax for the remainder of the evening.
This happened every so often, the village people would have a complaint. They had seen Kenshin do some amazing things before, and had heard of the countless times he saved his freinds. Every so often, a thug or swordsman would wander into town who wanted nothing but trouble. They called on Kenshin for help, for it was quite common that it was Kenshin that they wanted anyway.
It had been a month since the last offender had stumbled into town, and Kenshin had made quick work of him.
His mind wandered back to that night a week ago, the night when Miho had arrived, when he had fought a man in the hallway. It had been dark, and he had not been able to fight for more than ten seconds, but in that small span of time he had been able to label the swordsman a master. He was beginning to wonder if that same man was awaiting him in town when a scream peeled into the afternoon air.
Kenshin's head snapped back down to the path. He stood for a moment, listening acutely to the echos, then he headed off into a quick run in the direction of the scream.
*On the other side of town...*
The man held the woman by the cuff of her neck. He breathed down the side of her face, making her cringe and shiver in fear.
"You called for him?" His voice was poiseness. It went down the ears like a smooth wine, but it held malice and spite in equal parts. He spoke softly, but that did not stop one from hearing everything he said.
"Y-yes. Yes! I did!" She squirmed. Tears were running down her cheeks.
He leaned in a little closer and whispered in her ear. "You had better hope he comes in time."
Kenshin stood outside of the dojo and listened urgently to one of the house's servants.
"In there, master. That is where he is. He has the lady Ishobu. Make haste, please! He was not a human by the looks of him. Scars all over. He didn't care about being seen, just waltzed in and asked where she was. 'Orrible man, of sorts." The servent shuddered at the memory of the man and pointed Kenshin through a door that led to the side of the courtyard where the man was.
Kenshin made to leave when someone stopped him. He turned to face a girl. She was plain of sorts. Nothing special. But she slowly shook his hand and bowed. "Please." She whispered. She didn't say anything more.
The scene was horrible. It stuck in Kenshin's eyes and held a place in his memory, like so many scenes before it.
There was the girl, her skin like pale milk, her face fixed with a final scream of horror. Her form was folded over itself in a grotesque manner. She swam gracefully in a pool of her own blood, and her eyes were glazed over.
The man that stood over her looked like something out of a nightmare. His hair was chalk white. It had a silverish tint to it, and his face was almost hidden by it. The bangs of his hair came down to cover half of his face. The one eye that you could see was black and white, a small slit on his face.
He wore a bulky black cloak that hung around his body. He had belts here, a buckle there, leather sleeves and black clothing. There were layers of leather upon black cloth and a collar that came up around his neck.
Every visable inch of his skin had horrific scars.
He stood over the Ishobu's limp form. His mouth and right eye hidden from veiw.
The man seemed acutely aware of every detail around him. Kenshin noted the mans eyes as they quickly glanced him over. Kenshin waited with a vengeful silence as he watched the mans eye hover on the hilt of his reverse blade for a moment. And a moment was all it took.
The man looked at Kenshin straight in the eyes.
"Have you anything to say?" His voice was hollow.
Kenshin slowly shook his head. "I have nothing to say to the likes of you. Except...I would like to know why. Why you did this, before I turn you over to the police."
"If you have nothing of importance to say, than let us fight."
The scarred man was swift. If it had been any other man except for Kenshin, he would have been killed on the spot. Kenshin just barely pulled away at the last second and blocked with a small fraction of his blade that he bared from the hilt.
Kenshin drew his blade out fully, using the momentum to knock the man away. In the half second the man was off balance from the throw, he rushed with his blade sweeping up.
The scarred man grimaced and jumped aside, quickly lashing down with his sword. It cought Kenshin's left side.
They pulled apart.
Kenshin did not favor his injury. Indeed, he seemed almost not to even notice it.
"You are to easy." The mans voice was soft. His eye narrowed. "Why do you hold back, I wonder."
They met again. The strange ring of blade upon blade filled the courtyard as they circled around each other. One lashing out, the other blocking, the next countering. They ducked and wove and tumbled and sweeped, each it seemed, easily able to aviod the other's blows.
Kenshin thrust swiftly with the hilt of his sword, meaning to catch the man in the stomach and knock him out, but the scarred man saw it coming. He ducked at the last possible moment. Dropping his sword, he reached out and grabbed the arm Kenshin was thrusting with. He stood up, spinning Kenshin around and released him, sending Kenshin flying over to land about ten feet away from Ishobu's withered corpse.
"Battosai. I have figured it out." He slowly walked towards Kenshin.
Kenshin lay on the ground, gripping his stomach. The wind had been knocked out of him and he could not breath.
"I have figured out why you hold back." He stopped next to the girls dead body. Slowly, he bent down to kneel next to the girl. "Your blade, it's reverse. I have met men like you." Kenshin looked up. He was surprised but his face remained an angry blank mask.
The man smiled. "Ah yes. There are plenty like you. Handfuls of men, scattered throughout Japan who take one oath or another. You are very run of the mill. I wish you hadn't been such a bore." He sighed as if dissapointed. Kenshin merely glared on, his gaze wise and knowing. He was waiting for the man to drop his gaurd...the mans words meant nothing to him.
"You see what I am trying to tell you?" The man seemed exasperated.
"The only thing that you have proven so far is that you are cocky and underestimate me."
"Oh no." The man wagged a finger back and forth. If Kenshin could have seen the mans mouth he was quite sure the man would have been smiling. "I don't underestimate you, it is you who underestimate me. Think man, think. Use your brain. I have seen your weaknesses in your present state. Women make you come running, guilt stays your blade. You will neither slay, nor defeat me, yet you claim me an ignorant fool. Oh no, poor bottosai, it is you who is underestimating me." He leaned in closer, his voice becoming little more than a malicious whisper.
They stared at each other for a few seconds, then the man leaned back and sighed again.
"I suppose the only way to make you fight is to anger you. How predictable. How boring." He rubbed his temple in an irritated fashion. He stopped and slowly looked back at Kenshin. "Hm. This could be- fun." The pause was expertly timed. Kenshin did not like the way this conversation was going.
Slowly the man turned around and bent over the girls small and broken frame. "And anger you I will." He whispered softly.
Kenshin's stomach gave a sudden lurch and the overcoming urge to vomit overcame him. He realized what the man was about to do right before it actually happened.
His scarred face lowered down and slowly he kissed the girls dead body.
Kenshin stared, sickened by what he saw. The sudden injustice, the sickening wrongness of it all overcame him. He saw the man for what he was. The epitome of evil.
His head was bent over her body. He devoured her pore dead soul through an undignified kiss of parting and Kenshin was too far away to stop him in time.
"You..." Kenshin could do nothing. He was too sickened by what he saw.
The man looked back at Kenshin and let the body drop to the ground. He smiled, with her blood on smeared slightly on his face. Slowly he licked his lips.
"Fresh blood." He smiled. It made Kenshin want to kill again. It made Kenshin want to hate all men. It made Kenshin want to puke.
The man stood up. "Hm. How interesting. Do you wish me to continue?" His laugh was slow and malignant. It made Kenshin's blood crawl.
They setting sun flashed off his blade. It was so fast, human eyes could not follow his movement. Kenshin's blade lashed out and caught him across the eye.
A small trail of blood trickled down the man's face. He stepped back, but not fast enough.
He cursed and slowly stepped away, laughing.
"Good. It is rather sad, though. How predictable you are. Anger you and a manslayer you once again become." His voice lowered again. "And that is your only one true weakness....weakness itself."
Their blades met again. This time it was differnt. New scars were made, injuries dealt out, baldes lashing and catching each other. I was a duel for life.
Kenshin's hair, his eyes, his face, his whole body seemed to glow with anger. It bubbled over inside him and simmered around through his skin. He glowed an with an eerie paleness as he fought.
There came a point in which the man made a thrust to kill. It almost caught Kenshin in the side, but he was just to fast.
Time seemed to move in slow motion. Kenshin was gone. The man could not find him. He looked up in the air, and there he was.
Time seemed to stop. Kenshin seemed to hover in the air above the mans head. His blade was flipped. His sword at ready. He was about to kill.
That was when it happened. The man ran.
Kenshin's blade fell in empty ground. The scarred man had run. He was running out of the courtyard and was already halfway to the surrounding forest.
Kenshin pulled his blade from the ground and made as if to follow, when all at once it seemed he realized his injuries. He gave into them at last and let himself sit on the ground panting, his sword at ready.
It was not too long before the servants of the houselhold came to see the products of the fight. They exclaimed and cried over their misstrisses body and took her away in silence. They insisted on caring for Kenshin's injuries, but their words fell on deaf ears.
All Kenshin found he could do was stare at the place where the scarred man had dissapeared into the forest, and wonder.
Sano, Yahiko and Miho had abondoned the rest of their dinners as they had become to preoccupied with Kenshin's story.
"And then? What?! Your not telling me he just ran away?!!" Miho and the others burst into laughter.
Kenshin looked really serious. "He knew. He sensed the move, he saw it coming."
The laughter died away.
"Aw, come one Kenshin. I thought you were the only man in Japan with that ability." Sano was disbelieving.
Kenshin shook his head slowly. "Apparently not."
Kaoru slowly backed away from the doorway in the hallway. After hearing the story, she decided she wasn't hungry after all.
Author's Note: Ok, so you are probly wondering about the title and how it all fits into the story, well, that will be tied into the next chapter. I was going to just continue this chapter, but just think of it as one of thoes two part episodes, k? ::winks:: btw, for all you fans out there, I am avidly awaiting the fanart section of this site. It would be nice, because then i might be able to post some of my drawings of my characters (i'm something of an artist). anywhoosles, i have a really good sketch of the scarred man, and a halfway decent one of kenshin. ::looks longingly off into distance:: ah well. one can dream, can't she? well, the next chapter should be up sometime next week. A challenge and a quest part two...here we go!!! ^_^ until next time. ja ne.
