Darkening Horizons
by: Kesshi Mashin
A Rurouni Kenshin AU.
For entertainment purposes only. No infringement is intended. [insert more legal jargon here.]
* *: thoughts
Silent Musings: An Interlude
Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace tonight.
~ Shakespeare, 'Julius Caesar,' II,ii,1
... Wisps of breath issued from his flaired nostrils, as the Battousai shrugged off his outer coat and slowly stepped out from the darkened alleyway, head lowered so that his eyes were concealed from view. His hushed tones couldn't hide the steel in his voice, and without a second's thought, Kenshin widened his stance and lowered a hand to his sword pommel, breath still rising to the night's sky in heavy clouds. He heard more than saw one of the escorts draw their sword, and, without a second's hesitation, the red-haired assassin flew forward in a flurry of motion, his katana silently dealing death with every stroke...
~~~~~ ~~~~~
Who are you? The question had tormented Kenshin for nights on end, ever since that fateful meeting. Gripped within the throes of insomnia, he had prowled about the city, searching for a way to forget, a way to soothe his uneasy mind. He had found the cure, not at the bottom of a cup of sake, nor in the embrace of a loose woman, but rather in a set of hastily scrawled kanji on a weathered piece of paper. Her name.
Yukishiro Tomoe.
Kenshin had managed to slip in a few hours of rest the night before, the knowledge of his victim's name affording him some small measure of comfort. Why, he couldn't readily say. Never before had he been so plagued, so shaken by the memory of an assignment that sleep managed to elude him for days because of it. The very idea seemed strange to the amber eyed assassin, and yet that was exactly what had been happening to him those past few nights.
Attempts to rationalize his unease all fell short in his mind. She surely wasn't the first woman he had killed; although unpleasant, the Battousai recognized the danger which witnesses to assassinations posed, and many a woman had been unfortunate enough to observe one of his assignments. None had lived to tell the tale.
The method in which she had been dispatched didn't strike Kenshin as odd or gruesome in the least, when compared to the various other creative ways in which Kenshin dispatched of his targets. Hers was a rather mundane affair, not involving much in the way of excessive gore or other such unpleasantries. He had long ago been desensitized to such sights anyhow; his line of work, after all, required some measure of tolerance for blood and death.
The only plausible explanation was the eyes. Those defiant eyes, hate-filled eyes, unafraid of anything, least of all the Battousai. It was the eyes...
The sound of sandals against cobblestone startled Kenshin out of his brief reverie, and served to remind him of the task at hand. Struggling to push aside images of her accusing eyes, the crimson haired assassin shrugged off his outer coat, and stepped out from within the shadows. A new name came to mind, a name he remembered from that morning, and with a steady stride, Kenshin stepped in front of the small band of men, fluidly flowing into a ready stance as he called out his next victim's name.
Despite it all, he still had a job to do...
~~~~~ ~~~~~
End of Interlude
Author's Note: Well, there you go, the next bit. Sorry about the huge delay; senior year in high school, college preparation an' all that good stuff will eat up all your time...
I forgot to cite this before, but I got the translation of Hiko's quote from the quality RK site, Let It Burn. (URL: ) Great site...
Well, thanks go out to Mango, Kitsune, and Linay-sama; thank you for the reviews! ^^;; You guys are too much... *blushes*
This one was a bit short, and I apologize for that, but I'm trying to get back into the writing spirit, so yeah... I think I'm going to put out one more interlude before the next installment, hopefully sooner rather than later. *sigh* Well, I'm off!
~ Kess