Yeah. About time, I know.
Go download the Rurouni Kenshin "particle man" music video NOW! XD Makes me lmao!!
The Firefly's Darkness
Ch. 4- Deception
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Hotaru's drunken speech echoed through the street, with Sano muttering for her to 'shut up' occasionally. At last, he stopped in front of the Kamiya Dojo and looked around before deciding to enter.
"Shano, I dun' feel so good," Hotaru moaned as Sanosuke slowly opened the gate. She had been riding piggyback, with her arms wrapped around his neck and the white makeup rubbing off her cheek onto his.
He slipped inside, only to find Keshin waiting at the doorstep of the house in front. His back was leaning against a support post of the roof; it looked like he had been waiting patiently for quite a while. The two exchanged glances before Hotaru had to be put down in order to vomit in the bushes.
She cried as the acid burnt her mouth. The fence would have to be cleaned in the morning.
Sano crept off to the kitchen for a jug of much-needed water and Kenshin kept Hotaru from staggering as she threw up. The sight of it didn't knot Kenshin's insides at all; he had seen worse before. The water was brought as the vomiting ceased.
"Are you alright now?" Kenshin asked the geisha as he forced her to sit on the steps. Hotaru didn't answer; she avoided Kenshin's eyes and refused to drink the water he held to her lips by burying her face into Sano's sleeve.
"She's just like a child," Sano commented as he pulled her away and poured the water down her throat.
"I think some sleep would do her good, that it would," Kenshin announced, standing up.
Sano raised an eyebrow in concern. "And risk waking the mistress of evil demons?" he asked, referring to Kaoru.
Kenshin looked at him in horror, imagining a very angry Kaoru, armed with a sharp sword, wicked flames dancing behind her, and the dramatic background music playing a tauntingly evil tune. "I-I think we could handle one night without a futon to sleep in." he said. So they brought Hotaru to their room.
Hotaru protested little when Kenshin was around. She was put into the sleeping place next to Yahiko without mumbling a word, and she fell asleep immediately, regardless of being fully dressed in formal garb. Yahiko, being the naturally heavy sleeper he is, had rolled over and found the girl's rump to be a comfortable pillow.
"So much for the innocence of a child." Sano grumbled, wishing he could smack the boy upside the head.
Kenshin slowly took a seat across the room from Sanosuke, each of them leaning against the wall to rest. They sighed at the same time, then began a conversation that was more like a story-telling.
". and then she left, leaving the dagger right where you're sitting." Kenshin finished his side of the story, his bright eyes wandering to the dagger.
Sano eyed the dagger curiously. There wasn't a sheath around anywhere. The edge was smooth and sharp, the handle was as plain as the strip of fabric wrapped around it to absorb moisture and create an easy grip. He sighed and looked up at the ceiling, and told Kenshin about his own encounter with the geisha. And about just how much sake she had drunken.
"This doesn't quite fit in with the story she told us earlier," Kenshin pointed out. "She was lying the whole time."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The unfortunate fence was currently being washed clean of stomach acid by Kenshin, armed with a scrub brush and several buckets of water. It was morning once again, much to the dismay of those who wanted to sleep in. Kaoru passed by Kenshin and peered for a second at what he was up to. Bad idea. She looked away in disgust and decided not to ask. Instead, she marched over to wake her student for his daily lessons, and Sano as well, just to annoy him.
She slid the panel open with great force, causing it to slam into the wall. "Rise and shine, boys!" she sang cheerfully to Sano and Yahiko. Her head tilted in puzzlement as she noticed a cranky Sano at the side of the room. 'If Sano's there, and Kenshin's outside.' she said to herself, 'then who's that next to Yahiko?'
"Go 'way." came a muffled voice from under the covers, sleepy and annoyed.
"Morning already?" Yahiko yawned and stretched as her sat up. Sano smiled in a smug manner.. This was going to be humorous.
"Yahiko, who's that?"
the boy blinked and scratched his head, still sleepy. "Kenshin, duh!" he replied as if Kaoru had suddenly turned stupid or miraculously got amnesia overnight.
"But Kenshin."
Yahiko punched the sleeping lump irritably. "Wake up already, Kenshin!" he bellowed.
"Yoooooooooooooooowwww!" a voice screeched; definitely not Kenshin. A disheveled geisha was popped awake, crying in pain.
Kaoru and Yahiko screamed all to loudly, startled and shocked.
Shaking and clutching a pillow, Kaoru cowered in fear. "Wh-who're you?!"
The geisha didn't reply, instead just rubbing the forming bruise on her arm.
"You really are thick, Kaoru," Sano commented, yawning. "Don't you recognize her?"
Kaoru glared at Sano, about to hit him. Yahiko squinted at the smeared face of the geisha.
"Miss Hotaru?"
The girl nodded timidly, but was interrupted as Kaoru proceeded to choke Sano to death as reprisal for the offensive comment.
Not much more was said after that, with the exception of a heated argument between Kaoru and Sanosuke. Kenshin had already put breakfast on the table and was waiting as patiently as he usually does, sitting quietly with his hands folded at the table as everyone else filed in, having washed up for breakfast.
It was a modest breakfast. "Riceballs again?" Yahiko complained, fed up with boring food. What he really wanted was mochi.
Hotaru didn't start eating when everyone else did; she made a haphazard excuse and wobbled out of the room. Kaoru gulped a mouthful of tea as she curiously watched Hotaru leave. And, as soon as she did, Kaoru began asking questions.
"Is there something I should know about?" she asked, eyeing Kenshin with a suspicion arising.
"Kenshin's got a new girlfriend!" Yahiko sang, grinning wolfishly.
"ORO?!" [hahaha! I used the famous word from the un-dubbed version!! XD] News to Kenshin; he looked quite shocked at Yahiko's comment. Kaoru didn't look too pleased either, because she silently threatened to beat up both of them with only a fierce glare and balled fists. However, she returned to her tea after scaring them thoroughly.
"She got drunk," Sano said, at the exact moment Kaoru was intaking tea. It was sputtered out all over Kenshin and Yahiko, who sat shocked and dripping for a few moments.
"Y-you did that on purpose!" Yahiko pointed a finger accursedly at Sano, who laughed at Kaoru's victims.
Naturally, Kenshin had to explain the attempted murder story (all over again) thus far, and how Sano had ran into her at the sake joint. So, that left them waiting for Hotaru's part. She crept into the room silently and was seated quickly. Also, she had changed out of the fancy kimono and was wearing her typical daily outfit now.
Everyone stared at her expectantly.
"I'm sorry. Where do you want me to start?"
"How about 'Why you tried to MURDER Kenshin?!'" Kaoru fumed, with her eyes narrowed and peering above a wrinkled nose.
"Start from the beginning of it all," Kenshin suggested, over the forming crowd of Kaoru's angry glares. "Who you're involved with, how this came to be, and why you pose as a geisha."
"I don't pose as a geisha!" Hotaru burst out angrily, hands fisted. "That's all I ever wanted to do. just. be a geisha." she paused, and sighed, trying to get her anger under control.
"I never had a father, and I spent my early life with my mother. We traveled often, living off the money she made from rich clients. Then she passed away. I was sent to a small geisha training school in Edo.
"I formed a dream there: I would become as famous as my mother was," she explained half-heartedly. It sounded as if every word pained her. "I failed a lot of the basics; Tea Ceremonies ruined, I knotted the obi's instead of creating elaborate bows. I couldn't even make rice properly! The only thing I could do properly was play the koto.
"I never got a single job when I left the school. No one wanted me. But. I didn't give up. In doing so, I met Master William. He was an Englishman from a rich family, and he hired me as a servant in his manor. I then began losing hope of ever becoming a geisha, after working for him for about a year.
~Flashback, Hotaru's POV~
I hurried about the kitchen with the other two maids, piling teakettles, cups, saucers, biscuits, and whatnot into the trays they were holding nervously. Each tray was rattling from their shaky hands, unable to support the weight for long. I ignored them and picked up my own burden and we crept out of the kitchen into what Master called a "drying room", where guests were entertained. These guests were as sinister as they come, but it was not my place to speak such things.
The maids and I served these people. The maids didn't seem to be listening to the important conversation. I should have been among them, but my ears listened anyway to what one man said.
"If such a business was opened, you could make a fortune!"
"I agree, but what if the government meddles in the affair?" replied another.
The third guest scoffed. "Nonsense. The government could easily be bribed into 'forgetting'. But the main problem is so common nowadays."
"And what would that be?" asked the first man, whose teacup I had finished refilling with the contents of a steaming kettle.
"Finding someone who is capable of doing it."
At these words, all in a split second, the man with the freshly refilled tea felt the cup slip from his hands. It didn't spill, for I caught it on my fingertips before it shattered to wet pieces of china. Not a drop spilled onto the expensive oriental rug on the floor.
"Oh, I'm highly doubtful of that," Master smirked, grinning wickedly at the cup in my hands.
~Flash to present~
". And so, I was trained in many styles of fighting, honing my skills until I could breathe with the wind, disappear among shadows, and vanish like a ghostly spirit. The geisha became a mere disguise for an assassin."
Hotaru trailed off, her voice on a numbed tone.
"What caused you to quit all of a sudden?" Sanosuke asked. It already seemed as if he knew the answer.
".It's hard to sleep anymore. I get nightmares from those faces, watching me. Sake provides an escape, even if it is only temporary." She held her head in her hands despairingly.
"May I be excused?" Kaoru said suddenly, then without waiting for an answer, got up and left.
"What's with her?" Yahiko raised an eyebrow in a nosy manner as he peered out the open panel.
"If I were you, I wouldn't ask," Sano advised. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
Kenshin nodded in agreement; he knew all too well.
They heard footsteps coming back. It was Kaoru, who burst into the room, holding what looked to be an arrow with a slip of paper attached to it. She gasped for breath as if she had sprinted back and handed the note to Hotaru.
"This is yours, I presume?" she said, rather than asked, with an expressionless face. "It was shot into the dojo's wall," she explained briefly.
Kenshin glanced at the odd letters on the page. "That must be English," he pointed out bluntly. "I've seen it before on an English vessel."
"Jane," Hotaru muttered, crumpling the paper in her hand uneasily after quickly reading it. She stood up and said hastily "I've got to go."
No one had time to protest as she strode off to the exit. Upon reaching it, she paused.
"Don't follow me."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Dun dun dunnnn!! (yet another long chapter.)
I believe one (or two?) reviewers asked me if Megumi or Dr.. what's-his- face. was gonna be in it. To be honest, I forgot about them until the story was running along nicely. Yeah, I'm stupid. I guess I could put them in later on and make up something. XD Suggestions, anyone?
Someone also asked if there was gonna be Hotaru/Sano romance. Well, that's what I planned a long, long time ago, but now I'm not so sure myself. Hey, it could change if YOU want it to. It's what the people want! POWER TO THE PEOPLE! XD
SO, YEAH! HIT THAT REVIEW BUTTON AND I'LL STOP TYPING IN CAPSLOCK!
PS- FLAMES=FUN! IT'S A WIN/WIN SITUATION! :D
Go download the Rurouni Kenshin "particle man" music video NOW! XD Makes me lmao!!
The Firefly's Darkness
Ch. 4- Deception
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Hotaru's drunken speech echoed through the street, with Sano muttering for her to 'shut up' occasionally. At last, he stopped in front of the Kamiya Dojo and looked around before deciding to enter.
"Shano, I dun' feel so good," Hotaru moaned as Sanosuke slowly opened the gate. She had been riding piggyback, with her arms wrapped around his neck and the white makeup rubbing off her cheek onto his.
He slipped inside, only to find Keshin waiting at the doorstep of the house in front. His back was leaning against a support post of the roof; it looked like he had been waiting patiently for quite a while. The two exchanged glances before Hotaru had to be put down in order to vomit in the bushes.
She cried as the acid burnt her mouth. The fence would have to be cleaned in the morning.
Sano crept off to the kitchen for a jug of much-needed water and Kenshin kept Hotaru from staggering as she threw up. The sight of it didn't knot Kenshin's insides at all; he had seen worse before. The water was brought as the vomiting ceased.
"Are you alright now?" Kenshin asked the geisha as he forced her to sit on the steps. Hotaru didn't answer; she avoided Kenshin's eyes and refused to drink the water he held to her lips by burying her face into Sano's sleeve.
"She's just like a child," Sano commented as he pulled her away and poured the water down her throat.
"I think some sleep would do her good, that it would," Kenshin announced, standing up.
Sano raised an eyebrow in concern. "And risk waking the mistress of evil demons?" he asked, referring to Kaoru.
Kenshin looked at him in horror, imagining a very angry Kaoru, armed with a sharp sword, wicked flames dancing behind her, and the dramatic background music playing a tauntingly evil tune. "I-I think we could handle one night without a futon to sleep in." he said. So they brought Hotaru to their room.
Hotaru protested little when Kenshin was around. She was put into the sleeping place next to Yahiko without mumbling a word, and she fell asleep immediately, regardless of being fully dressed in formal garb. Yahiko, being the naturally heavy sleeper he is, had rolled over and found the girl's rump to be a comfortable pillow.
"So much for the innocence of a child." Sano grumbled, wishing he could smack the boy upside the head.
Kenshin slowly took a seat across the room from Sanosuke, each of them leaning against the wall to rest. They sighed at the same time, then began a conversation that was more like a story-telling.
". and then she left, leaving the dagger right where you're sitting." Kenshin finished his side of the story, his bright eyes wandering to the dagger.
Sano eyed the dagger curiously. There wasn't a sheath around anywhere. The edge was smooth and sharp, the handle was as plain as the strip of fabric wrapped around it to absorb moisture and create an easy grip. He sighed and looked up at the ceiling, and told Kenshin about his own encounter with the geisha. And about just how much sake she had drunken.
"This doesn't quite fit in with the story she told us earlier," Kenshin pointed out. "She was lying the whole time."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The unfortunate fence was currently being washed clean of stomach acid by Kenshin, armed with a scrub brush and several buckets of water. It was morning once again, much to the dismay of those who wanted to sleep in. Kaoru passed by Kenshin and peered for a second at what he was up to. Bad idea. She looked away in disgust and decided not to ask. Instead, she marched over to wake her student for his daily lessons, and Sano as well, just to annoy him.
She slid the panel open with great force, causing it to slam into the wall. "Rise and shine, boys!" she sang cheerfully to Sano and Yahiko. Her head tilted in puzzlement as she noticed a cranky Sano at the side of the room. 'If Sano's there, and Kenshin's outside.' she said to herself, 'then who's that next to Yahiko?'
"Go 'way." came a muffled voice from under the covers, sleepy and annoyed.
"Morning already?" Yahiko yawned and stretched as her sat up. Sano smiled in a smug manner.. This was going to be humorous.
"Yahiko, who's that?"
the boy blinked and scratched his head, still sleepy. "Kenshin, duh!" he replied as if Kaoru had suddenly turned stupid or miraculously got amnesia overnight.
"But Kenshin."
Yahiko punched the sleeping lump irritably. "Wake up already, Kenshin!" he bellowed.
"Yoooooooooooooooowwww!" a voice screeched; definitely not Kenshin. A disheveled geisha was popped awake, crying in pain.
Kaoru and Yahiko screamed all to loudly, startled and shocked.
Shaking and clutching a pillow, Kaoru cowered in fear. "Wh-who're you?!"
The geisha didn't reply, instead just rubbing the forming bruise on her arm.
"You really are thick, Kaoru," Sano commented, yawning. "Don't you recognize her?"
Kaoru glared at Sano, about to hit him. Yahiko squinted at the smeared face of the geisha.
"Miss Hotaru?"
The girl nodded timidly, but was interrupted as Kaoru proceeded to choke Sano to death as reprisal for the offensive comment.
Not much more was said after that, with the exception of a heated argument between Kaoru and Sanosuke. Kenshin had already put breakfast on the table and was waiting as patiently as he usually does, sitting quietly with his hands folded at the table as everyone else filed in, having washed up for breakfast.
It was a modest breakfast. "Riceballs again?" Yahiko complained, fed up with boring food. What he really wanted was mochi.
Hotaru didn't start eating when everyone else did; she made a haphazard excuse and wobbled out of the room. Kaoru gulped a mouthful of tea as she curiously watched Hotaru leave. And, as soon as she did, Kaoru began asking questions.
"Is there something I should know about?" she asked, eyeing Kenshin with a suspicion arising.
"Kenshin's got a new girlfriend!" Yahiko sang, grinning wolfishly.
"ORO?!" [hahaha! I used the famous word from the un-dubbed version!! XD] News to Kenshin; he looked quite shocked at Yahiko's comment. Kaoru didn't look too pleased either, because she silently threatened to beat up both of them with only a fierce glare and balled fists. However, she returned to her tea after scaring them thoroughly.
"She got drunk," Sano said, at the exact moment Kaoru was intaking tea. It was sputtered out all over Kenshin and Yahiko, who sat shocked and dripping for a few moments.
"Y-you did that on purpose!" Yahiko pointed a finger accursedly at Sano, who laughed at Kaoru's victims.
Naturally, Kenshin had to explain the attempted murder story (all over again) thus far, and how Sano had ran into her at the sake joint. So, that left them waiting for Hotaru's part. She crept into the room silently and was seated quickly. Also, she had changed out of the fancy kimono and was wearing her typical daily outfit now.
Everyone stared at her expectantly.
"I'm sorry. Where do you want me to start?"
"How about 'Why you tried to MURDER Kenshin?!'" Kaoru fumed, with her eyes narrowed and peering above a wrinkled nose.
"Start from the beginning of it all," Kenshin suggested, over the forming crowd of Kaoru's angry glares. "Who you're involved with, how this came to be, and why you pose as a geisha."
"I don't pose as a geisha!" Hotaru burst out angrily, hands fisted. "That's all I ever wanted to do. just. be a geisha." she paused, and sighed, trying to get her anger under control.
"I never had a father, and I spent my early life with my mother. We traveled often, living off the money she made from rich clients. Then she passed away. I was sent to a small geisha training school in Edo.
"I formed a dream there: I would become as famous as my mother was," she explained half-heartedly. It sounded as if every word pained her. "I failed a lot of the basics; Tea Ceremonies ruined, I knotted the obi's instead of creating elaborate bows. I couldn't even make rice properly! The only thing I could do properly was play the koto.
"I never got a single job when I left the school. No one wanted me. But. I didn't give up. In doing so, I met Master William. He was an Englishman from a rich family, and he hired me as a servant in his manor. I then began losing hope of ever becoming a geisha, after working for him for about a year.
~Flashback, Hotaru's POV~
I hurried about the kitchen with the other two maids, piling teakettles, cups, saucers, biscuits, and whatnot into the trays they were holding nervously. Each tray was rattling from their shaky hands, unable to support the weight for long. I ignored them and picked up my own burden and we crept out of the kitchen into what Master called a "drying room", where guests were entertained. These guests were as sinister as they come, but it was not my place to speak such things.
The maids and I served these people. The maids didn't seem to be listening to the important conversation. I should have been among them, but my ears listened anyway to what one man said.
"If such a business was opened, you could make a fortune!"
"I agree, but what if the government meddles in the affair?" replied another.
The third guest scoffed. "Nonsense. The government could easily be bribed into 'forgetting'. But the main problem is so common nowadays."
"And what would that be?" asked the first man, whose teacup I had finished refilling with the contents of a steaming kettle.
"Finding someone who is capable of doing it."
At these words, all in a split second, the man with the freshly refilled tea felt the cup slip from his hands. It didn't spill, for I caught it on my fingertips before it shattered to wet pieces of china. Not a drop spilled onto the expensive oriental rug on the floor.
"Oh, I'm highly doubtful of that," Master smirked, grinning wickedly at the cup in my hands.
~Flash to present~
". And so, I was trained in many styles of fighting, honing my skills until I could breathe with the wind, disappear among shadows, and vanish like a ghostly spirit. The geisha became a mere disguise for an assassin."
Hotaru trailed off, her voice on a numbed tone.
"What caused you to quit all of a sudden?" Sanosuke asked. It already seemed as if he knew the answer.
".It's hard to sleep anymore. I get nightmares from those faces, watching me. Sake provides an escape, even if it is only temporary." She held her head in her hands despairingly.
"May I be excused?" Kaoru said suddenly, then without waiting for an answer, got up and left.
"What's with her?" Yahiko raised an eyebrow in a nosy manner as he peered out the open panel.
"If I were you, I wouldn't ask," Sano advised. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
Kenshin nodded in agreement; he knew all too well.
They heard footsteps coming back. It was Kaoru, who burst into the room, holding what looked to be an arrow with a slip of paper attached to it. She gasped for breath as if she had sprinted back and handed the note to Hotaru.
"This is yours, I presume?" she said, rather than asked, with an expressionless face. "It was shot into the dojo's wall," she explained briefly.
Kenshin glanced at the odd letters on the page. "That must be English," he pointed out bluntly. "I've seen it before on an English vessel."
"Jane," Hotaru muttered, crumpling the paper in her hand uneasily after quickly reading it. She stood up and said hastily "I've got to go."
No one had time to protest as she strode off to the exit. Upon reaching it, she paused.
"Don't follow me."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Dun dun dunnnn!! (yet another long chapter.)
I believe one (or two?) reviewers asked me if Megumi or Dr.. what's-his- face. was gonna be in it. To be honest, I forgot about them until the story was running along nicely. Yeah, I'm stupid. I guess I could put them in later on and make up something. XD Suggestions, anyone?
Someone also asked if there was gonna be Hotaru/Sano romance. Well, that's what I planned a long, long time ago, but now I'm not so sure myself. Hey, it could change if YOU want it to. It's what the people want! POWER TO THE PEOPLE! XD
SO, YEAH! HIT THAT REVIEW BUTTON AND I'LL STOP TYPING IN CAPSLOCK!
PS- FLAMES=FUN! IT'S A WIN/WIN SITUATION! :D
