Chapter two of the lunacy continues! Many questions are answered here, some pertaining to the burning questions you ask in real life, like "Where do we go when we die?" and etc. Want to know? Read on!

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They Say Cameras Are Only Good For Pictures... 2
By: Karina Kineshi (coronaflare@mail.com)

"So... I see that you've finally gotten up... Sano-chan." The voice seemed to come from everywhere, yet nowhere at once. Sanosuke looked around the area; he could still feel his cheek stinging from that slap he received earlier. Absolutely nothing was in sight. The ground was soft and covered with about 2 feet of fog; Sanosuke had to sit up just to see over it. The surrounding area was so barren and dark; it was like sticking your head into a black pot.

The voice spoke. "I took the liberty of giving you clothing and doing some research on you." Before his astonished eyes, Kenshin materialized out of thin air in front of him. Sanosuke was shocked, but to Kenshin it didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary. "I know you are feeling a bit overwhelmed by all this, but just try to understand when I explain and I'll answer any questions you may have."

Sanosuke looked down at his clothing, yes, it was still on. He sighed in relief while pushing the tie down. "You know, I'm not always dressed like this. Personally, I think that this is a giant pain in the ass."

The other Kenshin nodded complacently. "You can change it if you so please." Sanosuke looked around for his clothing, but upon seeing none, he gave Battousai a confused expression. "You're no longer in your world. Material things do not matter, and everything here is controlled by your mind. Just imagine yourself with your preferred clothing on and it shall be done."

Sanosuke closed his eyes; as crazy as this whole thing was, it was starting to make sense. It was like he'd done it before...

Battousai smiled; this new ego was catching on quickly. He watched as the man stood up, brushed some imaginary lint off his white gi, and stretched. "This feels so much better", he decided.

"Now..." A high backed chair similar to the one that had been used to take pictures of the group earlier that day suddenly appeared behind Kenshin. "... won't you sit? I'm sure you have many questions."

He spun around to see another high backed chair; Sanosuke could have bet his entire savings that it wasn't there before.

Well, at least, as much money that he could count on one hand...

He hesitated, but one look from Kenshin calmed his nerves. This certainly was one weird looking Kenshin. His fire red hair was pulled into a higher ponytail that almost reached the top of his head, and it was longer and stringier than the Kenshin that he knew. Instead of the normal pink gi, this one was dark blue with a striped pair of hakama. Not only that, but he looked like a boy, Sanosuke guessed around 16 years old. But the oddest things about him were his eyes. This Kenshin's eyes were like the sunrise, amber and flecked with some gold.

The Kenshin that he knew didn't...

"You're right. I'm not the Kenshin that you know. I am the alter ego of Himura Kenshin, otherwise known as the Hitokiri Battousai." While Sanosuke mouthed 'Hitokiri Battousai' silently, the Kenshin stood up and as fast as lightning, unsheathed his sword, charging straight at Sanosuke's face. Sanosuke was so taken aback that he didn't dare breathe. This man was dangerous.

Battousai chuckled. "Yes, I would be dangerous, but not here." Sanosuke took a closer look at the blade; it wasn't a reverse one like Kenshin had. This was a real sword. Judging from the sharpness of the blade, it had definitely been used before.

"To kill people?" Sanosuke asked.

The man nodded. "Yes, to kill people. But that was in the mortal world. This is Gehenna, you have no body here for death."

Death...

Sanosuke felt his breath catch on the question he was aching to ask. Battousai just stared at him with those piercing eyes that seemed to see right through him. "Am... am I d... dead?"

Battousai shook his head. "No, not dead. But in waiting, always in waiting." He didn't miss the giant sigh that the man let out, but then something he said must have made him stop short, mid-sigh.

"If I am my soul, then how can the body live without the soul? And why waiting. Kenshin..." This Kenshin was so factual and seemed to know everything about everything even though he was so young, how long...

The other Kenshin raised his hand. "First, we must clear up one small misconception. I am not Kenshin. I am an alter ego of his. Please, call me Battousai. We must not get confused. Now, your question about souls, before I answer it, I have to ask you a question." Sanosuke blinked, so Battousai took that to mean that he should ask. "Do you agree that everyone has more than one soul?"

Sanosuke vigorously shook his head. "Everyone has only one soul. If that gets taken from the body, then the body dies."

Battousai shook his head calmly. "That's partly correct. Only one soul can fit in the body, but contrary to what you believe, a person has more than one soul. Just because it's not actually in the body doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. I am another soul for the body known as Shinta. You are another soul for the body known as Sanosuke. You are in waiting."

Sanosuke didn't know what to believe. He had been taught all his life that there was only one soul, but what this Kenshin was saying was making sense. "I am in waiting... to have possession of my body, right?"

"Correct", Battousai said. "If a person has ten souls and only one body, nine souls would be in waiting until they got into the body."

Another voice came from everywhere, and Sanosuke recognized it as the man that Battousai had been talking with earlier. "We souls don't get turns, there's only three ways that a soul can be exchanged for another in the body." Shinomori also had materialized just like Battousai had earlier.

Sanosuke averted his eyes. "Aoshi, please. Put your clothes on."

Shinomori gasped. "You're right! He still remembers the mortal realm." He turned to Battousai with a grin on his face. "Oops." When Sanosuke opened his eyes again, he saw that the Aoshi had on what he himself had on, white gi and pants complete with "evil" on the back. "You're missing something, Sano-chan." Shinomori pointed at his forehead.

My bandana.

I remembered that thin strip of red cloth that showed that I was a member of the Sekihoutai, the faces of my friends and comrades, and the face of...

Sagara.

"Oh God... can I see Captain Sagara? Please? Please!?" Sanosuke's voice went so loud that Shinomori almost fell out of his seat. Shinomori and Battousai looked at each other, something unreadable in their eyes. "Please..." Sanosuke pleaded. Just to see his master's face, it would comfort him while he was trapped in this odd spirit world...

Shinomori's voice went incredibly low; he sounded almost like the real Aoshi now. "Sagara-kun has not been with us for nearly eleven years now." Sanosuke looked ready to burst in tears, and Shinomori did not want to be the one to tell him, but it had to be done. "When the body dies, all the souls no longer exist in Gehenna. They either go... to heaven or hell."

Sanosuke felt himself teetering over his seat; that felt like a bullet just ripped through his heart. It was like losing him all over again. After about a minute of silence, he broke it with a whisper. "What is heaven? And hell?"

"The Christian method of where souls go. In actuality, that is the system used here, despite all the different religions. Heaven is where good men and women's souls go. It's like the nirvana of sorts, never-ending bliss and happiness. Hell is the opposite, bad women and men's souls go there to be tortured for all of eternity."

Shinomori rolled his eyes. "Honestly, you are so morbid, 'Batty'." Battosai growled at the use of the hated nickname, but decided to let it slide. Shinomori continued, "I'm going to answer your unspoken question. Yes, Sagara did go to heaven. The man had the highest ideals of any one person I've ever had the pleasure of knowing... all murdered men and women go here because they were robbed of mortal life, so they get everlasting life in nirvana."

Sanosuke squinted his eyes, as if to get a grasp on his thoughts. "But... what about Kenshin? Kenshin killed so many people back in the days when he was..." His breath caught in his throat when he looked over the stature of the man directly in front of him. "... when he was the... battousai."

Battousai nodded. "Yes, you're right. I did have control of the body for that brief period when I was known as the hitokiri. For that, I should be sent to hell. But..." His eyes appeared faraway for a moment; Sanosuke could almost swear that they turned purple for a brief instant. "I didn't want to kill all those people. If I atone for my sins, just like the Kenshin out there is doing, then I know I shall be forgiven."

Shinomori clapped his hands. "That's right! The sins committed by the false soul will be negated by the soul who deserves to be in the body!"

"False soul?"

"Well..." Shinomori started. "Everyone has more than one soul, right? Only one soul is ever right for that body, and one soul alone. It may not have control of that body for the longest, but you just know that it is the chosen soul. Think of it as the 'real' you that comes out when no one is looking."

"So... Battousai is not Kenshin's real soul?"

"Of course not. The real soul is in his body right now, the chosen soul. The soul of Shinta." Shinomori explained.

Sanosuke grimaced, fearing the outburst from this new Aoshi. "Are... are you the chosen soul?"

Battousai snorted. "Of course! Did you think for any moment that the real Aoshi is not flamingly gay?"

"Well..." Sanosuke was dumbstruck. This Shin-chan character, this was Aoshi's chosen soul? But how? How come he never sees this side of the Oniwa Banshuu leader before? Sanosuke knew that if he were to ever get out of this realm, he'd never look at Aoshi the same way again. "... if you're his chosen soul, why are you here?"

Shinomori smiled a bittersweet smile. "I did have control of the body, but only in the events leading up to when the body turned fifteen years old. That's when they told me that I was to become the leader of the Oniwa Banshuu. You see..." His eyes grew dark. "I loved the way I was, and I loved being so free in that body, but I decided that the best thing was not to let my feelings get in the way. I send people into battle, if they die, then they die. I couldn't let myself get hurt." Battousai and Sanosuke didn't dare move, they somehow knew that this would be the last time that Shinomori could ever talk about his past so freely. "I decided to step down and distance myself from the hurt. The man you see now, the Aoshi you know, is an alter ego."

"Alter ego... what's his name?" Sanosuke felt his heart wrench at hearing another soul's misery.

Shinomori sighed. "He has no name. He is simply the leader of the Oniwa Banshuu, nothing more. Nothing less." This Shinomori was truly the chosen soul, thinking about the body's well-being before his own. Sanosuke guessed that the body of Aoshi was at least twenty-five; the chosen soul had been trapped in Gehenna for at least ten years.

"Am... am I the chosen soul?"

Battousai and Shinomori looked at each other again, this time as if they knew something that they weren't supposed to know. Battousai got up, and in doing so, the chair he was sitting on disappeared into the mist. "This is something we cannot tell you. You have to find out for yourself." Sanosuke pleadingly looked at Shinomori, who shook his head. "I'm sorry." Battousai then disappeared, but Shinomori remained.

When Shinomori turned to go, Sanosuke bolted upright and grabbed the sleeve of the white gi that the man was wearing. "I don't know what to do here, don't leave me here in the dark." When Sanosuke realized what he said, he blinked.

Don't leave me here in the dark...

Shinomori smiled, this time, free of any secrets. Sanosuke could almost see the fatherly Sagara smiling at him. He felt so young and naïve, just like he was eight all over again. "Sano-chan, you have much to learn here." With their hands in the other, the elder leading the younger, they vanished away into the night.

Now Sanosuke remembered who always called him Sano-chan.

Sagara.

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Author's Notes: This chapter came out a bit darker than I intended, but I think it answers many of the questions that everyone has been asking. Yes, you will find out that this fic will answer ALL the questions you've been wondering in real life, like "What is the meaning of it all?" Of course, through someone in Rurouni Kenshin's eyes, like Shinomori! Aren't you just dying to know what he thinks of life? What he thinks of anything? Keep tuned in, there's lots o' humor a-brewing ahead in the next chapter!