Natsumaeni - Before Summer

In the center of the brewing hostilities in Japan stood the capital, Kyoto. Beneath the relatively peaceful-seeming lives of the peoples that took their residence and business there was the underlying threat of the battling factions who continuously opposed one another. Always in shadow, kept from the eyes of common folk who would much rather be ignorant of the things that some would be unfortunate enough to see. Among those living on the sidelines and in secret was the Choshu clan, whose leader was the young, but brilliant Kogoro Katsura.
Those who followed him were chosen through meticulous training strategies in a camp known as the Kihei-tai. Many swordsmen, young and seasoned, would seek this place to prove their skills. If they were found strong enough, they would be further trained in the ways of the assassin..or the hitokiri. Not only did their bodies have to be conditioned for strenuous conditions they would no doubt face..their minds would have to be strengthened as well. They had to understand the purpose that they were present to serve before Katsura would approve.
It was only a month earlier that Katsura had witnessed the unbelievable abilities of a young man. He quickly became known and even feared among those of the Kihei-tai for his unparalleled strength and speed. Looking at him, at first, Katsura recalled that he had nearly scoffed at the idea that a child would strike fear into even his Kihei-tai leader. But watching the silent boy as he stood relaxed in front of the standing log, he could sense something hidden beneath the childish exterior. And when the log fell, split in two separate peices in no more than the blink of an eye, he knew that this boy, with the flaming red hair, must be taken beneath his command.
Katsura's hand, even now, rested quietly on the shoulder of that same young boy as they spoke in short whisper to arrange his next meeting. They were at the Aoiyama Inn, where many of his hitokiri were lodged. The boy received many odd looks, as there weren't many as young as him, if any, in their small but effective group. But then, no one questioned either the young swordsman, or the man who they looked to as leader.
Despite the rainclouds that threatened on the horizon, Katsura had arrived to speak with Kenshin, as he always did with any of the assignments. He didn't use messengers unless it was absolutely necessary. There would be crimson in the sky in the morning. A life would be taken this night.
The young swordsman tipped his head down a bit, his sword resting against his shoulder, one hand on the sheath, his fingers loose and calm. His other arm stretched out, resting on an upraised knee, his socked toes curling lightly against the mat beneath him. Violet eyes were shielded beneath the soft strands of red that dusted against the skin of his face.
His fingers barely twitched when he heard the wood of the door scraping against its track, the screen pulling back. He expected Katsura, so immediately looked up to where Katsura's face should be. Nothing? Naught but the black night beyond the door. His eyes naturally began to travel downward, finally resting on the form of a young boy, about his age, at first glance. Kenshin had learned to gauge others quickly...a skill that was well-used in this line of work. This boy was too...beautiful to be Kenshin's age. He was younger..perhaps by only one year, but younger. He had not been hitokiri long, either. This boy was green..fresh. His eyes were large, a deep brown, his hair a deep black that caught the sheen of the moon in such a way as to give it a blue hue.
"Gomen nasai...wrong room." A simple apology, but polite enough. The boy gave a respectful bow to the other assassin.
"Yurute, de gozaru." Kenshin's response was similar...short, but polite. His conversation went no further than that, however. He found no reason to elaborate...and nothing to elaborate about. He judged quietly with his gaze on the boy once more before returning his attention to his surroundings.
The door was closed once more, the boy's steps heard fading away outside. Searching for the dining room, most likely. It was past dinnertime, after all. Footsteps again, and this time, when Kenshin's eyes inquired as to who was present, it was the Choshu leader as he expected. The dark-haired man smiled faintly, as he seemed somewhat prone to do. He was amiable enough, but he was faithful and stern about his men.

Their meeting was not long at all...as he only needed to give Kenshin information on the subject to be dealt with, and the location that they would be found. It wasn't long before the leader left Kenshin to rest as he would and moved to find his next charge. "Hiko-san?" You've just arrived in Kyoto, have you not?" The same dark-haired boy that had seen Kenshin previously was the one who was approached by the leader, the young man turning to look up at the taller man. "Hn? ..Hai. Katsura-san?" Katsura obviously had given the simple greeting to make himself less imposing to one who would not have met him before.
"Hai, I am Kogoro Katsura. I'd like to talk with you. I apologize that you haven't had much time to settle in, but we wish to put you to work right away." He was very professional, as well, but that was to be expected. What seemed more odd to the boy was the way the other soldiers of the clan seemed to disperse once he started talking to the young new hitokiri.
"Hai." The agreement is given in a distracted manner, due to the fact that he's able to note the men suddenly disappearing. "I suspect that this assignment is not a desired one?"
"None of our assignments are desired ones, Hiko-kun. Tonight, there is an assassination set to take place. On your agreement, you'll be going with the primary assassin, to make sure the job is done. We're not worried about his succeeding, but there may be a lot of people, and it needs to be done quickly and with no witnesses." Quick and to the point. It is the way all of his meetings are held. There is no need to dawdle on minute details. If they have made it beneath his command, they have no need for details.
"Hai, of course. Himura Kenshin, ne? I saw him earlier." It's hard to mistake the young man, really. His red hair makes him stand out.
"Hai, you will go with Himura. Be careful not to be in his way. He is strong... He isn't careless, but such power inherently merits caution." The older man nodded as if in confirmation of his words.
"It is never wise to get in the way of a man with a sword and the heart of an assassin." The boy's fingers twitched faintly around the hilt of his katana...a very old sword, it appeared. The wrappings were a bit worn and frayed. The boy didn't appear to be old or experienced enough to have used the blade quite that much. Perhaps a family heirloom. "Himura-san will fill me in on the details, then?"
"No, it is not his way to talk much about that sort of thing unless necessary. He'll be leaving just after nightfall. You can meet him out at the corner of the restaurant." The man was relaxed as he explained the situation to Hiko, which inexorably was successful in relaxing Hiko and allowing him to free his mind of anxiety. "There is a prefecture magistrate that you are being sent to kill. He has a troop of six guards, and so we want to ensure that none can get away by sending two instead of just one. Himura-san knows the way, so just follow his lead. Once done, Iizuka will clean up the remains and you will both be out of there."
The boy bowed his head lightly to show his agreement and cooperation. "As you say, Katsura-san."
The man considered for a moment that this boy was almost as quiet as Kenshin. Whether it was for a similar reason that he held his tongue, he didn't know, and he wouldn't pry. By the tone and pitch of his voice, he didn't seem to have completely reached adolescence yet, which is unusual..but then many youths penetrate the ranks of the soldiers from time to time, and ususally they're screened out. If the boy got this far, though, there must be a reason for him not having been sent away yet. "Be careful. We can not afford to lose any of our men. I leave it to you." And with that, the man turned and walked away, vanishing down the hallways and out into the city.

The boy closed his eyes, his head bowing faintly, as he allowed a slightly relieved breath release from his lungs. A steeling breath was drawn back into them as he prepared himself for the wait and the battle that will be ahead. He must find Himura-san now. "He doesn't talk...he seems to block everything out..." His fingers slid the screened door aside where he had found Himura previously, dark eyes peering into the room. Kenshin was still there, his head now bowed, though in much the exact position that he had been in when they had encountered previously. "Quiet and deadly...the perfect assassin. This is what was told to me about you, Himura Kenshin." There's no doubt in his mind that he would like to know Kenshin and become his friend. They were similar in age, after all.
It made no difference, at this point, really. The other hitokiri was asleep, finding it necessary to rest before being out all night to perform an assassination. It made sense to young Hiko, and so the boy stepped into the room, sliding the door shut behind him as he leaned against the wall near it. He gave a pause before he let himself slide along the wood panels to sit on the floor. His swords were laid comfortably across his lap..which was very different from Kenshin's relaxed, but almost eerily alert position, with his sword hugged against his chest.
"Perhaps I will get to know you better...or perhaps this may be our last night within each other's sights. Maybe I will never see you again...but I hope that I'm wrong." His head bowed faintly, dark eyes closing as he chose to follow suit of Kenshin and rest.

His senses snapped back into being, dark eyes opening and fluttering rapidly to chase the sleep away. With a faint shocked expression, he glanced up from his position, praying that Kenshin was still there. To his relief, the red-haired hitokiri was still resting across the room. The young boy stirred as relief washed over his body. He must leave now. It wouldn't be wise to allow Kenshin to find some strange boy sleeping in his room.
He snuck out quietly and uneventfully, which was yet another source of relief for the young boy. The stars blanketed the sky, the cricket's already chirping their night song as Hiko made his way to the meeting place. The cool night air was refreshing to him, brisk and clean. He filled his lungs heavily with the fresh air, not noticing that the red-haired assassin was approaching.
"You are Kagami Hiko, are you not?" His voice was calm, but enough to cause the young boy to jump in surprise, his dark hair prickling at the back of his neck as he turned his dark gaze to meet Kenshin's unusually beautiful violet one. The question itself was not unusual to Hiko..merely the fact that Kenshin had arrived only moments after he had. He hoped that Kenshin hadn't seen him leaving the room. If he had, he was giving no concern over it.
"Hai. Just call me Hiko. It makes things much easier." The young boy bowed respectfully, Kenshin returning the gesture with only a nod. He studied the boy, likely ensuring himself that he was speaking to the correct person, and not a spy. The red-haired assassin nodded, as if approving, and with no further word, he turned and began walking.
Hiko followed behind, noting to himself that he had expected Himura's footsteps to be as silent as death itself. They weren't quiet, but they weren't the kind to attract attention either. It was Kenshin himself who was silent as death. He said nothing, and was likely to say nothing unless his new traveling companion spoke to him. And unless it was something worth answering.
Kenshin found himself glancing back quietly to Hiko, though not long enough to be noticed. His shoulders tensed faintly, then relaxed. Tension was in the air. Hiko obviously wanted to say something, and from anyone else he would have been able to hide that fact. The boy wore an expression almost devoid of sense or emotion. A mask, but a very good mask. "You want to say something."
Kenshin's words caused Hiko to startle out of his reverie. He should have known that the young man would have been more perceptive than most. His fingers played briefly at the frayed wrappings on the hilt of his sheathed katana, smoothing them down.
"We will be there in ten minutes, so you should talk now if you want to." Kenshin's words were almost unemotional, but the fact that he took notice showed Hiko that he wasn't quite as much of a devil as rumors had made him out to be.
"Iie. I wouldn't know where to begin, in any case. It's a pity that we couldn't have met under less hurried circumstances." The boy looked away from his companion's back, hoping to keep his mind on the mission that was close at hand. He couldn't be distracted by anything. He would have to be at his most alert to serve Kenshin as he should.

After several more minutes of walking and silence, Kenshin finally stopped at the corner of a building, his violet eyes turning their keen gaze around the wood edge along the street. Hiko pressed his back against the wall just beside Kenshin, looking only at the hitokiri's profile as he spoke of what he saw. "They will pass by, and we will come out and attack from here. I see seven of them."
"I will take the back of the group. To ensure that they don't scatter and run...and draw attention." Hiko nodded in affirmation. "I will see firsthand if you live up to your reputation, Himura Kenshin."
"It will take a few moments due to their numbers. Do not expect the impossible, Hiko-san." The statement wasn't irritated, which was a relief to Hiko. He would certainly dislike being on Kenshin's bad side. The two fell silent, waiting then for the group to approach closer.
It was without a single word that Kenshin suddenly struck, like a cobra springing from its coil. The guards must have been particularly alert, for the single leader drew his sword. Hiko stepped out from the corner to gauge the situation first. Seven of them, just as Kenshin had said, circled about the magistrate that was their aim.
Despite the readiness of the single man, taking the time to draw his sword was more than enough time for Kenshin to duck beneath an attempted strike, his sword drawn from its sheath in a mere hairsbreadth of a second. He was as fast as the rumors had said...even faster than they had said, truly. The power behind the unsheathing gave enough momentum to the young assassin that the sword not only cut fatally into the first man's chest beneath his ribcage, but it also continued on to dig into the flesh of the man beside him, in his stomach. Both fell in only half a minute's time, if that.
Hiko admired only for a moment, stunned by the deadly speed. His hands went to his sword finally, drawing it and charging the others who were now distracted by the appearance of the red-haired assassin and the speed with which he felled their companions. The first victim of Hiko's strike hadn't even heard the approach of the young man, his head soon swept from his very shoulders in a simple clean strike. The man beside him certainly noticed however, blood spattering his cheek and shoulder. It caused him to jump back, raising his sword swiftly to deflect the blow that Hiko aimed for him. Two of them! This assassin wasn't schooled in battoujutsu as Himura was. But he seemed just as deadly, and unusually powerful, despite a rather small frame.
In a sudden blow, the sandaled foot of the young assassin struck out against the man's knee. The force buckled his leg painfully backward, eliciting a howl of pain from the man before his voice was silenced by a katana thrust into his stomach. The same foot that had kicked and probably shattered his kneecap pushed his body away from the katana. His last vision was a devoid expression from the dark-haired assassin before his eyes clouded in death.
Kenshin, meanwhile, deflected hasty swings from the men on either side of the magistrate, before stabbing one and then the other in the chest and neck, respectively. He doesn't waste time, that much is certain. His violet gaze noted Hiko charging the last of the bodyguards before he turned his deathlike gaze to the magistrate. The man drew his sword, defending himself against Kenshin's onslaught admirably, but it was all for naught. Kenshin's sword descended in a very standard cut that all swordsmen know, but the cut was powerful enough to sheer through not only the blade of his opponent's sword, but his head as well.
He turned to face Hiko as Iizuka suddenly appeared from the shadows, speaking even as the steel of Hiko's sword sang in preparation to strike. "Iizuka-san...please clean this mess up." His utterance of the name was truthfully the only thing to halt Hiko's hand, his dark eyes looking to Kenshin. The young man whipped his sword aside, flinging blood free from the blade before he returned it to its sheath with a soft click. "We are done here, Hiko-san. We need to leave."
The boy nodded in response, crouching quietly and lifting the fabric of one of the fallen soldier's hakama, cleaning his sword carefully before he replaced it in its sheath. Without a word, he was suddenly walking away, seeming more than relieved to get away from the area. It was cause for surprise and concern on Kenshin's part, since he had really expected Hiko to follow him. He wondered if perhaps the scene had affected the boy more than he would let on. It would do no good for him to lose his senses from the shock. "Daijoubu ka?"
"Hai. Simply reflecting on the fact that I am still alive."
Kenshin nodded in response. "We need to get out of here before the Shinsengumi arrive." Being caught by their patrols were not a pleasant thing to experience.
"The Shinsengumi are a joke to themselves and their countrymen. They live only for the power and status that comes with their title and they care nothing for the lives of their fellow men." It seemed to surprise even Kenshin that the boy snapped his response with such ferocity. Despite that, the assassin didn't seem angered. "Gomen nasai, Himura-san. I did not mean to react that way." The boy bowed in apology, giving Kenshin no reason to not believe his apology.
"They are warriors, like any others in this day and age. All see some corrupt members pass through their ranks, and some collect them. However, it is time for us to leave, lest we be caught here." He elaborated no further on the fact that Hiko reacted so angrily to his warning, and seemed only to forget.

The trek back to the Aoiyama Inn was a similarly long stroll, but it was not unpleasant, thanks to the cool night. Naturally , Kenshin spoke no further, and it seemed that the most he would ever talk was when there was business to be taken care of. The silence almost seemed to worry Hiko, however, and he quickened his pace to catch up to Kenshin. "I didn't mean to snap at you back there, Himura-san.." He certainly did not want to offend in any way. "The Shinsengumi are a thorn in my side. A ..sensitive subject."
"As they are for Katsura-san, also." He responded quickly, but quietly. It was his way. "Most of us have enemies that we are here to fight for one reason or another. It is not wrong for you to have one as well."
"Katsura-san? Because he is the leader of the Choshu?" It did not surprise him that the Shinsengumi would have more enemies than himself.
"His master was put to death by the Shogunate, and the Shinsengumi fight to preserve that institution, whcih we fight to destroy, in order to bring about a better world for the people of this country."
"Hai. Katsura-san is a very admirable man. Very much like my father. I hope to be like him someday." The young boy's voice softened faintly upon speaking of his father. He must hold him in high esteem.
"It is a good goal to have. I see no reason that you would not be able to." It is likely not a goal that Kenshin shares, himself. Then again, very few people even know why he's fighting this soon-to-be war. In fact, it seems as if he's there just for the sake of being there, most of the time.