Ebony Bliss
Rating: Still PG-13 although I was drooling as I wrote parts. The best is yet to come, I promise!
Spoilers: If you haven't seen the OVA and you don't want to know anything about it until you can see it, then you probably won't want to read past the first chapter. There are going to be some references to people and situations that happened throughout them but other then that it should be safe.
Other Warnings: It's definitely AU with a few original characters, a somewhat original plot…if it's been done before then yell at me because I haven't read much of the Kenshin fanfiction that's lying around. It may be OOC but I'll try as hard as I can to avoid that.
Archives: None yet…ask me nicely and I might let you have it
Feedback: Please! Just email me at Dark_Izunami@dangerous-minds.com, I'd love to hear what you have to say!
Blah blah blah…Kenshin is not mine…if he was…you wouldn't be seeing too much of him because he'd be locked up in my room with me for quite some time. He belongs to some really lucky person in Japan who has a lot more money then I do.
Chapter 3
"You get heavy after awhile." Ebony had to stop to rest about two hours away from the dojo. She laid Kenshin's body on the ground and plopped down under the nearest tree, resting against its sturdy trunk. "Why did you have to restrain yourself?" She asked, obviously not expecting an answer out of the still unconscious man "I shouldn't have been much of a match for you, even if you didn't know what I was capable of." She shook her head and gazed at him a moment longer "You just sold your soul to the devil because of a foolish promise to yourself."
She shut her eyes and leaned back against the tree "We probably should get moving again." She stood up reluctantly about fifteen minutes later and hefted him back onto her shoulders "The sun is going to be coming up in a few hours and we still have a long way to travel. I'd rather get you inside as soon as possible, it will just make the transition more difficult if you get to see the sun rise again."
Daybreak was just falling over the countryside when she slid into the foliage that hid her nation from the eyes of the outside world. The vines and branches were so dense that no mortal had ever dared to intrude. She shoved the branches and leaves aside, revealing a narrow path that she was able to drag Kenshin down.
The trail broke off into a fork, the wider path leading towards the village composed of her children of darkness and the narrow path to the left, showing the way to her castle. It was a bit of a hike but not many of the villagers wandered up there, providing her with the sanctuary she desired. Not many of the villagers could wander up there, they didn't have the strength for the walk. They were all starving to death and there was nothing she could do about it, at least not on her own.
The door was flung open as she made her way up the steps. "You've been gone a long time." The man noted "I take it that this is the manslayer you were after?"
She nodded "I told you I'd bring him back. I don't like breaking my promises. You should know that by now, Ryote."
Her assistant shrugged "I was assuming that this promise would be more difficult to keep then the others. You were talking about throwing down a legend after all."
"I'm not going to let my people continue to live like that. They don't deserve to die in a horrible manner like this." She picked Kenshin up again "Did you prepare the surgical room like I asked before I left?"
"It's been ready for several weeks now." A smirk played at the corner of his red lips "Have you even brought him over yet?"
"There wasn't time. His friends were always around him and by the time I beat him, I had to nearly drain two of them to get the third to leave for a doctor." She stopped short, not liking the idea of explaining her actions to anyone. "I'm tired, it's been a long day. Take him up to the surgical room and strap him to the table. With luck he won't wake up until the operation is over. I'm going to go rest for awhile and I'll attend to him later. I suggest you take a few people from the village and try to feed them. Our army won't be able to do anything if they're all starving to death."
"Speaking of the army." Ryote brushed a stray strand of hair away from his eyes "It has gained fifty new members since you left. Hotai and his four comrades went on a hunting trip to a village a few miles west of here. They couldn't stand the idea of killing all the innocent people so they fed on them and then brought them over to stifle their guilt. You've got more bodies to feed now. Let's just hope he's as strong of a hunter as the rumors say."
Ebony turned and ascended the stairs to her room in shock. More thirsts to quench when she couldn't take care of the population before she left. Everything was falling apart at the time when they needed to be building up their strength.
She locked the door to her room behind her, throwing her thin form onto her bed. "I miss you Bliss." She whispered into the thick blankets "I wish you were still here to help me through all of this." She reached under one of her pillows to bring out a small black and white photograph of two little girls playing on the porch of a faraway home. "He seems to be a lot like you." She kept speaking to the picture "Too kind to hurt anyone else, even if it means throwing his own life away. I hate the idea of doing this but what other solution is there? Everyone here is starving and we can't find enough to take care of them all. With the two of us working on it every night, we might be able to make this life a little bit more tolerable." The last word was nothing more then a breath of air as Ebony succumbed to the sleep that she had been avoiding for the past day.
The room was just as dark when she awoke as when she had fallen asleep. Her view down to the village provided her only insight to whether it was day or night. The roads were all empty and most of the lights were out, indicating that it was probably only late afternoon or early in the evening. The villagers didn't come alive until well after ten, when the sound of their empty stomachs would drive her out into the wild on a quest for food. She glanced down at the picture that had fallen to the floor "I might as well go get this over with." Ebony sighed and gently slid the photo under her pillow where it would remain until she returned.
The surgical room was down up on the third floor, a room with only a single window looking over the endless forest. The walls were thicker up there, formerly to contain heat but were now being used to muffle the screams of the patients when they woke up before she was finished.
She didn't do it for her own enjoyment. She just couldn't have the citizens reproducing and brining children into the world that would just be used as food. The mothers would shut down, kill themselves and chaos would rise up to uncontrollable levels. To solve the problem, she simple castrated the males before they planted that seed of life into their women. It was so much easier to preform a form of external surgery on the men then try to change the internal organs of a woman. A few snips and some stitches were all it took and the men seemed to get over it rather quickly. She had nothing against sex, just the end results.
He was strapped down to the table, just as she had instructed. Thankfully, he was also still unconscious which would last for the next few hours. "Okay, let's just do this quickly." She released most of the straps so she could remove his gi. "Oh Kami." She couldn't help but stare at the flesh that was revealed to her startled eyes. Creamy clear skin marred with the scars of numerous battles. Strawberries and cream, her favorite dessert as a child, that's what he reminded her of. A firm defined chest, strong but not overly muscular with two dusky rose nipples as a perfect contrast to the rest of his body. The only hair on his body seemed to be that thin trail running down his flat stomach and disappearing into his hakama. "It should be a sin." She muttered, removing the offending hakama with her eyes closed. "Ebony, you fool. You've seen a hundred naked men, why is this one so different?" She forced herself to look down at him again but couldn't help breathing a sigh of relief when she found him wearing a loincloth underneath. "A modest one." She let herself smile for a brief moment before trying to focus on the task at hand.
The more she saw of him, the more she was convinced that the gods themself had designed him from scratch. Everything about him seemed more gentle then she would have expected. His hips weren't anywhere near plump but they had a fullness that indicated a man who enjoyed his meals. With the speed she had seen him utilizing, she had expected him to be fully muscled, like every other warrior she had come across. His legs were flecked with the same colored hair as his stomach, the color of a blood tinted sunset. A crimson pearl, that's what she had come across.
She kept her eyes on his loincloth, the only thing between her and her current objective. No matter how much she willed her hands to do so, she couldn't bring herself to remove it. "Damn it." She swore, slamming her fist on the table, "Why can't I go through with this? Why is he so different from the others?" She grabbed one hand with the other, to force it to touch the knot resting on the top of his hip. She wrapped her fingers around the dangling string and was about to pull when he let out a soft moan and rolled over, making her eyes grow even wider as the loincloth slipped. "You win this time Himura." She gritted her teeth "The Gods must be in favor of you remaining a man. Don't doubt that when I get the chance, you will be castrated, just like the others. Maybe they just want me to give you a chance to adapt to this new way of living, if you can even call it that."
Kenshin woke up feeling groggy and with a pain in his head. "Wha..." He sat up slowly, wincing at the pain the simple action caused. "Am I dead?" He felt a slight breeze and looked down, feeling his cheeks heat up "Where have my clothes gone?"
"You might as well be dead." He heard a voice from behind him but a leather strap around his waist prevented him from turning to see. "Your clothes are being washed, you should have them again by morning."
"Ebony, right?" He began to work on the straps
"I'm surprised you remembered."
Kenshin finally freed himself from the table and turned, spotting her sitting in the window seat, moonlight illuminating her dark form. "Could you at least tell me where you've taken me?"
"You ask too many questions for someone who should be dead." He detected a hint of amusement in her tone.
"Is this heaven?" He asked, trying to break through to her "People sure have the wrong idea down on Earth, now don't they?"
"Just the opposite." She became even more stoic and solemn as she turned to gaze out the window again, her hand stroking the hilt of her sword.
"Then where am I?" He asked again
She didn't bother to turn and face him again "Welcome to hell, Kenshin Himura."
*Mmmm...Kenshin in a loincloth, I know I wouldn't be able to stop staring so I've got to cut Ebony some slack. I know most people would disagree with me on his body form but the guy defiantly has an ass on him and I can't see him as one of those body-builders you see on those bowflex commercials. He's got a nice form though, even without all the muscle definition. Other then that, it's pretty straight forward this time*