Email: Fourth_man@dcemail.com
Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma½,
or any of the other tittles I've planned to mix into this story, and
hereby admit that I am using them
without permission of the original creators. If some crackpot wants to
sue me because of this, and even
somehow manages to find me, please do use the backdoor. I usually
shoot through it before opening
it…
Warning: Do not sit too close to
the monitor while reading this story, as it has been scientifically proved
that it can be harmful to your eyes,
as has been the fact that reading stuff like this can permanently
damage your brain.
(Author's notes/rants/apologies follow at the end of the chapter).
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Tears of Orochi
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Prologue
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It was early in the morning, twenty-third
of May, nineteen ninety-five, when the first sunrays of the day
washed over the small private cemetery
area somewhere in the southern Kyoto. And as the light of the
morning sun swept over this patch
of earth, a lonely figure strolled through the large, black iron gates
that lead into this area of the
graveyard, where officially only the members of the family and the up
keepers of cemetery were allowed
to enter.
He was about six-foot tall, just
below twenty years old, with stark red hair, strong looking body frame,
long black overcoat, dark red leather
pants, and a pair of expensive looking boots that probably cost
more than your average salary man
could get in a month's pay. In his right hand he was cradling a small
stack of red roses, wrapped together
with some kind of white wrapping paper, and large, round bottle of
sake in his left.
The air was sharp and cold, causing
his breath to come out in small puffs of smog that were left trailing
behind him as he moved deeper into
the private grounds that had belonged to his ancestors from the
days when Kyoto had still been the
capitol of Japan. He moved past most of the graves without giving
them even a glance, pushing through
the fog that had fallen over the landscape, and not stopping until
he reached the farthest corner of
the area, where the newest additions of his bloodline had been laid to
rest. The gravestone he was standing
before now was made of simple, smooth black marble with the
name of its owner chiselled onto
its surface with large, bold golden kanji letters. The name on the stone
was Yagami Hitomi.
"Hello mother," the young man spoke
as he looked down at the headstone, a twinge of sorrow showing
on his usually stoic face. "I know
I haven't been visiting as regularly as I should have, but you probably
already know the reason behind that,
so I won't be going there now and instead get right into the reason
of my visit."
Kneeling down on one leg, the young
man placed the sake bottle next to him while unwrapping the stack
roses he had brought with him and
then laid them on the grave. "Happy birthday mother. I hope you are
at peace, wherever you are right
now, and that you aren't disappointed with what I've become. Yes, I
know that I probably aren't the
kind of man you envisioned me to become during the time you carried
me in your womb, but at least I'm
different from what father was…" he paused, looking up into the clear
blue sky, "Or at least that is what
I would like to believe."
Sighing heavily, the young man picked
up the sake bottle, pulled off the wooden cork from the ceramic
container, and then proceeded to
pour half of its content on the headstone. "This is good sake, mother.
I
know, I tasted it before I brought
it here for the sake of ensuring it."
Sitting down, he took a swing for
himself too. "Yeah, I know this stuff isn't good for me, but I need to
do
this once in a while, just to dull
the ache in my mind if for nothing else. Father did pretty well in training
me to ignore the psychical pain,
but never how to do the same with the emotional kind…" He paused for
a moment, closing his eyes as he
took several calming breaths before continuing. "Mother, I'm hurting on
the inside. I think it started on
the day of my birth, the same day you died."
"I have found myself often wondering
what it would have been like had you not passed away. Would
have father acted differently while
raising me? Would he have allowed me to have friends? Would you
have shown me the parental love
father never did? Would I have siblings? And would I still feel this
burning hate growing within me?"
He shook his head. "No, maybe its
better if we don't go there. It would just make me even more
depressed than what I already am."
After a several relaxing moments
of silence, the young man turned his gaze heavenward again and let
out a long breath he hadn't noticed
he had been holding. "I wish I wouldn't be so alone. I wish I had
someone close to spend time with,
someone to talk to, someone to whom I could open myself to without
the fear of rejection, and someone
who wouldn't be afraid of the monster that I am…"
For a long time there was nothing,
not even the sound of wind passing through, but just then, when he
was about to break the silence himself,
he heard a loud creaking sound coming from the direction of the
gates he had passed through earlier
to get here.
Curious, the young man stood up and
turned his gaze towards the aforementioned direction, to see who
was the one who dared to walk upon
the grounds that belonged to his clan. At first he saw nothing but
the fog, which had grown thicker
since the moment he had arrived. But as the time passed, he began to
hear sounds of someone walking down
the path leading to him, and soon enough he could begin to see
outlines of the figure associated
with those sounds.
"Who goes there?!" he yelled, not
hiding his anger in his voice or on the expression he wore. While he
may have not been exactly proud
of his clan, or his ancestors, this was still their holy ground and not
just
anyone was allowed to enter here.
The figure did not respond at first,
and just kept walking forward. But in a few moments the figure
became clearer, allowing the young
man to see that the intruder was a tall male, a Caucasian, with a
shoulder length blonde hair, light
grey trenchcoat, straight grey pants, and simple black leather shoes
that didn't seem to be of any particular
brand he could recognize. The man looked to be slightly taller and
older than him, though the later
was hard to tell with all the heavy stubble he had around his face. But
what really caught the observer's
attention was the small black leather briefcase he was carrying.
Standing in waiting, the son of Yagami
Hitomi glared at the approaching visitor who dared to trespass
here without permission, and began
to think of ways how he would be able to inflict the maximum pain to
this disrespectful gaijin for soiling
this place with his presence. The only thing that kept him from
attacking the man straight out was
his curiosity.
After a short moment the man was
standing before him, his dark blue eyes locked with his brown ones.
"Hello," the man started, trying
to sound friendly, but after noticing the hostile glare and the lack of
response decided that it would be
better if he continued by himself. "I know you don't know me, but you
can call me Elijah. No, I'm neither
a relative nor a friend of the family, but I do know of you, and of your
history."
The younger man narrowed his eyes, but could not mask his curiosity in his gaze.
The man smirked at him, but only
for a brief moment. "Your name is Yagami Iori. Officially you are the
last living member of your clan
that has existed for nearly two thousand years, of which it has been in
a
blood feud with another equally
old clan, the Kusanagi clan, for over six hundred years. You were raised
by your father alone, who trained
you in your family art, known as the Yagami-ryu Kobujutsu, and also
how to use the power given to you
by your heritage. He died four years ago, at the age of fifty, as a
victim of the ambition of your ancestors,
consumed by the cursed blood, which you both share and which
bestows you your power."
At the end of his speech, the man
noticed how the young man had become visibly tense, and realized
that the smartest thing to do now
would be probably getting to the point of his visit. "The reason behind
why I have come here is because
I have come across information that you might be interested of. It
concerns your family, or rather
your father specifically. Will I stop here, or do you wish to hear more?"
"Talk…" It was but a single word,
but the tone of voice it was said with, made it sound like a deadly
threat.
"I know you are quite familiar with
what kind of a man your father was," Elijah paused for a second as he
noticed Iori's eyebrow twitch, "So
I think it might not come as a surprise to you if I told you that your
father had a mistress. It was not
a long term relationship, for it last only for a year, but one that bore
fruit that not even your father
was aware of." A smug smirk decorated Elijah face as he watched how the
stoic, but threatening expression
on Iori's face suddenly transformed into one of surprise and utter
disbelief. "Yes, that is correct.
You have a brother, congratulations."
At first Iori could only stare at
the man, his mind still reeling itself after the information bomb the
stranger had just thrown at him.
But as he gradually recovered, he began to grow irritated by the grin
directed towards him and quickly
brought up his anger again. "Okay you prick, you better have some
solid proof of this, or you'll be
finding yourself with a new asshole pretty soon!"
Calmed by the sudden appearance of
a small purple flame on the younger man's right palm, Elijah wiped
away his smug expression and quickly
brought up the briefcase he carried. "Here," he said while handing
out a thin light brown paper folder
from the briefcase. "The first file is a copy of medical records that
belongs to your father's mistress;
the second one is the birth certificate of her son, dated about two
years after your own birth, and
some other social information such as home address and alike. I'm sure
you'll find the evidence you're
looking for at the birth certificate, on the spot where the child's blood
type
is mentioned."
With his hands shaking, Iori quickly
leafed through the files and found the spot he had been just told of.
The blood type had been labelled
as AB+, but with additional note that spoke of a strange anomalous
pattern in the blood sample that
should be further investigated. While it did not exactly prove anything
yet, it did somewhat solidify Elijah's
claim, but not to the extent where Iori would yet be willing to trust
him yet.
"This information proves very little
yet," Iori stated while staring at the man with slightly less hostility.
"How any of this is supposed to
prove your claim that this woman, whose medical files you've just given
me, even was my father's mistress,
or that her son is truly related to me? Or are you really expecting me
to believe just your word and some
ink on the paper?"
Elijah was smiling again, though
in much more friendly manner than before. "I don't need to prove
anything. All the information you
seek is available to you through those files. The only thing you need to
do is to follow the leads therein
to their source, as that's where all the answers to your questions will
be."
With that said, he closed his briefcase
and prepared to leave.
"Hey, wait! I'm not through with
you yet!" Iori yelled as he lunged forward, intending to beat the gaijin
into giving him something else than
just some cryptic bullshit. But as soon as he was about to reach him,
an incredibly strong gust of wind
blew right into his face that forced him to close his eyes for a brief
moment. It lasted for a mere second,
but as soon as he reopened his eyes, he realized that the man he
had been looking forward to beating
into a bloody pulp was nowhere to be seen. Even the fog had
disappeared. All that remained of
his mysterious informant was the small folder he still had gripped
tightly in his hands.
"Crap…" If there were one thing that
Iori hated and would have to name, then it would be mysteries. He
had never been good at puzzles,
and his patience was as short as the gap between his brain lobes. And
what was worse was the fact that
he wouldn't be able to solve this problem by his usual methods, by
beating into submission. He might
actually need to use his head this time. No, things were definitely not
looking good for him.
Turning back to his mother's grave,
he picked up the sake bottle, put the cork back on, and gave a quick
peck on the headstone before standing
back. "I'm sorry mother, but I need to cut my visit short this
time. Something's come up, and I
really need to look into this. I'll make up for this on my next visit,
I
promise!" And with that said he
was off.
Looking down at the files he had
been give, Iori gazed down at the name of the woman whom Elijah had
claimed to be his father's old mistress.
She had a rare last name, which would make his search much
easier than what he had expected,
even more so when he noticed that her home address was
located in right here, in Kyoto.
Just how many Saotomes could there possibly be in this city?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
End of Prologue…
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ok, first of all, I would like to
apologize to the old fans of the original work, which I did slightly over
two
years ago under different penname.
It didn't go far, just one chapter…one BIG chapter, and it was posted
only at two small private sites,
but it still gradually got quite a large-scale response due time. I wasn't
able to continue the original story
for two reasons. One, it was full of grammar errors and was badly
plotted, something where I could
not, at my current level, just go create and sequel without redoing it
from the very start, which brings
us here at present day. I changed my pen-name, rewrote the entire
plot, leaving only the base setting
untouched, did some major consulting with the right side of my brain
on how to write this thing down,
and voila.
Now I know this wasn't exactly long
chapter, but then again, it wasn't meant to be. It was meant to
attract the attention of the readers,
to get them hooked (of which I am not quite certain yet). Of course
the main idea here was still basically
just to create something that the people could enjoy to read and I
could enjoy writing without becoming
any further insane than what I already am. I hope I succeeded at
least at some extent.
Anyways, I'll be trying to get the
next chapter done as soon as I can. I'm a busy person at the time being
though; so don't be expecting an
update anytime soon. If you're lucky, I'll get something done by the
end of the month, hopefully a chapter
three times, or at least twice as big as this one was. But until
then…
Next Chapter: Unexpected Visitors