Where the Shadow lies
Chapter 1
3 years ago.
Aoshi leaned against the door, wondering why he had felt such an unfamiliar tug in his heart. He was at the Mayor's home in Tokyo, along with several other important officials from Japan attending a meeting. So far, the meeting had consisted of nothing but generally wasting Aoshi's time because the mayor and officials had been busy partying the entire time. Okina had informed him that this would be a quiet informal gathering of Japan's powerful politicians, but apparently it was not. It was a party that Aoshi would have preferred to ignore, but his ties to the secret police and as the reinstated Okashira of Oniwa Banshuu demanded that he did attend the party.
Looking up at the clock, Aoshi found that enough time had elapsed since his arrival at the party and that he could now leave without seeming to be rude. All he had to do now was to find the mayor and say his farewells. He stood up and walked down the dimly lighted hallway, his mind wandering not for the first time, how Misao was doing on a night like this.
It had been nearly five years since she had left the Aoiya to go on her own journey in an attempt to make herself much more stronger since Jiya and himself had refused oblige. and to get away from the sting of his rejection. Since her departure, she made it a habit to visit the Oniwa Banshuu once a year, always on a time that Aoshi was gone on business. Those visits usually lasted three days before Misao left the Aoiya despite the protests and pleadings of the other Oniwa Banshuus; but the most recent one of all had brought along much more protests since she had brought along with the troublesome ex-Juppon-Gatana Chou. That visit had brought on nothing but worry and the attempt to locate Misao wherever she was to bring her back home for good. That task proved to be useless, for Misao was part of the Oniwa Banshuu and when one didn't want to be found, one wouldn't be found, not even if you had the secret police helping you out.
Aoshi sighed quietly and then stopped when he reached the center of the party. He scanned the entire room and the found that the Mayor was sitting at the far side of the room surrounded by several geisha and politicians. All of them were quite beautiful, but none so more then the one that had just come back to the table after escorting the foreigner Commodore Matthew Perry to the bathroom. Aoshi found himself watching her as she gracefully entered in the conversation and flirt with the mayor.
She was a petite thing, and from Aoshi's guess, not more than an inch past five feet. She had large blue eyes, the color of a really good sapphire and blue-black hair that was pulled up into an elegant bun that emphasized her slender neck and triangular face. Her eyes sparkled with humor and mischief, much like Misao's, Aoshi thought guiltily, before the event. She wore the magnificent makeup of a geisha; her face painted a milky white, the color contrasted to inky black eyebrows and red-as-blood lips. It piqued Aoshi's curiosity to see that where all the geisha's make- up seemed to blend in with their own skin tones, hers was like a mask that invited a man to see what she was under the make-up and rich kimono. It was oddly erotic as Aoshi felt himself drawn to her sensual outfit. He saw that he wasn't the only one attracted to her, because the man next to her poured her a cup of sake as he tried to place a hand on her thigh. He could see the irritation in her eyes as she brushed his hand away.
As of the geisha she sensed Aoshi's eyes on her, she looked up. For a brief moment, their eyes met, and it seemed as if a jolt of electricity had passed through them. The geisha broke contact, seemingly shaken, for she immediately turned back to the man whom she had recently refused and began to flirt with him in earnest.
Aoshi shook his head, trying to get rid of the feelings that the geisha had somehow manage to bring in him. A glint of steel caught his eye, and he bellowed out a warning at the mayor as the shuriken headed towards him. Immediately his twin kodachi appeared in his hands as charged forward only to be shocked to a standstill when an incredible thing happened.
The geisha whom Aoshi had been eyeing before drew out an iron fan. The tessen immediately deflected the shuriken causing it to bounce harmlessly onto the table. The man at her side immediately grabbed at it as the geisha stood up, shoving the Mayor away from the danger as she kicked the man on the head. The occupants in the room screamed as they realized why they had just seen and made a desperate run for the exit. Stunned but not out of commission, the man leapt forward in an attempt to do the geisha harm, but she was having none of it. She dodged his slash and took the opportunity to slice his throat with the iron fan. Just as she sliced his throat, a shadowy portal opened and out stepped a dozen shinobi. Immediately they split into half as one group headed towards the geisha and the other towards Aoshi who was steadily fighting his way through the undercover attackers.
"Sakura!" the thin balding old man cried out, "Protect me!"
The geisha Sakura didn't even bother to answer as she ducked under the shinobi's kick and slicing him on the thigh as she jumped back up to land a powerhouse kick on his face. As she was up in the air, her body was already in motion, twisting as she flipped over another shinobi slicing his back with her deadly fan. She landed and immediately went low, giving the ninja behind her a sweeping kick. Even as the man was falling back, the geisha remained in motion, not content to merely disable. Her fan was a sharp glimmer in the air as she sliced him open like a gutted fish. Blood spurted out a geyser, splattering and ruining the expensive kimono and make- up.
Aoshi heard her grunt with the effort of parrying blow after blow that a pair of shinobi was giving her. They were trying to wear her down with brute strength. She caught a katana at the bottom opening of her iron fan and immediately closed it, lashing out with a kick to the head; exposing a shapely leg that had knocked the man unconscious. She opened the tessen again and flicked it over her left shoulder, barely missing the dagger to her shoulder as the blade hit and put out the eye of the shinobi behind her. He dropped his tanto with a cry as he clutched at his eye, leaving himself unprotected and vulnerable. Sakura turned and narrowly missed being skewered by another tanto. It hit the sleeves of her kimono, ripping the expensive fabric and pulling down the lowered kimono even lower.
Aoshi calmly dispatched the rest of the ninja that had come after him and quickly headed towards the mayor and Sakura. The remaining shinobis, seeing Aoshi and Sakura's arrival lack of failure, made haste towards the shadowy portal in the room to escape.
Aoshi stopped, astonished. There had been only on type of ninja clan that could have slipped into shadows like that, but they were destroyed, the last surviving member was Okina, himself, and Misao's dead mother and father. The Kasumi were supposed to be an extinct onmitsu clan, but could someone have possibly survived that massacre besides Misao's long dead mother? Aoshi put that thought away, saving it for later as he approached the geisha-turned-warrior and the cringing mayor.
"Ayame-san?" he said, his voice a cool monotone. "Are you alright?"
The mayor continued sitting on the floor, looking at Sakura with astonished eyes. Aoshi suppressed a sigh as he repeated his question. The mayor still didn't answer until the geisha turned around to ask the shrinking man the same question.
The mayor flinched at her voice before replying. "I'm. oh dear. I'm. I think. I think I need to lay down."
Sakura smiled gently at the man, charming him despite the stains of blood on her face as she said, "Don't worry Ayame-san! The police will be here and they'll take care of everything." She patted his hand and continued to smile at him.
As if on cue, several policemen stepped into the empty rooms of the once vivacious party. Aoshi wasn't surprised to see the head of the secret police among them. Sakura inclined her head to the captain in respect and Saitoh Hajime acknowledged it with a sardonic smile of his own as his men took the mayor away from the bloody battle-scene.
Sakura stood next to Aoshi, trying to pull up the neckline of her ruined kimono when he turned and spoke to her. "Are you alright?" he had looked down to ask and was assailed with the scent of the cherry blossoms she was so aptly named after. It made him think of Misao and immediately pushed that memory of her away. He was not worthy of such a young woman.
Sakura said nothing for the moment until she was finally able to pull up her ruined kimono. She then shrugged at Aoshi as she said, "I could have taken them you know. I didn't need any help."
Surprised, Aoshi stared at her and was filled with the feeling that he had known her from somewhere before. Though he was a man not normally given to his emotions, Aoshi felt something akin to annoyance coupled with something he could not name enter his being as he watched Sakura try to put some semblance of order to her clothes. He had not even known her for more then few minutes and she had already gotten under his skin, and the only ones who had ever been able to actually arouse any sort of emotions from Aoshi was Misao and her mother. He opened his mouth to say something when he heard Saitoh call out for her.
"Hai Fujita-san," Sakura said. She bowed down to Aoshi once in respect as she said, "Please excuse me." Shoulders straight and with dignity that he could admire, she swept past him, unconcerned about the state of her clothing and regal as a princess.
Not one to wait until Saitoh Hajime publicly known as Fujita Goro, head of the Kyoto Police called him, Aoshi headed out towards the doorway. If Mibu's wolf needed Aoshi, he knew where to find him. Aoshi had other important things to do, like finding out if there were actually any survivors left from the Kasumi clan, and if so, why were they attacking Japan's most prestigious officials; and most importantly, to find Misao and to warn her of the danger. As Aoshi left the Mayor's home, he was filled with a sense of exhilaration he had not felt in a long time and a familiar ache in his heart.
Chapter 1
3 years ago.
Aoshi leaned against the door, wondering why he had felt such an unfamiliar tug in his heart. He was at the Mayor's home in Tokyo, along with several other important officials from Japan attending a meeting. So far, the meeting had consisted of nothing but generally wasting Aoshi's time because the mayor and officials had been busy partying the entire time. Okina had informed him that this would be a quiet informal gathering of Japan's powerful politicians, but apparently it was not. It was a party that Aoshi would have preferred to ignore, but his ties to the secret police and as the reinstated Okashira of Oniwa Banshuu demanded that he did attend the party.
Looking up at the clock, Aoshi found that enough time had elapsed since his arrival at the party and that he could now leave without seeming to be rude. All he had to do now was to find the mayor and say his farewells. He stood up and walked down the dimly lighted hallway, his mind wandering not for the first time, how Misao was doing on a night like this.
It had been nearly five years since she had left the Aoiya to go on her own journey in an attempt to make herself much more stronger since Jiya and himself had refused oblige. and to get away from the sting of his rejection. Since her departure, she made it a habit to visit the Oniwa Banshuu once a year, always on a time that Aoshi was gone on business. Those visits usually lasted three days before Misao left the Aoiya despite the protests and pleadings of the other Oniwa Banshuus; but the most recent one of all had brought along much more protests since she had brought along with the troublesome ex-Juppon-Gatana Chou. That visit had brought on nothing but worry and the attempt to locate Misao wherever she was to bring her back home for good. That task proved to be useless, for Misao was part of the Oniwa Banshuu and when one didn't want to be found, one wouldn't be found, not even if you had the secret police helping you out.
Aoshi sighed quietly and then stopped when he reached the center of the party. He scanned the entire room and the found that the Mayor was sitting at the far side of the room surrounded by several geisha and politicians. All of them were quite beautiful, but none so more then the one that had just come back to the table after escorting the foreigner Commodore Matthew Perry to the bathroom. Aoshi found himself watching her as she gracefully entered in the conversation and flirt with the mayor.
She was a petite thing, and from Aoshi's guess, not more than an inch past five feet. She had large blue eyes, the color of a really good sapphire and blue-black hair that was pulled up into an elegant bun that emphasized her slender neck and triangular face. Her eyes sparkled with humor and mischief, much like Misao's, Aoshi thought guiltily, before the event. She wore the magnificent makeup of a geisha; her face painted a milky white, the color contrasted to inky black eyebrows and red-as-blood lips. It piqued Aoshi's curiosity to see that where all the geisha's make- up seemed to blend in with their own skin tones, hers was like a mask that invited a man to see what she was under the make-up and rich kimono. It was oddly erotic as Aoshi felt himself drawn to her sensual outfit. He saw that he wasn't the only one attracted to her, because the man next to her poured her a cup of sake as he tried to place a hand on her thigh. He could see the irritation in her eyes as she brushed his hand away.
As of the geisha she sensed Aoshi's eyes on her, she looked up. For a brief moment, their eyes met, and it seemed as if a jolt of electricity had passed through them. The geisha broke contact, seemingly shaken, for she immediately turned back to the man whom she had recently refused and began to flirt with him in earnest.
Aoshi shook his head, trying to get rid of the feelings that the geisha had somehow manage to bring in him. A glint of steel caught his eye, and he bellowed out a warning at the mayor as the shuriken headed towards him. Immediately his twin kodachi appeared in his hands as charged forward only to be shocked to a standstill when an incredible thing happened.
The geisha whom Aoshi had been eyeing before drew out an iron fan. The tessen immediately deflected the shuriken causing it to bounce harmlessly onto the table. The man at her side immediately grabbed at it as the geisha stood up, shoving the Mayor away from the danger as she kicked the man on the head. The occupants in the room screamed as they realized why they had just seen and made a desperate run for the exit. Stunned but not out of commission, the man leapt forward in an attempt to do the geisha harm, but she was having none of it. She dodged his slash and took the opportunity to slice his throat with the iron fan. Just as she sliced his throat, a shadowy portal opened and out stepped a dozen shinobi. Immediately they split into half as one group headed towards the geisha and the other towards Aoshi who was steadily fighting his way through the undercover attackers.
"Sakura!" the thin balding old man cried out, "Protect me!"
The geisha Sakura didn't even bother to answer as she ducked under the shinobi's kick and slicing him on the thigh as she jumped back up to land a powerhouse kick on his face. As she was up in the air, her body was already in motion, twisting as she flipped over another shinobi slicing his back with her deadly fan. She landed and immediately went low, giving the ninja behind her a sweeping kick. Even as the man was falling back, the geisha remained in motion, not content to merely disable. Her fan was a sharp glimmer in the air as she sliced him open like a gutted fish. Blood spurted out a geyser, splattering and ruining the expensive kimono and make- up.
Aoshi heard her grunt with the effort of parrying blow after blow that a pair of shinobi was giving her. They were trying to wear her down with brute strength. She caught a katana at the bottom opening of her iron fan and immediately closed it, lashing out with a kick to the head; exposing a shapely leg that had knocked the man unconscious. She opened the tessen again and flicked it over her left shoulder, barely missing the dagger to her shoulder as the blade hit and put out the eye of the shinobi behind her. He dropped his tanto with a cry as he clutched at his eye, leaving himself unprotected and vulnerable. Sakura turned and narrowly missed being skewered by another tanto. It hit the sleeves of her kimono, ripping the expensive fabric and pulling down the lowered kimono even lower.
Aoshi calmly dispatched the rest of the ninja that had come after him and quickly headed towards the mayor and Sakura. The remaining shinobis, seeing Aoshi and Sakura's arrival lack of failure, made haste towards the shadowy portal in the room to escape.
Aoshi stopped, astonished. There had been only on type of ninja clan that could have slipped into shadows like that, but they were destroyed, the last surviving member was Okina, himself, and Misao's dead mother and father. The Kasumi were supposed to be an extinct onmitsu clan, but could someone have possibly survived that massacre besides Misao's long dead mother? Aoshi put that thought away, saving it for later as he approached the geisha-turned-warrior and the cringing mayor.
"Ayame-san?" he said, his voice a cool monotone. "Are you alright?"
The mayor continued sitting on the floor, looking at Sakura with astonished eyes. Aoshi suppressed a sigh as he repeated his question. The mayor still didn't answer until the geisha turned around to ask the shrinking man the same question.
The mayor flinched at her voice before replying. "I'm. oh dear. I'm. I think. I think I need to lay down."
Sakura smiled gently at the man, charming him despite the stains of blood on her face as she said, "Don't worry Ayame-san! The police will be here and they'll take care of everything." She patted his hand and continued to smile at him.
As if on cue, several policemen stepped into the empty rooms of the once vivacious party. Aoshi wasn't surprised to see the head of the secret police among them. Sakura inclined her head to the captain in respect and Saitoh Hajime acknowledged it with a sardonic smile of his own as his men took the mayor away from the bloody battle-scene.
Sakura stood next to Aoshi, trying to pull up the neckline of her ruined kimono when he turned and spoke to her. "Are you alright?" he had looked down to ask and was assailed with the scent of the cherry blossoms she was so aptly named after. It made him think of Misao and immediately pushed that memory of her away. He was not worthy of such a young woman.
Sakura said nothing for the moment until she was finally able to pull up her ruined kimono. She then shrugged at Aoshi as she said, "I could have taken them you know. I didn't need any help."
Surprised, Aoshi stared at her and was filled with the feeling that he had known her from somewhere before. Though he was a man not normally given to his emotions, Aoshi felt something akin to annoyance coupled with something he could not name enter his being as he watched Sakura try to put some semblance of order to her clothes. He had not even known her for more then few minutes and she had already gotten under his skin, and the only ones who had ever been able to actually arouse any sort of emotions from Aoshi was Misao and her mother. He opened his mouth to say something when he heard Saitoh call out for her.
"Hai Fujita-san," Sakura said. She bowed down to Aoshi once in respect as she said, "Please excuse me." Shoulders straight and with dignity that he could admire, she swept past him, unconcerned about the state of her clothing and regal as a princess.
Not one to wait until Saitoh Hajime publicly known as Fujita Goro, head of the Kyoto Police called him, Aoshi headed out towards the doorway. If Mibu's wolf needed Aoshi, he knew where to find him. Aoshi had other important things to do, like finding out if there were actually any survivors left from the Kasumi clan, and if so, why were they attacking Japan's most prestigious officials; and most importantly, to find Misao and to warn her of the danger. As Aoshi left the Mayor's home, he was filled with a sense of exhilaration he had not felt in a long time and a familiar ache in his heart.