Author's Note-Yay! The school week is gonna be cut short! And that means
more time to write. ^_^ Anyways, the only downside is that I don't own
Animorphs or Rurouni Kenshin. . .though I wish I did!
~Sanosuke~
Cassie finished resetting my hand. "There we go." She said, smiling. "Your hand should be better in a couple of weeks. What'd you break it on?"
I explained to her about the battle with Shishio. She listened intently, then shook her head. "These are violent times." She commented.
"Yeah. The government isn't very stable. Personally, I hate it. But people try to take advantage of the instability, so we have our share of evil characters around here. That's where Kenshin and I come in. We protect Japan from evil." I replied.
"So do we, you lazy bum!" Yahiko yelled, jumping onto my shoulders and gnawing on my head. Cassie stared and sweatdropped. Kaoru, Jake, Marco, and Rachel looked over and sweatdropped as well. Kenshin and Ax had left. The four that were currently staring at me went back to talking about jobs.
"Well, what does Sanosuke do for a living?" Rachel asked. Yahiko stopped gnawing on my head and went back over to them.
"He does nothing. He's just an idiot freeloader that only knows how to fight." Kaoru said snippishly.
"I /was/ a fighter-for-hire before I met you guys." I retorted.
". . .You mean you were in a WWF kind of thing?" Marco asked.
"A WW what?"
Rachel looked over at Marco skeptically. "Does it look like he'd be in the WWF?" she asked him. She turned to me. "Were you a hit man?" Rachel asked.
"No way." I said. "People would hire me to fight someone. My price would depend on how much fun I'd have in the fight."
"So. . . You'd beat up somebody if I told you that they stole my lunch money when I was five?" Marco said.
"Someone stole your lunch money when you were five?" Rachel asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Hey, it's happened to everyone once, I'm sure!" Marco said defensively. Rachel continued to stare at him, eyebrow still raised. "Well. . .except for you. . .who'd chase the person all the way to Hong Kong until he gave it back. . ." Marco muttered.
"Thank you," she said.
"Um. . .anyways. . .no, I'm not a hit man. I was just a guy looking for fights to take my mind off of what happened to Captain Sagara and the Seki Houtai." I said.
"Hey!" Jake said. "Now I remember where I heard the name Sagara from! He was that guy. . .on our world history quizzes. . ."
"Really? I can't remember. . ." Cassie said sheepishly. "I'm bad at remembering historical people. . ."
"Oh yeah. . ." Rachel said. "He was that guy. . ." she turned to me. "You were that guy. . .right?"
"No, I'm not. He died. . .ten years ago. . ." I said quietly.
"Oh. . .sorry to hear it. . ." Cassie said.
There was a long silence.
"Um. . .are we having a period of mourning?" Marco asked, half joking, half curious and looking around.
"Nope." Yahiko said. "So anyways, I don't recommend that line of work. Kenshin wouldn't approve."
"I take it that Sanosuke challenged Kenshin one time?" Jake asked, looking over at me.
"Yeah, and the battle was incredible! Kenshin won though." Yahiko said.
"Geez, what is this? Crush-Sanosuke's-Esteem day?" I demanded.
"Yes. We made a holiday for that." Kaoru said.
"I'll bet."
"By the way, is that what the back of your jacket says? Fighter-for- Hire?" Cassie asked curiously.
"You guys can't read Japanese?" Kaoru asked.
"Nope. We're American." Jake replied.
"America? Isn't that one of the Western countries?" Yahiko asked.
"Yeah. It's okay. I guess. Kind of stupid at the moment." Rachel replied.
"What kind of government does it have?" I asked.
"A democracy." Cassie said.
"Well, no wonder. I've always thought of democracy being kind of weak." I said.
"Sano," Cassie said quickly, before an argument could break out, "we still don't know what your jacket says."
"Oh. It means evil." I replied casually.
~Marco~
We all stared at Sano, except for Kaoru and Yahiko who took this as normal. "Wait. . .what?" I demanded. "Aren't you a good guy though?"
Sano nodded. "The stupid government put it on the backs of Captain Sagara and the Seki Houtai." He said.
"The Seki-"
{Prince Jake!} A voice rang out in our heads. We heard clopping on the stairs and got the feeling that Ax-man couldn't climb stairs. Jake instantly snapped into fearless leader mode and opened the door.
"What is it, Ax?" he asked.
{I just saw a dracon flash in the forest. It shot up into the sky. My guesses are that it was at Tobias.} Ax told us grimly.
"Tobias!" Rachel cried, jumping up. Oh yeah, did I mention that Xena loves Bird-boy? Shhh! Don't tell anyone! Big secret!
{Also,} Ax said in private thought-speech from Kaoru, Yahiko, and Sano, {Kenshin left. I believe it was to evaluate the situation, but it's possible that it could be something more.}
That was understandable. We didn't know these guys very well yet, and they didn't know us. It was possible for betrayal this early in the game. But I hoped that wasn't the case.
Jake muttered an unprintable word and turned to us. "Cassie, you stay here. Watch over Kaoru and the others. Everyone else, move out." he said as he ran outside, orange and black fur beginning to spread over his face as he spoke.
"Oh man. Oh man." I said as I climbed to my feet and followed. Rachel ran after me, then Ax, then surprisingly, Yahiko and Sanosuke. Jake had already melted into the darkness of the trees, but two golden eyes glowed in the shadows.
{Yahiko, Sano, what do you guys think you're doing?} he demanded. Sano opened his mouth, but Yahiko spoke for him.
"We're going with you to help!" he said.
{Yahiko, Sano! You two can't even morph yet. Stay here with Cassie.}
"But-"
"He's right. You two will only get in the way. Listen to Jake; we'll be back shortly." Rachel said.
Sano stopped for a moment. He then nodded and grabbed the back of Yahiko's collar. "Alright. But if you guys aren't back in an hour and a half, we're going to find you." he said.
{Fine. If you do, leave Yahiko with Kaoru and take Cassie. Marco, you morph to wolf. Rachel, we're just checking things out and looking for Tobias and Kenshin, but we'll need firepower just in case. You have a cheetah morph, right?} Jake asked.
{Yeah.} Rachel replied.
{Good. Morph that. Ax?}
{Yes, Prince Jake?} Ax asked.
Jake sighed. {Go into owl morph. Lead us to where you saw the light. Keep an eye out for Kenshin and Tobias too.}
{Yes.}
I looked at Yahiko and Sano to make sure that they went into the house. When I was, I began to morph.
~Rachel~
Of all my morphs, this was one of my favorites. Next to grizzly. And elephant. And bald eagle and dolphin. . .let's just say it was up there. Way above termite and flea. It was a good morph. I began to morph cheetah and felt the changes begin.
{Man, this is our second mission tonight. We really need a break.} Marco whined as he began to morph wolf.
"Quit your whin-argag-" I said, sharp fangs beginning to fill my mouth.
{Say what?}
My voice was replaced by thought-speech. {Whining. Quit your whining.} I said. Blond fur began to cover my body as my legs shortened. I fell on all fours. My vision went black for a moment. I could suddenly hear things better, smell things better. When my vision returned, I was even able to see things a bit better. It was like taking a person that had been blindfolded and had their nose and ears plugged up for their entire life and then suddenly removing those obstacles. Not intending to sound like Marco, I could see the light.
Muscle grew upon muscle. My tail sprouted, and extension of my tail bone. And then I felt it as the mind of the cheetah kicked in. Cool. Confident. Focused.
With fluid strength I followed Jake, Marco close behind. Ax soared about us, a phantom of the night sky in his owl morph. {I smell human. That way.} Marco nodded towards the forest, {And there.} He nodded towards the side.
{Yeah. I smell it too.} Jake agreed. I could as well, though faintly.
{That is the nearby town.} Ax informed us.
{Tokyo?} I asked.
{Most likely.}
After awhile we stopped about ten yards away from flickering firelight. {Yeah. I can tell. This is a Yeerk camp. I smell Hork-Bajir, Taxxon, and Yeerk. Not to mention human.} Marco said. I saw the dark figure of a human behind a tree.
{Hey, there's someone standing behind that tree over there. Probably Kenshin.} I said. Apparently, Kenshin sensed us as well. We heard his sword click up in warning. That was a conformation of my beliefs.
{Kenshin, don't worry. It's me, Jake.} Jake said.
Kenshin straightened. Then he looked over his shoulder at us. But he looked back at us not with violet eyes, but with practically glowing amber. {Is he morphing?!} Marco demanded. {Is he morphing into a cat or something?!}
{Um. . .Kenshin?} Jake said. Kenshin stared back at him coldly.
"Hm?" he asked, keeping quiet so that the Yeerks wouldn't hear him. Smart guy.
{This is a Yeerk camp. Have you seen Tobias?}
Kenshin shook his head and looked back at the camp.
{Kenshin,} Jake said, {let's go back now.} Kenshin tensed and hesitated. I could tell that he was torn between staying and fighting the Yeerks then and there and doing the smarter, safer thing-going back with us. Jake must have seen this too, because he added, {Kaoru's worried about you.}
There was a long pause, then finally Kenshin nodded and walked over to us.
{Ax, have you seen Tobias yet?} Jake asked.
{No, Prince Jake. Not a sign of him.}Ax said. I began to worry more so than I was before. As if Ax had read my mind, he added, reassuringly {Perhaps he is just resting and this was a false alarm.}
{Maybe.} Jake said doubtfully. {Let's get Kenshin back to the dojo. We'll look again in an hour.}
~Ax~
{An hour?!} Rachel demanded. If tigers could wince, I believe Prince Jake did as Rachel began ranting to him in private thought-speech. At my altitude, I could see the edge of the forest and the city called Tokyo. The city had a few groups of people wandering around. I had seen this in the town in our time. Marco said that these were either people on third shift, vampires, or people called 'drunks'.
{C'mon. Let's go.} Prince Jake said. I saw he, Rachel, Marco, and Kenshin turn to go back. I swooped back and after about ten minutes of flying, arrived back at the dojo.
{We're back.} I announced as landed and began to demorph.
Cassie opened the door, Yahiko behind her. "Well? Did you find them?" Cassie asked expectantly.
"Them? I thought you were just looking for Tobias." Yahiko said.
I turned a stalk eye back towards the forest. Rachel, Marco, and Prince Jake began to demorph. Kenshin suddenly clenched his fist and punched himself in the face. I frowned. What was going on with him? His glowing amber eyes faded back to violet. He smiled and walked inside.
"Kenshin, where have you been?! I was worried about you, ya know!" I heard Kaoru yell angrily. Prince Jake turned to me, now human again. "Ax, the Yeerks are probably searching the forest. Keep a sharp eye out." he said.
{Yes.} I said. He, Rachel, and Marco walked inside.
Author's Note-Hey, guys, you know what to do! Please review. Oh, and one thing: Can you guys suggest what some good battle morphs and bird morphs for the Kenshin-gumi would be? Remember, they're in Meiji Japan, so they probably won't have a lot of access to many animals unless a Western circus comes along. Well, ja ne!
~Sanosuke~
Cassie finished resetting my hand. "There we go." She said, smiling. "Your hand should be better in a couple of weeks. What'd you break it on?"
I explained to her about the battle with Shishio. She listened intently, then shook her head. "These are violent times." She commented.
"Yeah. The government isn't very stable. Personally, I hate it. But people try to take advantage of the instability, so we have our share of evil characters around here. That's where Kenshin and I come in. We protect Japan from evil." I replied.
"So do we, you lazy bum!" Yahiko yelled, jumping onto my shoulders and gnawing on my head. Cassie stared and sweatdropped. Kaoru, Jake, Marco, and Rachel looked over and sweatdropped as well. Kenshin and Ax had left. The four that were currently staring at me went back to talking about jobs.
"Well, what does Sanosuke do for a living?" Rachel asked. Yahiko stopped gnawing on my head and went back over to them.
"He does nothing. He's just an idiot freeloader that only knows how to fight." Kaoru said snippishly.
"I /was/ a fighter-for-hire before I met you guys." I retorted.
". . .You mean you were in a WWF kind of thing?" Marco asked.
"A WW what?"
Rachel looked over at Marco skeptically. "Does it look like he'd be in the WWF?" she asked him. She turned to me. "Were you a hit man?" Rachel asked.
"No way." I said. "People would hire me to fight someone. My price would depend on how much fun I'd have in the fight."
"So. . . You'd beat up somebody if I told you that they stole my lunch money when I was five?" Marco said.
"Someone stole your lunch money when you were five?" Rachel asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Hey, it's happened to everyone once, I'm sure!" Marco said defensively. Rachel continued to stare at him, eyebrow still raised. "Well. . .except for you. . .who'd chase the person all the way to Hong Kong until he gave it back. . ." Marco muttered.
"Thank you," she said.
"Um. . .anyways. . .no, I'm not a hit man. I was just a guy looking for fights to take my mind off of what happened to Captain Sagara and the Seki Houtai." I said.
"Hey!" Jake said. "Now I remember where I heard the name Sagara from! He was that guy. . .on our world history quizzes. . ."
"Really? I can't remember. . ." Cassie said sheepishly. "I'm bad at remembering historical people. . ."
"Oh yeah. . ." Rachel said. "He was that guy. . ." she turned to me. "You were that guy. . .right?"
"No, I'm not. He died. . .ten years ago. . ." I said quietly.
"Oh. . .sorry to hear it. . ." Cassie said.
There was a long silence.
"Um. . .are we having a period of mourning?" Marco asked, half joking, half curious and looking around.
"Nope." Yahiko said. "So anyways, I don't recommend that line of work. Kenshin wouldn't approve."
"I take it that Sanosuke challenged Kenshin one time?" Jake asked, looking over at me.
"Yeah, and the battle was incredible! Kenshin won though." Yahiko said.
"Geez, what is this? Crush-Sanosuke's-Esteem day?" I demanded.
"Yes. We made a holiday for that." Kaoru said.
"I'll bet."
"By the way, is that what the back of your jacket says? Fighter-for- Hire?" Cassie asked curiously.
"You guys can't read Japanese?" Kaoru asked.
"Nope. We're American." Jake replied.
"America? Isn't that one of the Western countries?" Yahiko asked.
"Yeah. It's okay. I guess. Kind of stupid at the moment." Rachel replied.
"What kind of government does it have?" I asked.
"A democracy." Cassie said.
"Well, no wonder. I've always thought of democracy being kind of weak." I said.
"Sano," Cassie said quickly, before an argument could break out, "we still don't know what your jacket says."
"Oh. It means evil." I replied casually.
~Marco~
We all stared at Sano, except for Kaoru and Yahiko who took this as normal. "Wait. . .what?" I demanded. "Aren't you a good guy though?"
Sano nodded. "The stupid government put it on the backs of Captain Sagara and the Seki Houtai." He said.
"The Seki-"
{Prince Jake!} A voice rang out in our heads. We heard clopping on the stairs and got the feeling that Ax-man couldn't climb stairs. Jake instantly snapped into fearless leader mode and opened the door.
"What is it, Ax?" he asked.
{I just saw a dracon flash in the forest. It shot up into the sky. My guesses are that it was at Tobias.} Ax told us grimly.
"Tobias!" Rachel cried, jumping up. Oh yeah, did I mention that Xena loves Bird-boy? Shhh! Don't tell anyone! Big secret!
{Also,} Ax said in private thought-speech from Kaoru, Yahiko, and Sano, {Kenshin left. I believe it was to evaluate the situation, but it's possible that it could be something more.}
That was understandable. We didn't know these guys very well yet, and they didn't know us. It was possible for betrayal this early in the game. But I hoped that wasn't the case.
Jake muttered an unprintable word and turned to us. "Cassie, you stay here. Watch over Kaoru and the others. Everyone else, move out." he said as he ran outside, orange and black fur beginning to spread over his face as he spoke.
"Oh man. Oh man." I said as I climbed to my feet and followed. Rachel ran after me, then Ax, then surprisingly, Yahiko and Sanosuke. Jake had already melted into the darkness of the trees, but two golden eyes glowed in the shadows.
{Yahiko, Sano, what do you guys think you're doing?} he demanded. Sano opened his mouth, but Yahiko spoke for him.
"We're going with you to help!" he said.
{Yahiko, Sano! You two can't even morph yet. Stay here with Cassie.}
"But-"
"He's right. You two will only get in the way. Listen to Jake; we'll be back shortly." Rachel said.
Sano stopped for a moment. He then nodded and grabbed the back of Yahiko's collar. "Alright. But if you guys aren't back in an hour and a half, we're going to find you." he said.
{Fine. If you do, leave Yahiko with Kaoru and take Cassie. Marco, you morph to wolf. Rachel, we're just checking things out and looking for Tobias and Kenshin, but we'll need firepower just in case. You have a cheetah morph, right?} Jake asked.
{Yeah.} Rachel replied.
{Good. Morph that. Ax?}
{Yes, Prince Jake?} Ax asked.
Jake sighed. {Go into owl morph. Lead us to where you saw the light. Keep an eye out for Kenshin and Tobias too.}
{Yes.}
I looked at Yahiko and Sano to make sure that they went into the house. When I was, I began to morph.
~Rachel~
Of all my morphs, this was one of my favorites. Next to grizzly. And elephant. And bald eagle and dolphin. . .let's just say it was up there. Way above termite and flea. It was a good morph. I began to morph cheetah and felt the changes begin.
{Man, this is our second mission tonight. We really need a break.} Marco whined as he began to morph wolf.
"Quit your whin-argag-" I said, sharp fangs beginning to fill my mouth.
{Say what?}
My voice was replaced by thought-speech. {Whining. Quit your whining.} I said. Blond fur began to cover my body as my legs shortened. I fell on all fours. My vision went black for a moment. I could suddenly hear things better, smell things better. When my vision returned, I was even able to see things a bit better. It was like taking a person that had been blindfolded and had their nose and ears plugged up for their entire life and then suddenly removing those obstacles. Not intending to sound like Marco, I could see the light.
Muscle grew upon muscle. My tail sprouted, and extension of my tail bone. And then I felt it as the mind of the cheetah kicked in. Cool. Confident. Focused.
With fluid strength I followed Jake, Marco close behind. Ax soared about us, a phantom of the night sky in his owl morph. {I smell human. That way.} Marco nodded towards the forest, {And there.} He nodded towards the side.
{Yeah. I smell it too.} Jake agreed. I could as well, though faintly.
{That is the nearby town.} Ax informed us.
{Tokyo?} I asked.
{Most likely.}
After awhile we stopped about ten yards away from flickering firelight. {Yeah. I can tell. This is a Yeerk camp. I smell Hork-Bajir, Taxxon, and Yeerk. Not to mention human.} Marco said. I saw the dark figure of a human behind a tree.
{Hey, there's someone standing behind that tree over there. Probably Kenshin.} I said. Apparently, Kenshin sensed us as well. We heard his sword click up in warning. That was a conformation of my beliefs.
{Kenshin, don't worry. It's me, Jake.} Jake said.
Kenshin straightened. Then he looked over his shoulder at us. But he looked back at us not with violet eyes, but with practically glowing amber. {Is he morphing?!} Marco demanded. {Is he morphing into a cat or something?!}
{Um. . .Kenshin?} Jake said. Kenshin stared back at him coldly.
"Hm?" he asked, keeping quiet so that the Yeerks wouldn't hear him. Smart guy.
{This is a Yeerk camp. Have you seen Tobias?}
Kenshin shook his head and looked back at the camp.
{Kenshin,} Jake said, {let's go back now.} Kenshin tensed and hesitated. I could tell that he was torn between staying and fighting the Yeerks then and there and doing the smarter, safer thing-going back with us. Jake must have seen this too, because he added, {Kaoru's worried about you.}
There was a long pause, then finally Kenshin nodded and walked over to us.
{Ax, have you seen Tobias yet?} Jake asked.
{No, Prince Jake. Not a sign of him.}Ax said. I began to worry more so than I was before. As if Ax had read my mind, he added, reassuringly {Perhaps he is just resting and this was a false alarm.}
{Maybe.} Jake said doubtfully. {Let's get Kenshin back to the dojo. We'll look again in an hour.}
~Ax~
{An hour?!} Rachel demanded. If tigers could wince, I believe Prince Jake did as Rachel began ranting to him in private thought-speech. At my altitude, I could see the edge of the forest and the city called Tokyo. The city had a few groups of people wandering around. I had seen this in the town in our time. Marco said that these were either people on third shift, vampires, or people called 'drunks'.
{C'mon. Let's go.} Prince Jake said. I saw he, Rachel, Marco, and Kenshin turn to go back. I swooped back and after about ten minutes of flying, arrived back at the dojo.
{We're back.} I announced as landed and began to demorph.
Cassie opened the door, Yahiko behind her. "Well? Did you find them?" Cassie asked expectantly.
"Them? I thought you were just looking for Tobias." Yahiko said.
I turned a stalk eye back towards the forest. Rachel, Marco, and Prince Jake began to demorph. Kenshin suddenly clenched his fist and punched himself in the face. I frowned. What was going on with him? His glowing amber eyes faded back to violet. He smiled and walked inside.
"Kenshin, where have you been?! I was worried about you, ya know!" I heard Kaoru yell angrily. Prince Jake turned to me, now human again. "Ax, the Yeerks are probably searching the forest. Keep a sharp eye out." he said.
{Yes.} I said. He, Rachel, and Marco walked inside.
Author's Note-Hey, guys, you know what to do! Please review. Oh, and one thing: Can you guys suggest what some good battle morphs and bird morphs for the Kenshin-gumi would be? Remember, they're in Meiji Japan, so they probably won't have a lot of access to many animals unless a Western circus comes along. Well, ja ne!