Readers--here we are, chapter 2. I hope to get 3 up by Friday or Saturday. I have outlined this story and give it approximately 17 chapters. And because they are separated, I'm going to be jumping from one to another. Chapter 2 is about Akio, chapter 3 will be Soujiro, and back and forth like that. If there is any confusion, just say 'Jesse, what the hell--?' and I'll understand. Okay then, Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Captain Sagara or Soujiro, all I own in Akio. She is the wind beneath my wings--so to speak. *cough*
Chapter 2: Tokyo
The train slowed gradually as it entered the Tokyo station that afternoon, but the sudden halting motion still jerked Akio awake. She jumped, startled, when the whistle blew. Blinking red eyes, Akio looked around her small cabin and cursed herself for falling asleep. She stretched, working all of the kinks from her back, before assessing all of her belongings to make sure they were all still with her.
The small duffle bag that held her clothes was untouched on the seat beside her. The bokken at her waist and her grandfather's sword were still on her person. Her fingers quickly went to the small sling bag that hug over her chest. She felt around all of her personal belongings, but found them all accounted for. With a sigh of relief, Akio pulled out the red headband from the bag and tied it tightly around her forehead. It was important to feel her fiercest in a new place.
There was a knock at the cabin door and one of the train workers poked his head inside the room. "Pardon me Miss," he said with a cheery smile. "But we've arrived."
"Thank you," Akio said, returning his smile. He disappeared again, leaving Akio to gather her things and ready to disembark. It wasn't really that bad. Sure there was a red mark on her face from falling asleep against the window and she didn't know where she was going, that wasn't much of a change. In the past year, she'd traveled to many cities and new towns that she had never even heard of. There was only one major difference between them and Tokyo. This time, she was alone.
That familiar place in her chest suddenly ached unbearably. It only reminded her all the more violently that she woke up alone in this cabin. There was no smile greeting her, no remark for her to laugh at, no idle conversation. There was no one's hand to hold as the nervous butterflies of anticipation grew in her stomach. There was no shoulder to lean her head upon. There was simply no Soujiro. She had to face this one all on her own. But worst of all was not knowing what he was doing, not knowing if he was safe.
Rage suddenly grew in her and Akio let loose a fist against the wall of the cabin. "Selfish man!" she yelled in pain and frustration. "What am I supposed to do if something happens to you?" The last question was a loud whisper to the un-yielding wall. Then she fell back into her seat, covering her face with her hands until she had herself under control again. Angry tears worked themselves from the corners of her eyes and she brushed them away as she rushed to leave the train. Worrying about Soujiro wouldn't make him come any sooner. It would only make it seem like he was gone longer.
'Okay Akio,' she thought as she stepped into the bright sunlight of the Tokyo train station. 'No thinking about that baka and all the trouble he could be getting into without you to keep him in line.' That brought a little watery smile to her face.
Tokyo was really a beautiful city--but was it ever busy! It seemed to Akio that absolutely everyone in the entire city was in a hurry to get somewhere or there was somewhere important that they had to be. She watched in fascination as they bustled around, making random guesses that this person was going there and that person was going here. She even thought about the reason behind a few purchases.
'Oh yes, that woman is buying flowers from that man for her sick daughter. And that man is buying a pound of tofu to make dinner for his wife.' It was a fun game she often played with Soujiro, thinking of the most creative reason behind a human reaction.
She was so lost in thought that she hadn't realized where she was wandering. Tokyo was also a very easy place to get lost because it was busy and large. People pushed her this way and that, some giving her strange looks for her apparel and what she carried with her. Akio only met their gazes unflinchingly and smiled. It was something she had picked up from Soujiro. In the face of anything, if you smile, people will leave you alone.
Yes, Akio had to admit that she would be safe here in Tokyo. None of Ryu's henchmen, the ones who had been following them for the past few months, would ever suspect that Akio would go into so large a city alone. But even at the price of safety, Akio felt the withering sadness. Not once in their year together had Akio and Soujiro been apart, not even for one night. When Akio had fallen ill that time, months earlier, Soujiro had stayed at her side until she was well again. When Soujiro had gotten injured in a battle, Akio had taken care of him until they could move on. They had been inseparable. Now, driven to the winds out of fear, they were so very far apart. Soujiro knew that no one would be able to find her in Tokyo, so in Tokyo she was. But where he had gone...it only made Akio sick to her stomach to think about. Sometimes she wondered if she loved him too much for her own good.
As the day wore on, Akio bought something to eat on her walk with the money that she carried with her. Wandering without a destination had lost it's mystery somewhere between the food markets and the neighborhood by the river.
As a form of entertainment, Akio opted to window shop. She gazed at all the expensive and mostly useless artifacts left for display by countless artisans and tradesmen. She paused the longest at a man selling artwork caricatures. Many of them were well drawn warrior portraits, and Akio had always dragged Soujiro over to look at them. Somewhere in her deepest heart she hoped that she might find something that would lead her to her father. Because over the year she had traveled with Soujiro, she had never given up searching for anything that might lead her to his identity. Her father was once a warrior, after all.
So far, the only thing she had been able to discover was that the symbolic red headband that graced her own forehead was a mark of a past government army called the Sekihotai. They were a band of farmers and craftsmen turned warriors that were marked as false and executed before the end of the revolution. That had killed any of the secret hopes of finding him still alive in Akio's heart. And it also made her wonder if perhaps her father wasn't the honorable man her mother had painted him to be. Maybe the man Akio hoped to find never existed. He was, after all, only the fantasy created in the mind of a love-starved girl.
Akio scanned the racks of art and struck up a conversation with the man selling them. "Good day to you, miss," he said pleasantly. Akio smiled.
"Hello sir."
"Are you looking for anyone in particular?" he asked, returning her smile. "We have many a fine warrior portrait that would entreat the eye of a pretty girl like yourself."
Akio shook her head, her black hair falling into her face, and blushed while smiling. "No, I'm just looking. They are all so lovely, I don't think I would have the heart to choose just one."
"Ah, a lover of art?" he asked, a sparkle in his eye at the potential buyer.
Akio laughed and grinned. "Only some art. My mother was an artist, so I guess you could say that it's in my blood."
"Really now?" Akio smiled and reached into her sling bag to retract one of her mother's various sketches. They were mostly of her father, but there was one of Akio after she was first born, and one of her just before her mother's life ended. The flimsy papers she held in her hands were the dearest things in the world to her. Akio held out her favorite sketch of her father to the man.
"She had talent," she said proudly as the man let out a low whistle at the paper.
"I'll say. She should sell her work, I'd get a dozen buyers a day."
Akio smiled a little sadly. "My mother died years ago. The paper in her hand is one of the only ones surviving. It's of my father."
"Really?" he looked from her to the sketch. "Yes, I can see the resemblance. But if I may," he commented, handing the paper back to her and reaching behind him. "This particular model was used by others as well. I think this drawing does the most justice." He handed Akio a larger, color and detailed drawing of the very man in the sketch she had just put away.
Akio's face paled as she took the paper, and her heart skipped a few beats. There, on the paper, plain as day, was her father. His dark hair, the red headband, the handsome features--it was the same in her mother's drawings. This was him!
"Where did you get this?" Akio breathed, tearing her eyes from the portrait to meet the gaze of the salesmen.
"Oh, it's a bad seller. Not many people want to buy a portrait of the leader of the Sekihotai, now do they. But no disrespect to you, miss," he recovered himself quickly.
Akio regained her composure fast. "Can you tell me where I can find the artist who made this?"
"Well yes--"
"I'll pay you for the address, please." It was the please that swayed him, that and the desperate look in her emerald eyes.
"Of course." He took another copy of the same drawing and scribbled an address on the back of the paper, then passed it to her. "No charge. I hope you find what you're looking for."
"So do I, thank you," Akio said with a respectful bow. "Thank you very much." Then she turned and vanished amidst the chaos of the city street.
Akio was swallowed up by the people. But her hands were sweating and shaking and her mind was racing only a millisecond slower then her heart was beating. Finally, she could meet someone who knew her father--or at the very least, knew of him. She gazed at the picture once more, hungrily taking in everything about him. It didn't escape her notice that two small boys were also in the drawing along with the man. There was also a name in the top corner of the page--Sagara Souzou, the captain of the Sekihotai. For the first time in her life, Akio had a name to put to the man who gave her life.
"Sagara..." she breathed, then laughed to herself. "Sagara Akio, is it wrong that I don't like it?" In her mind, Seta Akio sounded much better.
Yay! What'd ya think of chapter 2? Review and tell me, muhahahaha! I've even been thinking that I might actually make a third installment of this series. A trilogy, if you will. But this is only an idea. I'll be dropping little questions in my a/n's throughout this fic so you'll have to give me your opinions of it. Anyway, shoutouts for my 3 reviewers! (I love you guys…*sniffle*)
pruningshears: Ah, my favorite reviewer. Back for more, eh? I'm really happy you did! Yes yes, this fic will be very exciting! You'll probably end up hating me for what I will do. But remember, it's all in the name of drama and action--and I always have a happy ending! I'm so happy you like Akio. She is probably my favorite female character that I ever created--next to this one I made for a comic strip I do. *cough* Yes, Ryu did have a bitch recovering, for which I will go into more detail in chapter 3 when I reintroduce his character. Thanks for the review!
Ken: Well, she does meet them, but it's really more of an accident that she does. I can't have a story without a villain, and I loved writing how horrible Ryu was so much that I had to let him live. How he survived and what he's after now I'll leave for later chapters. Arigato for the review!
Kenshin44: So we meet again! Sorry to keep you waiting, but I wanted to collect my thoughts and plan out a really good story for the sequel. I think it's wicked, hehe. I'm glad you like it so far. Yes it is sad to separate them so early on, but they have been together for a year now, and I need them apart for this story to go like I want it to. Akio has her own adventure while Soujiro…I'll leave that for later. Yes, Akio is in Tokyo, where everyone else is, so there will be much Kenshin-gumi action, have no fear! Thanks for the review!
Dragons Maiden: Yes sequel--didn't I promise a sequel? Yes...maybe even a trilogy, muhahah! Update is now, yes! Thanks for the review!
Remember, a review a day keeps me away from your room with a chainsaw! *innocent smile*
~~Jesse the Wolf Demon~~
Disclaimer: I do not own Captain Sagara or Soujiro, all I own in Akio. She is the wind beneath my wings--so to speak. *cough*
Chapter 2: Tokyo
The train slowed gradually as it entered the Tokyo station that afternoon, but the sudden halting motion still jerked Akio awake. She jumped, startled, when the whistle blew. Blinking red eyes, Akio looked around her small cabin and cursed herself for falling asleep. She stretched, working all of the kinks from her back, before assessing all of her belongings to make sure they were all still with her.
The small duffle bag that held her clothes was untouched on the seat beside her. The bokken at her waist and her grandfather's sword were still on her person. Her fingers quickly went to the small sling bag that hug over her chest. She felt around all of her personal belongings, but found them all accounted for. With a sigh of relief, Akio pulled out the red headband from the bag and tied it tightly around her forehead. It was important to feel her fiercest in a new place.
There was a knock at the cabin door and one of the train workers poked his head inside the room. "Pardon me Miss," he said with a cheery smile. "But we've arrived."
"Thank you," Akio said, returning his smile. He disappeared again, leaving Akio to gather her things and ready to disembark. It wasn't really that bad. Sure there was a red mark on her face from falling asleep against the window and she didn't know where she was going, that wasn't much of a change. In the past year, she'd traveled to many cities and new towns that she had never even heard of. There was only one major difference between them and Tokyo. This time, she was alone.
That familiar place in her chest suddenly ached unbearably. It only reminded her all the more violently that she woke up alone in this cabin. There was no smile greeting her, no remark for her to laugh at, no idle conversation. There was no one's hand to hold as the nervous butterflies of anticipation grew in her stomach. There was no shoulder to lean her head upon. There was simply no Soujiro. She had to face this one all on her own. But worst of all was not knowing what he was doing, not knowing if he was safe.
Rage suddenly grew in her and Akio let loose a fist against the wall of the cabin. "Selfish man!" she yelled in pain and frustration. "What am I supposed to do if something happens to you?" The last question was a loud whisper to the un-yielding wall. Then she fell back into her seat, covering her face with her hands until she had herself under control again. Angry tears worked themselves from the corners of her eyes and she brushed them away as she rushed to leave the train. Worrying about Soujiro wouldn't make him come any sooner. It would only make it seem like he was gone longer.
'Okay Akio,' she thought as she stepped into the bright sunlight of the Tokyo train station. 'No thinking about that baka and all the trouble he could be getting into without you to keep him in line.' That brought a little watery smile to her face.
Tokyo was really a beautiful city--but was it ever busy! It seemed to Akio that absolutely everyone in the entire city was in a hurry to get somewhere or there was somewhere important that they had to be. She watched in fascination as they bustled around, making random guesses that this person was going there and that person was going here. She even thought about the reason behind a few purchases.
'Oh yes, that woman is buying flowers from that man for her sick daughter. And that man is buying a pound of tofu to make dinner for his wife.' It was a fun game she often played with Soujiro, thinking of the most creative reason behind a human reaction.
She was so lost in thought that she hadn't realized where she was wandering. Tokyo was also a very easy place to get lost because it was busy and large. People pushed her this way and that, some giving her strange looks for her apparel and what she carried with her. Akio only met their gazes unflinchingly and smiled. It was something she had picked up from Soujiro. In the face of anything, if you smile, people will leave you alone.
Yes, Akio had to admit that she would be safe here in Tokyo. None of Ryu's henchmen, the ones who had been following them for the past few months, would ever suspect that Akio would go into so large a city alone. But even at the price of safety, Akio felt the withering sadness. Not once in their year together had Akio and Soujiro been apart, not even for one night. When Akio had fallen ill that time, months earlier, Soujiro had stayed at her side until she was well again. When Soujiro had gotten injured in a battle, Akio had taken care of him until they could move on. They had been inseparable. Now, driven to the winds out of fear, they were so very far apart. Soujiro knew that no one would be able to find her in Tokyo, so in Tokyo she was. But where he had gone...it only made Akio sick to her stomach to think about. Sometimes she wondered if she loved him too much for her own good.
As the day wore on, Akio bought something to eat on her walk with the money that she carried with her. Wandering without a destination had lost it's mystery somewhere between the food markets and the neighborhood by the river.
As a form of entertainment, Akio opted to window shop. She gazed at all the expensive and mostly useless artifacts left for display by countless artisans and tradesmen. She paused the longest at a man selling artwork caricatures. Many of them were well drawn warrior portraits, and Akio had always dragged Soujiro over to look at them. Somewhere in her deepest heart she hoped that she might find something that would lead her to her father. Because over the year she had traveled with Soujiro, she had never given up searching for anything that might lead her to his identity. Her father was once a warrior, after all.
So far, the only thing she had been able to discover was that the symbolic red headband that graced her own forehead was a mark of a past government army called the Sekihotai. They were a band of farmers and craftsmen turned warriors that were marked as false and executed before the end of the revolution. That had killed any of the secret hopes of finding him still alive in Akio's heart. And it also made her wonder if perhaps her father wasn't the honorable man her mother had painted him to be. Maybe the man Akio hoped to find never existed. He was, after all, only the fantasy created in the mind of a love-starved girl.
Akio scanned the racks of art and struck up a conversation with the man selling them. "Good day to you, miss," he said pleasantly. Akio smiled.
"Hello sir."
"Are you looking for anyone in particular?" he asked, returning her smile. "We have many a fine warrior portrait that would entreat the eye of a pretty girl like yourself."
Akio shook her head, her black hair falling into her face, and blushed while smiling. "No, I'm just looking. They are all so lovely, I don't think I would have the heart to choose just one."
"Ah, a lover of art?" he asked, a sparkle in his eye at the potential buyer.
Akio laughed and grinned. "Only some art. My mother was an artist, so I guess you could say that it's in my blood."
"Really now?" Akio smiled and reached into her sling bag to retract one of her mother's various sketches. They were mostly of her father, but there was one of Akio after she was first born, and one of her just before her mother's life ended. The flimsy papers she held in her hands were the dearest things in the world to her. Akio held out her favorite sketch of her father to the man.
"She had talent," she said proudly as the man let out a low whistle at the paper.
"I'll say. She should sell her work, I'd get a dozen buyers a day."
Akio smiled a little sadly. "My mother died years ago. The paper in her hand is one of the only ones surviving. It's of my father."
"Really?" he looked from her to the sketch. "Yes, I can see the resemblance. But if I may," he commented, handing the paper back to her and reaching behind him. "This particular model was used by others as well. I think this drawing does the most justice." He handed Akio a larger, color and detailed drawing of the very man in the sketch she had just put away.
Akio's face paled as she took the paper, and her heart skipped a few beats. There, on the paper, plain as day, was her father. His dark hair, the red headband, the handsome features--it was the same in her mother's drawings. This was him!
"Where did you get this?" Akio breathed, tearing her eyes from the portrait to meet the gaze of the salesmen.
"Oh, it's a bad seller. Not many people want to buy a portrait of the leader of the Sekihotai, now do they. But no disrespect to you, miss," he recovered himself quickly.
Akio regained her composure fast. "Can you tell me where I can find the artist who made this?"
"Well yes--"
"I'll pay you for the address, please." It was the please that swayed him, that and the desperate look in her emerald eyes.
"Of course." He took another copy of the same drawing and scribbled an address on the back of the paper, then passed it to her. "No charge. I hope you find what you're looking for."
"So do I, thank you," Akio said with a respectful bow. "Thank you very much." Then she turned and vanished amidst the chaos of the city street.
Akio was swallowed up by the people. But her hands were sweating and shaking and her mind was racing only a millisecond slower then her heart was beating. Finally, she could meet someone who knew her father--or at the very least, knew of him. She gazed at the picture once more, hungrily taking in everything about him. It didn't escape her notice that two small boys were also in the drawing along with the man. There was also a name in the top corner of the page--Sagara Souzou, the captain of the Sekihotai. For the first time in her life, Akio had a name to put to the man who gave her life.
"Sagara..." she breathed, then laughed to herself. "Sagara Akio, is it wrong that I don't like it?" In her mind, Seta Akio sounded much better.
Yay! What'd ya think of chapter 2? Review and tell me, muhahahaha! I've even been thinking that I might actually make a third installment of this series. A trilogy, if you will. But this is only an idea. I'll be dropping little questions in my a/n's throughout this fic so you'll have to give me your opinions of it. Anyway, shoutouts for my 3 reviewers! (I love you guys…*sniffle*)
pruningshears: Ah, my favorite reviewer. Back for more, eh? I'm really happy you did! Yes yes, this fic will be very exciting! You'll probably end up hating me for what I will do. But remember, it's all in the name of drama and action--and I always have a happy ending! I'm so happy you like Akio. She is probably my favorite female character that I ever created--next to this one I made for a comic strip I do. *cough* Yes, Ryu did have a bitch recovering, for which I will go into more detail in chapter 3 when I reintroduce his character. Thanks for the review!
Ken: Well, she does meet them, but it's really more of an accident that she does. I can't have a story without a villain, and I loved writing how horrible Ryu was so much that I had to let him live. How he survived and what he's after now I'll leave for later chapters. Arigato for the review!
Kenshin44: So we meet again! Sorry to keep you waiting, but I wanted to collect my thoughts and plan out a really good story for the sequel. I think it's wicked, hehe. I'm glad you like it so far. Yes it is sad to separate them so early on, but they have been together for a year now, and I need them apart for this story to go like I want it to. Akio has her own adventure while Soujiro…I'll leave that for later. Yes, Akio is in Tokyo, where everyone else is, so there will be much Kenshin-gumi action, have no fear! Thanks for the review!
Dragons Maiden: Yes sequel--didn't I promise a sequel? Yes...maybe even a trilogy, muhahah! Update is now, yes! Thanks for the review!
Remember, a review a day keeps me away from your room with a chainsaw! *innocent smile*
~~Jesse the Wolf Demon~~