Tangled Worlds
(Or: Two Realities Intertwined by Six Bored, Immortal and Powerful Omnipotent Beings)

by baru-chan

Author's Notes: Yes, this is late, YET AGAIN. BUT, I have a reasonable explanation! Projects had to be submitted (both school-related and not), subject matters discussed all the way back from June had to be reviewed, I had to re-read the RK manga and Silmarillion, and babysitting duties prevented all me from writing the next part of this story. Yet fear not, my dear readers! It is summer here so, theoretically, I might find time to finish this monster of a fic. (But then again, reality is different from theory...)



Oh, by the way, I now have a LiveJournal account. I'll post snippets of future chapters of this fic and my other WIPs there. It's at:



http : // www . livejournal . com / users / baruchan
Just get rid of the spaces since, apparently, ff.net has a grudge against URLs...



Chapter Rating: PG
Overall Rating: PG



This chapter is dedicated to my six-month-young brother, Ryan the Romulan, who never ceases to amuse me with his antics.








CHAPTER FOUR
Concerning a soba-loving police officer and a sake-deprived potter




Kenshin blinked, forced back a scowl and plastered a rather rough version of his "rurouni-smile" on his face. "Excuse me, but what do you mean 'he sounds like a woman', de gozaru ka?" he asked mildly.



The thoughts that ran through his head, however, weren't so mild. The ex-assassin mentally questioned the ancestry and sexual preferences of the tactless...hybrid in front of him while a nagging thought from the back of his head started to distract him. Kenshin pushed it off - it could be examined later.



"Exactly that - you sound like a woman," was the prompt response. The other inhabitant of the tent rolled his eyes and shot an amused glance towards the redhead.



Kenshin tiredly rubbed the bridge of his nose. Not only was this...hybrid...tactless, he was also a smart aleck. If only I have my daisho... he bemoaned.



The nagging thought from the back of his mind suddenly hit him full-force, and he realized something important about the two in front of him - something he sensed from their ki.



The two in front of him were mixes between humans, those creatures that injured him in the first place and...something else entirely. Though what that "something" was, Kenshin didn't know. Of course, in the off-chance that he did find out what that "something" was, Kenshin would have a fit, considering the fact that the omnipotent beings that brought him to Middle-earth and that "something" he was wondering about were kin.



"What's your name?" the other hybrid suddenly asked him just as the smart aleck opened his mouth. Kenshin mentally smirked.



"Why should I tell you my name?" asked Kenshin warily, longing more and more for his daisho.



The one who asked him his name tilted his head up proudly. "Because I was the one who healed you and I deserve to know the name of the person who needed my help," he answered simply.



Kenshin sighed. "Fine. My name is Himura Kenshin," he muttered.



The first hybrid clapped his hands once in delight. "Excellent! I am Elros Eärendilion, and this is my brother, Elrond," he said, patting the shoulder of the one who healed Kenshin. "It's nice to finally place a name on your face, I was getting tired of referring to you as Fincaran."



Kenshin blinked and snorted softly. Fincaran indeed!



The three of them stared at each other uneasily until he couldn't control himself anymore. "What are you?" Kenshin burst out. "You feel...different from what I'm used to. Are you human or something else?"



"Why, we're Elves, of course!" said Elrond. "Haven't you seen an Elf before?"



"Well, actually, we're Half-Elves," corrected Elros. Kenshin nodded to himself. So that's why they feel like Elves and a bit like me...



Kenshin shook his head. Where the heck was he?!



******




J'linér was incensed yet again. "Why haven't you transferred him to the Third Age yet?" she demanded. "I ordered you to bring him several thousand years to the future, but did you listen? No...you just had to watch the toy being treated by those - by those creatures!" If she were in her corporal form, she would have spontaneously combusted by then.



But she wasn't in her corporal form and for that, Zòbr'kún was grateful - he didn't want to see her entrails flying all over the place.



He sighed. Zòbr'kún didn't know how much of her incessant orders he could stand. She was worse than a banshee and an offspring of a w'grinal wailing together!



Fortunately for Zòbr'kún, Lásq'r came to his rescue. "J'linér, dear," she said in her mild voice, "can't you see that our little plaything is being infuriated with the great-grandson of dear Melian?"



"Melian?" J'linér asked, confused, her tirade suddenly halting. "Who's Melian?"



"The Maia, dear," said K'nér soothingly, "the one who wedded with that Elf." She wrinkled her nose. "She had a daughter, Lúthien, remember? The one infuriating our plaything must be one of her grandsons, Elros."



"Then it's nice to know that Elros is carrying out our work for us," said N'grakùn proudly, "I expect no less from the descendant of our kin!"



"True, true," chuckled Bêlorún. "Clearly the blood of an omnipotent being is flowing within him!"



"Too bad his twin isn't helping him annoy our toy."



"Yes, that may be so, but at least he isn't stopping him!"



"Hm. Right you..." The discussion continued.



If Zòbr'kún were in his corporal form, he would have breathed a sigh of relief. Thank the Almighty One for Lásq'r! he cheered silently when a thought entered his omnipotent mind. Oh, no! I owe her now! But what would she want from me...? He turned to observe his fellow omnipotent, who was seemingly oblivious to his scrunity.



Lásq'r suddenly turned towards Zòbr'kún and smiled sweetly at him. Her smile was so sweet that if Zòbr'kún was in his corporal form, his teeth would have rotten immediately from too much sugar.



As it was, the demi-god was afraid. Very afraid.



******




After spending almost two hours awake in the company of the twins in front of him - Elros in particular - Kenshin was almost ready to commit seppuku. He gritted his teeth. "You are worse than Saitou and shishou combined..." he muttered darkly, glowering at the too-innocent face of Elros Eärendilion in front of him.



"Who is Saitou and Shishou?" asked Elrond, perhaps to discourage his brother from asking more annoying questions.



"Saitou Hajime was a member of the Shinsengumi and one of their best swordsmen. Shishou is not a name, it is a title that means "master" or "teacher". He was the one who taught me kenjutsu..." Kenshin said with a faraway look on his face.



******




At another dimension, on a planet its inhabitants call Earth, in a country known internationally as Japan, on the island called Honshu, at a city named Kyoto, inside a restaurant named Shirobeko, a tall, lanky man eating soba suddenly sneezed loudly, earning dirty looks courtesy of his fellow diners.



"Sumimasen," he politely told the nearest waitress and the restaurant at large.



"Ah, that's all right, Fujita-san!" said the waitress cheerfully as she went about her duties. The other patrons turned back to their food.



Fujita Gorou, formerly known as Saitou Hajime, continued to eat his meal.



******




At the same time, at the same dimension, on the same planet, in the same country, on the same island, on a mountain outside the city of Kyoto, a largely-built man sitting in front of a kiln sipping sake also sneezed loudly, spilling the beverage down his shirt.



"Chikusho!" he cursed as the precious liquid meandered on the dirt. He sighed. "Ah, yare-yare..."



He pulled out the jars and pots he was baking and set them aside to cool. The potter then carefully placed the still-wet jugs he was going to fire inside the kiln. He straightened up and sighed again before heading inside his hut.



"Now," Hiko Seijurou, Thirteenth Master of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu - also known as Kakunoshin Niitsu - muttered irritatedly, "where the hell is that other jug of sake?"



******




"Ah," said Elrond uncomfortably, for the lack of anything to say. In truth, he really didn't know what the adan was talking about - kenjutsu? what was that? - but he needed to know more about him.



Like what to call him: Himura or Kenshin. He didn't specify which is his preferred name, much to Elrond's chargin.



Well, however he wanted to be called, Elrond didn't want to call him by either of those two names before his brother does. He really didn't want to be embarassed at all...



"Master Himura, where did you come from, anyway?" asked Elros suddenly.



"Oro?" Himura blinked at them. "What do you want to know: where I was born, where I grew up in, where I spent most of my teenage life or where I was last before I met those three Elves?"








GLOSSARY:

adan - Man (Sindarin)
chikusho - shit (Japanese)
daisho - a set of two swords comprised of a katana [>long sword] and a wakizashi [>short sword] (Japanese)
de gozaru ka - "de gozaru" is an ultra-polite phrase suffixed to any sentence. It is the archaic form of the words "de gozaimasu" and was used by ninjas and samurai when addressing their lords. "Ka" is added when "de gozaru" is suffixed to a question (Japanese)
kenjutsu - art of the sword; archaic form of kendo [>way of the sword] (Japanese)
Maia (pl. Maiar) - demi-gods and -godesses who serve the Valar, and are the same order as them, though not as powerful
rurouni - lit. wandering masterless samurai [Watsuki-sensei invented the word] (Japanese)
sake - rice wine (Japanese)
seppuku - ritual suicide: the person committing seppuku plunges a wakizashi through his or her abdomen, slicing downwards then sidewards to let the...ahem, entrails out. After he or she had suffered enough, somebody will decapitate his or her head. Gruesome, no? (Japanese)
Shinsengumi - the Kyoto police that serve the Shogunate; Kenshin's enemies (Japanese)
sumimasen - sorry (Japanese)
yare-yare - oh well... (Japanese)



The nickname given by Elros to Kenshin - Fincaran - means red hair.



Pottery: The only thing I know about pottery is that it involves a spinning thing, clay and a kiln, so I just guessed how Hiko put the pots inside the kiln to be fired.



About the sneezing thing: The Japanese believe that if you suddenly sneeze, somebody is talking about you. Just like that episode in the anime when Kenshin and the gang were talking about Saitou and he suddenly sneezed four times while eating his soba...hehe.



| Next |