Um.Chapter 15: "The Attack and Killing of Time"

Neji yawned, not bothering to cover his mouth, as he walked through the wooden corridor to Houji's office. Aoshi trailed silently behind the shorter man, not saying a word.

'Dammit, how come I'm stuck with Mr. No Emotions?' Neji growled to himself, twirling the shinobi zue in his hand. 'I'd rather talk with Yumi- neechan or play go with her . . . even hunting down the remaining Juppon Katana would be more fun.' He stopped and knocked on the door on his left. "Houji, it's Neji." A muffled come in from Shishio's right hand man came from behind the door. "After you, Shinomori."

The taller man nodded slightly and pushed the door open, walking through. Neji sighed, scratched his head, and followed suit. Houji sat behind a desk that had books and papers strewn about on it's top. "Ah, Shinomori-san I have something to talk to you about."

Aoshi merely stood and watched the other man, while Neji moved over to the side of the door and leant against the wall, still playing with his staff. "What is it," Aoshi asked.

"I sent the Kyousoushuu to the Aoiya a short time ago. Soon, we will have the way to find our answers," Houji said, folding his arms on the desk.

"The Kyousoushuu?" Aoshi asked, his black bangs covering his dead looking eyes.

"They were picked from our soldiers for effectiveness in the dark. They're a unit of spies who specialize in night attacks," Houji replied.

"Feh." Houji turned to fix a glare on the youngest man in the room. Neji opened one of his eyes and smirked at the older man. "They're so noisy, a drunk old man would wake up if they're in the same room." Houji spluttered a moment before regaining his calm.

"Anyways," Houji continued, glaring at the young man then turning to look at Aoshi. "You said the Oniwabanshuu's original headquarters is now just an inn. Like a rat's nest. It'd only be a waste to send the Juppon Katana." Neji's smirk changed to a grin and he began to say something. Houji overrode him quickly. "Even a handkerchief is too much to catch rats."

"If you sent them only a while ago, even a handkerchief will take some time to catch rats," Neji said, stretching. "I doubt they'll be back for a few hours." Houji nodded. Aoshi turned and abruptly left the room. Neji grinned at Houji. "He's bored with this as well." He made as if to go but then looked back at Shishio's advisor. "It may have been a waste to send one of us, but it would've got the job done." Houji's frown deepened as the young man laughed and left the room.

[Eight O'clock in the morning]

Houji frowned and looked up at the clock. "They're late. . . What could they be doing?" He flinched visibly as a soldier burst into the room.

"Houji-sama!! Come quick! The Kyousoushuu have returned!" Houji nodded, a look of relief coming into his face as he rushed to the front gate after the soldier. He stopped dead, the look of relief melting into one of shock as he saw his elite soldier's condition.

His clothes were ripped and blood was dripping down his face. Wax dripped down his hands from where two candle stubs still sat. His eyes were rolled back into his skull and he wobbled on his feet, unconsciously attempting to keep his balance.

"How . . . could they have been defeated?" Houji murmured.

"Would it sound childish if I said 'I told you so'?" Neji asked, smirking. Houji turned to glare at the staff-wielder as he emerged from the ranks of curious and shocked soldiers.

"Yes it would," Houji grated, balling his hands into fists. Neji strolled over to him, resting his shinobi zue on his shoulder.

"Glad I didn't say it then," Neji replied, smirking still as he glanced at the spy, who moaned once before crashing face first onto the floor. Houji moved towards his spy and gasped as he saw a message carved into the flesh of his back. Neji also went closer to the fallen man and peered over Houji's shoulder. " 'I'll be waiting at the lookout. Come alone. Okina.' That's the old man, right?" Neji blinked and turned to face Aoshi, who had just appeared in the throng.

"It will take a large handkerchief to destroy these rats," Aoshi said, glancing at Houji's back. "Okina of the Oniwabanshuu was my teacher, and the only one who could stand before the previous Okashira." Houji glared at the trench-coated man from the corner of his eye, his teeth gritted. "I don't know if even the Juppon Katana you're so proud of could win. . ."

Neji also glared at Aoshi, fingering the section in his staff. He bared his teeth slightly in a smirk. "I think . . . the Juppon Katana would be able to defeat an old man," he said evenly, trying to keep his temper. He sweatdropped as he remembered his previous thoughts on some of the less . . . qualified members of his group.

'The fat blob verses the old man . . .' Neji thought to himself. 'Well . . . the qualified members of the Juppon Katana could take on one old man, even if he was a match for the previous Okashira. But then, if he taught Shinomori Aoshi, a man who caught Shishio-sama's eye . .' Aoshi glared darkly at something unseen, then turned and left through the door the spy had entered. "Eh?" Neji turned to Houji. "Did Shishio-sama allow him to leave?"

Houji didn't answer but turned and strode back inside the maze of corridors, in the general direction of his office. Neji frowned slightly, shouldered the shinobi zue, and ran down the corridors in a different direction. He stopped in front of a shut wooden door and knocked.

"Who is it?" a woman asked. Neji grinned.

"Guess," Neji said. He grinned again to hear her laugh and open the door, smiling still. Yumi turned to the bandaged man recline in a chair and smiled.

"Shishio-sama, it's Neji-kun."

"Ah. I heard there was a disturbance. What happened?" Shishio asked, inhaling the smoke from his pipe. Neji wandered into the room after his sister and shut the door quietly.

"Houji's going to run in here in a few minutes with a better explanation than mine, Shishio-sama," Neji said, scratching his head. "Maybe you'd prefer to listen to his." Shishio blew out a cloud of smoke and smirked, nodding.

"Shishio-sama, would you wish to play shogi?" Yumi asked, nodding her head slightly to the board set up in the far side of the room. Another cloud of smoke drifted into the air.

"Play with Neji."

"Hai, Shishio-sama."

Neji moved over to the table and sat across from his smiling sister. They began playing (A/N: I don't know how to play shogi ^^;) and a few moments later, Neji looked up.

"One thing, Shishio-sama," he stated, looking up at the man. Shishio nodded, his eyes closed. "Shinomori left the area, I asked Houji if it was fine with you, but he rushed off to his office."

"Is that so . . ." Shishio murmured, opening his eyes and watching the gray smoke curl out from his pipe bowl. There was a sharp knock on the door. Shishio lazily glanced over to Neji, who mouthed a name. "Houji, come in."

The man came in quickly, a slight look of agitation on his face. He bowed slightly to the bandaged man and then began to tell of that morning's event. Shishio listened while twirling his pipe between his fingers.

"So, the attack on the Aoiya was a failure."

"I must apoligize . . ." Houji murmured, bowing his head. "I foolishly underestimated them . . . In recompense Juppon Katana, Houji of the Hundred Sense will go himself . . ."

"There's no need. I heard that Aoshi has already gone to meet that challenge." Shishio replied, eyes closed.

"But~"

"I have no need for his interference. Your life is more important." Shishio stated, making sweat break out on his advisor's forehead. "By the way, do you believe in hell?"

"Hell . . .?" Houji repeated, thinking a moment before giving a steadier gaze to his leader. "No. Good men and evil men are made of the same flesh. In the end, they both rot and return to earth.

Shishio smirked once. "I might have known you'd be so rational. But the truth is, I believe in Hell. Take the legendary Hitokiri Battousai. This Okina is taking off his mask of a friendly old man to destroy Shinomori Aoshi, who lives only to say that he killed Battousai. And the Meiji government, who cast me into the flames to conceal their own sins. While these men of violence wash away blood with blood crawl upon this world, is it not suitable to call it Hell?"

During Shishio's speech, Neji had paused in the game, glancing up with blank eyes at his sister, Houji, and the man his sister loved. Looking quickly back at the game, he moved a stone. "Check."

"Eh??"

Shishio suddenly stood up and walked towards Houji, who took a few steps backwards. The burnt man pulled off one glove and said, "I don't think you're prepared for this. After all, there's no getting out of Hell alive. Houji, you're in need of purification."

Neji looked up as he heard Houji's back hit the wall, and his scream that echoed through the room. 'Sounds like we're killing him, or something,' Neji thought, sweatdropping.

"Shut up," Shishio stated, pressing his burnt palm against Houji's forehead. Houji's eyes widened and his mouth gaped open.

"How . . ."

"Ten years ago when my entire body was burned, my sweat glands were completely destroyed. I lost the ability to regulate my body heat through perspiration. According to the doctors, I shouldn't be able to live sustaining such a high temperature." Shishio smirked. "It's what I have left from the flames of Hell."

Neji heard Houji's brief exhalation as Shishio lifted his hand off of his forehead. "It's not just my arms. Legs. Belly. Chest. My entire body continues to burn. And of course," Shishio said, pointing to his head. "Here as well. So my voice became pure heat, without a trace of coolness. And one day I began to speak the truth.

Man's true nature is violence, and this world is Hell. Himura Battousai denies his true nature and desperately clings to reason. The new government hides the sins of the past and deceives Meiji Japan with its ideals. Equally small, equally fragile. I raise my voice with my blazing-hot mind, "This is wrong." Only through violence can we live with the capacity to be a strong nation. This is indeed Hell."

Shishio paused to gaze at Houji. "You're shaking, Houji. Are you scared?" A grin appeared on the other man's face.

"No, quite the reverse. I'm shaking with joy . . . All those I've met serving the new government were shrunken fools, hardly worth remembering. But I finally chanced to meet a man of true caliber, greater than I had ever imagined. I'm honored to build a new Japan with this man!"

A smirk appeared on Shishio's face, to match the look of exuberance on his subordinate's. "You're ready . . . I'm relying on you, Houji."

Yumi took another sip of wine before murmuring to her brother. "Another one loyal to violence is born . . ." Neji grinned and moved a stone another spot. "Don't tell me . ."

"Check, Yumi-neechan."

[Change scene]

Soujiro added more wood to the fire, watching the glowing embers that floated in the air. He brushed them aside as he picked up his sword that rested against the log and slipped it through his obi. The blue-clad man tapped his foot three times on the dirt ground and disappeared in a flurry of dust.

'Hiko-sensei is still training with Himura-san . . .' Soujiro thought to himself, dodging an imaginary enemy and swiftly reappearing behind him. His smile grew wider. 'I wonder how good Himura-san is.'

He jumped high in the air and smashed down on another enemy, his smile firmly in place. 'I wonder what happened to that girl . . . she ran off so suddenly.' He had just gotten back a while ago, running back from town using his natural speed, not Shikuchi. Soujiro tripped over a root that stuck out of the ground and flew through the air.

Sweatdropping, he spun in midair and managed to land on his feet, kicking up a large amount of dust. He sighed and sheathed his sword. "Too dark to train anymore." He looked around. "Hiko-sensei doesn't show any sign of finishing soon . ." The blue clad man sighed, still smiling, and sat down on the log in front of the kiln.

END

Notice: if u guys have free time, um . . . feel free to check fictionpress.com ^^; I've posted my story there under Althus Silverwing, if ur bored :P

For once . . I like this ch title ~grins~ it has a twist, wonder if people will get it tho? Wat do u think the title means/refers to? Quiz time! ^^; actually, dun think I did this well, but I'm sleepy and I wanna read a new book I've got! ^^ it kinda died halfway through, there was a lot of talking . . . I got bored o_O gomen! I told u guys I'm lazy before I think . . or was that other . . .

Momoku: ~scratches head~ etto . . . I never remember saying that I don't like it/believe that it's a good pairing ^^; I just said that I'm not good at writing it, eg. I can't write romance fics, I can't think of the right situations. I've read a few Soujiro/Misao fics before, and I like them. I just can't write them ^^; I'll try reading that if I get a chance . .

Lord Cirenmas: arigatou for da review once again! ^^