CHAPTER 13: A New Type of Fighter
Tokio raced alongside the river. She could hear the footsteps behind her and hear the yells of all of the ninjas following her. She was already tiring, and her aching legs wouldn't be able to carry her much farther. And the worst part was that the ninjas were steadily gaining on her.
"GET BACK HERE!" Tokio could hear them yelling. She sidestepped just in time to avoid being stabbed by a kunai. Tokio used her last burst of energy to sprint up the road and into an alleyway. She saw Eiji leaning against Battousai, beaten and bruised. On the ground there was an unconscious ninja. Tokio took a few raspy breaths and collapsed to her knees. Before falling to the floor, she looked up at Eiji.
"Hajime is... still... alive..." Tokio panted and let the darkness take her.
"Tokio!!" Eiji yelled, trying to sit up, but his body cried out in pain and he fell back to Kenshin's lap. "Tokio... I know!" Eiji tried to revive her with his voice, but it was in vain. Kenshin placed Eiji gingerly against the wall and walked to the fallen Tokio.
"Tokio-dono?" Kenshin asked. He squatted next to her. Just then, at least fifty ninjas appeared from around the corner. They all glared evilly at the three in the alleyway.
"It looks like we hit the jackpot!" one said. "Both the wife and kid are right here in front of us! What more can we ask?" He stepped forward, but Kenshin blocked his way.
"Who are you? Why are you after Tokio-dono and Eiji?" Kenshin asked, hand on sword. The ninjas glared.
"Who do you think you are?" the ninjas asked angrily. Kenshin glared back.
"I am a simple wanderer, that I am, but I will not allow you to hurt these two, that I most certainly will not!" Kenshin said. Just then, a smiling man pushed his way through the ninjas and faced Kenshin.
"I am Yokokawa Chuichi," the smiling man said. His gi was red, but the shoulder part was a darker red. Kenshin suspected that it was blood.
"I see," Kenshin said. "Why are you after Tokio-dono?"
"That really has nothing to do with you," Chuichi said. "Now if you'll just step aside, I'll collect my fallen friend, Hirofumi, and these two." Chuichi pointed to Tokio and Eiji. Kenshin shook his head.
"I cannot allow you to hurt them," Kenshin said. "Which is what you plan to do, isn't it?" Chuichi let out a light, amused laugh.
"Hurt them? Who said that? I simply want to reunite them with Saito Hajime," Chuichi stated simply. "He has been missing them and requested for us to bring them to him. We had no choice but to obey. He is, after all, a police officer." Kenshin looked back at Eiji.
"No, Himura-san!" Eiji gasped. "Don't let me go!" Kenshin turned back to the men.
"I'm sorry, I cannot let him go with you," Kenshin said. "Besides, I'm sure Saito didn't tell you to attack them. Merely to bring them back, correct? I'm sure that he wouldn't any misfortune on his family." Chuichi's smile didn't falter.
"Oh, sir, you must have it wrong," Chuichi said. "We don't want to bring them to him in life. Saito Hajime is going to be killed. They can all be reunited in death." Kenshin gasped, as did Eiji.
"NO!" Eiji yelled, jumping up despite his injuries. "Saito-san isn't dead!!" His eyes brimmed with tears. Kenshin tried to settle him, but did not succeed. Eiji ran toward Chuichi with a flying punch, but Chuichi easily blocked it and grabbed him.
"EIJI!" Kenshin called out. He sprang forward with a Ryu-Sho-Sen. Chuichi jumped back out of the line of fire.
"Tsk, tsk!" Chuichi clicked. "So rash! You could at least let the boy be with Saito." Kenshin let out a low growl.
"Let the boy go!"
"LEMME GO!!" Eiji screamed, trying to pull away. "LEMME GO! LEMME GO!" He kicked frantically, but found that it didn't work. Eiji then leaned forward and bit Chuichi's arm. Chuichi let go with a little hiccup of pain. Eiji ran back to Kenshin, and Kenshin stepped protectively in front of him.
"Ouch," Chuichi mused, looking at his arm. Then, he smiled. "It seems that it left a small mark! Quite impressive!" Kenshin stepped forward.
"Leave now," Kenshin said. Chuichi shook his head, drawing his sword.
"I want to fight the great Battousai," Chuichi said. Kenshin took a defensive stance.
"Eiji, try to wake up Tokio-dono!" Kenshin commanded. Eiji nodded and ran over to Tokio, shaking her.
"TOKIO! GET UP! YOU HAVE GET UP!" Eiji shouted. "TOKIO! TOKIO!" Tokio stirred. Eiji looked back at Kenshin. He and Chuichi had gone onto the road. They were facing each other, swords at the ready.
"Eiji?" Tokio asked, groggily. Eiji whirled around.
"Tokio!" Eiji grinned. Kenshin cocked his head their way.
"Go! Get out of here!" Kenshin instructed. Tokio and Eiji nodded, but half of the ninjas stepped over to block their escape. Tokio slid into a Gatotsu stance with the wakizashi in her hand. Eiji grabbed a nearby stick and also took a Gatotsu stance. The ninjas laughed in disbelief.
"You better not mess with us!" Eiji threatened. The ninjas just gave each other looks and burst out in laughter again. Eiji gave a frustrated yell and grit his teeth, charging in with a Gatotsu. Tokio watched in wonder as Eiji's stick made contact with one of the ninja's groin. The ninja cried out in pain and hopped away in agony. The others stared at the retreating one and then at Eiji.
"That's it, Eiji!" Tokio giggled. So, her teachings had rubbed off on him! She executed her Gatotsu and stabbed a ninja's upper chest.
"Hmmm... they're not all that bad!" Chuichi nodded. He glanced at Kenshin. "We should begin now, else those two'll finish their battle long before ours." Kenshin nodded and jumped into the air.
"RYU TSUI SEN!" he cried, crashing into Chuichi's sword. He bounced off and then ran forward with a Kuzo Ryu Sen. Chuichi jumped to avoid it, skidding to a halt behind Kenshin.
"I see..." he said. "You rely on predicting your opponents moves and the god- like speed of the Hiten Mitserugi Style to win your battles. But... what if you were faced with the same thing? Could you beat it?" Chuichi grinned. Kenshin frowned. What was the man talking about?
"You will see why I am the mot skilled of all of the leaders in our group!" Chuichi declared as he charged at Kenshin, sword out. "HITEN MITSERUGI STYLE, KUZO RYU SEN!" Kenshin gasped and narrowly dodged the three most deadly stabs. However, he was injured on his shoulders, both sides, and both thighs.
"You... mimicked my attack... after seeing it once!" Kenshin gaped at Chuichi. Chuichi smiled warmly.
"Yes, I did," Chuichi said. "I don't practice a style, just take my opponents attacks from them." Kenshin nodded.
"But... then I know everything you have to throw," Kenshin said. "It's not hard to predict your moves if I already know them. It won't be hard to win this battle." Chuichi's smile grew.
"Yes, but I have many moves that you are not familiar with. Take this one, for instance," Chuichi jumped up high into the air, positioning himself right over Kenshin.
"A Ryu-Tsui-Sen?" Kenshin called up to him. "You can't expect to hit with that!" Chuichi laughed.
"TSUI- KUZO-RYU-SEN!" Chuichi yelled. He flipped his body around so his head was facing the ground, hands holding the sword vertically toward Kenshin's head. Kenshin gasped. What was that? He hardly had time to react, but managed to jump away with only a few cuts on his arms and cheeks.
"What... was that?" Kenshin asked. Chuichi sniggered.
"A Tsui-Kuzo-Ryu-Sen," he replied. "I planned it as an attack that traps the opponent by striking all around them as well as at their head simultaneously, limiting their movement and skewering them vertically." Chuichi said. "In short, making a square of stabs around the victim as well as one to hit them with. Pretty creative, huh?" Kenshin scowled.
"So you created a new attack! Big deal! I'll still defeat you!" Kenshin said. He was getting annoyed, not only with the superiority of his opponent, but with the obnoxious smile that Chuichi wore on his face all the time. It was as though Chuichi was constantly mocking him. Kenshin sheathed his sword. Battou-jutsu should solve the entire problem.
"Battou-jutsu!" Chuichi grinned. "Can't you think of anything else?" Kenshin squatted lower.
"Come!" he called to Chuichi. Chuichi sheathed his sword as well.
"Then I'll do the same," Chuichi said, copying Kenshin. He charged. They both unsheathed their swords with lightning fast speed, but then, Chuichi grabbed the sword with both hands and executed the Ryu-Sho-Sen. Kenshin whirled around and used the Sou-Ryu-Sen. Their attacks met and the two fighters bounced back to their original positions.
"You created that one too," Kenshin guessed.
"No," Chuichi said. "That was improvising. I had nothing else to do and I knew your Sou-Ryu-Sen was coming." Kenshin flicked his sakabatou.
"Let's go," Kenshin said.
"You're still eager to fight I see!" Chuichi gave a small smile. "Why? You know that there's no way to defeat me the way you are fighting now! I can predict your every move and use the god-like speed of the Hiten Mitserugi style, yet you can only use the speed. What now?" Kenshin just stared, knowing that Chuichi was right. He had to find a way to beat him. Even if it seemed impossible.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Ha ha ha!! TGIF!!! I get to update sooner than I expected!!! YAY!! I think that this chapter was longer, but I don't really know. And to answer any question about Chuichi's constant smiling: NO HE IS NOT LIKE SOUJIROU. He's just extremely cocky. Next chapter will be the end of the battle. Guess who's gonna win?
REVIEW RESPONSES:
Kairi7: I updated soon!! YAY! Cheer with me!! And thank you for reading!! He wasn't too OOC? Okay... that's good.
Protector of Meladon/ Koneko (and any other name you have...): Cool! We both thought Tokio would be kind of like this! Mutilated lily? What?.................. poor lily... ;_; lol. Thanks for reading!! ^___^
MissBehavin: Good. He wasn't OOC. I thought he was but... I guess not. You'll see about him getting to Tokio. It's an interesting ride ahead! ^______^ Thanks!
Joselyn Greenleaf: Hyper? From what? Too much Saito? Or too little Saito? ^__^ Oh... what's Mad Mad House?
Tokio raced alongside the river. She could hear the footsteps behind her and hear the yells of all of the ninjas following her. She was already tiring, and her aching legs wouldn't be able to carry her much farther. And the worst part was that the ninjas were steadily gaining on her.
"GET BACK HERE!" Tokio could hear them yelling. She sidestepped just in time to avoid being stabbed by a kunai. Tokio used her last burst of energy to sprint up the road and into an alleyway. She saw Eiji leaning against Battousai, beaten and bruised. On the ground there was an unconscious ninja. Tokio took a few raspy breaths and collapsed to her knees. Before falling to the floor, she looked up at Eiji.
"Hajime is... still... alive..." Tokio panted and let the darkness take her.
"Tokio!!" Eiji yelled, trying to sit up, but his body cried out in pain and he fell back to Kenshin's lap. "Tokio... I know!" Eiji tried to revive her with his voice, but it was in vain. Kenshin placed Eiji gingerly against the wall and walked to the fallen Tokio.
"Tokio-dono?" Kenshin asked. He squatted next to her. Just then, at least fifty ninjas appeared from around the corner. They all glared evilly at the three in the alleyway.
"It looks like we hit the jackpot!" one said. "Both the wife and kid are right here in front of us! What more can we ask?" He stepped forward, but Kenshin blocked his way.
"Who are you? Why are you after Tokio-dono and Eiji?" Kenshin asked, hand on sword. The ninjas glared.
"Who do you think you are?" the ninjas asked angrily. Kenshin glared back.
"I am a simple wanderer, that I am, but I will not allow you to hurt these two, that I most certainly will not!" Kenshin said. Just then, a smiling man pushed his way through the ninjas and faced Kenshin.
"I am Yokokawa Chuichi," the smiling man said. His gi was red, but the shoulder part was a darker red. Kenshin suspected that it was blood.
"I see," Kenshin said. "Why are you after Tokio-dono?"
"That really has nothing to do with you," Chuichi said. "Now if you'll just step aside, I'll collect my fallen friend, Hirofumi, and these two." Chuichi pointed to Tokio and Eiji. Kenshin shook his head.
"I cannot allow you to hurt them," Kenshin said. "Which is what you plan to do, isn't it?" Chuichi let out a light, amused laugh.
"Hurt them? Who said that? I simply want to reunite them with Saito Hajime," Chuichi stated simply. "He has been missing them and requested for us to bring them to him. We had no choice but to obey. He is, after all, a police officer." Kenshin looked back at Eiji.
"No, Himura-san!" Eiji gasped. "Don't let me go!" Kenshin turned back to the men.
"I'm sorry, I cannot let him go with you," Kenshin said. "Besides, I'm sure Saito didn't tell you to attack them. Merely to bring them back, correct? I'm sure that he wouldn't any misfortune on his family." Chuichi's smile didn't falter.
"Oh, sir, you must have it wrong," Chuichi said. "We don't want to bring them to him in life. Saito Hajime is going to be killed. They can all be reunited in death." Kenshin gasped, as did Eiji.
"NO!" Eiji yelled, jumping up despite his injuries. "Saito-san isn't dead!!" His eyes brimmed with tears. Kenshin tried to settle him, but did not succeed. Eiji ran toward Chuichi with a flying punch, but Chuichi easily blocked it and grabbed him.
"EIJI!" Kenshin called out. He sprang forward with a Ryu-Sho-Sen. Chuichi jumped back out of the line of fire.
"Tsk, tsk!" Chuichi clicked. "So rash! You could at least let the boy be with Saito." Kenshin let out a low growl.
"Let the boy go!"
"LEMME GO!!" Eiji screamed, trying to pull away. "LEMME GO! LEMME GO!" He kicked frantically, but found that it didn't work. Eiji then leaned forward and bit Chuichi's arm. Chuichi let go with a little hiccup of pain. Eiji ran back to Kenshin, and Kenshin stepped protectively in front of him.
"Ouch," Chuichi mused, looking at his arm. Then, he smiled. "It seems that it left a small mark! Quite impressive!" Kenshin stepped forward.
"Leave now," Kenshin said. Chuichi shook his head, drawing his sword.
"I want to fight the great Battousai," Chuichi said. Kenshin took a defensive stance.
"Eiji, try to wake up Tokio-dono!" Kenshin commanded. Eiji nodded and ran over to Tokio, shaking her.
"TOKIO! GET UP! YOU HAVE GET UP!" Eiji shouted. "TOKIO! TOKIO!" Tokio stirred. Eiji looked back at Kenshin. He and Chuichi had gone onto the road. They were facing each other, swords at the ready.
"Eiji?" Tokio asked, groggily. Eiji whirled around.
"Tokio!" Eiji grinned. Kenshin cocked his head their way.
"Go! Get out of here!" Kenshin instructed. Tokio and Eiji nodded, but half of the ninjas stepped over to block their escape. Tokio slid into a Gatotsu stance with the wakizashi in her hand. Eiji grabbed a nearby stick and also took a Gatotsu stance. The ninjas laughed in disbelief.
"You better not mess with us!" Eiji threatened. The ninjas just gave each other looks and burst out in laughter again. Eiji gave a frustrated yell and grit his teeth, charging in with a Gatotsu. Tokio watched in wonder as Eiji's stick made contact with one of the ninja's groin. The ninja cried out in pain and hopped away in agony. The others stared at the retreating one and then at Eiji.
"That's it, Eiji!" Tokio giggled. So, her teachings had rubbed off on him! She executed her Gatotsu and stabbed a ninja's upper chest.
"Hmmm... they're not all that bad!" Chuichi nodded. He glanced at Kenshin. "We should begin now, else those two'll finish their battle long before ours." Kenshin nodded and jumped into the air.
"RYU TSUI SEN!" he cried, crashing into Chuichi's sword. He bounced off and then ran forward with a Kuzo Ryu Sen. Chuichi jumped to avoid it, skidding to a halt behind Kenshin.
"I see..." he said. "You rely on predicting your opponents moves and the god- like speed of the Hiten Mitserugi Style to win your battles. But... what if you were faced with the same thing? Could you beat it?" Chuichi grinned. Kenshin frowned. What was the man talking about?
"You will see why I am the mot skilled of all of the leaders in our group!" Chuichi declared as he charged at Kenshin, sword out. "HITEN MITSERUGI STYLE, KUZO RYU SEN!" Kenshin gasped and narrowly dodged the three most deadly stabs. However, he was injured on his shoulders, both sides, and both thighs.
"You... mimicked my attack... after seeing it once!" Kenshin gaped at Chuichi. Chuichi smiled warmly.
"Yes, I did," Chuichi said. "I don't practice a style, just take my opponents attacks from them." Kenshin nodded.
"But... then I know everything you have to throw," Kenshin said. "It's not hard to predict your moves if I already know them. It won't be hard to win this battle." Chuichi's smile grew.
"Yes, but I have many moves that you are not familiar with. Take this one, for instance," Chuichi jumped up high into the air, positioning himself right over Kenshin.
"A Ryu-Tsui-Sen?" Kenshin called up to him. "You can't expect to hit with that!" Chuichi laughed.
"TSUI- KUZO-RYU-SEN!" Chuichi yelled. He flipped his body around so his head was facing the ground, hands holding the sword vertically toward Kenshin's head. Kenshin gasped. What was that? He hardly had time to react, but managed to jump away with only a few cuts on his arms and cheeks.
"What... was that?" Kenshin asked. Chuichi sniggered.
"A Tsui-Kuzo-Ryu-Sen," he replied. "I planned it as an attack that traps the opponent by striking all around them as well as at their head simultaneously, limiting their movement and skewering them vertically." Chuichi said. "In short, making a square of stabs around the victim as well as one to hit them with. Pretty creative, huh?" Kenshin scowled.
"So you created a new attack! Big deal! I'll still defeat you!" Kenshin said. He was getting annoyed, not only with the superiority of his opponent, but with the obnoxious smile that Chuichi wore on his face all the time. It was as though Chuichi was constantly mocking him. Kenshin sheathed his sword. Battou-jutsu should solve the entire problem.
"Battou-jutsu!" Chuichi grinned. "Can't you think of anything else?" Kenshin squatted lower.
"Come!" he called to Chuichi. Chuichi sheathed his sword as well.
"Then I'll do the same," Chuichi said, copying Kenshin. He charged. They both unsheathed their swords with lightning fast speed, but then, Chuichi grabbed the sword with both hands and executed the Ryu-Sho-Sen. Kenshin whirled around and used the Sou-Ryu-Sen. Their attacks met and the two fighters bounced back to their original positions.
"You created that one too," Kenshin guessed.
"No," Chuichi said. "That was improvising. I had nothing else to do and I knew your Sou-Ryu-Sen was coming." Kenshin flicked his sakabatou.
"Let's go," Kenshin said.
"You're still eager to fight I see!" Chuichi gave a small smile. "Why? You know that there's no way to defeat me the way you are fighting now! I can predict your every move and use the god-like speed of the Hiten Mitserugi style, yet you can only use the speed. What now?" Kenshin just stared, knowing that Chuichi was right. He had to find a way to beat him. Even if it seemed impossible.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Ha ha ha!! TGIF!!! I get to update sooner than I expected!!! YAY!! I think that this chapter was longer, but I don't really know. And to answer any question about Chuichi's constant smiling: NO HE IS NOT LIKE SOUJIROU. He's just extremely cocky. Next chapter will be the end of the battle. Guess who's gonna win?
REVIEW RESPONSES:
Kairi7: I updated soon!! YAY! Cheer with me!! And thank you for reading!! He wasn't too OOC? Okay... that's good.
Protector of Meladon/ Koneko (and any other name you have...): Cool! We both thought Tokio would be kind of like this! Mutilated lily? What?.................. poor lily... ;_; lol. Thanks for reading!! ^___^
MissBehavin: Good. He wasn't OOC. I thought he was but... I guess not. You'll see about him getting to Tokio. It's an interesting ride ahead! ^______^ Thanks!
Joselyn Greenleaf: Hyper? From what? Too much Saito? Or too little Saito? ^__^ Oh... what's Mad Mad House?