I've changed my mind- I'm not changing my screen name after all.
The Sacred Night, Chapter 17
As I sat with Sano, Kaoru and Misao in my living room for the third night that week, we waited for Aoshi to come home and announce failure at finding the cause of the bound human epidemic and the hunter on Misao's trail. We were mostly quiet, though small talk arose every once in awhile. Kaoru was declining steadily, even though I'd stopped feeding on her. None of us had fed in about a week, since we didn't want to endanger the humans we cared about and were reasonably sure this was a temporary situation. We counted heavily on Aoshi's prowess in information dealing to bring us a solution.
The situation was deteriorating rapidly as vampires all throughout Tokyo became hungrier and began to care less for humans when mercy meant starvation. The human information networks reported dead or missing individuals in ever-increasing numbers as more and more vampires cracked. The police were at a loss to explain how the people had died, and the general consensus was that an exotic virus had thinned the blood of its victims so much that they could bleed to death through tiny puncture wounds.
I knew I could hold out without feeding until a cure was found if need be, but I was worried that some of my friends might not have the discipline to accomplish it. Aoshi was not a concern in this area, since he could will himself into complete stillness for hours on end because of his strange and mysterious ninja background, but Misao, even being a fellow ninja, simply did not have it in her nature to be restrained. She could never hold back a torrent of words, regardless of the regret she might sincerely feel soon after, and she had never been convinced she could not have Aoshi, though that particular bit of recklessness had paid off in the end.
I also felt I could trust Sano, though perhaps he wasn't the rock of consistency that Aoshi was. Kaoru didn't present a worry, either, since regardless of her level of control, she was not a vampire and would be feeding only on chicken soup. That left only Misao who might need a little extra attention to prevent her from succumbing to her hunger, though I still doubted she would, unless this illness dragged on for unprecedented amounts of time, and anyone could break then. Heaven knew it had happened to me when I'd tried to keep myself from feeding long enough to die.
Perhaps we would all die before a cure was found. One never knew how quickly these things could come about, and there was no other way to survive without hurting anyone. Maybe if we all left Tokyo, we could find somewhere there were healthy humans that could be bound, but that didn't provide a solution for the humans we presently associated with, like my Kaoru. How long would she live in the absence of a cure? I didn't think she would mind dying all that much, since she had already surpassed the life expectancy for her species by several decades, but I still didn't want her to die and knew she did not exactly want that, either.
My thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of a blood-stained Aoshi in the room. His prized white coat was ripped, and blood seeped from the sides of his mouth. He held a sword and was still alive, so the cause of his injuries must have been a vampire at least as old as we were. I doubted a bound human could do so much damage to Aoshi. Was it possible that this was related to the information he had been seeking, or had he just gotten in a fight along the way? He was quiet as his wounds closed, preferring to conserve energy, I suppose. He finally offered an explanation when no more blood seeped out anywhere.
"It was caused deliberately. He wants chaos, destruction. I'll have to go back,"
"Don't worry, Aoshi, we'll go with you. Uh, the ones of us who can, anyway," he cast an apologetic glance toward Misao, knowing she would have wanted to go and would not be safe doing so in this case. She scowled.
"No. I need to go alone. I have a personal issue with the man who created the virus, or had it created," Aoshi answered firmly.
"I don't care what kind of grudge you have. We all have personal issues with him now. You can't stop us from going to protect the people we care about," Sanosuke roughly countered.
"Fine, do what you want. I will go separately from anyone else who does, though," Aoshi finished and left the room.
After a few moments of silence, Sano turned to me. "Hey, Kenshin, you haven't said anything about this yet. Are you gonna go?"
"I don't want to interfere in Aoshi's business, but I will be there in case I'm needed, that I will,"
"What's that mean, you're just gonna stand around unless you're asked to fight?"
"Aoshi may be able to defeat this man on his own. If he can resolve his business and convince the man to release the cure for the humans' disease in one stroke, no one else needs to be involved, however, if he can't, I will step in to protect my wife and the other humans,"
"I guess I'll say the same thing," Sano finished.
We saw Aoshi's injuries heal, and knew that his vampirism would have him back to full strength quickly, but still didn't realize how soon he'd want to go back. He didn't seem to need much time to strategize, and soon Aoshi, Sano, and I were in the somewhat familiar lair I had followed Aoshi inside over a hundred years before. I began to see what was meant by Aoshi's 'personal business' with the leader.
We walked through rooms I had only seen the doors of before, finding no one there. The only other time I'd been in the building, it had been teeming with vampires. I guessed the leader wanted privacy for his duel with Aoshi. He must have been the type to savor and enjoy the contest of physical fortitude and the ultimate snuffing out of life, or in the vampire's case, mere existence. His ki, when I got close enough to read it, reminded me of Sanosuke's when I'd first met him, but was much, much more sinister. Sano had enjoyed a good fight, yes, but had never killed for the fun of it.
We reached a door much larger than necessary for humanoid forms to pass through, and from the looks of it, much heavier than necessary. It didn't take much to keep a human from getting through a door, but no door on Earth would restrain a vampire, unless it had some sort of invisible properties of which I had no knowledge. The bound human woman I had seen before, still wearing a semi-traditional off the shoulders kimono, stood in front of the door next to a lever attached to a network of chains that seemed to control the door.
"I see you were smarter than I thought, Shinomori, and much braver," she assessed in a seductive, but mocking tone. I had more of an insight into what sort of man this leader was now. "Once I open this door," she continued in a more businesslike tone, "none of you can leave until Shishio-sama is dead, unless of course the more likely thing happens, and you never leave. Is that agreed?"
"What about the others? They don't have to be dead before we leave?" I asked, sensing more than one fighter ki on the other side of the door.
"No, they are only there to keep things… interesting," she answered with a small, clever smile. I heightened my guard.
"Agreed," Aoshi announced curtly, putting a period to all discussion.
The door opened with a high pitched creaking noise and we could see that the room was much larger even than the door made it seem. There was a high platform on which stood all of the ki sources in the building except those of the woman, Aoshi, Sano, and me. She led us up several flights of stairs, and at the top stood the heavily bandaged vampire I had seen before. I wondered again just what could give a vampire such lasting wounds and not kill him. There were not many things that could kill a vampire. Fire, decapitation, a stake through the heart, and starvation were the only ones I knew, and anything else could be healed easily.
He stood in the center of the large tiled floor, on which there were no rails, so anyone pressed to the edge of the platform would likely plummet to his or her death. Three others stood in a row off to the side, and the woman joined them. One was a man in relatively modern clothes, but the others, like the woman, all wore more traditional dress. Even the heavily bandaged central vampire identified as Shishio-sama wore a kimono, but with one shoulder off to bear the stifling heat of the room better. The man in modern clothes didn't appear threatening, and neither did the woman or the young-seeming boy at her side. I wondered what he was really doing here, since he not only didn't look the part but also didn't have the ki of a fighter. He looked out of place in such a violent arena obviously meant for fighting, and seemed innocent enough not to know what was going to happen, but I had seen him with this group one hundred twenty six years before, so he must have been well-acquainted with his leader's habits.
The other man was absolutely huge, with a completely bald head and a cloth of some sort tied over it. He was glaring out at us, unlike the smiling boy, the smug woman, or the frowning man in modern clothes. This was the only one other than the leader who seemed ready to fight. Aoshi and the man called Shishio were already in staring fixedly and advancing toward one another slowly, sizing each other up. I watched the others for a few moments, expecting one to come forward and engage me in battle, but when none did, I simply went back to watching Aoshi and Shishio.
I didn't know at what point, if any, it would be appropriate to interpose. Knowing Aoshi as I did, I felt he probably wouldn't want me to try to protect him no matter how injured he seemed. I couldn't allow anything as dishonorable as a surprise from another fighter or a gunshot to reach him, but I would not get between him and Shishio unless asked, and I wasn't likely to be asked. I noticed Sano doing the same thing as I was- he assessed the four standing off to the side and seemed to come to the same conclusion: that none of them planned to fight us, or at least not yet. He also watched Aoshi fight Shishio, frowning as he concentrated on them.
The two combatants circled slowly, waiting for an invitation to begin. Apparently, Aoshi was the first to see one, since he dissolved into a blur of several Aoshis moving fluidly about Shishio. Unlike I had been, Shishio didn't seem at all confused by this, and immediately lashed out at the correct spot, though he was blocked by Aoshi's two trademark kodachi. Aoshi then recognized his turn and struck out at several places on the opposing swordsman's body, but to no profit. He was forced back by the most surprising thing to appear in a vampire battle.
I began to wonder more than before whether this man was a vampire after the manner of vampires I'd known at all, since there on the tip of his sword held out toward Aoshi danced the most frightening thing to any vampire. It had scared me before I even knew what it should mean to me, when I was a mere infant in the scheme of a vampire's lifespan. I had not seen it since then, and had never gone near it except as a human, when it could do me much less harm. Shishio had dared, in the same room where he stood, to create a flame.
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well, adoring fans, I have bad news. I will NOT be updating this fic on Tuesday OR Thursday this week, as is my custom. All is not lost, however, since the reason for my not updating is because I have another fic to update those days. I will be adding to my enishi poem anthology, "Island Tiger," and will then return to my normal schedule for this fic.
Houndingwolf: glad you understand! Glad you liked the chapter, hope it holds you until Saturday!
Laurika: glad you like my complications and understand everything, though the Misao situation is kind of on the back burner right now. I adore enishi as well. Perhaps you'd enjoy "Island Tiger."
Yuhi-thedoerofevildeeds: glad you like it, but you'll have to wait awhile, sorry!
Invader Zim: glad you like it so much, and domo arigatou gozeimasu, merci bouqu, muchas gracias, and thank you in every other language known to human for saying my fic is the best you've ever read! It's ok that you didn't find the fic sooner, but let me tell you something. I also appreciate how when you found it, you didn't review every chapter separately, just left one nice, long one for the last chapter. thank you for that as well. Glad my people are IC; that is very important to me. Glad I've got enough detail, I'm afraid I'll get a bit lazy and skimp on it… I like the shape shifting thing as well, but I didn't come up with it myself, I got it from Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, who writes truly excellent vampire novels. A dragon does fit him, but again I didn't come up with that. If I'm not mistaken, part of 'Hiten Mitsurugi' means 'dragon', among other things, which include 'heaven,' 'honorable,' 'flying,' and, of course, 'sword.' I have no idea which parts of the Japanese words mean which English words, but I think all those things are in there somewhere. I find it interesting that so many of the RK characters are identified with animals in one way or another, so I thought I'd incorporate that with the shape shifting. Most of the ideas just come from what I think would be cool if it happened or if I have a question about RK, I write something that allows me to answer it, like if I think 'I wonder what Hiko's reaction to Kenshin's being a vampire would be' then I write a scene with Hiko's reaction to Kenshin's being a vampire. I love vamps as well, but guess what? I even have a couple of vamp-haters reading my story! Maybe they'll come around and see how great they are… yes; he will always be a vamp. I usually update on a schedule of every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, but this week I won't be updating on Tuesday or Thursday as I have another fic to update those days, but after that I will be back on schedule.
Cattibrie393: sorry ff.net's been mean… it is frequently down, and I feel your pain. Kaoru is a bound human, and there is that epidemic circulating with them, so you'll see plenty of them! Well, the fake corpse thing is directly out of the manga, so if it seems unrealistic, complain to Watsuki-sama…