Disclaimer-I don't own Rurouni Kenshin…but Mieko, Sumire, Ryouta, Yukimi, Hirata, Yatsu, Ryuusuke, and all other original characters are mine! I make too many characters…

AN: I stink at writing fight scenes (I'm not that big on onomatopoeia). And yes, the chapter title is quite the hyperbole, but I couldn't think of anything. Yay! Kenshin "Oro"ed! But now I started "Healer" and I have to split my time between this and that…and chemistry! (How can I get a B in chemistry…?)

"" = dialogue

Italics = thoughts

Lilac Fire Blossom

By Meii-chan

Chapter 9- Feud from the Beginning of Time

Yukimi perched upon the railing of a spiral staircase, toying with her hair chopstick for no apparent reason. Beside her was a pretty, black songbird, whose song was just as melodic as the high pitched squeal of the sharpening of knives. Yukimi looked up, her frosty gaze meeting Mieko's.

"Stop glaring at me like that. It won't help you at all."

Mieko pouted. "Well, what else am I supposed to do? I'm not going to just sit here and obey you." In truth, she had resorted to harassing the ninja into an annoyed state.

"That..." Yukimi said, "…is why you're not just simply tied up and left to your own devices." She indicated to the iron chain tying Mieko to the ground, as well as the dozen armed mercenaries scattered throughout the small room. Mieko scowled.

There was a knock on the door, and Sumire was allowed to enter. She appeared to be extremely melancholy. "They have arrived. Onwards, Yukimi-san, to battle."

Yukimi shook her head stubbornly. "I can't trust you to guard her, even with other people here. I'll stay until it is time."

"WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON?!"

Yukimi flapped her hand at Mieko as if she was shooing her away. "It doesn't concern you, little girl."

Mieko shook with rage. "How does it not concern me if I'm tied up, wounded no less, with no clue on where I am, and being surrounded by people I hardly know? And furthermore, I'm not a little girl! I'm eighteen!" She was continuing her diatribe when a chain raked across the cut in her arm. She flinched.

Sumire, however, was different. "Mieko-chan! Don't hurt yourself! I'll tell you everything! Please try to understand!"

Yukimi sighed too loudly to be polite. "You're too soft, Sumire-sama."

The songbird chirped in agreement.

* * * * * *

Twilight faded into darkness as Soujiro and Kenshin approached the gate of an extremely large mansion which they deemed to be the one Mieko was in. It was rather western, seeing that the structure of the building was more brick than wood. A tall fence ran about its perimeter, with decorative, yet menacing iron spikes on top to prevent people from climbing over.

But such primitive barriers could not discourage the two former assassins. An overhanging branch of a gnarled willow tree in the densely wooded lot of the estate proved to be a worthy alternate route to sneak in. Upon crossing the threshold into the spacious garden below, armed guardsmen were upon them like paper clips to a high powered magnet.

"Soujiro, I'll handle them! Get inside while they're not looking!" Kenshin ordered as he struck down two men wielding blades. Soujiro complied, disappearing instantly. Kenshin turned his focus back to the latest wave of guards charging towards him.

Somehow, the black songbird ceased to sing.

* * * * * *

"Have you heard of the battle at Aizu-wakamatsu (1), during the Bakamatsu (2)?" Sumire asked Mieko.

Mieko nodded. All she knew was that a whole lot of cities and towns were thrown into ruin during the war. There was never really something out of the ordinary when it came to the destruction of civilization.

"Anyhow," Sumire's eyes took on a glazed look as she recounted things of the past. "I used to live there, with my family. We had a lucrative sake-manufacturing business. One night, fighting broke out, and our business and my little sister, Miyuki, ceased to exist."

"What does that have to do with Soujiro-chan?" As Mieko pieced the pieces together in her head, she found that there was absolutely no correlation between Soujiro and the Bakamatsu.

"When we tried to rebuild our lives after the fire, we discovered that our key provider of rice for our sake had been murdered. They were also related to us, so we were shocked when the police told us they were massacred. My brother, Ryouta…he swore to get revenge upon the assassin even if it was the last thing he did."

Mieko's gasped as she remembered something Soujiro told her.

"Before I met Shishio-san, I lived with my relatives. They owned a rice distribution company…"

* * * * * *

A faint candlelight in the distance told of an occupied room within the mansion. The dim hallway reeked of something acrid and distasteful, causing Soujiro to cover his nose with the edge of one faded sleeve.

Somewhere out of the pungent stillness came an arrow, streaking toward him, trailing a white path of feathers. Soujiro found himself unable to dodge in such a narrow area, and the white plumed arrow grazed his left hand. Without so much as a wince, he crept closer to the light, and with his uninjured hand upon the hilt of the long-forgotten-but-still-there sword Sumire had given him, he opened the semi transparent shoji door.

A room was revealed; firelight flicked unsteadily to show the sundry of swords and other weapons decorating the walls. At first glance, there was no sign of any human activity at all.

"There's no use hiding," Soujiro addressed the shadows, "I know you're here." Probably here to skewer me with an arrow if I ignore him too, He thought to himself.

Out of the shadows came a large man. Judging from his dark clothing and his habit of staying in the shadows, Soujiro could tell he was a ninja. A rather conceited and arrogant one, as Soujiro noted the smug look on his face, but a Machiavellian ninja nonetheless.

"So, I see you still live up to your name as Tenken."

"Maa…I prefer not to be called that anymore." He smiled innocently at the other man, who was possibly twice his height. "May you please return Mieko-chan now, Ninja-san?"

The ninja roared with laughter. "Of course, given if you make it out alive. I am Ryuusuke Kuraiou of Satsuma! Every samurai I have faced has not been able to defeat me!" He boasted as he unsheathed his weapon, a double-bladed curved sword.

Soujiro's innocent smile became a bit more dark and serious.

"If it's a fight you want, then come."

Ryuusuke wildly charged at Soujiro, swinging his bulky sword in every single possible direction except at any living thing. Soujiro resisted the temptation to sigh at the stupidity as he easily dodged a blow that came too dangerously close to his head.

However, something wasn't right.

The next strike came, and Soujiro blocked, drawing his katana. The jarring sound of the two clashing blades and the momentary flash of bright firelight had a detrimental effect on Soujiro. The ringing sound of the two swords and a wave of dizziness refused to die away until a good two minutes had passed.

Soujiro's thoughts drifted back to the white fletched arrow. It wasn't shot randomly…that arrow must have contained poison! …I guess I should hurry up…

Ryuusuke, however, had used this opportunity to retreat back in the shadows. No longer visible, he bided his time, gathering an immense amount of arrows at the time.

When roughly ten minutes had passed, Soujiro heard the all-telling "twang" of a bowstring, followed by a rain of arrows. He successfully destroyed the projectiles that ventured too close to him, but under this rainstorm, he couldn't move very much without being injured. He was beginning to wonder how Ryuusuke had ever become a ninja if he was always this discreet.

Soujiro knew Ryuusuke would run out of arrows eventually, but he wasn't sure if he had the time…

In the darkness, watching the two fight was a third party. He was called Yatsu, a shaman who spent his days among leaves and roots, herbs and wild grass. His left eye, which moved independently from the other, was glued to a wooden clock at the edge of the room. He was counting the number of routes the heavy iron pendulum was traveling…

* * * * * *

Kenshin had walked safely from the melee in the courtyard. As far as he knew, the mindless mercenaries were still at it, not knowing that the trespassers had breached their defenses. He remember sighing at the sight of the chaos as each man was attacking whoever was directly in front of them, regardless of which side they were on. After the first initial minutes, there was no point for Kenshin to stay around any longer.

Kaoru-dono didn't need to worry; I didn't use any technique of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu.

That was one thing that he didn't have to worry about. On the other hand, when he told Soujiro to "get inside," he wasn't very specific about their meeting place. It was so very cliché that this would happen.

"Orororoooo…"

And Kenshin was officially lost. Thus, he wandered around the dark and dimly lit corridors of the Taikada mansion, like a well-seasoned rurouni should. He passed empty room filled with all sorts of priceless, though quite useless antiques and old painting of long deceased people.

Eventually Kenshin arrived in a room filled with a small army's amount of hired mercenaries. The mercenaries noticed his presence and immediately took up their weapons.

Kenshin gave them his most clueless rurouni look. "Oro?"

His clueless face was met by two and a half dozen suspicious mercenary faces and one casual glance from a certain black songbird.

* * * * * *

Ryuusuke had, quite unfortunately for himself, run out of arrows. Therefore, he was forced to come down from whatever his hiding spot was and reuse his double-bladed sword. "You did a rather good job at evading my arrows," he commended Soujiro, "but don't you remember being struck by one earlier? One that was white?"

Soujiro said nothing.

"You were hit by the single poisoned arrow I had, yet you managed not to get hit by a harmless one. Ironic, isn't it?" Ryuusuke said, looking as arrogant as ever. "I wonder how you'll last with snake poison flowing through your body."

Then, Soujiro began tapping his left foot against the ground, causing Ryuusuke to look at him quizzically.

Yatsu observed what was happening and shouted at Ryuusuke, who was just standing there with a puzzled expression on this face. "Ryuusuke! Don't just stand there! The poison hasn't affected him so much that Shukuchi is ineffective!"

"Shukuchi, wha—"

Before he could finish his question, Soujiro had suddenly disappeared from view. The sound of machinegun firing filled the room as pieces of the floor were swiftly ripped to shreds. Ryuusuke, in his panic, charged into the middle of the room in hopes of Soujiro crashing into Ryuusuke at immense speeds and impaling himself on his blade.

Ryuusuke had failed to realize that Soujiro had a sword with him. A single splintering sound was heard and one of the blades on his double-bladed sword crashed to the ground.

On the opposite side of the room stood Soujiro, a trail of destruction behind him. "That was three steps short of Shukuchi. There is no possible way you can match my speed. Surrender, Kuraiou-san."

Ryuusuke looked at the shattered blade of his sword, and then the untouched blade on the other side. "Did you just you three steps short because you cannot go any faster? I still have a chance to win! I refuse to lose to some samurai who represents those who totally destroyed my ninja clan!" With that said, he ran towards Soujiro, sword raised in frustration.

"Then you have the wrong enemy…" Soujiro neutrally said before he disappeared into a void of chaos.

Ryuusuke frantically searched for him, trying to pinpoint his location.

"…I'm not the one you hate…"

Ryuusuke turned to look behind him to follow the voice. His pursuit proved to be fruitless.

"…just another hitokiri…"

This time, Soujiro's voice was laced with slight guilt.

"That's why…"

The truth suddenly dawned on Ryuusuke like a bright flower placed upon ancient, desolate graves. "But then…"

At that precise moment, the remaining blade of his sword was shorn off, the metal chopped into two, nearly symmetrical pieces.

"Now…that you are disarmed," Soujiro materialized in front of him, "Can you tell me where you're keeping Mieko-chan?"

"Mieko? Is that the name of the girl Yukimi-sama was guarding?" Ryuusuke threw his arms up in defeat. "I have no idea where Yukimi-sama keeps her prisoners; why don't you go ask her?"

"So you're just going to cut loose and run?"

"I'm only here to kill samurai, not hitokiri. Besides, Yukimi-sama will have my head if she knows that I lost."

"I guess I have to trust you this time whether I like it or not…" With that said, Soujiro walked off.

When he was out of the room, Yatsu came plodding into the light. "Foolish young person; you shouldn't abandon your cause so easily."

"I see you don't want to make an antidote."

"Indeed, I am actually loyal to my lady." Yatsu chided. "I'm not one to give up my cause in exchange for my life."

"Then you are like the people I hate. Die."

* * * * * *

"Hmm?" Yukimi glanced over to the other side of the room. A man, about five feet tall with a cross scar on his face stood in the doorway. "Oh dear…now what?"

1. Aizu-wakamatsu—a fort city that was badly damaged in a fire during the fighting that brought about the Meiji era. The city is known for sake and lacquered goods. Aizu was Takani Megumi's hometown.

2. Bakamatsu—the final days of the Tokugawa dynasty, prior to the beginning of the Meiji period of enlightenment.  

More Author's notes: If you are confused, there are five main antagonists (or six, if you count Sumire). They are Taikada Ryouta (the main person), Akakawa Yukimi (the leader of everyone except for Ryouta and Hirata), Hirata (some random person), Kuraiou Ryuusuke (some random arrow person), and Yatsu (some random shaman person).

Ryuusuke hates samurai. Samurai is a social class above merchants and peasants in Japanese feudal society (and are also known for committing suicide to retain their honor…-_-;). Soujiro is obviously not one, since his family were merchants (really evil merchants, but merchants never the less.) Apparently, Ryuusuke seems to get along with everyone fine.

Hyperactivechild: Cliffhangers are so much easier to write. I don't have to know what comes afterwards to end the scene. Yeah, call me lazy…

Tenshi-no-Hana-chan: I didn't realize I didn't write that much in this semester! But then, thank you for telling me that the story is good, because it's extremely cliché (or you can call it the classic plotline, but still…). And to think I started this last year and I still haven't finished it!