Author's Notes–-After two months, I'm finally adding a chapter to Passage. I don't like this chapter at all, it pretty much is just building towards the end, is quite short, and just doesn't seem to live up to the past chapters. Hopefully, you'll like it though. Review, if you will. I did a ton of research on Japanese funerals and customs, hopefully they payed off as well. Just, tell me what you think. Suggestions? Comments? Maybe even flames..?
Disclaimer–-I actually have a job now.. just not enough to own RK. Maybe someday I can buy the rights from Watsuki-sama, but until then.. dreams
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Kenshin stilled. In fact, he hadn't really been moving. Somehow, after the announcement of Katsura's death, Kenshin had been walking around in a blinded haze. Not exactly knowing where it was he was going or what it was he was doing, Kenshin had offered to help move the body to the nicest room in the house, with Katsura's head facing north.
Moveable shoji screens were placed upside down all around his former leader, and Katsura's rather dust-ridden sword was placed near the pillow supporting his head. This seemed to lighten Takasugi's spirits. "I told him that once he hired you, he was never to use that sword again. He didn't. I'm glad."
"I never knew that." Kenshin said, unhearing.
Ikumatsu had kept her head during her grief. She had already prepared the makura-meshi (pillow meal) of steamed rice placed in one bowl, with one chopstick, and a vase with only one lonely iris blossom on a tray near the pillow. It was said in Buddhist culture that the soul of Katsura would wander to the Zenkoji Temple, and this meal must be prepared before he returned. Water had also been offered, and lavender incense burned and stratched at Kenshin's eyes. It was surreal.
Together, Kenshin and Takasugi left the large, decorated room leaving Ikumatsu with Katsura's body and a priest. A banner outside of the door read 'Ki-Chuu'.. in mourning. Ikumatsu would still be in morning for as many as thirteen months.
"Nothing to do now but wait. They'll be in there for a while." Takasugi said quietly, him and Kenshin beginning to take a walk around the complex.
"For causing so many deaths, I've never really been to a proper funeral." Kenshin mused. Odd, he was still smiling in this time of silence. The rurouni in him must have been getting stronger by the day.
"Ironic." Takasugi replied. "I'll fill you in. Now, a few blood relatives will drink a bit of sake, and then send for some water. The water is poured from hot into cold, and the body is immersed in a tub and cleaned. They'll shave Katsura's face, and dress him in white kimono, with leggings and those tabi socks.. only the tabi will be on the wrong feet. Sitting up, they'll put him in a wooden tub to use as a casket."
"That's all very nice, but where do we come in?" Kenshin asked, staring straight in front of him, rather than looking Takasugi in the face as he walked.
"I was getting to that. They'll set up a tiered altar to pray, and then fellow mourners will enter. We leave them koden, money offerings, and they'll send us a thank-you note or something of that in return. They'll carry the body out in the wooden tub, and we watch while eating a rice ball and drinking sake, only standing." Takasugi answered.
The two men walked through the doors of the complex, seeing a large bent-bamboo temporary gate being built. Seeing Kenshin's rather confused look, Takasugi smiled slightly again. "You really haven't ever been to a proper funeral, have you?"
Kenshin merely shook his head.
"Katsura's body will pass through this temporary gate, they'll carry it at the head of the procession, then Katsura will pass through it again during the burial. They'll smash it and his teacup afterwards. It's to prevent his soul from returning to this plane of existence. They want him to go ahead and pass on. It's a bunch of Buddhist belief system."
"What made you the funeral expert?" Kenshin said, darkly. This really wasn't his night. He was stunned, didn't have his umbrella anymore, and didn't know wherever it was that Takasugi was leading him.
"Cleaning up after you shadow assassins, of course. Sometimes you just want to say a special thing or two about the soul.. and I was always being invited to these things. And a constant gravedigger. I've even been to funerals that the mourners actually hired women to ritually cry." Takasugi ticked off the reasons on his hands. He sighed, indicated the building to the left of them, and asked: "You up for some sake?"
"I need a place to sleep, really."
"No worries, you're going to be one of the pall-bearers. Relative or no, Ikumatsu will give you a place to stay." Takasugi reassured him. "Sake?"
Kenshin nodded.
The two entered a small, discreet tavern on the corner of two streets. Kenshin noted that the entire place was empty with the exception of them, and the waitress was rather inattentive. Did death hang on them like an odor? Was it apparent to everyone around them that someone they knew had just passed? Apparently, it did.
Only as they were preparing two leave, did Ujiki walk in. He smirked oddly towards Kenshin's direction and left a note on their table as he passed by on the way to his own seat.
Curious, the rurouni opened the letter and skimmed the scrawled letters. It read:
Dear Ex-Battousai,
My master assures me that you still have some skill left in you. I don't believe it.
But, I am under his orders to fight you. Your master has died, you now have a sword.
Meet me behind the tea house in an hour, or I shall hunt you. Leave your ugly friend
behind.
–Ujiki.
Kenshin crumpled up the paper, almost laughing at the reference to Takasugi as ugly. "What is it?"
"What does the letter say, Kenshin?" Takasugi asked directly. No averting your eyes from that questioning glare.
"A challenge. Tonight, in an hour."
"Again? Damn your reputation, Kenshin.. We have a funeral to attend tommorrow!" Takasugi cursed several more lines. "We can't fight right now."
Kenshin chuckled. "Not 'we', just me." He tossed the letter from Ujiki towards Takasugi, who caught it, read it, and turned three shades of purple with his anger.
"Ugly, am I? Well, he hangs around that smokey Saitou character, isn't that worse?" Takasugi stated, feeling vile.
Rather than answer Takasugi, Kenshin stood and padded towards the lone-sitting Ujiki. "Is it alright if we move our little battle.. Katsura's funeral shall be held in the morning."
"Yours as well!" Ujiki interjected, spraying the red-headed man with pre-sipped green tea.
Wiping himself free of specks of the tea, Kenshin glared. "As you wish. Meet you there."
---------------
"Nice to see you again, Battousai." Ujiki declared. It hadn't really been an hour's passing, but he was eager for battle.
"Can't say that the view is pleasant from this end." Kenshin spat out. Honestly, this was not the day to be cat-calling the Battousai side of his personality. Then again, he did have the new feature of a flipped-blade sword.
Ujiki skoffed. "Whatever. Are you prepared to fight as a real man?"
"I cannot. I have been afforded a sakabatou.. It cannot kill."
"Weaker than the umbrella, that is. Master Saitou will not be pleased with you, Himura."
"Indeed, I am not." Saitou stated, emerging from the shadows.
"Hajime." Kenshin called.
"Himura." Saitou returned.
"This challenge was from one, Ujiki. Not you."
"Indeed. I have come to address your little friend hiding in the bushes behind you."
Takasugi stepped out from behind the bushes. "Yes?"
"Takasugi."
"Hajime."
"It's been a while."
"Quite a while."
Even though their weapons were sheathed, the daggers being stared between Saitou and Takasugi was enough to injure an onlooker. "Not nearly long enough".. The two huffed in unison. "Ready?"
"Draw!" Came the distant voice of Ujiki, commanding only Kenshin, but receiving only a responsive crouch from it. Takasugi and Saitou impulsed, and their katanas were locked in an instant.
Ujiki rushed at Kenshin. Kenshin still crouched.
Takasugi rushed at Saitou. Saitou rushed at Takasugi.
Katsura lay, dead, being washed by his mourning wife.
Quite the day this one was shaping up to be.
-------------------------
It's not long at all. And it's just building. You can see what's coming next, can't you? There will be about two more chapters or so. A finish to this battle, the funeral, and of course, the Passage.
Just as a note, some of the reviewers are noticing some strange inconsistencies with the RK story line. Hai, this is AU.. so the sword-giving idea will work out there. In the final episode of Trust and Betrayal, isn't that Okita that dies? I don't really think that it was Takasugi. If it is, then perhaps he was just intended to live, ne? .-
Please, review! Thanks for reading! Sorry for the absence, but summer is here and I will definitely have more writing time, then.
Disclaimer–-I actually have a job now.. just not enough to own RK. Maybe someday I can buy the rights from Watsuki-sama, but until then.. dreams
-----------------------------------
Kenshin stilled. In fact, he hadn't really been moving. Somehow, after the announcement of Katsura's death, Kenshin had been walking around in a blinded haze. Not exactly knowing where it was he was going or what it was he was doing, Kenshin had offered to help move the body to the nicest room in the house, with Katsura's head facing north.
Moveable shoji screens were placed upside down all around his former leader, and Katsura's rather dust-ridden sword was placed near the pillow supporting his head. This seemed to lighten Takasugi's spirits. "I told him that once he hired you, he was never to use that sword again. He didn't. I'm glad."
"I never knew that." Kenshin said, unhearing.
Ikumatsu had kept her head during her grief. She had already prepared the makura-meshi (pillow meal) of steamed rice placed in one bowl, with one chopstick, and a vase with only one lonely iris blossom on a tray near the pillow. It was said in Buddhist culture that the soul of Katsura would wander to the Zenkoji Temple, and this meal must be prepared before he returned. Water had also been offered, and lavender incense burned and stratched at Kenshin's eyes. It was surreal.
Together, Kenshin and Takasugi left the large, decorated room leaving Ikumatsu with Katsura's body and a priest. A banner outside of the door read 'Ki-Chuu'.. in mourning. Ikumatsu would still be in morning for as many as thirteen months.
"Nothing to do now but wait. They'll be in there for a while." Takasugi said quietly, him and Kenshin beginning to take a walk around the complex.
"For causing so many deaths, I've never really been to a proper funeral." Kenshin mused. Odd, he was still smiling in this time of silence. The rurouni in him must have been getting stronger by the day.
"Ironic." Takasugi replied. "I'll fill you in. Now, a few blood relatives will drink a bit of sake, and then send for some water. The water is poured from hot into cold, and the body is immersed in a tub and cleaned. They'll shave Katsura's face, and dress him in white kimono, with leggings and those tabi socks.. only the tabi will be on the wrong feet. Sitting up, they'll put him in a wooden tub to use as a casket."
"That's all very nice, but where do we come in?" Kenshin asked, staring straight in front of him, rather than looking Takasugi in the face as he walked.
"I was getting to that. They'll set up a tiered altar to pray, and then fellow mourners will enter. We leave them koden, money offerings, and they'll send us a thank-you note or something of that in return. They'll carry the body out in the wooden tub, and we watch while eating a rice ball and drinking sake, only standing." Takasugi answered.
The two men walked through the doors of the complex, seeing a large bent-bamboo temporary gate being built. Seeing Kenshin's rather confused look, Takasugi smiled slightly again. "You really haven't ever been to a proper funeral, have you?"
Kenshin merely shook his head.
"Katsura's body will pass through this temporary gate, they'll carry it at the head of the procession, then Katsura will pass through it again during the burial. They'll smash it and his teacup afterwards. It's to prevent his soul from returning to this plane of existence. They want him to go ahead and pass on. It's a bunch of Buddhist belief system."
"What made you the funeral expert?" Kenshin said, darkly. This really wasn't his night. He was stunned, didn't have his umbrella anymore, and didn't know wherever it was that Takasugi was leading him.
"Cleaning up after you shadow assassins, of course. Sometimes you just want to say a special thing or two about the soul.. and I was always being invited to these things. And a constant gravedigger. I've even been to funerals that the mourners actually hired women to ritually cry." Takasugi ticked off the reasons on his hands. He sighed, indicated the building to the left of them, and asked: "You up for some sake?"
"I need a place to sleep, really."
"No worries, you're going to be one of the pall-bearers. Relative or no, Ikumatsu will give you a place to stay." Takasugi reassured him. "Sake?"
Kenshin nodded.
The two entered a small, discreet tavern on the corner of two streets. Kenshin noted that the entire place was empty with the exception of them, and the waitress was rather inattentive. Did death hang on them like an odor? Was it apparent to everyone around them that someone they knew had just passed? Apparently, it did.
Only as they were preparing two leave, did Ujiki walk in. He smirked oddly towards Kenshin's direction and left a note on their table as he passed by on the way to his own seat.
Curious, the rurouni opened the letter and skimmed the scrawled letters. It read:
Dear Ex-Battousai,
My master assures me that you still have some skill left in you. I don't believe it.
But, I am under his orders to fight you. Your master has died, you now have a sword.
Meet me behind the tea house in an hour, or I shall hunt you. Leave your ugly friend
behind.
–Ujiki.
Kenshin crumpled up the paper, almost laughing at the reference to Takasugi as ugly. "What is it?"
"What does the letter say, Kenshin?" Takasugi asked directly. No averting your eyes from that questioning glare.
"A challenge. Tonight, in an hour."
"Again? Damn your reputation, Kenshin.. We have a funeral to attend tommorrow!" Takasugi cursed several more lines. "We can't fight right now."
Kenshin chuckled. "Not 'we', just me." He tossed the letter from Ujiki towards Takasugi, who caught it, read it, and turned three shades of purple with his anger.
"Ugly, am I? Well, he hangs around that smokey Saitou character, isn't that worse?" Takasugi stated, feeling vile.
Rather than answer Takasugi, Kenshin stood and padded towards the lone-sitting Ujiki. "Is it alright if we move our little battle.. Katsura's funeral shall be held in the morning."
"Yours as well!" Ujiki interjected, spraying the red-headed man with pre-sipped green tea.
Wiping himself free of specks of the tea, Kenshin glared. "As you wish. Meet you there."
---------------
"Nice to see you again, Battousai." Ujiki declared. It hadn't really been an hour's passing, but he was eager for battle.
"Can't say that the view is pleasant from this end." Kenshin spat out. Honestly, this was not the day to be cat-calling the Battousai side of his personality. Then again, he did have the new feature of a flipped-blade sword.
Ujiki skoffed. "Whatever. Are you prepared to fight as a real man?"
"I cannot. I have been afforded a sakabatou.. It cannot kill."
"Weaker than the umbrella, that is. Master Saitou will not be pleased with you, Himura."
"Indeed, I am not." Saitou stated, emerging from the shadows.
"Hajime." Kenshin called.
"Himura." Saitou returned.
"This challenge was from one, Ujiki. Not you."
"Indeed. I have come to address your little friend hiding in the bushes behind you."
Takasugi stepped out from behind the bushes. "Yes?"
"Takasugi."
"Hajime."
"It's been a while."
"Quite a while."
Even though their weapons were sheathed, the daggers being stared between Saitou and Takasugi was enough to injure an onlooker. "Not nearly long enough".. The two huffed in unison. "Ready?"
"Draw!" Came the distant voice of Ujiki, commanding only Kenshin, but receiving only a responsive crouch from it. Takasugi and Saitou impulsed, and their katanas were locked in an instant.
Ujiki rushed at Kenshin. Kenshin still crouched.
Takasugi rushed at Saitou. Saitou rushed at Takasugi.
Katsura lay, dead, being washed by his mourning wife.
Quite the day this one was shaping up to be.
-------------------------
It's not long at all. And it's just building. You can see what's coming next, can't you? There will be about two more chapters or so. A finish to this battle, the funeral, and of course, the Passage.
Just as a note, some of the reviewers are noticing some strange inconsistencies with the RK story line. Hai, this is AU.. so the sword-giving idea will work out there. In the final episode of Trust and Betrayal, isn't that Okita that dies? I don't really think that it was Takasugi. If it is, then perhaps he was just intended to live, ne? .-
Please, review! Thanks for reading! Sorry for the absence, but summer is here and I will definitely have more writing time, then.