Author's Note:
Hey! I finally got the second chapter up!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!
I said that all the main characters will be introduced in this chapter but I decided to hold off on introducing everyone until the next chapter. This is another chapter that primarily sets the scene for the main plot.
Things are a little slow at first but the pace picks up around the middle of the chapter, and a lot of surprising things are revealed.
Hope you enjoy the story so far!!!
Reviews are always appreciated because they give me feedback on what you guys think about the story!!!
~Starannie14
Disclaimer: None of the Rurouni Kenshin characters belong to me.
________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 2: Eyes of Fire
Kaoru's senses slowly began to flood back into her body. For some reason, she found that she couldn't move. Her body simply refused to do what she told it to.
Finally able to control her body again, Kaoru slowly opened her heavy sapphire eyes. The sight that greeted her caused her to gasp in surprise.
She was lying on a spacious futon in the middle of an extremely large room. The room appeared to be even larger with its high rounded ceiling. Depicted on the ceiling was a lovely mural of the stars and the night sky.
The room itself was decorated entirely in various hues of blue. The walls were painted a light sky blue. In contrast, the carpet was the darkest color of blue that Kaoru had ever seen.
To the left of the futon was a set of leather couches all in the shade of navy blue. A large mahogany table was set in the center of the arrangement of couches. Situated on the table was an intricate indigo vase that held lovely blue bellflowers.
To Kaoru's right was a large cherry oak wardrobe. The door next to it, Kaoru guessed, must be the bathroom.
At last able to move her body again, Kaoru tentatively crawled off of the futon. She noticed that she was still wearing the same clothes as she was when she was kidnapped.
Shielding her eyes from the bright rays of light that streamed in through the large windows, Kaoru walked towards them to find out where the house was located. Looking out, she saw that she was in a fairly large house situated at the edge of a forest.
Kaoru certainly did not like the look of the forest. Its trees were large and foreboding, and the forest itself permeated a darkness that sent shivers down Kaoru's spine. Despite the large amount of sunshine, it seemed as if the forest has its own barrier again the sunbeams. Not a single ray of light could be seen from the forest; it was entirely dark inside.
Suddenly, the door to Kaoru's room banged open. Startled, Kaoru quickly jumped around. She was faced once again with the man who had captured her last night.
Smirking, the silver-haired man slowly ambled over to where Kaoru was standing frozen in place.
"Didn't think that you would wake so soon, my dear," drawled the man. His dark tone sent shivers up Kaoru's spine.
"Who are you," asked Kaoru.
The man smirked again as he noticed the slight tremor in Kaoru's voice.
"Of course, how rude of me. I am Yukishiro Enishi at your service." With that, Enishi elegantly bowed to Kaoru, all the while keeping his piercing dark charcoal eyes on her.
Suddenly having found her courage again, Kaoru glared at Enishi.
Enishi raised an amused eyebrow at the girl's sudden change in attitude.
"Now that I know who you are, would you kindly tell me why you kidnapped me and brought me to this place?" Kaoru spoke in a steely tone as she continued to glare at Enishi.
"Oh, you'll know everything in time, my darling. But right now Master Shishio requests your presence."
Kaoru remembered hearing Enishi mention Shishio's name last night but who exactly is this 'Master Shishio.'
"If you'll follow me, Master Shishio is waiting," Enishi drew the words out slowly as he held his hand out to Kaoru.
Kaoru glared back at Enishi defiantly showing him that there is no way she would ever willingly touch him.
Eyes glowered in distaste, Enishi pretentiously turned around and began heading towards the door.
Kaoru quickly followed Enishi curious to meet this 'Shishio' and hoping to get to the bottom of all this.
Enishi led Kaoru up staircase after staircase and through numerous long winding hallways until Kaoru's head was spinning from all the twisting and turning they had done.
After turning one more corner, the two finally reached a set of massive oak doors.
Upon reaching the doors, Enishi quickly pushed one of the doors open. Holding it open for Kaoru, he silently gestured for her to enter the room.
Walking towards the door, Kaoru hesitated before stepping over the threshold to pass into the room. In truth, she was a little frightened of meeting this 'Master Shishio,' as Enishi addresses him. Not one to be easily intimidated, however, Kaoru quickly swallowed her fear and hurried into the room.
The room Kaoru entered was about three times as large as the room she came from. Decorated in gloomy hues, the room radiated a powerful sense of darkness.
Along each wall leading to the front of the room stood a row of men all dressed in black and holding some sort of weapon. One of the men, a young man with yellow hair that stood up like the end of a broom, gave her a wink. Kaoru glared back in response.
At the front in the very center of the room sat a large throne. The throne wasn't very beautiful. To Kaoru, it was positively hideous. The throne was a dull gold with the heads of various demons jutting out from it. Just then Kaoru noticed the man reclining in the throne and all thought was thrown from her mind.
The man on the throne was wrapped completely in bandages. Nothing could be seen of his body except for a few tufts of hair sticking out from the top of his head and his deadly blood-red eyes.
At first, Kaoru couldn't believe that the man's eyes were truly red. She had seen some strange colored eyes before, but none of them were even comparable to the scarlet shade of the eyes of the man before her. His eyes seemed to burn almost as if they contained fire in them.
"So this is Kamiya Kaoru. You look just like your mother. As you have probably already guessed, I am Shishio." The man spoke with a dark and steely tone.
Kaoru stiffened. "How do you know my mother," she asked as calmly as she could.
Shishio laughed at her question. "Who wouldn't know your mother? She was one of the loveliest women in all of Japan. Pity that she had to die, though."
"What do you know of my mother's death?" Kaoru's voice was barely above a whisper now, and her face had turned stark white.
"I know of your mother's death because I was the one who ordered her murder. Being the wife of one of the men who so often stood in the way of my dream, he must be warned somehow, and what better way to warn him than to brutally murder his beloved wife?"
"You killed my mother.." Kaoru sank to her knees, her eyes welling up with tears. The news was just too much.too much to handle.
"Of course, and it certainly had the desired effect. Your father quit working for the Choshu organization immediately after your mother's death. He was determined to prevent his one and only daughter from falling to the same fate."
Kaoru bowed her head, covering her eyes with her bangs. Staring blankly at the floor, she sat still as Shishio continued to speak.
"Your father was very skilled with the sword. Kamiya Kasshin Ryu is one of the most powerful sword techniques around. We were initially planning to use him to fulfill our goals but he had to go and make that silly vow to never kill again. Apparently he got the idea that it was his killing in the first place that got your mother killed. He was determined to forget his bloody ways so that he may provide his little daughter with a normal life. However, since he is dead, that's why we need you to help us."
"What do you mean?"
"We need you to use your father's sword technique to help defeat our enemy, the Choshu organization. We tried to get you two years ago but your father got in the way. He managed to wound Enishi without a weapon and that's why you had slipped from our grasp. Of course before Enishi left, he dealt your father his dying blow. It took us two years since that day to find you again and we will not let you go this time"
"But I don't know my father's sword technique. I've never even used a sword in my life. I only know how to use a boken a little bit."
"Ah, but that's the beauty of it, my dear. You don't need to learn Kamiya Kasshin Ryu through practice. All you must do is read this scroll." Shishio held up an ancient looking scroll with a blue emblem engraved on its seal. "This scroll will teach you all that you need to know to master the technique."
"Then why don't you just read it yourself?"
"That's because only a member of the Kamiya family can learn this technique without going completely insane. And you being the only member left of the Kamiya family, I have no choice but to use you."
Enishi brought the scroll over to Kaoru and handed it to her.
"Why should I help you anyway? You're an evil man, and all nothing that you do can ever be good."
"But you see, you have no choice. If you don't help me, I will kill everyone important to you. Like that Seta boy perhaps? Or that Tae and Tsubame you work with."
Kaoru lowered her head. There really was no way out of this; she would have to do as he bid.
Unrolling the scroll, Kaoru buried herself into reading it. Almost immediately, techniques began filling her head.
Picking up the sword Enishi set beside her, Kaoru began to practice the movements with fluent grace. Soon, she began moving faster and faster until she was nothing but a blur.
As Shishio watched his newest assassin, his eyes began to blaze maliciously.
'Soon Choshu will fall to the power of the almighty Shishio and nothing, not even Battousai, can stop me from fulfilling my destiny!'
Author's Note:
Just to clear a few things up, what happened between Shishio and Kaoru's father was that Kaoru's father was one of the top assassins for Choshu. Shishio didn't like that he kept interfering with his plans so he killed Kaoru's mother to warn her father to stop getting in his way. Kaoru's father left Choshu after his wife's death and vowed to never kill again because he thought that it was his fault that Kaoru's mom had died, and he didn't want Kaoru to die as well. He just wanted her to live a normal life.
Later on, Battousai joined Choshu, and he was undefeatable. In order to defeat him, Shishio wanted to use Kaoru. Shishio originally wanted to use Kaoru's father but his vow to never kill again had caused some of his skills to diminish. Shishio thought about kidnapping Kaoru and forcing Kaoru's father to help him in return for his daughter's safety but decided to use Kaoru instead since she would easier to manipulate as well as more skilled than her father after she reads the scroll. (Enishi stole the scroll from Kaoru's father after the two fought.) That night when Enishi went to get Kaoru, Kaoru's father saw him and knew that he was here to get Kaoru. The two fought, and Kaoru's father managed to wound Enishi but just before Enishi left, he severely wounded Kaoru's father causing him to die. Enishi couldn't finish his task that night because he was terribly wounded at well.
That's pretty much about it. I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as I can but it might take a little while since I'm pretty busy these days.
Hopefully I'll be able to get it up next week.
Until next time!
Hey! I finally got the second chapter up!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!
I said that all the main characters will be introduced in this chapter but I decided to hold off on introducing everyone until the next chapter. This is another chapter that primarily sets the scene for the main plot.
Things are a little slow at first but the pace picks up around the middle of the chapter, and a lot of surprising things are revealed.
Hope you enjoy the story so far!!!
Reviews are always appreciated because they give me feedback on what you guys think about the story!!!
~Starannie14
Disclaimer: None of the Rurouni Kenshin characters belong to me.
________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 2: Eyes of Fire
Kaoru's senses slowly began to flood back into her body. For some reason, she found that she couldn't move. Her body simply refused to do what she told it to.
Finally able to control her body again, Kaoru slowly opened her heavy sapphire eyes. The sight that greeted her caused her to gasp in surprise.
She was lying on a spacious futon in the middle of an extremely large room. The room appeared to be even larger with its high rounded ceiling. Depicted on the ceiling was a lovely mural of the stars and the night sky.
The room itself was decorated entirely in various hues of blue. The walls were painted a light sky blue. In contrast, the carpet was the darkest color of blue that Kaoru had ever seen.
To the left of the futon was a set of leather couches all in the shade of navy blue. A large mahogany table was set in the center of the arrangement of couches. Situated on the table was an intricate indigo vase that held lovely blue bellflowers.
To Kaoru's right was a large cherry oak wardrobe. The door next to it, Kaoru guessed, must be the bathroom.
At last able to move her body again, Kaoru tentatively crawled off of the futon. She noticed that she was still wearing the same clothes as she was when she was kidnapped.
Shielding her eyes from the bright rays of light that streamed in through the large windows, Kaoru walked towards them to find out where the house was located. Looking out, she saw that she was in a fairly large house situated at the edge of a forest.
Kaoru certainly did not like the look of the forest. Its trees were large and foreboding, and the forest itself permeated a darkness that sent shivers down Kaoru's spine. Despite the large amount of sunshine, it seemed as if the forest has its own barrier again the sunbeams. Not a single ray of light could be seen from the forest; it was entirely dark inside.
Suddenly, the door to Kaoru's room banged open. Startled, Kaoru quickly jumped around. She was faced once again with the man who had captured her last night.
Smirking, the silver-haired man slowly ambled over to where Kaoru was standing frozen in place.
"Didn't think that you would wake so soon, my dear," drawled the man. His dark tone sent shivers up Kaoru's spine.
"Who are you," asked Kaoru.
The man smirked again as he noticed the slight tremor in Kaoru's voice.
"Of course, how rude of me. I am Yukishiro Enishi at your service." With that, Enishi elegantly bowed to Kaoru, all the while keeping his piercing dark charcoal eyes on her.
Suddenly having found her courage again, Kaoru glared at Enishi.
Enishi raised an amused eyebrow at the girl's sudden change in attitude.
"Now that I know who you are, would you kindly tell me why you kidnapped me and brought me to this place?" Kaoru spoke in a steely tone as she continued to glare at Enishi.
"Oh, you'll know everything in time, my darling. But right now Master Shishio requests your presence."
Kaoru remembered hearing Enishi mention Shishio's name last night but who exactly is this 'Master Shishio.'
"If you'll follow me, Master Shishio is waiting," Enishi drew the words out slowly as he held his hand out to Kaoru.
Kaoru glared back at Enishi defiantly showing him that there is no way she would ever willingly touch him.
Eyes glowered in distaste, Enishi pretentiously turned around and began heading towards the door.
Kaoru quickly followed Enishi curious to meet this 'Shishio' and hoping to get to the bottom of all this.
Enishi led Kaoru up staircase after staircase and through numerous long winding hallways until Kaoru's head was spinning from all the twisting and turning they had done.
After turning one more corner, the two finally reached a set of massive oak doors.
Upon reaching the doors, Enishi quickly pushed one of the doors open. Holding it open for Kaoru, he silently gestured for her to enter the room.
Walking towards the door, Kaoru hesitated before stepping over the threshold to pass into the room. In truth, she was a little frightened of meeting this 'Master Shishio,' as Enishi addresses him. Not one to be easily intimidated, however, Kaoru quickly swallowed her fear and hurried into the room.
The room Kaoru entered was about three times as large as the room she came from. Decorated in gloomy hues, the room radiated a powerful sense of darkness.
Along each wall leading to the front of the room stood a row of men all dressed in black and holding some sort of weapon. One of the men, a young man with yellow hair that stood up like the end of a broom, gave her a wink. Kaoru glared back in response.
At the front in the very center of the room sat a large throne. The throne wasn't very beautiful. To Kaoru, it was positively hideous. The throne was a dull gold with the heads of various demons jutting out from it. Just then Kaoru noticed the man reclining in the throne and all thought was thrown from her mind.
The man on the throne was wrapped completely in bandages. Nothing could be seen of his body except for a few tufts of hair sticking out from the top of his head and his deadly blood-red eyes.
At first, Kaoru couldn't believe that the man's eyes were truly red. She had seen some strange colored eyes before, but none of them were even comparable to the scarlet shade of the eyes of the man before her. His eyes seemed to burn almost as if they contained fire in them.
"So this is Kamiya Kaoru. You look just like your mother. As you have probably already guessed, I am Shishio." The man spoke with a dark and steely tone.
Kaoru stiffened. "How do you know my mother," she asked as calmly as she could.
Shishio laughed at her question. "Who wouldn't know your mother? She was one of the loveliest women in all of Japan. Pity that she had to die, though."
"What do you know of my mother's death?" Kaoru's voice was barely above a whisper now, and her face had turned stark white.
"I know of your mother's death because I was the one who ordered her murder. Being the wife of one of the men who so often stood in the way of my dream, he must be warned somehow, and what better way to warn him than to brutally murder his beloved wife?"
"You killed my mother.." Kaoru sank to her knees, her eyes welling up with tears. The news was just too much.too much to handle.
"Of course, and it certainly had the desired effect. Your father quit working for the Choshu organization immediately after your mother's death. He was determined to prevent his one and only daughter from falling to the same fate."
Kaoru bowed her head, covering her eyes with her bangs. Staring blankly at the floor, she sat still as Shishio continued to speak.
"Your father was very skilled with the sword. Kamiya Kasshin Ryu is one of the most powerful sword techniques around. We were initially planning to use him to fulfill our goals but he had to go and make that silly vow to never kill again. Apparently he got the idea that it was his killing in the first place that got your mother killed. He was determined to forget his bloody ways so that he may provide his little daughter with a normal life. However, since he is dead, that's why we need you to help us."
"What do you mean?"
"We need you to use your father's sword technique to help defeat our enemy, the Choshu organization. We tried to get you two years ago but your father got in the way. He managed to wound Enishi without a weapon and that's why you had slipped from our grasp. Of course before Enishi left, he dealt your father his dying blow. It took us two years since that day to find you again and we will not let you go this time"
"But I don't know my father's sword technique. I've never even used a sword in my life. I only know how to use a boken a little bit."
"Ah, but that's the beauty of it, my dear. You don't need to learn Kamiya Kasshin Ryu through practice. All you must do is read this scroll." Shishio held up an ancient looking scroll with a blue emblem engraved on its seal. "This scroll will teach you all that you need to know to master the technique."
"Then why don't you just read it yourself?"
"That's because only a member of the Kamiya family can learn this technique without going completely insane. And you being the only member left of the Kamiya family, I have no choice but to use you."
Enishi brought the scroll over to Kaoru and handed it to her.
"Why should I help you anyway? You're an evil man, and all nothing that you do can ever be good."
"But you see, you have no choice. If you don't help me, I will kill everyone important to you. Like that Seta boy perhaps? Or that Tae and Tsubame you work with."
Kaoru lowered her head. There really was no way out of this; she would have to do as he bid.
Unrolling the scroll, Kaoru buried herself into reading it. Almost immediately, techniques began filling her head.
Picking up the sword Enishi set beside her, Kaoru began to practice the movements with fluent grace. Soon, she began moving faster and faster until she was nothing but a blur.
As Shishio watched his newest assassin, his eyes began to blaze maliciously.
'Soon Choshu will fall to the power of the almighty Shishio and nothing, not even Battousai, can stop me from fulfilling my destiny!'
Author's Note:
Just to clear a few things up, what happened between Shishio and Kaoru's father was that Kaoru's father was one of the top assassins for Choshu. Shishio didn't like that he kept interfering with his plans so he killed Kaoru's mother to warn her father to stop getting in his way. Kaoru's father left Choshu after his wife's death and vowed to never kill again because he thought that it was his fault that Kaoru's mom had died, and he didn't want Kaoru to die as well. He just wanted her to live a normal life.
Later on, Battousai joined Choshu, and he was undefeatable. In order to defeat him, Shishio wanted to use Kaoru. Shishio originally wanted to use Kaoru's father but his vow to never kill again had caused some of his skills to diminish. Shishio thought about kidnapping Kaoru and forcing Kaoru's father to help him in return for his daughter's safety but decided to use Kaoru instead since she would easier to manipulate as well as more skilled than her father after she reads the scroll. (Enishi stole the scroll from Kaoru's father after the two fought.) That night when Enishi went to get Kaoru, Kaoru's father saw him and knew that he was here to get Kaoru. The two fought, and Kaoru's father managed to wound Enishi but just before Enishi left, he severely wounded Kaoru's father causing him to die. Enishi couldn't finish his task that night because he was terribly wounded at well.
That's pretty much about it. I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as I can but it might take a little while since I'm pretty busy these days.
Hopefully I'll be able to get it up next week.
Until next time!