Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin. As you may already know, this is a fanfiction. Do we have an understanding?
Please read and review it, I am going to work really hard. Feel free to make corrections and wrong story twists, but please, no flaming. And also, this story is described in first-person, and Kenshin is not the main character.
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Alpha : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
…As the sword pierced through me, my eyes bulged open. All the emotion from my mind washed away like sand... I didn't want to defy the only true friend I ever had, yet he was the one that, today, compelled the blood to drip from my body. I slowly descended to the ground, collapsing, my eyes still widely exposed. Everything looked so blurry…
Perhaps, if I hadn't adopted the path of swordsmanship, my life wouldn't have been so dark. But I couldn't live in the past anymore, I couldn't change my life anymore back to the way it used to be, long, long ago. I had gone too far into the depths of blood. And today, those same depths and torments led me this far.
But did I do the right thing? Now… I will rewind my presence back to the past, to see what I went through, all the way from Alpha, to Omega, from beginning, to the end.
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My name is Saitoh Shin. I was born in Tokyo, to my father, Saitoh Hajime, and mother, Saitoh Tokio. My father used to be a highly respected officer, with the fact that he was an experienced swordsman, and also participated in Shinsen Gumi during the Meiji Revolution. But later, we grew to be a very poor family, with hardly of anything. My father kept patrolling the streets of Tokyo, looking for a well-suited job. The society found him to be an unreliable man, for the reason that he was a once very vicious swordsman. Some even suspected the fact that he still used swordsmanship, although swords were banned in the Meiji era.
At the time when I turned ten years old, I began to face the facts. We were one of the most despised and ignored families in Tokyo. In school, I had trouble with the students, and the teachers didn't accompany me much. I sometimes liked to stay awake at night as long as I could, so that I could be safely awake, until the next day.
My father always wanted me to practice his sword fighting style, Gatotsu. I hated the art of swords, and the blood of a person dripping uncontrollably from his body. I had learned much about it in school, studying about the Meiji revolution. Although my hatred for fighting was firm, my brother's wasn't.
My brother, Eiji, was adopted. My father had decided to take him in since he had no guardian left. His parents and his brother were killed by an enormous man named Senkaku. I don't know whether Eiji had gotten his revenge or not, but whenever I asked him what had happened he would go berserk and sometimes even hit me.
Eiji was about two years older than me. At the time, he was sixteen, and I was fourteen. My father seemed to admire Eiji more than me… perhaps it was because my parents were more used to me, or because Eiji had agreed to learn the Gatotsu style. I would have to agree that Eiji was an immediate success. He was a natural fighter! In school, he would defend me against many bullies most of the time. Although he couldn't expose his sword to the society, he was still good in speed and hitting. Bullies, on the other hand, just pumped up their body with meat and thought highly conceited of themselves.
One day…
I came back from school, my left hand scratched deeply. Blood was dripping from it, but I managed to band the scratch with a piece of cloth. A boy had threatened me with a knife. Although he was only trying to scare me with the knife, I had accidentally been pushed in. I managed to save myself by jumping off course, but my hand was still in the way, and the blade traveled a distance above my wrist.
By nighttime, my father had noticed the wound. He was a clever man, and I wished he wasn't. Sometimes I thought he could just read minds. When he questioned me about the scratch after unwrapping the cloth, I was left with a conflict of what to say to him.
"I……."
"Hm..?"
"I'll say, a bully got too far with him today.."
I looked back, and saw none other than Eiji. I glared at him. He was going to get me in trouble. At times like these, I wanted to kill him. I despised him at these times. But at other times, I felt Eiji had a deep feeling for me. I didn't know what to feel about him at those times.
"Hm…that is far," my father said thoughtfully. "He's only in ninth grade…and look at how violent this is."
"It's not any less than sword fighting," I said angrily.
"Shin, you must learn to defend yourself!" my father said, even angrier than me. "That IS IT!!!"
His voice echoed through the house loudly. I remained angry. I had to be yelled at every time I got bullied around. This seemed to sometimes put an affect on my living style, and I even failed school tests on purpose. I knew that I was hurting only myself, but I thought that with a life like this, I shouldn't have to burden it with work that I won't find useful, since I most likely won't have a future anyway.
"Now, here's the deal," my father listed, "Either you learn Gatotsu appreciatively, or don't bring home any signs of being more humiliation to the family. If you choose the second choice, then the next time I will hit you so badly—"
I stood up. My mother had walked in, blinking with confusion. Eiji was gritting his teeth to see what my next action would be. I fixed my emotion to anger, and walked to the door, looking back.
"I choose choice three…leave the house and never show my face again."
As I walked out, Eiji tried to stop me, but I could tell my father gave him a sign to not hold me back.
"But father…!"
Eiji lowered his head and walked back slowly, giving me a last pleading look, as I strode out of the house, being welcomed to the rainy, cold night. I knew that I hadn't made this decision very thoughtfully, but my anger could go over anything. I didn't want to be threatened by my father anymore.
Being only fourteen years old, I didn't know where to go next. So I just walked plain forward, still in a hurry. I was still wearing my school uniform. Thinking about school, I wondered whether I should go back. It was a tough decision. Should I never go back to school or home, and completely dump my life into hell? But then again, my life was worse enough to deserve this anyway…
But I was still hesitating to leave. In a matter of minutes, I shivered. I had nothing to keep myself warm. Leaving the house meant that I would have to bear these kind of nights as well. I didn't want to be in an orphanage either. At this sort of rate, I might be nothing but a kid who grew up on the street. This fact would have no positive sides to it… only negative. I gritted my teeth.
…Tonight was rather an unfortunate night to run away. I could tell most sewers were leaking, as I crossed through building alleys, under wet canopies that trickled water from the edges, and grabbing old papers to cover my head, to escape the rain. But it wouldn't stop, so I gave up and instantly came to being as wet as water itself. Mud—too…the horse carts that flashed by me every now and then splashed me with a puddle of filthy water.
After shuffling through the drizzling sidewalks with as much energy I had, I finally slipped inside a lonesome alley and collapsed with a splash on a pair of abandoned stairs. I didn't know if I should close my eyes or not… but being more sleepy than frightened, I slowly began to yawn… but within a minute, the fear rose.
I heard a couple of silent splashes, which were most likely footsteps. My eyes slid open, and I looked to the noise… there were four boys and one girl walking towards me. They all were wearing a quiet smirk as they approached me slowly. I sat there, apparently paralyzed, not being able to move a muscle.
"So..," one of the men, who was wearing bright blue clothes, said in a long, irritating voice. "Saitoh Shin, correct?"
I gazed at them for a slight moment, and nodded slowly. Their smirk widened as they looked down at me. One of the men drew out a wrinkled photo and looked at it, supposedly comparing the picture to me. I got the chance to look at the photo, and realized that it was a photo of a younger me!... I didn't remember having that picture taken, though, or even wearing those unfamiliar clothes that I was wearing in that photo. The man holding the photo nodded to the rest of them, and the man with the blue clothes continued.
"You may not know of yourself, Shin," he said, still in his drawling, annoying tone. "But we do."
I stared at him, puzzled. "What do you mean?"
His smirk widened to the point that I wanted to bury my fist in his face. I gritted my teeth. I knew that these men were up to no good… perhaps I had done a wrong thing to run away.
"Well, it's quite a story, Shin," another man said, in a much softer tone, to my ears' relief. "You think you don't know us… yet you do."
With a clouded head, I didn't know what to respond. What were they talking about?
"Let me tell you, Shin," said the only girl in the group. "I'm Yuki Toshusai. This is—"
She pointed to the man in the red clothes.
"—Gou…and these are Iori, Itsuo, and Natsuo."
I gritted my teeth harder, looking at each person as the girl pointed at them. As I did, I noticed they were not all really that old… they looked like high school kids, except older and quite taller than me. I was about five feet seven inches, and these guys—and girl, were from five feet ten inches to six feet.
"Um…so why must I know your names?" I asked, trying to act still confused.
Their smirk widened. I was getting agitated intensely by that smirk…
"You talk to us so unwantedly, Shinny!" one of them said, who I thought was Iori, after hearing what the girl Yuki had to say. "Well, we've been searching for you for … what was it, Gou—two years? And this boy asks us why we're here."
"The boy doesn't remember us, for heaven's sake," another man said. He looked towards me, still with the smirk. "As chicky said, I'm Natsuo. We're going to have to take you with us, Shin."
I clenched my fist stiffly. These strangers, who claimed that I didn't remember them, were asking me to come with them. Were they stupid enough to think that I'd go with that? They even gave out their names…
"You're saying it in an evil sort of way, Natsuo," the girl, Yuki, pointed out.
"Oh, but we were going to insist anyway, weren't we?" Natsuo argued. "We're not here to puzzle off the boy."
"Shut the crap, Nat," another man said. "Arrr….well, Shin. We're going to take you somewhere familiar. It's gonna be a breeze. Trust us…"
"Why should I?" I said furiously.
"Just come, Shin, soon you'll remember everything..," Yuki said.
"Yeah, listen to the lady—" the man in the red clothes, Gou, teased. Astonishingly, his smirk wiped off his face after he looked at Yuki's rather menacing glare.
Suddenly, someone grabbed me from the back and picked me up from the damp, muddy stairs I was sitting on. I could once again feel the rain thumping coldly on my body as the rather warm hand grasped me tightly. I looked back and saw Natsuo holding me. The others nodded towards him, and the man began escorting me out of the alley with the rest of the group.
"What the…LET GO!" I shrieked.
"The boy's still got his loud trap," Iori said, looking back to me with his teeth grit. "…you'd think he'd be the quiet one now that he doesn't remember anything."
It was a ghastly feeling, how I was trying to get free from the two hands gripping me by the arms and taking me wherever they wanted to take me… and yet I couldn't get loose a bit. My heart beat like a rapid machine. The raindrops that dripped from my body now transformed into sweat of fear. While they took me away, they said some odd things like… "Funny thing, you know—back then we could hardly even touch him…that speed" and "Where is the base again?" and then "Stop trying to get free, you maniac! It'll be over in a minute!"
After about a fifteen minute's walk, they finally slowed down when we approached a disordered, wrecked house that was almost the size of a shed, in the middle of what looked like a junkyard.
"Here we are," Natsuo said, finally letting me on my feet. "Was that so hard?"
"What are you going to do with me now?" I said furiously.
"Oh, we're just going to show you to Kenji again, Shin," another boy said, whose name I couldn't remember. All of a sudden these five strangers come up to me and ask me to remember their names?
Yuki went and knocked on the door of the cruddy shed. I kept my eyes open to see who would answer, not trying to blink once because of the cold air stinging my pupils.
And someone did answer. A boy who was startlingly my size, with a firm look, and odd clothes that seemed he'd been wearing for years. The boy looked around at everyone, nodding slightly, and then fixed his eyes on me.
"T-this is?"
"Why, it's Shin, Kenji!" Yuki said.
"Yup," said Gou in his drawling voice again, sitting down on a pile of wood, and lighting a cigarette.
The boy who had answered the shed, 'Kenji', seemed to have been sleeping. He rubbed his eyes and looked at me more closely, and then approached me and irritatingly analyzed me for a long time.
"He's not the same," he said finally.
"What do you mean, this is Shin!" Itsuo said, borrowing a cigarette from Gou and lighting it as well.
"He may be, but he looks much weaker…," Kenji said, observing my soft-like hands. "He's..?"
"Yes, he's lost his memory," Iori said quickly. "The..poor guy. He doesn't know shit about who he is, or what he used to be… or even what happened to him back then."
Kenji's eyes opened swiftly. He breathed in large amounts and walked around for a minute, thinking about something. I didn't know what they were talking about. Had I actually lost my memory? Did I use to know these people?
"I think we should keep him until he gets his memory back..," Yuki said.
"We keep him even if he gets his memory back as well," Gou added.
"Where'd you find him?" Kenji asked, concerned.
"Quite creepy, but we found him in that same alley where we first met," Natsuo said, smirking.
"Ahh," Kenji said, "Talk about coincidence! … Well, I think we should… re-teach him…"
"The style? But no, he doesn't know anything about himself!" Yuki argued. "He needs a purpose!"
"He has one," Gou punched the wood he was sitting on with a firm fist. "To get his memory back, and tell us who the hell did this to him. If I don't get to crush that man's bones, no one will."
"Anger management, Gou," Itsuo said, and looked at Kenji. "We can't teach him anyway… we don't know. Only you and he knew the style…"
"Then I'm taking Shin," Kenji replied, "He will learn the style again. I'm taking him to Kyoto."
"Ah…Kyoto…the nightmare of blood..," Natsuo said happily, taking a long smoke. His cigarette was lit out by a drop of rain water. "Argh! It's gonna flood by tomorrow!"
"So…your father will teach him the style?" Iori asked. "Why couldn't he teach us?! I wanna learn the ryuu…"
"Father's turning old, he has little time to even teach Shin now," Kenji said intelligently. "And besides, you can't have too many people learning it. The results would be devastating. First, I'll have to test Shin."
Kenji disappeared inside the wrecked shed-looking house and came back holding a sheath in his hand. He threw the sheath at me, and I catched it suddenly… I didn't know the sheath was coming…my hands just sprung up and caught it like a machine.
"Nice," Iori pointed out.
I stood there, bewildered of what to do with this sheath. My hands enclosed on the hilt, and I pulled it out expertly. It was a sword, no doubt. A long, curve-bladed katana with a magnificent blade that gleamed superbly with the drops of rain reflecting upon it.
"Recognize that sword, Shin?" Kenji shouted across at me, fighting against the loud noise of the rain and thunderclouds. "It's the same one you prized most… don't you remember, Shin? 'I used this sword to kill from alpha, and I will use it for the omega.' Remember saying that?"
I shivered, holding the katana in my hand. I looked at the gleaming edge of it…every single chip of the blade seemed to be mentally accusing me as its sole user, a man who was created to kill.
"Prepare yourself, manslayer!"
I looked up from the sword to the spot where Kenji had been…but within a second Kenji was standing in front of him. He paused for a slight moment, his eyes shining awfully blue, and swung his sword at me vertically, in an incredible god-like speed. I closed my eyes and, automatically, my hand gripped tightly onto the katana and next thing I knew—there was a loud clash… I opened my eyes and realized I was completely safe. Kenji had leaped back. I had suddenly countered the move without knowing it…
There was a long moment's pause, in which only the sound of the intense rain could be heard. There was another loud crash of thunder. My heart was beating fast, as I observed Kenji standing there, still in his stance. I looked at my katana… it seemed magic how I had survived that attack… how did I do it, anyway?
"Kid's still got it in him," Gou said with a long drawl, still smoking, sitting on top of the pile of wood.
"What if he didn't? You could have killed him, Kenji!" Yuki said loudly.
Kenji didn't reply. He was gazing into my eyes. His eyes were still blue like the luminous moon… nearly hypnotizing.
"So, how did you manage to battle my speed, manslayer?" Kenji asked loudly across the deafening noise of the infernal rain. I was getting irritated by him calling me a 'manslayer', just like the annoying, drawling voice of Gou.
"I don't know..?" I said uncertainly. "It…It just happened!"
Kenji seemed to be thinking about something, but kept his moon-like eyes fixed upon me. Once again, Kenji grasped the hilt of his katana and perfected a stance. I still didn't know what was the point of all this. They were calling me a manslayer, thinking that I'm a good swordsman? Did I actually lose my memory? Father never mentioned such a thing to me… neither did Eiji. I thought back, and realized that indeed, I couldn't remember some things that actually happened to me. Sometimes I used to ask Eiji about it, and he said that I have a stupid brain, trying to act normal.
My thoughts vanished and I found myself once again facing Kenji. I kept my eyes on him as well, in case he would just fade next to me and kill me. And finally, just when the clouds roared loudly, I saw Kenji fade. I looked around to see him, and felt a chill up my spine. And out of the blue, I detected him standing right behind me, and swung around. Luckily, my sword had sprung up to block his slash just in time. .. And then I turned angry. He could have killed me if I hadn't blocked!!! But how did I block the attack anyway? I didn't even know how I did it… it happened all by itself, like I was being controlled.
Although I couldn't do anything about the anger, my body functioned by itself once again and I found myself slashing at him a repeatedly, trying to hurt him in any way… It was unbelievable…. How fast I was slashing, ducking, leaping, and reversing motion as I attempted to kill him. And finally, after much springing around, I finally managed to mark a cut on his arm. He leaped back and sat down… And as I analyzed blood dripping off his arm and mixing in the flowing puddle of water, I finally came back to my senses. What the hell was I trying to do? Kill him? That was insane…
Gou and Natsuo had jumped off the pile of wood and dropped their cigarettes to grab me, in order to control me. Yuki, Itsuo, and Iori went to accompany Kenji, who was sitting there. However, Kenji recovered easily and stood up.
"Let him go."
They loosened their grip, and hesitatingly withdrew their arms. I looked at Kenji, his eyes were still illuminated blue. It reminded me of something, but I didn't know what…
"That was quite crazy," Kenji said, forming a slight smirk on his face. "I can tell… you do remember the style, you just don't know that you do, and how to use it. A little training and you'll be back to the once swordsman that could rip through the winds, and kill instantly without the opponent feeling any pain at all…You know, although I am the blood of my father, you are more like him when you use the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu."
"What are you talking about?" I asked, gritting my teeth.
"The style—Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu," Kenji repeated. "You don't know about yourself, do you? Not a single spiff of knowledge… let's come inside our base. We've had enough blood—" Kenji looked at Yuki who was tying a cloth on his wound, "For tonight."
I nodded slightly, and followed inside the house that I had been thinking was a shed. But Kenji had called it 'their base'…
I looked around the house. It wasn't really that bad as it looked from outside. It was pretty cozy in here, compared to the obnoxious weather outside. There was a normal kitchen, which looked like it had been used by people who definitely weren't chefs, and a small bathroom, and only two small rooms, side-to-side. There was nothing special in here… only a small television, and something that looked like a radio. There were some chairs, and a small table that was probably used for dining.
"Like the place?" Itsuo asked me as I finished looking around, smiling. "Since you've completely sold your mind, you're gonna have to start from the beginning of getting used to these kinds of non-state-of-the-art things."
I nodded, trying to smile a little, still holding the katana in my hands.
"Put that away, Shin, you look like you're going to murder us all," Yuki said. I nodded once again, and sheathed the katana cautiously, putting it aside on a highly shabby sofa. Everyone began to grab a chair and sit down beside the dining table.
"Let's go, Shin," Iori said, grabbing a chair for me and pulling it next to his. I sat down quietly, looking around at everyone.
"Well, you're probably wondering who we are still," Kenji said, smirking. "My name is Kenji Himura."
"I know," I replied. Kenji continued to smirk. Bizarrely, his eyes weren't blue anymore. I smiled in relief… they were beginning to frighten me… He continued, "You went pretty berserk back there, Shin. I realized you were mad."
"Yes… you were slashing at me without warning!" I said. "I don't even know about swords. I don't use them. My father advised me to learn his style, but I didn't."
"Saitoh Hajime…his style is the Gatotsu, isn't it?" Natsuo asked.
"Y-yes," I said, trying not to act surprised, since these people already knew about me.
"No, no..," Kenji said, "You are the successor of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu… not Gatotsu. We both trained together, by my father, Kenshin Himura."
I nodded, storing that information in my head hastily.
"But you proceeded to being an ass," Kenji continued, smirking, "you left your training and began to show the world what you were made of…after I finished my training, I, too, left my father and began walking around Tokyo to look for you. I … saw you were involved in a gang. I got mad at you, and all that usual blah blah stuff."
"Tell him the whole story," Yuki said furiously. "Listen, Shin. You had joined a gang that we are hunting down right now. At that time, when Kenji returned from Kyoto after finishing his training, he decided to fight against you and joined us. Later on, you got back to your senses and joined with us as well, to hunt down your own former gang. They're pretty mad at you too… you were a powerful weapon of theirs. It's a good thing we found you before they did."
"What?!" I erupted. "I was in a gang?"
"Yes, Shin," Kenji said. "First you were in that gang, but then you joined this gang."
"You guys are gangsters too?!"
"Not exactly gangsters," Itsuo corrected. "We used to be the bad guys, but later we were hired by the government. We're just an organization with the name Deathcallers, so that the government can make the society fear us. We were hired by the government, the seven of us, to actually form a single 'gang' and wipe out another one. It's like only fire can beat fire, ya know."
"So..we were hired to exterminate another gang?" I confirmed.
"Correct," Kenji said. "Well anyway, what's funny is that, just like Yuki pointed out, the first gang you joined is the gang we're hunting down."
I gritted my teeth again. "This is confusing…I find out I'm in a gang…boy…brain killers."
"It's not that bad, Shin," Kenji informed. "Someday, you'll understand. Anyway, we were only hired by the government because they knew that we, the two of us, were the swordsmen that knew the style of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu. Although swords were banned, we were given the right to wield one."
"So, we're called the Deathcallers, right?" I asked.
"Yes, Deathcallers," Iori said, smiling. "Catchy name, huh…"
"I don't want to do this," I said. "I…don't know."
"But, you must!" Natsuo said. "You're who we've been rugging our ass on Tokyo's streets for a year!"
"The boy needs time, Nat," Yuki said, sighing. "Anyway… the gang we're hunting out is…"
"…they call themselves Anshi," Iori said. "They're a group of experienced fighters that are slowly spreading throughout Japan. There are many of them, but the Deathcallers are only created to hit the core, not all of them. So that means we focus upon only the leaders of Anshi."
"FIRST," Kenji slammed his fist on the table, "I take Shin to my father. He needs to complete his training."
"Now, Kenji, we don't have time—"
"Yes, we do. Shin needs this, you guys. He's lost his memory, and although he still somewhat knows the style, he doesn't know how to use it… he just can use the usual techniques. And plus, he abandoned his training a long time ago. He needs to return now, and finish up the vital moves of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu.. trust me, he'll be much powerful than he used to be."
Everyone nodded. They sat there for a long while, staring down at the table. After a long minute of silence, at last, Kenji stood up and let out a yawn.
"Now then, let's eat, shall we?" he said in emphasis. "Tomorrow, we'll head out to Kyoto."
"What do you mean by we? Just you and Shin, or all of us?" Gou asked.
"We by all of us," Kenji confirmed. "And also, while Shin's completing his training, the rest of us will have to work on locating and exterminating as much Anshi members there as we can."
They all nodded, and Yuki smiled with a few tears. "It's..been a while since all of us have been together, hasn't it?"
"Yeah, but now we have Shin back and we have all the determination we need," Itsuo said, smiling back.
Natsuo leaned back in his chair and yawned deeply. "Bad thing is…good ol' Meiji is supporting us halfway only.."
"What do you mean?" Iori asked, as Kenji sprinted to the kitchen and began fixing dinner.
"I had a few morons that were sent by the government to destroy me," Natsuo replied. "They're hoping to get rid of us once we get rid of Anshi as well."
"So, they're using us?" Iori asked. "…Those…"
"Perhaps they think that we're also a threat to them…you know, all of us being a gang as well and stuff," Yuki said cautiously.
"Let's worry about this later, okay?" Kenji said from the kitchen, smiling. "Let's eat."
"Bring it on!" Itsuo grinned.
"First, some fresh wine to celebrate the return of Shin!" Natsuo said with a wide smirk, drawing a large bottle of red wine. Kenji smirked as well and brought seven glasses. Noticing that everyone had grabbed a glass, I grabbed for one too, slowly. As all the glasses filled up with red wine, everyone picked their glasses up at the same time, leaving me confused. Kenji noticed and smiled.
"Since you don't remember, Shin, we're supposed to be a team," Kenji informed. "So close, we'd die for each other—do the worst of things… we're partners in crime, all seven of us."
I nodded, forming a smile. It was good to see such nice people… although I was in a gang according to them, they were showing signs of true friendship. I picked up my glass, and we all struck our glasses together in one. And then, suddenly, something hit my brain, and I began to speak.
"Forever, friends— from alpha to omega—from beginning to the end."
No one noticed me saying this, because they all said it at the same time. But how did I automatically say it? Did it tick a memory to my mind?
- I know it's a bit odd in the beginning, that everything is happening too fast, but it'll get better ^_^ Please keep reading! And review this chapter too, please!