Gamma

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We left Kenshin's house after setting me on a load of tests to make sure that my training had become firm. And then, we wandered into nowhere — the middle of the wild woods where I had no idea where we were going. I knew we were heading for Osaka, but were we lost or brainless — I had no idea. No one seemed to answer me when I asked them, "Are we on the right track?"

But to my relief, I finally saw a hint of opening. With hope, I (and perhaps the rest of the gang) strode out to meet not just an opening, but a human dwelling.

"Osaka at last," Gou said, throwing away his final cigarette. "Damn addiction. This shit sucks, been smoking for two days straight with hardly anything to eat."

Itsuo grinned, "In that case, let's head for some café, shall we?"

There was a pause of agreement. "I'm all for it…"

I myself wanted to have something to eat first. I was so near to starving in the middle of travel that I almost wanted to take a smoke. However, thinking now, the resisting was all worth it. I confirmed this as we finally faced the scent of food floating from the hotel in front of us.

"Huh? What's this?"

I took my eyes off the hotel to look at Yuki, who was staring at a band of cops. But this band wasn't the only one. I turned my head here and there, and spotted not a single corner which wasn't being patrolled by an officer.

"What's going on here?" Natsuo asked.

"Dunno," Kenji said worriedly. "Listen. I think we should get out of here."

"Heck no, let's find out who they're looking for. Maybe it's some Anshi disturbances," Yuki said.

"Well, you guys go on," Kenji said, growing worried, "I'll —just go in and serve myself."

"Hm… all right, but why don't you guys go on?" Yuki suggested. "I'll see what's going on.

We nodded all at once, and slipped inside the warm hotel. After we chose a table to sit, which was placed by the window, Kenji mysteriously disappeared. After about three minutes, he came back with an odd mask covering most of his face.

"You crazy?" Itsuo said angrily.

"You moron, take that off!" Iori said, reaching for the mask. Kenji stepped away from him.

"I like it," he said. "Is it not cool?"

"Sure is."

I turned around and saw Yuki taking a seat. "You look great in that mask, Kenji."

"Yeah, it's about time you feel embarrassed of your unworthy face," Natsuo said. Everyone broke into cackles. I could see a frown forming on Kenji's face, beyond that mask.

"So, what was it with the cops?" I asked after a minute.

"Oh, yes," Yuki said hurriedly, after telling the waiter what to get, "It seems they're searching for a criminal… don't know, some member of Anshi. They're saying he's like a master with a sword. That's a challenge for you right there, you two."

I formed a slight smile, and looked at Kenji. His frown had gone, and he nodded slightly. "I see… did they have any information about that guy?"

"No," Yuki explained, "The only thing they know is that the man is an Anshi, and was powerful enough to take over a harbor all by himself, and kill all the witnesses. Not a single person who knows about him. He then let all his army to sail off the ships."

"But, maybe the people are just too scared to tell?" Natsuo suggested.

"I doubt it," Iori said, "They weren't being forced not to tell, were they?"

"Do they at least know his name?" Itsuo asked, nodding.

"No, I believe not..," Yuki replied. "But they're only walling up Osaka because they believe he's heading here. Some person in Kyoto suggested that he was there just a few days ago, and was willing to give in any information that we needed. And he heard that they're heading for Osaka—he and some of his other members."

A few minutes later, we heard a roar outside. People screaming, and gunshots. I looked out the window and saw that the guard cops were being shot from different angles. It was amazing—the bullets were difficult to track. One by one, the cops fell. More cops came in and looked around to track where the firing was coming from.

"Where are the bullets coming from?" Iori asked.

"It may be difficult for you to tell, but this is not one person firing," Kenji explained, "there is more than one person hiding in those buildings."

"Let's go, then," Gou declared, crashing through the window's glass regardless of the door. We followed him.

"Think of an alternative," Yuki suggested, "we could get shot out there. We don't know where the hell they're coming from."

Nevertheless, Iori had tracked one of the men that were shooting. A few seconds later, I noticed him too, and looked around the buildings and saw more of them. But the man that Iori had noticed was much taller and bigger. Regardless of safety, Iori sprinted towards the building and ran up it as if it was a straight floor. Kenji followed him by hopping up from street light to balconies… I followed the same route as Kenji. In no time, we were being fired at. Kenji was quicker and more skilled than I was, so he avoided and redirected them easily with his sword. I, on the other hand, dodged several of them, but a bullet ripped through the edge of my hand still.

Bearing the pain, I hopped through Kenji's path and caught up on the shooter's floor by making a 14-foot leap risk. I analyzed the man as I sat there choking. Iori had reached the man way before Kenji and I had. Iori was drawing three sets of daggers in his hand expertly.

The man was wearing a belt and a headband with a cross-skull in the middle. He was gigantic, holding an enormous machine gun in his left arm.

"Hehe, another Anshi crap for Shinou to dig," Kenji said with spit drooling from his mouth as if he was hungry for blood.

"It is an honor to meet you, Deathcallers, my name is Taigo. To fight, we must not hold back. I have been waiting for this day."

"You talk too polite," I said to him, holding up my finger at him. "I, Saitou Shin, will defeat you."

"You're bleeding from the hand, kid," Taigo, the Anshi member, informed. "Let me introduce myself once again. I am Taigo. I control Anshi here in Osaka. Let us fight."

I seemed to sense blood several meters around me. I knew that the rest of the gang was clearing out the other shooters. I was delighted to have no more interference. It was three against one. The blood from my hands was endlessly dripping. Despite that, I drew out Nagatou. I was going to be part of this fight no matter what.

"Pretty straight-forward," Iori said, ready to attack with his knives.

"It seems the rest of the Deathcallers are wiping out my men," Taigo said. "This fight may be troublesome. You, there, why are you wearing a mask?"

"Shut up and let's go," Kenji drew Shinou and charged towards him. Unsurprisingly, Taigo pulled the trigger of his machine gun towards Kenji. Instantly, Kenji began spinning around Shinou and the bullets were reflected. Iori shot a knife at Taigo, who replaced himself with his machine gun. The knife easily bounced off the hard metal. Instantly, Iori was on a whole different angle and shot one more at Taigo. Taigo didn't seem to show fright, and vaulted away. His heavy weight crumbled the hard surface below him.

Without any thought of skill, I, too, shot towards Taigo and blew behind him when he shot at me. From there, I hurled Nagatou at his leg, but the pain in my hand slowed me down, letting Taigo's giant foot kick my face. I was being blown right off the building when I hung onto the cliff. Hearing more quick, tense sprints, I climbed back up the cliff and observed as Kenji made incredible combos of Ryu Tsui Sen and Ryu Sho Sen. Taigo was hurt instantly and collided into the stairway-chamber, causing it to break and blocking up the way downstairs the building.

For a while, only smog covered my sight. But I knew that this was not enough to make a big man fall. And indeed, I heard the sound of rocks being blasted away, the dust clearing up, and loud thumping feet. The smog clearing up now revealed a Taigo who was no longer holding a machine gun, but instead a spectacularly large, spiked mace hanging with a metal rod. More like—a flail.

"It seems I must use my style now," Taigo said. "Let us continue, please."

"You will die!" Iori screamed as he grabbed a dagger and launched towards him. I hopped off the cliff and entered the battle area once more. The fight was definitely going to get dangerous with the flail.

I watched Iori launch quick stabs into thin air as Taigo passed by him and raised his flail. "Time to die!" he screamed. He swung the flail at him. In an instant, I was battling the flail down with a single strike of my sword. Taigo made a quick leap back out of fright.

"What?!" he shrieked. "That kid… he traveled 15 feet in less than one second? What is this person?"

"He's pretty fast with that flail, so let's be careful, gang," Kenji advised.

Taigo smirked. "Nevertheless, I will fight."

I heard another giant outrage in the city beneath me, beneath the sunset that we were fighting in. It seemed a bomb had exploded. I was in panic. I ran to the cliff and looked down, and saw that Gou and Itsuo were being surrounded by a number of Anshi. All the police force seemed to have finished up. I didn't see Yuki or Natsuo anywhere.

"WATCH OUT, SHIN!!!!"

I looked behind me and in one flash I was holding up Nagatou, drawn against the Taigo's flail once again. The weight of his flail was intense, however, so I was being pushed back a considerable amount. A fury of anger vibrated up my spine.

"I must finish this battle quickly, Taigo, sorry," I said. "Must help friends."

Taigo smiled. "It's good to help friends. Good luck, kid."

I smiled back, but was still full of anger. "Kuzu Ryuu Sen!"

Blood shot out from 9 different angles. And then, Taigo was flying behind me, off the building, and down. The impact was incredible! I hadn't even felt this much impact while training with Kenshin. Maybe it was Taigo's large weight, but it felt like that if you start the technique, your body itself gains speed fast enough to make you do the rest of the technique by itself. In other words—it's impossible to hold back the technique once you activate it.

For once, I smirked. Although I had killed a man, although my face was all red now with blood, I smirked. It felt good to kill. But I shivered. Why do I shiver? Killing is delighting, but why do I shiver?

…. It seemed that the enthusiasm wasn't over yet, for now a number of expert-looking samurais had instantly knocked Kenji down. I rushed for Kenji, but in another instant, they disappeared. Iori was so full of shock, both with my technique and Kenji being gone, that he seemed half dead. I sheathed Nagatou.

"Kenji? Iori?" I asked.

"Yes?" Iori responded, being the only person there.

"Why did the Anshi take Kenji and not us all together?"

For a while, Iori thought. Then, as he withdrew his knives into the many hidden places in his body, he whispered into the wailing wind, "I do not know, Shin." It was no longer a surprise… but a mission.. that both concerned mystery and battle. Why would they take Kenji? And above all, Kenji was wearing a mask. How could they know that that was definitely Kenji? Maybe my head hurt too bad, or maybe my body was in too much strain from using Kuzu Ryuu Sen, but I collapsed to the ground.

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When I woke up, I did not have to rethink what had happened before. It was already in my mind. I was sleeping on a bed surrounded by the rest of the Deathcallers. It seemed that we had booked an inn.

"Ah, Shin, you're awake!" Natsuo yelled loudly. "It looks like that move was too much for ya.."

"It would be the same if it were you, though, Nat," Iori said, "that move is like a judgment of death. When he decides to use it, he will kill. It's not any normal technique."

I sat up and yawned, looking at the clock. Midnight. Exactly midnight.

"So what is the plan?" I asked.

"Whoah, there, you should be getting rest," Yuki said. "We'll worry about Kenji. Besides, he won't get hurt so easily. He is the son of Himura Kenshin. He is undefeatable. We know Kenji more than anyone else."

"But just to let you know, here is what we are going to do," Natsuo said. "We will kill them."

"Sure we will, Nat, you dumbass," Itsuo said calmly, and looked towards me, "Here is the plan, Shin. Since you and Iori saw the samurai who took Kenji, it is necessary you go follow them to Tokyo. I'll be coming along with you. The rest of us are heading to Yokohama to kick some Anshi ass."

"Wait a minute, how do you know they went to Tokyo or not?" I asked.

"Gou saw them," Iori said. "He was right on catching up to your fight when he both observed your Kuzu Ryuu Sen and then saw the samurai quickly swift by him in amazing speed and kidnap Kenji. Gou was fast enough to track them so he followed, but he failed to catch Kenji and caught one of them. The samurai said they were headed for some sort of prison in Tokyo. We're wondering it's a type of underground hideout for Anshi who capture police forces and trap them there."

"It's odd, though, that even criminals would have their own prisons where they lock up the good guys," Yuki wondered.

I looked at Gou, who was standing at the doorway, not facing us. Gou was one of a kind… he looked very cool with his scythe, and seemed like a loner who didn't talk very much. But then he did talk: "What surprises me, though… is that they were not wearing Anshi belts nor headbands.. The ones with the cross-skull."