Disclaimer: All Rurouni Kenshin characters rest forever (in peace ^^ can't help adding that…) in the very capable hands of Nobuhiro Watsuki.

~ Blessing of the Cursed ~

~ a rurouni kenshin fanfic ~

~Scroll One~

Rumor has it that one of them survived the fire. Despite that Aizu's best samurai blocked all possible escape routes, rumor has it that one of them managed to get out and abscond away into the night. The Head Priest had said that if they were all rid of from this world, the land of Aizu would be saved from its slow demise. Flowers would once again bloom with the colors of the rainbow, children would again laugh and play with carefree ease, the sun would shine warmly from a perfect blue sky, and Kami would look upon Aizu with favor. But no sign of that has yet to come, even several years after the fire that should have finished them. One of them must have escaped. The Shadow Fox line continues to exist into this world. For now the samurai of other lands have begun to get bolder, trespassing further and further within the borders of Aizu. They plunder, murder, rape, and abuse this land, slowly destroying it. Aizu's samurai are tiring. They cannot continue to defend the land of Aizu like this. The last fox must be rid of. All chances of their return in numbers must be exterminated. Before all of Aizu is dragged down to Hell with those damned kitsune spirits.

~*~

Sagara Sanosuke gritted his teeth against the biting knives that whipped around his lanky figure as he forced his numb feet to rise and plunge into the freezing snow. Up and down right, up and down left, one foot in front of the other. He swayed slightly with each painful step he took, the howling wind pushing against him. Sanosuke hugged himself, rubbing his arms vigorously in a useless attempt to warm himself. His worn battle armor did little to help, if not encumbering the Aizu samurai's weary movement even more. Had Sanosuke been at a much lower level of elevation, his wounds would still be flowing freely, rather than be plugged up by icy patches of half frozen blood that rubbed uncomfortably against his tender skin. That is, the few parts of him that could still even acknowledge discomfort at all. Sanosuke look down towards his feet, an unconscious effort to ensure that his feet were still attached to his long legs and had not fallen off to end up lying somewhere unnoticed. He could barely discern them among the thick white flurries as it is. He wasn't even going to think about finding the mountain path he had set to follow hours before, taken over by a blind panic while trying to escape from the overwhelming number of invading samurai over Aizu's North border. Hopefully, his other two comrades were faring better than himself, having all scattered to different directions. The Aizu samurai heaved a great disappointed sigh that only served to gather more icy crystals upon the tip of his prominent nose. Up and down right, up and down left, up and down right, up and down left…

"What's the friggin' point of this anyways?" Sanosuke mentally grumbled to himself. He really didn't want to find out how his vocal chords have fared in this lovely snowy wonderland. Sanosuke scanned the white expanse around him, squinting through the flying snowflakes. When the snow fell fast and hard, he could hardly see his own hands in front of his face. When there was a lull, there was nothing to see but an endless plane of snow. Either way, there was no shelter from the bitter cold. The lonely yips and yaps of some kind of carnivorous creature carried to Sanosuke's ears upon the battering currents of the wind. He shivered, pushing away the unwelcome fantasies of turning into a human ice-cream bar for wolves to feed on.

"Just keep walking buddy," Sanosuke told himself. "Someday you'll reach the end of the earth." Heh. Sanosuke cracked a wry smile, not even wincing when his bottom lip split open. A trail of crimson red trickled down his chin, soon turning into a thin line of dark brown. He drew his broad shoulders up into a highly exaggerated and permanent shrug, his armor's shoulder pads close enough to almost brush the stiff spikes of brown hair that angled out in every which way from his nape. Up and down right, up and down left, up and down - - -

"What the f*%#?!" Sano suddenly yelped out hoarsely as the ground under his right foot gave way with a resounding crack. Too far into his next step, the half frozen Aizu samurai fell.

THWUMP!!!

Sanosuke groaned. Just what his battle worn body needed. He gingerly raised his head, studying the slanted rafter that he had half rolled half bounced along to the hard wooden floor.

Wooden floor?

Elatedly, Sanosuke dragged himself to a sitting position, leaning against a nearby pole for support. His eyesight gradually adjusted to the semi-darkness as he sat there, hardly able to believe that he had found shelter. Soon Sanosuke could pick out the dusty interior of an abandoned temple. Apparently, he had walked upon a weak spot on the temple roof and crashed though, leaving quite the mess right in front of the temple's majestic statue of Buddha.

"I'll clean that up as soon I'm able, Kami-sama!" Sanosuke promised in a soft voice to the statue. After all, shelter from an inevitable cold and lonely death just upped out of nowhere. He offered a quick heartfelt prayer to the statue and shuffled awkwardly towards the hallway dotted with rooms in the back of the shrine. In one of the smaller dorm rooms, he found a trunk packed with useful items. From it, Sanosuke drew a half full jar of salve and an old monk robe/pants set that could actually stand a few more years use. Without a moment's hesitance, the warrior rapidly rid himself of his cold armor, casting it aside with a dull clank. After brushing away the icy crystals that clung to his cold body, Sanosuke dabbed generous amounts of the yellowish and waxy salve upon his wounds. Without the whipping bite of the snowstorm wind or the snow, he could already feel the slight tingling that marked the return of body heat and sense of touch. The salve stung upon his wounds, quickly stilling the renewed flow of life's blood. As Sanosuke's body pulled back from its frozen state, he began to shiver violently, his teeth clacking together in an almost comical manner.

"G-glad to know t-that m-my bod-dy decci-d-ded to reg-gain some heat-t n-n-now!" Sanosuke grinned despite his chattering teeth. For the lack anything else better for bandages, he ripped off thick strips of fabric from the bottom of the light blue robe. After deftly wrapping up most of his torso and long limbs, Sanosuke slipped on the monk's attire. Ignoring the fact that the pants only went down to mid-calf on him or that the robe hardly reached his hips after having so many strips torn from its hemming, Sanosuke searched the other dorm rooms. He walked quickly from room to room in search of as many blankets as he could find, now being able to feel the pressing chill in the air. Returning to the small room where he discovered the trunk, Sanosuke sat down with a small sigh into the old futon, completely bundled up with his numerous quilts. He sat in silence for several moments, before allowing an enormous yawn to pry open his jaws. Blinking owlishly, Sanosuke hugged the blankets around himself tighter and flopped over on the futon. Laying on one side and curled in a half fetal position in order for the small futon to accommodate his tall frame, he yawned again. The eerie whistling of the wind outside nor the echoes along the empty wooden halls of the temple affected the battle worn Sagara Sanosuke. As soon as he shifted to a comfortable position on the lumpy futon, his eyes closed to peaceful slumber. A small happy grin graced his boyish face.  

~*~

Not far outside the temple, a small white creature struggled against the snowstorm. With each painfully slow step, it swayed even more. Cognizant of its waning state, it fought its way to the roots of a nearby tree. Digging frantically with its small white paws, it created a small crater partly protected from the heartless chill beneath the tree's roots. It drew itself into a small ball of fur, wrapping its bushy white tail around to brush its black little nose, and waited.

~*~

"Ugh! My eyes!" Sanosuke growled as he raised a bandaged hand to block the blinding rays of the sun that streamed through the tattered paper window. He rolled over, pulling his numerous blankets over his head. His cocoon of warm fabrics had Sanosuke toasty warm, and frankly, he didn't want to get up and face the bitter cold air. However, sleep decided to side with the sun and evade Sanosuke. After tossing and turning for several minutes, he finally gave up and sat up gingerly, spitting out a few rather colorful words in the process. He walked jerkily out the dorm room, particularly aware of the shoots of pains stemming from his bodily injuries. To make things worse, his stomach was complaining loudly, after nearly a day and a half of negligence.

"Wonder where's the kitchen?" Sanosuke grumbled to himself as he entered the room where he had crashed in from the roof the day before. Most of the snow had melted away, leaving just a large pile of broken timber. The tall samurai picked his way through the pile until he reached the other side. There, he followed another hallway's stretch of rooms. The very last room at the end of the hallway opened to a small and dingy gray room, with the barest necessities to cook something edible. A half full threadbare bag of stale and bug-ridden rice slumped pitifully in the corner, the only thing that decorated the dusty shelves of the kitchen. After a quick look under the stove-like kitchen appliance that the only pot sat upon, Sanosuke turned heel and left the room with an annoyed growl. He needed firewood, of all things.

Sanosuke strode purposefully yet carefully across the main room of the small temple, picking his way through the rubble pile of wood quickly. Due to temperature differences inside and outside the temple, the snow had melted overnight, rendering the broken wood much too wet to be of any use as firewood. He paused in front of what he figured must be the door out of the temple, pulling the blanket he had temporarily adopted as an overcoat closer to his body. Sure that he could keep the blanket secure with just one hand, Sanosuke lifted the bolt lock and pushed open the heavy wooden doors. An almost painfully cold wave washed over him as he stepped outside.

"My eyes…" Sanosuke grumbled, raising his free hand against the white glare of the sun's harsh rays reflected off a thousand fallen crystals. He lowered his head and stepped out into the snow covered temple courtyard. The snow was quite thick, almost reaching up to his knees. After plodding just a few steps further into the spacious courtyard, Sanosuke decided the rickety pines lining the ancient yet sturdy courtyard walls will do just fine. Nothing short of some sort of a miracle will convince him to swim through this ocean of freezing snow and cover more distance than absolutely necessary. Even for firewood.

Sanosuke approached the closest tree, tugging on one of its lower branches until it snapped off. Repeating thus action again and again, he soon left the pine inadequately bare. When he shook the cold branches to rid them of the heavy snow, Sanosuke found that so old were these pines, that the trademark evergreen needles had long fallen away. With a slight shrug, he tucked the large bundle of sticks under his free arm. All this, Sanosuke managed to accomplish with just one arm. He licked his lips at the thought of the warm bowls of rice waiting for him back inside the temple and turned towards his oasis in this pale desert. As he turned, Sanosuke plunged his foot into a slight mound of snow directly underneath the ancient evergreen he had harvested firewood from, encountering something unerringly soft and yielding with his foot. Something definitely not snow.

With an unbalanced hop, Sanosuke withdrew his foot from the pile, having only engulfed his foot within the mound. He stared at his footprint with suspicion, not exactly in the best of moods to suddenly discover a frozen corpse of some sort. After several moments of indecision, he glared at the mound, and then kicked it. The powdery snow shifted away, revealing the blurry round shape of a small fox still curled against the cold. The Aizu samurai frowned as he made to cover back up the poor thing with his foot, this time taking much more care. The fine white grains stuck to the fur well, and Sanosuke easily smoothed the snow over the small fox, soon leaving only its tiny black nose to sight. He gently nudged some snow to cover the little black nose as well and turned back to the temple, his enthusiasm for his breakfast far more lacking than minutes before.

Chie!

Sanosuke whirled around, staring at the once again revealed little nose in stupor. It sneezed. Breaking into an amused grin, he immediately made his way back into the temple and dropped off his load of branches. Grabbing another blanket, Sanosuke sauntered back outside.

"You're one damned lucky little foxy!" Sanosuke chuckled as he brushed away the snow and gathered the little ball of fur up into his spare blanket to take inside.

~*~

~Scroll One End~

AN: This is just a sweet little S/M romance with a "Little Mermaid" twist. Not supposed to span too many chapters, but knowing good ol' redundant me, I'll make it something horribly lengthy. And even 5 pages into this fic, there's still nothing much of interest. But please do bear with me. Review and tell me what you think of everything so far! I'm thinking about 5 reviews might convince me to update again.

P.S.: Heh, how fitting to have a fic with so much snow in it when my penname means "White Pine" in Japanese. Not intentional though ^^.  

(This is actually the revised version…why? Just a few words that were in sore need to be included. As in this sentence:

"Heh. Sanosuke cracked a wry smile, not even wincing when his bottom [lip] split open."

"Lip" was the added word; read the sentence without the word…@_@)