Disclaimer: The rights to Rurouni Kenshin and The Princess Bride aren't mine: I merely take delight in dallying with their characters and themes. Mwahaha!
Author's Note/Apology: Hey all! This chapter has been Forever in coming, but it's here at last, so I hope you enjoy it. Spain was great: I had a very relaxing holiday. Of course, it all counts for squat once you get back- home for a week and it felt like I'd never gone away, but ah well. Uni to look forward to in a few weeks! Hurrah! Wish me luck!
And my own best wishes to those of you going to a new school or going off to uni for your first year like me this September, as well as a general 'good luck' to everyone going into their next academic year. Hope you make the most of it while you can still get away with being young and reckless. Yeah!
Well, onto the chapter. What happened to Soujiro? And Sano? And Kenshin? Slight angst and 'in-betweener-chapter mode' here, so no flames now, you have been warned!
Enjoy!
The Princess Bride: Kenshin StyleTwenty-Four
The waves were rushing quietly at the base of the Cliffs of Insanity.
The moon slipped from behind murky, trailing clouds to shed its silvery light over dusty earth, wind-battered trees, scattered rocks and the still body of a young man.
He had lain unconscious for some time, oblivious to the night that wheeled on over his head. Now, bruised, cut and exhausted, he slowly, slowly opened his eyes, blinking slightly as the darkness around him shifted gradually into focus.
He grimaced, and let out a quick, broken breath as his body's pains rushed to register themselves in his brain. A bruise on his left knee; a cut on his forearm; a graze across his palm; another across his right shoulder blade; and on top of these, dominating his nervous system and making him breath as shallowly as he could, was the great, ugly mark across his chest and stomach.
It felt like he'd been thrown off the Cliffs and landed on a sword's edge.
But Soujiro was made of hardier stuff than most. He may look like a boy, younger than his years and more innocent than his experiences, but he had survived more than many an older man has ever had to face.
Which was why he was already sitting up.
He looked slowly around with a deep grey, steady gaze, noting his surroundings, not to mention, with some surprise, the fact that he was actually still alive.
After all, most swordsmen would dispatch their enemy once they had won. The man in black had left Soujiro with a serious wound, but also with his life. Therefore, the man in black had meant everything he had said, about protecting the weak and not using strength to be a brutal killer.
Is Sanosuke still alive? Soujiro thought suddenly, rising too quickly to his feet and staggering. Is the Princess dead? Or the man in black? At least one of them probably is… Soujiro leant carefully over to lift his sword from the earth next to where he had lain: the man in black had even left him his weapon.
Sword in hand, Soujiro turned to face the direction Sano and Hoji had taken with the Princess, guessing that to be the way the man in black had gone. He bowed as low as he could in his injured state, only a slight smile on his face, but one that reached his steely eyes: Soujiro's thanks to the man in black for his honourable treatment of an enemy, and for the fact that Soujiro had the Tsuki katana, his father's precious sword, still in his possession. Nothing meant more to Soujiro than that.
Lifting out of his bow and turning to face the ocean, Soujiro paused for a moment, listening to the low rush of the sea wind and the crash of its waves against the rocks far below. The breeze caressed his cheeks with cool, gentle fingers, soothing him. His hair flickered slightly in the wind, tickling his neck.
Soujiro had to get back to the Thieves Quarter.
Hoji always said if something went wrong, or they were split up, to go back to the beginning.
The contract had been taken in the Thieves Quarter; they had grouped up and set out from the Thieves Quarter; therefore, the Thieves Quarter was clearly the place to go.
The habit of a smile back on his face, and sword back safely in its sheath, Soujiro began his journey back to the beginning.
The Thieves Quarter was worse than he remembered.
Sanosuke had always been with him before, and the tall, moody-looking man was enough to frighten off any would-be mugger. Soujiro kept out of the darker alleys, away from the seedier parts of the area, hoping anxiously that no one would challenge him.
Why did he feel so nervous all of a sudden? Where had it come from?
A chorus of raucous laughter burst out of a nearby tavern window, and Soujiro flinched. It sounded like the family- his family- he had killed, all those years ago, that brash laughter. Where was Sano? Where was he? He should be here soon…
Would Hoji come, too?
But Hoji didn't matter so much… As long as Sano came…
Soujiro found a dirty little crate, behind the noisy tavern, and sank onto it, feeling very tired.
He wasn't the greatest swordsman in the world. But then, he'd never really thought he was. One of the best, maybe.
He'd never be the best now- he'd lost to the man in black. But it was okay, wasn't it? Because it was okay to be weak.
Soujiro rested his crossed arms across his knees, leant over and gazed at the pile of rubbish on the ground in front of him. His grey eyes were strangely intent and deep, eyelids blinking constantly, as if trying to keep everything in focus, brow lower than usual. His mouth pouted slightly in thought.
Soujiro sighed.
All he could do for now was wait. Wait until Sano or Hoji came.
Soujiro waited.
Sano's head hurt. It hurt a lot.
What had happened?
Oh yes. That little guy- the man in black. He'd fought him.
He'd lost.
What about Hoji, and the Princess? Was she still alive? He hadn't wanted Hoji to kill her. What about Soujiro?
Sanosuke stood up, grimacing as the world tipped and swayed around him. His head gave a hearty pound, making him feel sick.
He'd better go on and find Hoji.
"Hoji?"
Sanosuke sauntered up to his boss, relaxing now that he'd found the man.
Wait.
"Hoji?" The sharp-faced man wasn't moving. Sano moved closer, leant over to stare into Hoji's face with an annoyed, dissatisfied expression.
"Damn. You're dead."
Sano straightened, and looked around at the landscape, from the still-dark West to the greying area over the East. Nothing. The man in black was gone.
But he'd left Sano alive; maybe he'd left Soujiro alive, too…
He had to get back to the Thieves Quarter. That would be where Soujiro went, hopefully: that was where it had started, and Hoji always said, 'Go back to the beginning.' He'd hit Sano a fair few times, thinking he had to physically drum it into the street fighter's head. Sano got very annoyed at Hoji when he did that. It was demeaning and irritating.
At least he wouldn't have to put up with Hoji's treatment anymore.
Sano sighed.
To the Thieves Quarter he would go, then.
Kenshin awoke chained to a thick, solid table. He didn't open his eyes at first, not wanting anyone else around to know he was awake yet: instead, he explored his surroundings with his other senses.
He was underground. He could smell it; that dank, earthy smell. The air was quite cool, though. That must mean open passages to the surface. Escape routes.
He ran through his injuries. A few knocks and bruises, the throbbing pain in his head where he'd been knocked unconscious, and the bite in his shoulder from the R.O.U.S. Nothing too terrible, though the bite felt as if it were starting to fester. That wasn't so good.
He tried to move his hands and feet a little, but nothing happened. He was tied very securely.
Kenshin opened his eyes.
A person was stood right next to him, staring straight into his face.
Kenshin blinked.
"Where am I?"
The person shrugged eloquently, with poetically raised eyebrows. Kenshin regarded the stranger for a moment. Very pale skin, almost ghostly, and highly feminine eyes. Pale hair, too. She was carrying a tray, littered with healing herbs and bandages, and a pot of water.
"Who are you?" Kenshin tried again.
The pale woman just gazed at Kenshin, pouting slightly. She set down the tray on the spare space by Kenshin's side, on the table.
She seemed unwilling to say anything at all. Kenshin tried question after question, but got nothing in reply.
"Why is your hair white?" Kenshin finally asked tiredly, running out of things to ask about.
The girl suddenly looked puzzled, in an irritated kind of way, and lifted a hand to her head, before drawing back her fingers to eye them critically.
"Chalk dust again," she said suddenly, and shook her head violently.
A shower of pale powder flew from her, revealing light brown hair, and slightly less pale skin than it had looked before. Kenshin stared.
"What? Oh, it's the chalk dust in one of the tunnels- gets me almost every time. They call me an albino up there," she said, jerking a thumb at the ceiling and resting her other hand on a jutted-out hip. "They only say it because it annoys me," she added, pouting more than ever. "It isn't like I don't have a name."
Kenshin raised his eyebrows slightly in a question.
"Hm? Oh, it's Kamatari," the girl said. She smirked at Kenshin. "That's all you'll get out of me, now. So you can stop with all your questions." She ripped away what remained of Kenshin's mangled sleeve deftly, and unwound the makeshift bandage Kaoru had given him.
She made a face. "Eugh. That's nasty. And smelly," she complained in a plaintive voice.
She busied herself with cleaning the wound and re-bandaging it for a while.
"Kamatari?"
"Hmm?"
"May I ask why you are healing me, if I'm going to be killed anyway?"
"No."
Kenshin blinked. "No what? I'm not going to be killed?" he asked, pushing away the flare of hope he felt suddenly rise inside him.
Kamatari paused, gazing into his face. She brushed back his fringe carefully, getting a better look at his violet eyes. He regarded her with mild curiosity.
"You're a nice-looking one, aren't you?" she said. "Very pretty."
Kenshin's brows drew subconsciously together.
"Oh, don't frown like that! You are! And I meant, no: you can't ask why I'm healing you." Kamatari beamed at him.
"Why?"
"Now, now: don't try and get information out of me, it won't work," she said, wagging her index finger in front of his face in a reprimanding manner. Kenshin was a little confused by this woman. She was very strange. Very strange indeed.
She finished off with his wound, tipped him a giant wink, and strutted away, vanishing out of Kenshin's field of vision before her footsteps died away.
What did the Prince want to employ someone like that for?
Anyway, as for more important matters, why did they want him healed? It must mean, at the least, that they meant to keep Kenshin alive for a while longer. To what end?
Not for his well-being, that was certain.
Kenshin suspected what was coming.
They would keep him alive, yes, but they would make him suffer.
Greatly.
There was no other reason to keep him alive than for torture. They had no needs of him. It would be pain, pain and more pain, and then death. The Prince would give nothing else to someone who had annoyed him the way Kenshin had.
Kenshin closed his eyes, concentrating on keeping his breathing even and steady. He delved into all the hidden recesses of his mind, seeking out everything he had that would help him get through what was to come.
Kenshin began pulling out of his mind every memory of Kaoru that he possessed.
If anything could get him through torture without breaking, it was her, his one true love. After everything they had experienced together, her memory, the recollection of her soft, midnight hair, her bright blue eyes, her sweet voice, would safeguard him. The pain would come, and he had to be ready for it. He would not let them break him. He would hold together against anything and all. If only he had enough time, if only they gave him the time he needed to prepare his mind and make ready, he would be able to defeat pain.
It turned out they gave him plenty of time; the Machine wasn't ready for weeks.
But they broke him anyway.
Author's Note: I really wanted to give Kamatari a cameo in this, hence why I cast him as the albino: fact is, there aren't any albinos in RK, unless you count Enishi, but he's already cast. So, also since I've been divided over what to do about the albino for ages now anyway, flames on the subject will just be ignored. Kamatari stays. Nothing else to be said: he's a wicked character. ^_^
Thank you to everyone who has been reviewing my story, it was your encouragement and enthusiasm that got me writing again after all these weeks. Thank you for your patience and for your sugary hyperness! ^_^ *crunches on a lollypop*
Back soon as pos with more!