HANGMAN'S TRUTH
Chapter four
Starting Anew
Reves' author's note: hey guys! First of all THANK YOU SO MUCH ALL WHO REVIEWED! You all made my day in so many ways! Just a reminder that standard disclaimers do apply to this story, though all original ideas and characters are mine to claim. ^_^ Once again I apologise for the crappy chapter title: hopefully that crapiness has not spread to the actual chapter itself. I should have just stuck with naming my chapters numbers…sigh. -_-
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The day of the hanging:
(Sanosuke's perspective)
-
"They're Evil."
"But—" protested the first voice, " he's only a boy!"
It's amazing how suddenly things can change. How quickly your world can be turned upside down. How fast you can lose someone.
"Boy or not," said the second voice angrily, "he leaves tomorrow."
"And that's final."
Losing the Sekihoutai tore a hole inside of me. A hole I thought could never be filled. The things I did, the fighting, the drinking…were all trying to fill that emptiness. Make me feel alive again.
"They're Evil."
Do you know what it's like to hurt someone and enjoy it? To be so consumed by hate and anger that you'll destroy everything around you?
Evil.
To this day, I still wear their symbol on my back. It's a reminder of what I was, and what I've become. I wear it now, hangman's noose around my neck, staring out at the sea of people come to see blood. My blood.
I'm just standing here in a daze, my hands cuffed behind my back. I can see the crowd screaming and yelling, but I can't hear their voices. I can only hear my own heartbeat.
The noose is being tightened around my neck.
I turned my head a bit to see a man dressed in black, looking very professional about this whole thing. Behind him I can see Saitoh, wearing a grim smile on his usually impassive face. I hate that guy.
I see an officer walk behind me. He stops, grabs the back of my collar with both hands and rips my shirt right off me. The crowd roars. I can now feel the wind on my chest. What's he doing?
He holds my shirt up to the crowd and struts back and forth, looking smug. That son of a bitch.
He puts a thick wooden stick through both ripped sleeves, like it was a flag. He holds my shirt up again. The crowd is ecstatic. One policeman walks briskly over to the officer, holding a flaming torch.
He wouldn't dare.
I watch with bloodshot eyes as my past is consumed by flame. Thin, black smoke rises. Ashes billow and dance above the crowd of people, all of them cheering.
Fuck them.
I grit my teeth and wait for the end to come.
++
The day after the Sekihoutai's destruction :
(sanosuke's perspective)
-
I must of fallen asleep, 'cause when I finally opened my eyes again it was a lot brighter in the room. The two shadows were gone, and all I can hear are the birds outside singing. I'm hungry.
I painfully sit up and throw aside the covers. I get up, but I'm so weak it takes me a couple minutes. I have to go pee; where's the washroom?
I stagger to the door and open it slowly. I follow the smell of breakfast down the hall and into the kitchen. There's a plate full of food just lying there, tempting me. I temporarily forget my bladder and sit down.
"Good morning."
I stop stuffing myself and drop the plate. There's a girl standing behind me, smiling, with her hands placed in front of her. She looks nice.
"Good morning," I answer stupidly. I have food all over my face.
She smiles and fetches a plate for herself. In silence she sits down, elegantly picking at her food with her chopsticks. We eat in a tense silence. I realise that the plate of food I was eating from must have been hers.
After about ten minutes she stands up gracefully, grabs our plates and goes into the next room.
"Wait here," she calls back to me softly with a small smile.
So I wait, and I remember. I remember the shots being fired, the running, the fall of a cliff into icy-cold water. I remember the death. Captain Sagara's death.
Why didn't I die too?
The girl with the soft voice enters the room and gracefully sits down beside me. I'm squirming 'cause I still gotta go to the bathroom, but I don't think she notices.
"What's your name?" She enquires.
"Sanosuke…Sagara Sanosuke." I say slowly, testing it out. Sagara Sanosuke.
A brief silence. We both stare at the floor.
"Are you really…a member of the Sekihoutai?" She asks shyly.
"Yes."
Another small pause, then—
"Why aren't you dead?" Asks an irritated voice behind me. I was just asking myself the same thing.
"I…I don't...know."
I turn around to see an angry teenage boy standing behind me, gripping a sheathed sword with his right hand.
"I've just heard that the Sekihoutai were all put to death. Why aren't you dead?"
The nice girl stood up in indignation. "Brother! He's just a boy!"
"Does being young give him the right to feed us lies? To trick people into serving his cause? " He got real red in the face as he said this, and was pacing back and forth. "To kill our father?" He spat out.
Silence.
How can he say that? He doesn't know what really happened!
"The Sekihoutai didn't do anything thing wrong!" I scream.
I'm standing up, fists clenched at my sides, with tears streaming down my cheeks. I still have to go pee.
There was a loud ringing sound, clear as a bell, as the boy's sword emerged from its sheath. The boy stood tall and strong, eyes full of hatred as his katana brushed against my neck.
"Get out of my house," he whispered vehemently. "Leave."
Don't gotta tell me twice.
So I staggered out of that house, limping a bit and sniffling angrily. Sometimes I wished I could have forgotten what had happened that night, but I couldn't. It followed me wherever I went, from taking a piss in the bushes to wandering all the way back to Tokyo. It was a weight constantly being pressed on my shoulders. I'm alone in the world.
All alone.
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Yahiko's perspective :
(the day of the hanging)
-
"Kenshin koishi, do you think you could take Kenji and make a trip into town to buy some tofu for supper?"
Kenshin had one arm around his son, and with the other he was carrying an empty laundry basket. Still, he looked up at his wife and smiled. I'm still trying to figure out how he puts up with her.
"I don't think that would be wise, de gozaru yo."
Kaoru stopped scrubbing the dojo floor and looked up. "Why not?"
"Well…" Kenshin paused to get a better grip on Kenji and put down his laundry basket. "Seesha heard there is a criminal being publicly executed in town this afternoon."
A criminal?
"Publicly executed? " Kaoru frowned. " How?"
"I don't know koishi. But I don't think it would be wise to go bring Kenji into town. There will surely be uneasy crowds packing the streets."
Come to think about it, I haven't seen tori-atama in a couple days but he wouldn't be…na he hasn't done anything wrong in the longest time, plus he said he'd be back from the police station real quick.
"You don't think…" Kaoru said hesitantly, "That Sanosuke's…part of that? Megumi-san's really worried…"
Huh?
"Tori-atama's missing?"
"Hai Yahiko." said Kenshin. "Didn't you see Megumi-san the other day? She came to tell us that Sanosuke never came home a few days ago…We assumed he had gone to see Katsu, but…"
Shit! I mean…Shoot.
"Do you know where he is Yahiko-chan?" Both Kenshin and Ugly peered at me. Man oh man oh man! What do I say?
"Um well… You see…" Should I tell them? "Um well…He did come here…but he left…And I don't know… where he went…And don't call me 'chan'!" I can't do it; Sano made me promise!
"Are you sure?" Kaoru asks me quizzically.
"Hai…I'm sure. "
The cloudy sky erupts into storm, and heavy rain comes pouring down. Kenshin blinks, oroes frantically, drops Kenji in his mother's arms and runs to fill his empty laundry basket with now-drenched clothes.
++
The day of the hanging:
(Megumi's perspective)
There have been no patients for the last half-hour. I'm assuming no one wants to walk in the rain.
I'm sitting on the patio sipping hot tea, staring out into the yard and watching the rain come down. It's beautiful.
It's funny how people change. A year and a half ago I would have told you that rain brings on seasonal depression, along with worms, mud, and other undesirable things. I see it now in a new light. It's become a bringer of life, a cleanser. Funny, how people change…
Seventeen months ago I was just beginning to get to know the real Sanosuke. No one really knew exactly what was going on between us, with the exception of Yahiko; and that was entirely by accident. One early noon Yahiko came to extend a lunch invitation to Sanosuke and myself, and simply forgot to knock. His face underwent several alarming transformations to say the least, and we were never passed on the invitation. I believe he's learned his lesson.
One cloudy day I was returning home after a birthing when the sky emptied itself upon me. Rain came pouring down in torrential waves as the clouds crackled and roared. How wonderful: I'm soaked. I grabbed my medicine bag, hunched my kimono and prepared to make a break for dry land.
I had just begun to run when a spot of white caught my eye. Sanosuke? There he stood in the middle of the street, looking up at the sky, oblivious to all. I watched him for a second, noting the transparency of his gi and the way the water droplets rolled of his face and down his neck. His palms faced outwards, and on his face read a look of sheer happiness. I smiled despite myself, and walked towards him.
I reached out and touched his bare, wet chest. "Sanosuke."
He tore his gaze away from the sky and looked at me, as if suddenly realising I was here. "Oi kitsune," he replied. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
I was now thoroughly drenched, and thought otherwise. "Oh wonderful," I said in a voice dripping with sarcasm. My hair was now heavy with water and my clothes clung to my frame. "Just wonderful." The sky thundered in response.
Sanosuke didn't quite pick up on my sarcasm, for he sighed and looked up again with a grin.
How can he smile like that? He's standing in the pouring rain, for heaven's sake. I don't think I've ever smiled like that.
I was very tempted to point out the absurdity of this entire endeavour, but thought otherwise. The look on his face…it made me think I was missing something. I carefully put one arm around his waist and looked up to the sky.
++
11 years and 10 months previous to the day of the hanging:
(Sanosuke's perspective)
I'd been walking for what seemed like months. I was tired, dirty, near starving and always scavenging for leftovers in the garbage behind restaurants. My ribs ache 24/7, so I sleep most of the time. I somehow end up in downtown Tokyo.
I was always hungry. One cloudy morning I was sitting on the doorstep of merchant's bead shop when I spotted a guy selling home-grown vegetables down the street. He was just opening for the day, and stocking up his tables, making steady trips from his booth to his horse and wagon. I watched him greedily as he put carts and carts of ripe, red tomatoes practically in front of me. I was so hungry.
My heart pumping furiously inside my chest I tried to stand up and casually walk down the street towards him. I couldn't help licking my lips. The merchant glanced at me, but decided I was harmless and headed back to his wagon to get another load.
NOW!
I grabbed a tomato in each hand and ran. Behind me I heard a woman cry out, and then the angry roar of the merchant as he realised what I had done. I heard the thump of running footsteps behind me. Shit!
The only thing keeping me going was fear. My arms and legs were pumping so hard I thought they'd fall off. I wove in and out of the crowd, stumbled into a woman and her kid, then took a sharp turn into an alley and hid in the shadows. I can hear my heart pounding inside my chest. My sides are heaving. My face is all sweaty. I peer around the corner to see the merchant pushing through the mass of people, getting closer.
He's ten steps away. 5 steps. He's about to look around the corner...
It starts to rain.
Disgruntled, he shrugs and heads back to the shelter of his booth, deciding that staying dry is better than losing two tomatoes. Whew! I was so scared that I'd squished both of them in my fists: tomato seeds and acid juice were dripping down my arms. Still good. I lick it all off, then eat the actual tomatoes. For the first time in days, I'm full.
I'm also getting really wet.
Since I didn't want to go back by the vegetable guy, I went further down the alley to the rougher parts of town. There wasn't anyone out on the streets; they were all inside. I start shivering and sneezing: I need to get out of the rain.
Further up ahead I see this massive warehouse, looming up in front of me. There's a door open on the side, and I don't see anyone around, so…I step inside, peering around with my mouth open. I smell sweat. The room is dimly lit; I can barely see the wooden floors and punching bags hanging from the beams. I've just stepped into a gym. Since this place was warmer than outside in the rain, I picked a dark corner to settle in an' fell sound asleep.
-
"Hey kid! Wake up man!"
Someone kicked me in the arm.
"Hey fuck face! (Snicker) wake the hell up!"
Something smacks me on the forehead. My eyes fly open and I look up. Three boys, a couple years older than me maybe, stood there laughing. The oldest looking one had a stick in his hand; the two others were carrying buckets full of water.
"We got ourselves a rat," says the older guy. He's got brown spiky hair, and looks kinda like me, 'cept he's a lot taller and muscled. He prods me in the shoulder with his stick and adds, "an ugly one too. Why are you wearing white, rat? You one of those Sekihoutai bastards?"
That does it.
Before I even know what I'm doing I jump at the guy and knock him to the ground. The wooden stick he was holding goes flying out of his hand and his head hits the wood floor with a satisfactory crack, but that's not enough: I want to make him bleed. My fists clench and I pound his face over and over and over again, 'til I forget everything that's happened, the shots the blood the pain the death...
The tall guy's trying to get up, but he can't. My anger makes me ten times stronger. I think I would've killed him if the two others hadn't pulled me off.
For a couple minutes no one says anything. The two older guys are each holding one of my arms hard enough to make my hands turn blue. We all stare at the older boy's motionless body on the ground in front of us, expecting to see blood start to seep out from under him. He finally sits up with a moan, holding the back of his head and the bridge of his nose. He spoke.
"What the fuck was that about?!"
For a couple seconds the guy with the spiky hair just sits there in a daze. There's blood pouring from his nose down the front of his shirt, pooling on his lap. Did I do that?
"You fucking broke my nose!" He looks like he doesn't believe what he's saying. I don't believe it either. "You broke my nose you little punk!"
The two guys standing on either side of me started to laugh. "He's half your size, Taro!" One of them says, pointing at me. "You're losing your touch."
"Shut up Isamu," Taro spat. He stabbed a finger at the other guy, who was laughing into his hands.
"You'll fuck off if you know what's good for you, Yoita," he said. This only made him laugh harder. Looking disgusted, Taro stood up shakily, wiped the blood of his face, spat on the ground in front of me and said:
"Get ready to die, Rat."
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"One early noon Yahiko came to extend a lunch invitation to Sanosuke and myself, and simply forgot to knock. His face underwent several alarming transformations to say the least…"
Quote of the week: "Just remember, always knock. Even if it's in the middle of the afternoon." ^_^
As said by Red to Eric, on That Seventy's Show
Reves' other author's note: I'm sorry about the whole "knocking" ordeal, I couldn't resist. =D As usual reviews are heartily welcome; in fact I would go as far to say that they are necessary to my mental well-being! =D Hopefully I'll see you next chapter!
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REVIEW! (please)
