Chapter Nine: Preemptive Strike
Yuki Raidon looked out across the sea of green and white that was his Shinsengumi, the blood of the rebellion against the false government. He smiled slightly as he cast his gaze on every face.
Satisfaction covered his expression. . .until he reached the spot where his second in command, Uesugi Kyoshiro, stood.
Where Saitou Hajime should have stood.
Raidon snorted in disgust, remembering the scene where Saitou had turned him down with a simple, contemptuous 'no' and a flick of his cigarette before vanishing into the night, as if he and the Shinsengumi were no more than the dust covering his shoes.
Raidon smiled ferally, 'now is the time to kill that presumptuous former captain...'
"Shinsengumi!" Raidon cried out, his voice rolling over them and inflaming their bloodlust, "tonight is the night when we begin it all! Tonight we will strike fear in the hearts of the Meiji government!"
Raucous shouts greeted his speech and echoed into the forest glade. Secluded and yet close to town, the perfect spot to plan an attack. The red eyed man grinned, the police are too stupid to notice something this obvious!
"Men! Today we attack! No matter who opposes you, remember that you are fighting for the shogun! Have no fear in the heat of battle!"
Shouts fell to silence as the men nodded solemnly and stood at attention.
Raidon glanced up at the moon, 'high night...'
"It is time! To battle!" Raidon bellowed and led his troops silently toward Tokyo.
Megumi, Yahiko and Sano stood as the last light faded from the sky, contemplating the future and the repercussions of the past.
"It's started." Sano stated bluntly, no hint of his usual idiocy.
"Yes." Megumi agreed.
"Aw, stop looking like your lover died!" Yahiko crowed, landing a flying kick on Sano's skull, "Kenshin won't let anything bad happen!"
"And how will he stop it?" Sano yelled back, "once people want to kill they will and they'll drag anyone and everyone else in with them!"
"Kenshin will stop them!" Yahiko yelled back, conviction in a hero coloring his voice.
"But that man is not the Ken-san we know." Megumi stated calmly, "that is Hitokiri Battousai, the man that will kill without a second thought!"
"No." Sano rebuked, "he kills those he is ordered to kill."
"Is that any different?" Megumi retorted icily.
"Yes." Sano answered, staring into her onyx eyes, wishing her to understand. Standing in the last rays of the sun, Sano looked every bit a young patriot, inflamed with passion and willing to risk it all. Sun tipped his chocolate hair gold and tinted his golden skin red, casting an ethereal aura about him, different and the same as Kenshin's. Sorrowful and determined they shared, the bloodlust was purely Sano's anger. "It means he doesn't want to but he does."
Yahiko was stuck silent, realizing for the first time how far below these men he was. His pride in his father was nothing compared to the true sacrificial actions of these two men.
"Kenshin will kill for them?" Yahiko asked softly, "but not to save himself?"
"No." Sano said calmly, "he truly believes that he is not worthy of being saved."
"WHAT!?" Yahiko yelled incredulously.
"How could he?" Megumi cried distressed, "he gives so much to us all!"
"What were you going to do to escape your past?" Sano questioned intensely, staring into her eyes. "As you held that knife in your hand, did you feel you had any worth? Did you relish in the thought of ending it all?" Sano looked away, gazing down the path Kenshin had left on, "no, Kenshin lives for us and at the same time wishes to die." A feral grin struck out across his face as he sharply glanced over to the shadows of the dojo eaves, "Isn't that right, Kaoru?"
Kaoru, that was it, not jou-chan, never again would she be jou-chan. Kaoru stepped out into the night, walking forward within a few feet of the assembled. "Yes."
"And you made it worse." Sano stated coldly.
"Yes." Tears started to form along her eye lines.
"And you will do it again."
"No!" Kaoru cried, staring imploringly up into Sano's hard gaze, "no, never will I do that again...I couldn't, not after I saw his eyes tonight...they were resigned and determined at the same time, but most of all, they held incredible sadness..."
Sano's eyes narrowed, she understood at least, but that was not enough for him to forgive her just yet. "Hm." Sano nodded to her and turned away, moving in the direction of Kenshin's room.
As Sano vanished into the hallway, Kaoru turned to her friends and, locked in their gaze, clasped her hands together and prayed for the safety of Kenshin's soul.
XXXXXX
"How did they regroup so quickly?" Yamagata panted as he ran with Katsura toward the outskirts of town that held the bunkers for their soldiers.
Gathered from the remains of the Ishin Shishi, as well as newer soldiers that were loyal to Meiji, the defense army was secretly gathered and housed on the southern border of Tokyo. All were outfitted in the gray hakama and blue gi of the Revolution, and all carried katana; none could bear to carry the weight of a new age rifle.
"Simple. They never stopped hating Meiji and never lost their skills." Katsura breathlessly replied, "to Yuki Raidon, or rather, the alias the former first division captain has assumed, it was a simple matter of collecting them in one spot and finding an arms dealer foolish enough to supply them."
"Then it was simply a matter of time..." Yamagata mused sadly, "we should have seen this coming."
"Why do you think I died?" Katsura asked seriously, "I knew this would happen. I just wish that Himura did not have to return to the past with us..."
"I wished the same, my friend, I wished the same."
Pulling roughly to a halt outside the bunker, they paused to catch their breath before bursting into the room, patriotism and valor blazing.
"Soldiers of Meiji! Awaken!" Yamagata cried out.
"Rise up and meet the challenge laid out before you!" Katsura continued, voice emboldened with belief in his cause.
The soldiers leapt up from their futon's, hands clenched around the swords they kept by their beds. Grabbing their blue gi's off the floor, the soldiers pulled the heavy fabric over their tanned chests, tucking them into their hakama, so only the top part gapped open in the evening breeze. Spinning to face Katsura, the soldiers held their swords out before them and bowed to their leader, faces darkened with purpose and the night's cold heart.
Cloaked in the inn's darkness, Katsura stood forward to address the soldiers. The light of his pure leadership untainted by blood allowed even the calmest to be roused to fight and the rowdiest to be calmed by his serene air.
"Soldiers of Meiji," Katsura began softly, voice infused with passion and the calmest of rages, "long have we expected and awaited this day. This day, the day when we will rise up and greet the challenge that we pushed back but failed to defeat in the last war. Remember now, you are soldiers who must defeat the threats laid out before you, but you are not alone!"
The soldiers glanced up at this, confusion and suspicion ringing many an aura and dark eye.
"We have two powerful allies on our side in this fight." Yamagata said sternly, "One whom we know and another, a reformed enemy of the darkest persona and most straightforward outlook."
"We speak of course of Himura Battousai," Katsura began, ignoring the stifled gasps and outright looks of horror, "and Saitou Hajime."
"Saitou!?" One soldier, a boy named Kagoshiro, exclaimed, "he's Shinsengumi!"
"Silence!" Yamagata commanded. "You know not of what you speak. Saitou has served Meiji for many years as an invaluable part of out undercover forces. In fact, he played a key role in the downfall of Shishio!"
Kagoshiro looked down, abashed and moderately chagrined.
"Anyone else care to question my judgement?" Katsura asked venomously, he didn't have time for this, "Anyone?"
The remaining soldiers were silent. Cowed by Kagoshiro's cutdown, fearful of Saitou's wrath and paralyzed by the thought of Battousai, let alone an angry one.
"Good."
Glancing around at the soldiers, Yamagata and Katsura nodded to each other, understanding passing between them that Katsura could not fight, could not draw blood, could not break his penance for Himura's soul.
As Yamagata led the soldiers silently out into the night, Katsura stood to the left of the door, letting them pass. However, as Kagoshiro, the pale haired insolence personified ran by, Katsura grabbed him in a vice like grip and pulled him back.
"Sir?" Kagoshiro said, voice trembling in remote fear.
"I have a job for you Kagoshiro-kun." Katsura said silkily, staring down at the smaller warrior.
Kagoshiro did not think he was going to like this.
"You will deliver a letter for me-"
Kagoshiro sighed in relief.
"-to Hitokiri Battousai." Katsura finished evilly, using the full name to give the young man the proper fear inducing punishment for his cheek. Insubordination could not be allowed in this critical period.
"What?!" Kagoshiro blanched, face losing all semblance of color.
"Is there a problem?" Katsura asked coldly, vindictively reminding the soldier why he was a revolutionary leader.
"He'll eat me!" The boy began hysterically, "or crush me! Kill me! Or-"
Katsura raised a hand and slapped the hysterical man across the cheek.
Kagoshiro raised a pale, calloused hand to his face, wishing he was running to town with the others rather than be here with an angry general. 'Mother was right...I should have been a fisherman...'
"Never! I mean NEVER insult Himura Kenshin as you did just now!" Katsura growled coldly, "he is ten times the man you'll even be!"
Kagoshiro nodded quickly.
"Good, now take my letter and go!" Katsura commanded, handing the folded parchment to the young man, who hastily slipped it inside the pocket of his gi, rather wishing to lose his own leg than this letter. "Do not leave without his agreement!" Katsura commanded harshly, "Am I understood?"
Kagoshiro nodded quickly, not trusting himself to speak without embarrassing himself further.
Katsura narrowed his eyes, appraising the young man before him. 'Spine of an invertebrate...'. His disgust was almost palpable as he flung open the door and shoved the man out into the night.
"Get out of my sight!"
Kagoshiro ran off, wanting nothing more than to escape the piercing eyes of his commander. Kogoro both terrified and inspired him; terrible in his anger and paternal in his leadership, this man was all he aspired to be and to please.
"Do not disappoint me." Katsura's voice floated to him on the evening breeze.
No, Kagoshiro thought, that was the last thing he would ever aspire to do.
XXXXXXXX
"Kenshin?" Sano gently called out as he leaned lightly against Kenshin's door.
Kenshin stood in the middle of the room, staring blankly at the wall. Katsura Kogoro, the man responsible for his madness, for his guilt, for his suffering; was back. He was back as if nothing had changed. As if he were still the leader of the Ishin Shishi who had paid passivity for a chance to soak a young warrior in an age's blood. Clenching his violet eyes shut, Kenshin rubbed his hands together, fighting to rid the blood that was overlain there by his torn mind. His breathing increased as voices swirled around his head, overwhelming his senses, sending him into a whirling cacophony, ripping through his psyche:
Murderer...
Demon.....
Get back! Get back!
Please don't hurt me!
Save my baby!
No! No!
Run! It's Hitokiri Battousai! The hitokiri is here!
Get away from us!
Leave us alone!
Kill them all!
Blood on snow.
Blood on his hands.
Blood on his sword.
Blood....
So much blood....
Whose blood was it?
It's so red....why is it so red....?
Blood on white plum.
Red and white cloaking....
Blood....
Her blood....
"TOMOE!!!" Kenshin yelled, hands clasped over his ears, eyes screwed up to shut out the sights, the sounds, the memories...
Massacre.
They're all dead!
He must have had great skill to cut Battousai!
Blood....
Murderer...
Run! Run away!
The heart can betray...
No, but his will to live was incredible...
But the sword never lies
Demon....
Devil.....
Hitokiri....
Why? Why did you kill them?
Father!
Mother!
My baby! Save my baby!
Cries of the damned never cease...
You did this?
Why?
What did we ever do to you?
Monster!
Inhuman!
They're all dead....
Run!
Blood on her face...
No! It's Battousai!
Blood on his hands....
Damn him!
So many faces....
A whole squadron...
So much blood....
Murderer...
Demon....
"No!" Kenshin cried, falling to the floor, "No! Stay away!"
Evil incarnate...
Murderer....
Demon....
Why?
So much blood...
Why did you kill them?
Too much blood....
Why did you kill my family?
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Kenshin cried, tears running in rivulets down his pale cheeks as he tore at his hands and wrists, his own blood mingling with the slain.
"Kenshin!" Sano yelled frantically, "Kenshin! Open the door!"
Kenshin stared at the door, tortured eyes wishing for him to come and begging for him to leave.
You'll taint him...
You destroy everything you touch...
Demon!
Hell Child!
Blood...
The door splintered as Sano crashed through it.
You'll kill him too...
No....
Why?
Too much blood....
They're all dead....
"Kenshin!" Sano cried as he rushed to his friend's side, gathering his shaking frame in his arms.
"Kenshin..." Sano whispered, trying to soothe his frantic friend. "You're alright, you're safe." Sano's eyes darkened as he saw the blood running down Kenshin's hands and wrists. Slowly, he grasped Kenshin's small hands in his own, bringing them to his chest as he enveloped the small man in his embrace. "Come back to me Kenshin...nothing can hurt you now."
Kenshin felt the madness calm around him, anchoring himself to the soothing sounds he heard. He relaxed into Sano's embrace, feeling the strength and the warmth of one who loved him, no matter what. Kenshin slowed his breathing and lifted his tear streaked face to look into Sano's calm brown eyes.
"Sano?" He whispered hoarsely.
"Yeah Kenshin, it's me."
Kenshin smiled slightly, eyes thanking him.
Sano tightened his grip on the small warrior as he felt him falling asleep, worn from the rush of adrenaline.
"Sleep now Kenshin," Sano whispered as he gently picked the red haired warrior up and tucked him into his bed, lowering himself down to sit against the wall beside him, "I'll protect you now."
To Be Continued...
Coming Soon!
Chapter Ten: Downtown Battle