Author's Note: I don't own DBZ. I also don't own Rurouni Kenshin or Escaflowne, although I did steal several things from those stories.

Rurouni

By: Lady Jaye

Chapter 1: Prologue

The little boy looked hatefully up at the man who he was supposed to call Master. The golden eyes glinted down in amusement at him and the other four children. Sudu gave a low growl as he flicked back his dark mane and licked his fangs.

"Go," he commanded. The children rushed to obey. The boy looked up at the large full moon and an even larger Earth hanging in the night sky. If only…if only they hadn't cut off his tail, then he could have transformed and killed these miserable creatures. The nine-year old Saiyan didn't even know how he'd gotten here. This strange planet called Gaea wasn't even in the ship's navigation system. It wasn't anywhere on the system charts.

He was supposed to have gone to Earth. He'd woken up prior to entering the solar system, but instead of landing on Earth as planned, there'd been a flash of light and the boy had found himself crashing onto an unknown planet. These creatures had found him and overpowered they boy, and now he was a slave.

"Let me go!" The seven-year old bit the clawed, furry hand of the slave catcher. The creature picked him up by the tail, causing the child to go limp.

"I've never seen a human with a tail before Sudu. All of the ones on Gaea and the few that have come from Earth are all tailless."

"He doesn't smell human."

"Maybe he has demon blood then."

"Which ever the case, he will make a fine servant for Lord Yashu."

The young Saiyan flushed with shame as he wondered what his father would think of his son now. Not only had the young warrior failed in his mission, but now he was reduced to the life of a lowly slave.

"Come on!" One of the two girls called back to him. The young Saiyan hurried to catch up. He'd reluctantly befriended these children at first, but now didn't know why he'd originally thought them inferior. Tamru, a slightly older humanoid feline, was the one who'd called back to him. For some reason she'd taken on the role of an older sister to him. Of the other children, there was fifteen year old Kasum, a blue-haired human, eight-year old Akane, a dark-skinned human female, and a five-year old elf boy named Nenian. Kasum was the unofficial leader of their little group.

The four children ran to the master's house. Lord Yashu would be expecting his dinner. The young warrior hated Lord Yashu, who was a cruel, foul smelling, furry beast, of the same sort as Sudu. They were almost to the manor when a large crash caused the five youngsters to go tumbling into a patch of rose bushes.

Instantly, and without warning, screams and the cries of battle could be heard around the five children, who were now crouching around the thorny bushes.

"What's going on?" Tamru asked. Akane was busy trying to calm the crying Nenian. The older Kasum peered out of the bushes.

"It's a battle. Someone's attacking Yashu and his men," he answered. The Saiyan peered out of the bushes and winced as his long hair became tangled in the thorns.

"Will they free us?" Akane asked softly. Kasum turned his violet eyes to her, before answering just as softly.

"No, no I don't think so. When it comes to fighting, no one thinks about the slaves." Tears began to well up in the young girl's eyes. The Saiyan quieted her before whispering.

"Let's escape then." Tamru grinned a feline grin at that.

"What are we waiting for then? Let's go!" The five youngsters crept out of hiding, ducked behind a wall, and began to run as softly as possible. Kasum pulled the Saiyan to the side and whispered in his ear.

"We'll be killed if we're caught."

"By Sudu?"

"Him or whoever is attacking this place. They won't spare anyone who belongs to Yashu." The two boys locked eyes silently for a moment before running after the others. The human teenager picked up the young Akane while the younger Saiyan picked up the small elf. The children slowly made their way out of Yashu's land and about fifteen minutes later they were at the edge of his domain.

That's when their dream of escape died. A blast blew a hole in the wall next to them and suddenly armed warriors were fighting around them. A growling Sudu appeared out of no where and began pushing the children into the fray.

"Trying to escape are you, you Welps!? You're going to fight for Lord Yashu!" The Saiyan would have nothing more than to fight, but it was Sudu he wanted to kill, not these other creatures. Anyway, these men were stronger than him and he didn't want to fight for Sudu and Yashu. He tried not to drop the young elf as he tried to dodge the fighting. A high pitched scream turned the young Saiyan's eyes to Akane and Kasum. The humans had been cut down, but before the boy could react, a rough hand sent him crashing through a tree. To his horror, the Saiyan lost his grip on Nenian. The young elf gave a wail as his head struck the ground.

"NO!" The boy looked up to see a demon standing above him. The flames of burning buildings reflected off of its dark armor as it prepared to strike him down.

"Slave scum," it growled. The boy closed his eyes, knowing that he wasn't fast enough to evade the incoming attack. A piercing cry made him jerk his eyes open to see that Tamru had blocked the strike. The demon pulled its hand out of the girl's body and let it drop to the ground. The girl looked up at her friend before muttering.

"Get away." Then she died.

The boy stared numbly at her and then with a growl he attacked the demon. Damn you Sudu! Damn you Yashu! But at that moment, the boy from planet Vegeta damned the demon most of all. The demon seemed taken aback by the surge in the boy's strength. The Saiyan fired a ki blast that sent the demon hurtling back several hundred yards. Before he could savor this small victory, a fist sent the boy flying in the same direction. Two large demons set upon him before he even touched the ground. The smaller one hissed while it drew a dagger and prepared to stab. But suddenly, he coughed and spat out blood before slumping over the child.

There was a quick flash of silver as the other demon met a similar fate and slumped over. The boy crawled out from underneath the two dead demons and looked up to see a powerful image.

A human male stood protectively over the boy as he faced down the rest of the demons. Long, red hair was pulled back in a low ponytail that cascaded down the human's back. Moonlight glinted off of the drawn sword in his right hand as demon blood dripped down the blade and onto the grass. All of Yashu's men, including Sudu, had already been killed by the demon mob. Now the strange swordsman and the Saiyan were the focus of the fighters.

"This boy in no concern of yours, that he is not." The human's voice was cold and strong, as piercing as the blade he held in his hand. The demons began to jeer at him.

"This is no concern of yours little man. He is one of Yashu's slaves, and our master commanded us to destroy anything that belonged to him." The Saiyan watched the human, whose back was still to him. The human spoke again.

"I warn ye for the last time. Leave the boy." The demons ignored the warning and charged at the lone swordsman, planning to overwhelm him.

As the Saiyan looked on, the human seemed to fade away and simply disappear. For a moment, the boy thought that he was gone, but the surprised outbursts of the demons told him otherwise. The boy watched in awe as the swordsman flowed around them in a deadly steel dance of death. Even his Saiyan eyes could barely keep up with the sheer speed of the human. Never in his young life had the young Saiyan warrior ever seen anything as deadly and graceful as this strange human and his sword.

In what could have been no more than several seconds, all of the demons were dead. The human stared down at them before wiping his blade on one of the corpses. The Saiyan heard him say softly to himself.

"I warned them, that I did." The swordsman peered around and let his gaze linger on the bodies of the dead children. He turned to regard the awe-struck Saiyan.

"What is your name boy?" The boy hastily stood up and tried to smooth the wrinkles in his clothing.

"My name?"

"Yes." The boy looked up into the human's face. Jade green eyes regarded him back. He never knew that humans could be so strong.

"My name's Raditz."

"Raditz." A small smile graced the lips of the swordsman before disappearing. "I think we should bury your friends, that we should." Raditz followed the human as they began to gather the bodies of the other children. The Saiyan stared sullenly at the bodies while he cursed himself for his inability to protect them. He felt a keen sense of guilt over dropping the young elf. This didn't go unnoticed by the swordsman.

After the four children had been put to rest, Raditz looked up at the human. In reality, the man wasn't very tall. But then again, the nine-year old hadn't seen very many humans, maybe they were all his size. The man's green eyes glinted down at him.

"Who are you?" Raditz asked.

"My name is Hiko Seijuro." Seijuro looked down at the boy and wondered at the strength he saw in him.

"Why did you save me?"

"Why not?" The boy blinked in surprise before exclaiming.

"That's not an answer!" Seijuro gave a light chuckle before replying.

"Yes it is. So I ask you again, why not?" Raditz wasn't sure what to make of this strange man.

"But no one cares about what happens to slaves!"

"Well…maybe I do." There was a moment of silence before Seijuro asked him a question.

"So what are you Raditz? I can tell that ye are not human."

"I'm a Saiyan."

"A Saiyan? I have never heard of a Saiyan before." Then Raditz proceeded to tell the strange man, this human, his life's story. He had never told anyone this much before. But something about Hiko Seijuro made him want to talk to him.

"And then…." The boy said in the end, "…and then they cut off my tail!" As if this was the greatest offense out of everything else that he had endured. Of course, for a Saiyan it was.

"That is serious," the man replied. Raditz looked up then, believing that he was being mocked. But Seijuro was sincere. Raditz fell quiet for a while as he studied the adult. Seijuro, meanwhile, seemed deep in thought. After a while, he stood up and prepared to leave. He turned to the boy.

"Raditz…would you like to learn swordsmanship?" The sudden light in the young Saiyan's eyes was all the answer that he needed.

"Yes!" Raditz could have jumped up and down with pure delight. Him? Learn swordsmanship from this man? Of course he would. Seijuro smiled down at him and beckoned him to follow. The two of them set off down the road. After several minutes, Raditz caught him looking at him again.

"What?"

"Raditz is hardly a fitting name for you." Raditz paused in mid-step as he wondered what Seijuro meant. After all, Raditz was the name his father had given him. Then again, it was also the name of a Saiyan who had failed and become a slave.

"What do you mean?" he asked suspiciously. Moonlight and earthlight were reflected in the swordsman's eyes.

"Kenshin means 'Heart of Sword.' Yes, I think it would suit you very well, that it would."

The nine-year old thought this over in his mind as they continued to walk again. As Raditz, he had failed in his mission and had become a slave. Even if by some miracle he could return home, Raditz doubted that he'd fit in anymore. He realized then that all that would happen would be that he'd be sent off on another planet purging mission. The young Saiyan didn't think he could willingly exterminate a population anymore.

"Heart of Sword?"

"Yes." The boy grinned up at the human.

"I want to fight like you. I want to have a heart of sword." Seijuro smiled as he looked down at his new apprentice.

"Kenshin it is then." A flash of light just then in the Gaen night sky caught his attention.

"Look, Kenshin," he pointed. "A shooting star, the heavens shine down on you today." The newly christened Kenshin looked up to see a ball of light streak down from space and onto the Earth. For a moment, he thought it was a Saiyan space pod, but shook his head at the thought. It must be just a trick of the eyes.

Kenshin followed Seijuro down the road and wondered what this new twist of fate in his life would bring. Only the future would tell.