A/N: May I humbly extend my apologies for taking so long to update. Things at my home have been worst than hectic, and more stressful than I can say. I have my 76 year old Father-in-law at home with me and my family now, and he is requiring an enormous amount of my time and physical energy to care for him. This in turn is telling on my own health issues. Sometimes it feels like the blind leading the blind here, but I am trying to remain as optimistic as possible. Some days it is more that difficult when my own health keeps me in my bed most of the day, but I am looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. And the end of this particular journey must be coming near because God only gives us that which we can handle and then he comes to give us a hand when we become over whelmed… I am pretty much at my limit, so I know things will be getting better in one way or another. This is the voice of the ever hopeful. Never lose hope and always keep your faith.
Tsuki-san.
Glossary: Koishii=Dear/Darling, Kodora=Small Tiger, Mesu-Tora=Tigress, Raion=Lion, Koishii=Dear, Saiai=Beloved, Aisoku=Beloved Son, Chichioya/Chichi=Honorable Father, Otousan=Father, Okaasan=Mother, Aijou=Love, Chicchai=Little
Chapter Twelve
To Suckle the Beast
The howling cries that rose upward toward the full moon echoed down the damp empty ally, and the two young girls anxiously looked back over their shoulders as the gooseflesh of fear raced along their quivering pale skin.
"Hurry, Sukkii..." One uttered worriedly to the other as she grasped a handful of her bright red kimono and raised it above her ankles so she could move unhindered. "I think we need to get out of this alley quickly. Something's out here." Her frightened dark brown eyes flittered back and forth and up and down the brick walls as she searched in vain for a sign of anything that would explain her burgeoning uneasiness and the terrible sounds that had started a few moments ago, but there was nothing to see except the moisture dripping idly down the darkening walls as well as the occasional set of rickety wooden stairs leading to an upper doorway.
"I am trying to hurry, Shizummai." The younger girl was having trouble with her lavender-colored kimono as she tried to keep up with her friends longer strides. Despite her trying to hold it up and out of the way, the length of it seemed to keep getting wrapped around her shins and tripping her up causing her to stumble. "I cannot seem to keep up, and my brand new kimono is getting all wet."
"Oh, for Kami's sake, Sukkii, can you not do anything by yourself?" Shizummai stopped in a huff and turned around to help her frustrated and whining friend with her gown. "Just once I wish you were not so much of a baby about everything. Why can you not be more like Quii and just do what you have too and be done with it?" She gave a heavy disgruntled sigh and leaned over to untangle the other girls kimono from around her slender shapely shins.
"Gomen-nasi, Shizummai," Sukkii sounded as if she might be on the verge of tears as she apologized to her piqued friend. "I do not try to be a burden or a problem to you. I just cannot seem to keep up, that is all."
"I know, Sukkii... Do not cry, for heaven's sake. It is not the end of the world or anything... goodness, it is not like you are going to die because I am impatient with you. Now stop it."
"Yes, Shizummai." Those were the last words Osaka Sukkii ever spoke to anyone.
As Shizummai stood to try and comfort her silly friend, she found herself looking into a spouting fountain of blood where Sukkii's head had once been. The stunned body stood in perfect balance for a full eternal second of endless time before it suddenly crumpled like the rag doll it had become and fell into a rumpled heap of pale blood soaked lavender onto the cold wet ground.
Shizummai stood completely frozen unable to move, breath, speak, or register within her horrified brain what she was seeing. Sukkii... sweet innocent Sukkii was lying dead and headless at her feet with a massive puddle of blood forming around her crumpled body.
Whether it was the sudden twitching of Sukkii's lifeless legs, or the appearance of what could not be that finally broke the spell that held Shizummai, it was hard to tell, but she was suddenly filling the alley with her high-pitched hysterical screams and sobbing shouts of terror. As the shadow of madness fell across her fine porcelain features, the horrified young girl turned and ran tripping and stumbling down the damp dark alley leaving the gore and the nightmare behind her as she went.
Doors and windows opened as the curious peered outside wondering what all of the racket was about, but when they saw nothing but the darkness of the alley they quickly retreated back into their homes and locked their shojis. It was a dark night and the full moon lent a foreboding quality leaving the inhabitants of the alley with the feeling of a great beast being out on the prowl.
Little did they know how close to the truth they really were.
The heavily muscled Bane pulled the bloodied body deeper into the shadows where it easily tore the flimsy silk of the pale kimono open exposing the creamy young flesh beneath. It breathed in the fresh scent of the warm blood and the sweetness of the tender morsel it had brought down. Long sticky ropes of saliva dripped from it's grinning maw as it smacked it's lips in hungry anticipation of the sumptuous meal it was about to enjoy.
Swirling liquid silver orbs glinted joyfully in the eerie moonlight as a raspy chuckling sound slid smoothly from the supple throat as it swooped down to gaze gleefully into the shocked brown eyes in the face of the girls severed head where it lay on the ground only a foot or so away from the rest of the body.
"What fun, what fun, what fun... Hee hee, ha ha, ho ho... What fun we will have, you and I... Little girl… Hee hee, ha ha, ho ho..." And the demented laughter trailed off as the Bane grasped the head in both talon tipped hands and, lifting it up, buried its massive snout up the jagged neck and began feasting on the exposed brain tissues. It was sweet and rich with young blood that was still warm, and the grunting noises of pure pleasure were not so unlike those sounds heard when a wolf guts its own steaming kill.
"OoooOoooooooOoooooo......" The great orgasmic moaning of the Bane floated along the damp air and brought shivers to those who heard it causing each to reach out for one they loved and hold them tightly as a primitive fear from a brain they no longer used tried to wriggle its way to the surface of their consciousness. Something was afoot that night in the back streets of Tokyo, and it was a night to stay inside with the doors locked and barred.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
The screaming sob woke nearly everyone in the house, but it was Quii who reached his side first. "Kenji!" She reached out and grabbed him by the shoulders and roughly shook him. "Wake-up... you're having a bad dream. Wake up." He did not respond right away which worried her because Himura Kenji was a notorious light sleeper. Usually one had to be really careful how one woke him because he could give you a close haircut with his katana if it was not moved out of his reach first. But tonight he was not responding at all. He thrashed back and forth moaning and sobbing in his sleep as some terrible nightmare seized him and held him in its grip. Giant beads of sweat and tears marked his beautiful face as he struggled to release himself from the horror that held him captive in the world of his mind, but he could not seem to fight his way through.
Kenshin and Kaoru were the next inside the room and they exchanged worried looks with the frightened girl. It was too soon for this to be happening to him. Much, much too soon.
"He won't wake up, Uncle." Quii's young voice broke with emotion as she tugged on the sleeve of Kenshin's black yukata. "I do not understand... why will he not wake up? What is happening to him? Uncle Kenshin?"
"It has begun." Kenshin looked into the rigid features of his youngest son's face as felt the dawning of understanding finally settle within his worried father's heart. "It is his time, Kaoru." He turned and looked into her horrified eyes and watched as the understanding and sadness came to her as well. "He has reached his day of Destiny."
"It is too soon. He is only a boy... only a boy, Kenshin."
"Destiny knows no age, My Saiai. You should know that." He gently admonished her and she nodded grimly knowing he was right just not wanting to admit it was true. "He has been prepared all his life for this beginning... Just like I was prepared for the day you found me like this." He reached out and took her cold trembling hands in his. "Do you remember?"
"Hai. Kenshin, I remember... the dream... I thought I was going to have to beat you senseless to get you to wake up. I was so afraid."
"I remember as well," He replied with half a smile. "But no one else could have brought me back or pulled me out, except you... just like no one will be able to bring Kenji back... except... You." He turned and looked directly into the bewildered topaz eyes of Saitoh Quii.
"ME?" She squeaked in terror and confusion. "What do you mean, Uncle Kenshin? How can I bring Kenji back? Back from where? Back from what? What are you talking about? What do you mean, 'his day of Destiny?'" She looked frantically from one adult to the other as the room filled with the rest of the family members. Yahiko and Soujiro rushed to the other side of Kenji's bed and knelt down in deep concern.
"So soon?" Soujiro murmured. "It's come so soon."
"Indeed." Yahiko gazed with deep worry at the struggling red-haired boy, and then looked over his body and captured the sorrowful lavender eyes of their Father. "Was it like this for you?" He asked in a hushed and almost reverent voice. "Was it?" When you were finally chosen by Fate to be the White Warrior, Kenshin? Did you have to go through 'this'?" It had been years and years since Yahiko had called Kenshin by his given name, and it was a fact now that did not go unnoticed by anyone in the room.
"Hai, Yahiko." He replied in a quiet voice as he met the sherry colored eyes that had once belonged to a young wildling boy, but now looked out at him from the face of a much respected and honorable Samurai. "That it was."
"I never knew... I always wondered how it happened... but I never knew." He bowed his dark head and gently rested his large calloused hand on Kenji's sweat covered brow. "How do we help him, Otousan? Are we even meant to help him?"
"No, Raion, my son. WE cannot help him in this hour of his time." At Yahiko and Soujiro's stricken looks, Kenshin hurriedly continued. "It is not for us to do... it is a task for the One who loves him to do. She must bring him back. Only She had the power to reach him where he is." Once more his gentle violet eyes turned and rested tenderly on the upturned pale face of the young girl kneeling next to him. "Hai, Quii..." He reached out and carefully placed an arm around her quacking shoulders pulling her against his side. "It is you... Only you have the power to reach Kenji where he is now and bring him back. Yours is the only voice he will hear and respond to. He will hear no other… not even Mine."
"But... but Uncle Kenshin... I-I don't love... I don't... and Kenji does not... we do not... I..." Quii stammered and stuttered as she looked into the soft amethyst gaze trying to make him understand
something she could not seem to say.
"Are you so certain, Little Tigress?"
Quii giggled in embarrassment as she suddenly recalled the pet name Kenshin had given her when she was a little girl and had insisted on following Kenji everywhere he went.
"Even The Kodora must have a Mesu Tora at his side." He had often said to both children's embarrassment, but now, as he thought about it, was it such a silly notion after all?
Kenji and Kuumi were completely ill matched despite her on-going crush on him and his everlasting fascination with her. It was not a union that would be complimentary to either of them, and deep down inside, he believed they both had known that for years. However; Kenji and Quii? That was completely different. She was as wild tempered as he was, as fierce, as loyal, as determined, as devoted, as passionate. She was his perfect match in every way, and in all the years they had grown up knowing each other, not once had she ever backed down from him nor had she tried to dishonor or shame him. Indeed, she had usually been his partner in crime, so to speak, and they had done nearly everything together. Including getting into and out of trouble.
She was his Destiny as much if not more than Kaoru had been Kenshin's, and Kenshin was completely convinced that Kenji would never survive his future battles without her at his side, just as he would have never survived his own had he not had Kaoru's love and powerful undying will feeding his spirit every step of the way.
"You must find the way into his soul, Quii." Kaoru's tender voice and spirit reached out to stroke the young girls quavering nerves even as the gentleness of her hand caressed the pale smoothness of her youthful cheek. "Only you will know how to get to him where he is now. I know it is hard to understand how you are meant to help him, and it is even more difficult to watch what he is going through, but if I had not already spent my life watching Kenshin do the same, I would not be able to promise you any of this. I would be just as terrified as you are now… perhaps more so because he is my Son, and I would be no help to him or you at all. But I have seen this struggle before, and I have loved and feared for a man such as he is, and I know how difficult it is to believe that you are the one with so much power over the will to live that breaths within his heart and soul, but it is true. You are his rock when he needs balance and grounding. You are his conscience when he needs to be centered brought back to the things that are most important. You are his comforter when his soul and spirit are filled with discouragement and grief and he is at the brink of despair. But most of all, my dearest Quii, you are his solace. You are the place he comes to for the unconditional love and acceptance he needs to heal his wounds and mend the sorrows of his battle worn soul. You are his sanctuary and it is your love that makes him strong." Quii's large topaz eyes searched the gentle love filled sapphires gazing softly at her face and then turned and looked deeply into the warmth and comfort of Kenshin's large violet crystals.
"You will know the way to reach him, Mesu Tora." He whispered as he hugged her closely to his chest and kissed her cheek. "We must all leave now, for our time is past and gone. The future belongs to you now, My lovely Quii. To you and my Aisoku. It is your time, and you must step forward and take your place at his side before he can truly put his feet on the pathway Fate and Destiny has been preparing him for. It is a path you must walk together… Just as Kaoru and I did so many years ago."
"Otousan is right, jou-chan." Soujiro's soft cultured voice drifted across the struggling body of his brother to touch the tormented soul of the young girl in his Father's arms. "Every Warrior of
Destiny must have a steadying force in his life, a base upon which he builds his strength and ties his faith. It is a source of everlasting Hope, Love, Inspiration, Spiritual Energy, and Ki Power... it is what
makes him want to live."
"I-I am not sure I understand, Sou-san. What do you mean?" Quii's large topaz eyes were filled with awe and confusion as she stared at the almost heavenly look on the swordsman's angelic features.
"When a man is fighting for more than just his own life... when he is fighting for the lives of many... even the lives of an entire country, or the even the World... he needs something to live for... A reason to fight that is his alone. Something that will give him the power and the desire to overcome and become more than that which is simply... human."
"But... h-how d-do you b-become more than h-human? It is n-not possible. Is it?"
"Oh yes, little one. It is." As Soujiro turned to face the bewildered girl, she sucked in a gasping breath of shock and covered her open mouth with both hands. The usually beautiful blue-gray eyes that she had always loved so dearly were now gleaming a brilliant azure-blue that glowed from the handsome boyish face emanating an eerie light of their own. The gentle bluish hue drifted through the shadows of the darkened room casting its gentle glow across each and every face bathing each member of the family in an angelic light. It was the most extraordinary thing Quii had ever seen.
"H-how...?"
"Because, I am the Spirit of The Air." He replied in a gentle voice. "I am The Sword of Heaven... in every way."
"And I am the Spirit of The Earth." A rich yellow glow drifted through the room to mix with the azure-blue, as the deep voice of Seijrou Hiko rumbled behind them. Quii whirled around and gasped again as she looked into his beloved craggy face and a pair of luminescent yellow orbs.
"I am the Wildling Child, who was sent by Destiny to preserve the lives of my family in the battle between good and evil." She faced Yahiko and watched as his beautiful light brown eyes changed to a frightening ruby red that filled the room with a blood mist that seemed to cling to the walls and the ceiling. "It was my Ki that brought the mighty Acuma to his knees and allowed Sou-san to use the Hand of Fire to send him back into Hell through Heaven's Portal."
"And, although, I am the White Warrior whom was destined to cleanse the World of the horror that was Chris-tan's mother, Elsbeth de 'Angeles... I am also the Spirit of The Fire." The tender sound of Kenshin's voice beside her brought Quii's eyes back to him and she watched in rapt fascination as his eyes changed to the usual amber gold she had seen on occasion, but then her eyes widened in surprise as the color deepened and began to glow a richer, darker golden that added it's own light to the other three, thus filling the room with a kaleidoscope of intermixing glowing colors as they swirled through the cool damp air.
"The only one of us who is not present here tonight is Aoshi." Kenshin's voice sounded wistful as he spoke the name of his
"Uncle Aoshi??"
"Hai. Aoshi is the Spirit of The Water."
"What color are his eyes when he changes?" She was finally beginning to understand.
"Green... of course." Kenshin smiled into her innocent face as he watched the awe and wonder replace the confusion and distress. "They glow the most remarkable shade of Jade when he summons his spirit powers."
"What about Papa?" She turned around and sought out the familiar thin features of her father who had come to kneel a bit closer to the rest of the Elemental Warriors, as had Hiko.
"Trust me, Sweetling," Saitoh smiled tenderly into the lovely face of his youngest daughter. "You do not want to see the Spirit of The Wolf. It is enough to say that it exists within me and was very useful that night long ago when we all stood together on that battlefield. The Fates brought us together for a purpose, and each of us were meant to be there that night... and we each had our own gifts and personal powers to bring with us to add to the massive whole that was The Elemental Army, but not one of us could have survived without the other. It was true, each of us depended upon the White Warrior and his elementally enhanced Fire Ki which had absorbed pieces of all three of the other elemental ki's, and He, in turn, depended upon the base of his power core to keep him steadfast in his quest, but in the end, there was nothing that was accomplished that did not depend upon each of us being there to play our role, and success would not have been achieved if even one of us had been missing." Then he reached over and laid a gentle hand across Kenji's moist brow as it wrinkled in distress. "But, without the Battousai being able to maintain his level of concentration and holding all of us together… without his having something that was so precious to him that it gave him that insurmountable will to live that drove him forward and caused him to drive us forward as well… we would have all perished."
"What was that Papa?"
"Kaoru." Dark topaz eyes filled with deep respect looked up and sought out the dark haired woman where she was sitting next to her flame-haired husband.
"Auntie Kaoru? I don't understand." Quii looked at Kaoru's gentle face in puzzlement.
"It was the power of My 'Love', Little One." Kaoru touched Quii's face once more. "The power of my unconditional love for him and the tremendous love-bond we shared because of it. That and my undying hope, need, and belief that he would always come for me, that he would never leave me, that he would always love me, and that somehow, we would always be together. That was the power core and the link to this reality that kept Kenshin tied to this world. And no matter where his Destiny took him during that dark journey, and no matter what happened to him… even when he stepped across the line into another dimension... he was still drawn back to me; to my love for him, and that is what you must do for Kenji."
"I... I don't know if I can. I-I don't know how."
"Yes, you can." Kaoru's cobalt eyes tried to reassure the girl. "I did not know how either in the beginning, but what I did know was I loved Kenshin with all my Heart and Soul, and no matter what happened I would always be there waiting for him to come back. I would always be standing beside him when he needed me, and I would fight to the death to preserve everything that he had become and could be. I swore to the Gods I would never leave his side.. And so I have not. Not in sixteen years." Kenshin's free hand lifted and gently stroked her soft cheek as his golden eyes caressed her beautiful face.
"And we still have many years left ahead of us, my beautiful Angel. Many, many years."
"Hai, Anata…" She rubbed her cheek against the calloused roughness of his gentle touch. "Many years…" Then she returned her attention to the apprehensive young girl beside her beloved, and spoke once more ever so gently. "It will come to you, Quii-aijou… the 'way' and the 'how' of what you must do for him, but you must stop denying what is in your own heart, Koishii, and reach out to him with your fighting spirit… Reach out with your ki, Mesu Tora, and find your mate."
"QQUUUIIIIIII!!" The shattering cry of anguish that suddenly erupted from the young red-haired teen writhing on the futon startled everyone, and every pair of eyes in the room were immediately drawn to him. Setting straight up, Kenji's glittering aqua-gold eyes flew open wide and unerringly found the rounded orbs of topaz fear in Quii's now flushed face and locked gazes with them. "HELP ME!" He reached out and somehow grabbed one of her hands, and in the next moment, they both collapsed onto the futon. Kenji fell backwards, his head hitting the pillow roll hard enough to make it bounce, and Quii crumpled across his sweat dampened chest in a heap of flowing chestnut hair and rose yukata.
"They are gone." Saitoh's voice was quiet and resigned as he spoke. "Somehow, I guess I knew this was going to happen, I just did not think it was going to happen so soon."
"You-you knew?" Tokio inched up beside him and tenderly touched his stiff features with a soft hand. "How did you know it would be Quii?"
"Battousai said it... a long time ago. I just did not want to believe it. But the first time I heard him say it, I knew it was true. They were only children, but I still knew it was true."
Kenshin looked quizzically at his old friend who had once been such a bitter enemy, and as he raised one elegantly arched dark brown eyebrow, he asked, "What do you mean, Saitoh? What did I say?"
"Hummph, don't you remember, Battousai? That time we took the chicchai raion, the kodora, Kuumi, and Quii with us when we all went to visit Sano and Megumi in Aizu?"
"I remember the trip very well, Saitoh, but I am not following your train of thought. What did I say?"
"Do you remember the day we stopped in Toma to visit with Ishida and Thian? And they took all us out the river for a picnic with their families?"
"Hai."
"Do you remember how all of the children sided up against each other when they started playing 'Bakumatsu'?"
"Hai."
"You still do not remember?"
"Well... I remember Kenji and Quii got into a very heated argument about whether or not they should be hitokiri's or shinsengumi guards, but..."
"Ka... at least you are remembering something. Do you remember what you said to them when they came to us to settle the argument?"
"Ahhhh...." The light of understanding finally went off in Kenshin's brain. "I do remember."
"At last." Chuckling Saitou stood and pulled his confused wife to her feet, and then motioned everyone else in the room to follow. Once outside, Kenshin quietly closed the fusuma behind them leaving Kenji and Quii in the room alone.
"As I recall now, I said something about it not really mattering what they chose to be, as long as they portrayed themselves with honor and truth."
"Yes, and what did your precocious son have to say about that?"
Kenshin chuckled as he recalled the spiteful look on Kenji's face as he had turned to look at the younger dark-haired girl beside him.
"See, I told you so. We can't be Shinsengumi Warrior's because they were all men. The only girls in the Bakumatsu were the one's who lied to get into the hitokiri ranks. So, YOU have to be a hitokiri."
Kenshin had been astonished at his small son's cruel logic and had set about trying to set him straight as quickly as possible.
"Kenji-chan," He had begun carefully, obtaining the boys attention. "There was no dishonor among the girls who joined the Hitokiri's... they were very brave and just as honorable as those of us who were men. They were sworn to uphold the trust of the Meiji Government the same as if they had been men, and many of them were never discovered to be girls until the Bakumatsu was long over."
"But, Otousan..."
"No... Now, Kenji-chan listen to me. There was no dishonor in a girl being a hitokiri. The only dishonor was to the men who lost to her, and that was only if they considered losing to a woman warrior to be a dishonor to them."
"Wouldn't you, Otousan?"
"No, I would not."
"You wouln't??" The boy had been astonished. "Why wouldn't you?"
"Because your Mother gets the better of me all the time, Kodora, and she is a great Warrior."
"But that is different." The child had tried to reason.
"Why is it different?"
"Because she is Okaasan."
"Ahhhh, and that makes her being a warrior different than any other girl or woman?"
"I-I think so."
"Why?"
"I-Ah.... I..."
"There is no difference, Kenji-chan. The only difference is the one you have created inside of your own mind." The boy had been embarrassed and had quietly apologize to Quii, but Kenshin was not quite finished. "Besides, My Son, you must remember one more very important thing."
"Nani?" He responded just as quietly.
"Even the Kodora needs a Mesu Tora." And from that moment on, Kenshin had called Quii Kenji's 'Mesu Tora' whenever they played 'Bakumatsu' and for some reason, the two fiery spirited children always won the game no matter whom they were paired against.
"Even the Kodora needs a Mesu Tora..." Kenshin was smiling very gently as the old memory slid quietly from his lips and he lifted his lavender gaze to lock it with the mirth filled topaz eyes of the old Wolf.
"Yes, Battousai... You do remember."
"Hai. I remember... the words of my own mouth... I never even thought."
"I did... It hit me so hard that day, but I have chosen to ignore it all of these years. I guess I thought I had more time."
"We all thought we had more time, Old Friend." Hiko dropped a heavy hand onto Saitoh's shoulder. "But when the Kodora bested me in dueling kata's a few days ago... I was afraid his time had come and our time of waiting was over."
"Bested you?" Kenshin eyed his Father with worried eyes. "Are you all right, Chichi?"
"Hai. But he nearly gave me the closest shave of my life... and I was not in any position to have stopped him."
"What do you mean, Hiko-san? Are you saying he could have killed you?" Kaoru's eyes were huge dark pools of apprehension in her pale face. "Did he come that close?"
"That close?" The older man looked at her in honest incredulity. "He could have skimmed my head off before I even had time to blink. I could hardly follow his movements, and before I knew it, he had sliced through the tie of my cape."
"Kami-sama... faster than you could follow?"
"Hai. He humbled me... Kaoru-san. That bloody red-haired brat of yours humbled me in a way this baka-deshi never did." He cast his loving green gaze onto the shocked face of his own beloved and bewildered son. "And, much to the detriment of my pride and arrogance, he scared the shit out of me as well."
"Chichioya..." Kenshin was aghast at his Father's uncharacteristic admission.
"He's stronger than even you were, Aisoku..." He whispered. "Do you remember everything you told about the night he was born?"
"Hai."
"The lightening strikes, the tree, the marks in the ground around it?"
"Hai, Chichi..."
"The Hand of Fire...." Soujiro's voice came from somewhere behind Kenshin and Hiko looked over his son's shoulder and met the gleaming azure-blue eyes of The Sword of Heaven.
"Yes, The Hand of Fire." His deep baritone voice rumbled through the air and pulled on the power ki's of every warrior in the small room. "I believe now that Kenji's soul was ushered into this world by the elements and then blessed by The Hand of Fire. It was so marked in your own yard, Kenshin, right before your very eyes. I think you knew that already though. I think you have known it all these years. Haven't you?"
"Hai..."
"KENSHIN??" Kaoru's anxiety stricken whisper penetrated into his concentration on his Father's words, and he turned an apologetic face to her. "Is that true? Is that what all of those strange markings mean?"
"Hai, Saiai. Forgive me for not telling you, but I felt you had enough burden to bear just knowing Kenji had such a powerful ki to train. I know you have always been aware that he had some sort of special fate to be prepared for, that is why you have always supported my choices to send him to Hiko for his advanced training in the Mitsurugi... I did not want to burden you with more than that."
"But he is my son at well, Kenshin. Why would you hold something like THIS from me?"
"Because, Saiai, you suffered enough with my gifts and my trials... I did not want to see you suffer anymore. I wanted to try and protect you until the time came I could no longer prevent the inevitable."
"And it has come... hasn't it? Kenshin?"
"Yes, my Koishii, it has come... but so much sooner than I ever thought it would."
"But why now? Why when he is still so young?"
"I think I know..."
Everyone looked around in confusion as the quiet voice of someone they had not expected to be in the room with them integrated itself into the complex conversation. As Yahiko and Soujiro carefully stepped to the side, the small discouraged form of Saitoh Kuumi was revealed as she stood alone and somewhat forgotten in the corner of the room.
"Kuumi? Why aren't you in bed, Koishii?" Tokyo rushed to her daughters side and wrapped her arms around the trembling girl. "You're freezing."
"It is all right, Oka... I heard everyone talking, and I think I know the answer to your questions about Kenji."
"You do?" Kaoru walked over to Mother and Daughter and gently touched the pale, cold cheeks of the tremendously sad girl. "What do your feelings tell you, Koibito?"
"It is because of Chri-stan... because of Kenji's and Chri-stan's ki's."
"Their ki's? What about them?" Kenshin's curiosity piqued.
"The last coming together of them... when Chri-stan tried to... when he..." Her voice broke and she buried her face in her hands as a sob choked off her words.
"It is all right, Kuumi-chan." Kenshin reached out and took her from Tokyo's arms and pulled her close to his warmth. "I know what you are trying to say." Tenderly he stroked her long dark hair as he tried to comfort the pain he could feel tearing her apart inside. "What did you feel happen after their ki's mixed the last time?"
"I-I'm not completely c-certain, Uncle... It was like a... an opening of a-a door or something."
"A door?" He looked down into her face in confusion. "What sort of door?"
"It... it was like a birth... perhaps?" She sounded so unsure yet her eyes held the same level of intelligence and sanity that Kenshin had always seen in them before. She was not speaking from the effects of hysteria or distress. Her mind was very clear, but confused and he was perfectly willing to understand how she felt. After all had he not felt that way many times himself?
"A birth?" Kenshin felt the beginnings of a tell tale shiver of apprehension and… fear? slithering up his spine as he tried to comprehend what the confused girl was trying to tell him. 'A door? A birth? What could it mean?' He was feeling just as confused as she was. "What else did you feel, Kuumi-chan? What do you feel now?"
Kuumi buried her face deeply against the security of her Uncle's chest as her slender body was suddenly seized with an uncontrollable trembling. Instinctively Kenshin tightened his embrace around the girl and pulled her closer to him in an effort to calm the sudden rise of anxiety he felt growing within her.
"What is wrong, Chicchai-Angel?" He whispered gently as the tremendous energy of her powerful gift blossomed outward making the small hairs on his arms and the back of his neck tingle and stand on end. "What are you feeling?"
"Chri-stan…" Was her muffled cry of agony against his chest. "It is Chri-stan… He is in terrible pain and grave danger. WE MUST HELP HIM… WE MUST SAVE HIM FROM THE BEAST!" And then Saitoh Kuumi collapsed into unconsciousness within the circle of her Uncle's arms, leaving everyone baffled and frightened by her last words.
"Chri-stan?" Kenshin gently lifted Kuumi's fragile body up into his arms as his worried gaze met the wary golden eyes of her Father. "Why would she be feeling my other son?"
"And why does she want us to save him?" Saitoh carefully relieved Kenshin of his tender burden and watched with worried eyes as the smaller man winced in pain. "You should be getting back to your bed, Battousai. You've had a hellluva day. I'll watch over the kids… don't worry. I'll try and not let anything happen to them."
"WE will watch them together." Hiko strode over and arrogantly shoved his way in front of Saitoh and looked deeply into the troubled eyes of his son. "God knows you can't do it by yourself, Saitoh. Besides, that is MY grandson."
"Well, it's MY daughter." The old wolf snarled back as he gently handed Kuumi off to a smiling Soujiro who quietly took her back to her room.
"All right fine, so we both have a reasonable state in the matter, but you just better remember your place, Old Man."
"Humph, and where is that?" Saitoh snorted as he turned and walked back towards Kenji's room. "With my foot up your arrogant ass?"
"Dream on… Maybe in the next life if Buddha takes pity on you and gives you the chance to have a body that is even worthy to do battle with me… your nothing but a skinny old dog now."
"Really? So what does that make you, my dear Hiko? A wingless old dragon that is finally stuck down here on the ground with the rest of us poor peasants?"
"Wingless? Old?" Hiko sputtered in outrage as he followed Saitoh and the bickering continued out of earshot.
"Hmmmm, some things will never change." Kenshin smiled, shaking his head in amusement.
"So true," Kaoru agreed as she took his hand in hers and led him back down the hallway to their futon. "But then, some things are not meant to change and; therefore, never should."
"That they should not," He quietly agreed as he placed a tender kiss on her cheek. "That they should not."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Now, my dear friends I have a great favor to ask of you. Many of you already know Female Hitokiri Battousai, and have probably even read some of her works here on ff.net. She is a very talented up and coming young Author and well as a beautiful graphic artist. You can appreciate some of her work on my own webpages. But, to get back to my point… she has gone and done something extraordinary which I have found to be a magnificent show of the true individual she really is.
Please go to my webpage. You can reach it from my authors page here on ff.net. I can't seem to get the ff.net format to let me publish the link… it's weird. Anyway, the story is in my K & K archives. It is called 'Being Held In Your Arms'. And it is a KenKao fanfiction. She wrote it and dedicated it to a special friend of her's whose Mother is dying of cancer. It is one of the most exception, and truly magnificent things I have ever laid my eyes on. Please read it and offer her a few words of support and prayers for her friend and her friends Mother.
Female Hitokiri Battousai has given so many of us, including myself, many, many hours of reading enjoyment and pleasure… I believe this is a small way we can help her out in a time of her own need. I would not ask this of you if she were not already a dear and personal friend to me… but she is. Please help me show her that there are more people in this world who care for the lives of those who are suffering with the pain of losing a loved one to a disease that has no forgiveness. As a nurse, I have watched many people through the years die of different forms of cancer… even small simple words offer great comfort.
This is such a beautiful and talented person who is trying to do something beautiful for her friend. Please help me show her that she is worth more to us than just a good story-teller.
Thank-you, Kanzen Ne Tsuki
Tsuki-san.
Glossary: Koishii=Dear/Darling, Kodora=Small Tiger, Mesu-Tora=Tigress, Raion=Lion, Koishii=Dear, Saiai=Beloved, Aisoku=Beloved Son, Chichioya/Chichi=Honorable Father, Otousan=Father, Okaasan=Mother, Aijou=Love, Chicchai=Little
Chapter Twelve
To Suckle the Beast
The howling cries that rose upward toward the full moon echoed down the damp empty ally, and the two young girls anxiously looked back over their shoulders as the gooseflesh of fear raced along their quivering pale skin.
"Hurry, Sukkii..." One uttered worriedly to the other as she grasped a handful of her bright red kimono and raised it above her ankles so she could move unhindered. "I think we need to get out of this alley quickly. Something's out here." Her frightened dark brown eyes flittered back and forth and up and down the brick walls as she searched in vain for a sign of anything that would explain her burgeoning uneasiness and the terrible sounds that had started a few moments ago, but there was nothing to see except the moisture dripping idly down the darkening walls as well as the occasional set of rickety wooden stairs leading to an upper doorway.
"I am trying to hurry, Shizummai." The younger girl was having trouble with her lavender-colored kimono as she tried to keep up with her friends longer strides. Despite her trying to hold it up and out of the way, the length of it seemed to keep getting wrapped around her shins and tripping her up causing her to stumble. "I cannot seem to keep up, and my brand new kimono is getting all wet."
"Oh, for Kami's sake, Sukkii, can you not do anything by yourself?" Shizummai stopped in a huff and turned around to help her frustrated and whining friend with her gown. "Just once I wish you were not so much of a baby about everything. Why can you not be more like Quii and just do what you have too and be done with it?" She gave a heavy disgruntled sigh and leaned over to untangle the other girls kimono from around her slender shapely shins.
"Gomen-nasi, Shizummai," Sukkii sounded as if she might be on the verge of tears as she apologized to her piqued friend. "I do not try to be a burden or a problem to you. I just cannot seem to keep up, that is all."
"I know, Sukkii... Do not cry, for heaven's sake. It is not the end of the world or anything... goodness, it is not like you are going to die because I am impatient with you. Now stop it."
"Yes, Shizummai." Those were the last words Osaka Sukkii ever spoke to anyone.
As Shizummai stood to try and comfort her silly friend, she found herself looking into a spouting fountain of blood where Sukkii's head had once been. The stunned body stood in perfect balance for a full eternal second of endless time before it suddenly crumpled like the rag doll it had become and fell into a rumpled heap of pale blood soaked lavender onto the cold wet ground.
Shizummai stood completely frozen unable to move, breath, speak, or register within her horrified brain what she was seeing. Sukkii... sweet innocent Sukkii was lying dead and headless at her feet with a massive puddle of blood forming around her crumpled body.
Whether it was the sudden twitching of Sukkii's lifeless legs, or the appearance of what could not be that finally broke the spell that held Shizummai, it was hard to tell, but she was suddenly filling the alley with her high-pitched hysterical screams and sobbing shouts of terror. As the shadow of madness fell across her fine porcelain features, the horrified young girl turned and ran tripping and stumbling down the damp dark alley leaving the gore and the nightmare behind her as she went.
Doors and windows opened as the curious peered outside wondering what all of the racket was about, but when they saw nothing but the darkness of the alley they quickly retreated back into their homes and locked their shojis. It was a dark night and the full moon lent a foreboding quality leaving the inhabitants of the alley with the feeling of a great beast being out on the prowl.
Little did they know how close to the truth they really were.
The heavily muscled Bane pulled the bloodied body deeper into the shadows where it easily tore the flimsy silk of the pale kimono open exposing the creamy young flesh beneath. It breathed in the fresh scent of the warm blood and the sweetness of the tender morsel it had brought down. Long sticky ropes of saliva dripped from it's grinning maw as it smacked it's lips in hungry anticipation of the sumptuous meal it was about to enjoy.
Swirling liquid silver orbs glinted joyfully in the eerie moonlight as a raspy chuckling sound slid smoothly from the supple throat as it swooped down to gaze gleefully into the shocked brown eyes in the face of the girls severed head where it lay on the ground only a foot or so away from the rest of the body.
"What fun, what fun, what fun... Hee hee, ha ha, ho ho... What fun we will have, you and I... Little girl… Hee hee, ha ha, ho ho..." And the demented laughter trailed off as the Bane grasped the head in both talon tipped hands and, lifting it up, buried its massive snout up the jagged neck and began feasting on the exposed brain tissues. It was sweet and rich with young blood that was still warm, and the grunting noises of pure pleasure were not so unlike those sounds heard when a wolf guts its own steaming kill.
"OoooOoooooooOoooooo......" The great orgasmic moaning of the Bane floated along the damp air and brought shivers to those who heard it causing each to reach out for one they loved and hold them tightly as a primitive fear from a brain they no longer used tried to wriggle its way to the surface of their consciousness. Something was afoot that night in the back streets of Tokyo, and it was a night to stay inside with the doors locked and barred.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
The screaming sob woke nearly everyone in the house, but it was Quii who reached his side first. "Kenji!" She reached out and grabbed him by the shoulders and roughly shook him. "Wake-up... you're having a bad dream. Wake up." He did not respond right away which worried her because Himura Kenji was a notorious light sleeper. Usually one had to be really careful how one woke him because he could give you a close haircut with his katana if it was not moved out of his reach first. But tonight he was not responding at all. He thrashed back and forth moaning and sobbing in his sleep as some terrible nightmare seized him and held him in its grip. Giant beads of sweat and tears marked his beautiful face as he struggled to release himself from the horror that held him captive in the world of his mind, but he could not seem to fight his way through.
Kenshin and Kaoru were the next inside the room and they exchanged worried looks with the frightened girl. It was too soon for this to be happening to him. Much, much too soon.
"He won't wake up, Uncle." Quii's young voice broke with emotion as she tugged on the sleeve of Kenshin's black yukata. "I do not understand... why will he not wake up? What is happening to him? Uncle Kenshin?"
"It has begun." Kenshin looked into the rigid features of his youngest son's face as felt the dawning of understanding finally settle within his worried father's heart. "It is his time, Kaoru." He turned and looked into her horrified eyes and watched as the understanding and sadness came to her as well. "He has reached his day of Destiny."
"It is too soon. He is only a boy... only a boy, Kenshin."
"Destiny knows no age, My Saiai. You should know that." He gently admonished her and she nodded grimly knowing he was right just not wanting to admit it was true. "He has been prepared all his life for this beginning... Just like I was prepared for the day you found me like this." He reached out and took her cold trembling hands in his. "Do you remember?"
"Hai. Kenshin, I remember... the dream... I thought I was going to have to beat you senseless to get you to wake up. I was so afraid."
"I remember as well," He replied with half a smile. "But no one else could have brought me back or pulled me out, except you... just like no one will be able to bring Kenji back... except... You." He turned and looked directly into the bewildered topaz eyes of Saitoh Quii.
"ME?" She squeaked in terror and confusion. "What do you mean, Uncle Kenshin? How can I bring Kenji back? Back from where? Back from what? What are you talking about? What do you mean, 'his day of Destiny?'" She looked frantically from one adult to the other as the room filled with the rest of the family members. Yahiko and Soujiro rushed to the other side of Kenji's bed and knelt down in deep concern.
"So soon?" Soujiro murmured. "It's come so soon."
"Indeed." Yahiko gazed with deep worry at the struggling red-haired boy, and then looked over his body and captured the sorrowful lavender eyes of their Father. "Was it like this for you?" He asked in a hushed and almost reverent voice. "Was it?" When you were finally chosen by Fate to be the White Warrior, Kenshin? Did you have to go through 'this'?" It had been years and years since Yahiko had called Kenshin by his given name, and it was a fact now that did not go unnoticed by anyone in the room.
"Hai, Yahiko." He replied in a quiet voice as he met the sherry colored eyes that had once belonged to a young wildling boy, but now looked out at him from the face of a much respected and honorable Samurai. "That it was."
"I never knew... I always wondered how it happened... but I never knew." He bowed his dark head and gently rested his large calloused hand on Kenji's sweat covered brow. "How do we help him, Otousan? Are we even meant to help him?"
"No, Raion, my son. WE cannot help him in this hour of his time." At Yahiko and Soujiro's stricken looks, Kenshin hurriedly continued. "It is not for us to do... it is a task for the One who loves him to do. She must bring him back. Only She had the power to reach him where he is." Once more his gentle violet eyes turned and rested tenderly on the upturned pale face of the young girl kneeling next to him. "Hai, Quii..." He reached out and carefully placed an arm around her quacking shoulders pulling her against his side. "It is you... Only you have the power to reach Kenji where he is now and bring him back. Yours is the only voice he will hear and respond to. He will hear no other… not even Mine."
"But... but Uncle Kenshin... I-I don't love... I don't... and Kenji does not... we do not... I..." Quii stammered and stuttered as she looked into the soft amethyst gaze trying to make him understand
something she could not seem to say.
"Are you so certain, Little Tigress?"
Quii giggled in embarrassment as she suddenly recalled the pet name Kenshin had given her when she was a little girl and had insisted on following Kenji everywhere he went.
"Even The Kodora must have a Mesu Tora at his side." He had often said to both children's embarrassment, but now, as he thought about it, was it such a silly notion after all?
Kenji and Kuumi were completely ill matched despite her on-going crush on him and his everlasting fascination with her. It was not a union that would be complimentary to either of them, and deep down inside, he believed they both had known that for years. However; Kenji and Quii? That was completely different. She was as wild tempered as he was, as fierce, as loyal, as determined, as devoted, as passionate. She was his perfect match in every way, and in all the years they had grown up knowing each other, not once had she ever backed down from him nor had she tried to dishonor or shame him. Indeed, she had usually been his partner in crime, so to speak, and they had done nearly everything together. Including getting into and out of trouble.
She was his Destiny as much if not more than Kaoru had been Kenshin's, and Kenshin was completely convinced that Kenji would never survive his future battles without her at his side, just as he would have never survived his own had he not had Kaoru's love and powerful undying will feeding his spirit every step of the way.
"You must find the way into his soul, Quii." Kaoru's tender voice and spirit reached out to stroke the young girls quavering nerves even as the gentleness of her hand caressed the pale smoothness of her youthful cheek. "Only you will know how to get to him where he is now. I know it is hard to understand how you are meant to help him, and it is even more difficult to watch what he is going through, but if I had not already spent my life watching Kenshin do the same, I would not be able to promise you any of this. I would be just as terrified as you are now… perhaps more so because he is my Son, and I would be no help to him or you at all. But I have seen this struggle before, and I have loved and feared for a man such as he is, and I know how difficult it is to believe that you are the one with so much power over the will to live that breaths within his heart and soul, but it is true. You are his rock when he needs balance and grounding. You are his conscience when he needs to be centered brought back to the things that are most important. You are his comforter when his soul and spirit are filled with discouragement and grief and he is at the brink of despair. But most of all, my dearest Quii, you are his solace. You are the place he comes to for the unconditional love and acceptance he needs to heal his wounds and mend the sorrows of his battle worn soul. You are his sanctuary and it is your love that makes him strong." Quii's large topaz eyes searched the gentle love filled sapphires gazing softly at her face and then turned and looked deeply into the warmth and comfort of Kenshin's large violet crystals.
"You will know the way to reach him, Mesu Tora." He whispered as he hugged her closely to his chest and kissed her cheek. "We must all leave now, for our time is past and gone. The future belongs to you now, My lovely Quii. To you and my Aisoku. It is your time, and you must step forward and take your place at his side before he can truly put his feet on the pathway Fate and Destiny has been preparing him for. It is a path you must walk together… Just as Kaoru and I did so many years ago."
"Otousan is right, jou-chan." Soujiro's soft cultured voice drifted across the struggling body of his brother to touch the tormented soul of the young girl in his Father's arms. "Every Warrior of
Destiny must have a steadying force in his life, a base upon which he builds his strength and ties his faith. It is a source of everlasting Hope, Love, Inspiration, Spiritual Energy, and Ki Power... it is what
makes him want to live."
"I-I am not sure I understand, Sou-san. What do you mean?" Quii's large topaz eyes were filled with awe and confusion as she stared at the almost heavenly look on the swordsman's angelic features.
"When a man is fighting for more than just his own life... when he is fighting for the lives of many... even the lives of an entire country, or the even the World... he needs something to live for... A reason to fight that is his alone. Something that will give him the power and the desire to overcome and become more than that which is simply... human."
"But... h-how d-do you b-become more than h-human? It is n-not possible. Is it?"
"Oh yes, little one. It is." As Soujiro turned to face the bewildered girl, she sucked in a gasping breath of shock and covered her open mouth with both hands. The usually beautiful blue-gray eyes that she had always loved so dearly were now gleaming a brilliant azure-blue that glowed from the handsome boyish face emanating an eerie light of their own. The gentle bluish hue drifted through the shadows of the darkened room casting its gentle glow across each and every face bathing each member of the family in an angelic light. It was the most extraordinary thing Quii had ever seen.
"H-how...?"
"Because, I am the Spirit of The Air." He replied in a gentle voice. "I am The Sword of Heaven... in every way."
"And I am the Spirit of The Earth." A rich yellow glow drifted through the room to mix with the azure-blue, as the deep voice of Seijrou Hiko rumbled behind them. Quii whirled around and gasped again as she looked into his beloved craggy face and a pair of luminescent yellow orbs.
"I am the Wildling Child, who was sent by Destiny to preserve the lives of my family in the battle between good and evil." She faced Yahiko and watched as his beautiful light brown eyes changed to a frightening ruby red that filled the room with a blood mist that seemed to cling to the walls and the ceiling. "It was my Ki that brought the mighty Acuma to his knees and allowed Sou-san to use the Hand of Fire to send him back into Hell through Heaven's Portal."
"And, although, I am the White Warrior whom was destined to cleanse the World of the horror that was Chris-tan's mother, Elsbeth de 'Angeles... I am also the Spirit of The Fire." The tender sound of Kenshin's voice beside her brought Quii's eyes back to him and she watched in rapt fascination as his eyes changed to the usual amber gold she had seen on occasion, but then her eyes widened in surprise as the color deepened and began to glow a richer, darker golden that added it's own light to the other three, thus filling the room with a kaleidoscope of intermixing glowing colors as they swirled through the cool damp air.
"The only one of us who is not present here tonight is Aoshi." Kenshin's voice sounded wistful as he spoke the name of his
"Uncle Aoshi??"
"Hai. Aoshi is the Spirit of The Water."
"What color are his eyes when he changes?" She was finally beginning to understand.
"Green... of course." Kenshin smiled into her innocent face as he watched the awe and wonder replace the confusion and distress. "They glow the most remarkable shade of Jade when he summons his spirit powers."
"What about Papa?" She turned around and sought out the familiar thin features of her father who had come to kneel a bit closer to the rest of the Elemental Warriors, as had Hiko.
"Trust me, Sweetling," Saitoh smiled tenderly into the lovely face of his youngest daughter. "You do not want to see the Spirit of The Wolf. It is enough to say that it exists within me and was very useful that night long ago when we all stood together on that battlefield. The Fates brought us together for a purpose, and each of us were meant to be there that night... and we each had our own gifts and personal powers to bring with us to add to the massive whole that was The Elemental Army, but not one of us could have survived without the other. It was true, each of us depended upon the White Warrior and his elementally enhanced Fire Ki which had absorbed pieces of all three of the other elemental ki's, and He, in turn, depended upon the base of his power core to keep him steadfast in his quest, but in the end, there was nothing that was accomplished that did not depend upon each of us being there to play our role, and success would not have been achieved if even one of us had been missing." Then he reached over and laid a gentle hand across Kenji's moist brow as it wrinkled in distress. "But, without the Battousai being able to maintain his level of concentration and holding all of us together… without his having something that was so precious to him that it gave him that insurmountable will to live that drove him forward and caused him to drive us forward as well… we would have all perished."
"What was that Papa?"
"Kaoru." Dark topaz eyes filled with deep respect looked up and sought out the dark haired woman where she was sitting next to her flame-haired husband.
"Auntie Kaoru? I don't understand." Quii looked at Kaoru's gentle face in puzzlement.
"It was the power of My 'Love', Little One." Kaoru touched Quii's face once more. "The power of my unconditional love for him and the tremendous love-bond we shared because of it. That and my undying hope, need, and belief that he would always come for me, that he would never leave me, that he would always love me, and that somehow, we would always be together. That was the power core and the link to this reality that kept Kenshin tied to this world. And no matter where his Destiny took him during that dark journey, and no matter what happened to him… even when he stepped across the line into another dimension... he was still drawn back to me; to my love for him, and that is what you must do for Kenji."
"I... I don't know if I can. I-I don't know how."
"Yes, you can." Kaoru's cobalt eyes tried to reassure the girl. "I did not know how either in the beginning, but what I did know was I loved Kenshin with all my Heart and Soul, and no matter what happened I would always be there waiting for him to come back. I would always be standing beside him when he needed me, and I would fight to the death to preserve everything that he had become and could be. I swore to the Gods I would never leave his side.. And so I have not. Not in sixteen years." Kenshin's free hand lifted and gently stroked her soft cheek as his golden eyes caressed her beautiful face.
"And we still have many years left ahead of us, my beautiful Angel. Many, many years."
"Hai, Anata…" She rubbed her cheek against the calloused roughness of his gentle touch. "Many years…" Then she returned her attention to the apprehensive young girl beside her beloved, and spoke once more ever so gently. "It will come to you, Quii-aijou… the 'way' and the 'how' of what you must do for him, but you must stop denying what is in your own heart, Koishii, and reach out to him with your fighting spirit… Reach out with your ki, Mesu Tora, and find your mate."
"QQUUUIIIIIII!!" The shattering cry of anguish that suddenly erupted from the young red-haired teen writhing on the futon startled everyone, and every pair of eyes in the room were immediately drawn to him. Setting straight up, Kenji's glittering aqua-gold eyes flew open wide and unerringly found the rounded orbs of topaz fear in Quii's now flushed face and locked gazes with them. "HELP ME!" He reached out and somehow grabbed one of her hands, and in the next moment, they both collapsed onto the futon. Kenji fell backwards, his head hitting the pillow roll hard enough to make it bounce, and Quii crumpled across his sweat dampened chest in a heap of flowing chestnut hair and rose yukata.
"They are gone." Saitoh's voice was quiet and resigned as he spoke. "Somehow, I guess I knew this was going to happen, I just did not think it was going to happen so soon."
"You-you knew?" Tokio inched up beside him and tenderly touched his stiff features with a soft hand. "How did you know it would be Quii?"
"Battousai said it... a long time ago. I just did not want to believe it. But the first time I heard him say it, I knew it was true. They were only children, but I still knew it was true."
Kenshin looked quizzically at his old friend who had once been such a bitter enemy, and as he raised one elegantly arched dark brown eyebrow, he asked, "What do you mean, Saitoh? What did I say?"
"Hummph, don't you remember, Battousai? That time we took the chicchai raion, the kodora, Kuumi, and Quii with us when we all went to visit Sano and Megumi in Aizu?"
"I remember the trip very well, Saitoh, but I am not following your train of thought. What did I say?"
"Do you remember the day we stopped in Toma to visit with Ishida and Thian? And they took all us out the river for a picnic with their families?"
"Hai."
"Do you remember how all of the children sided up against each other when they started playing 'Bakumatsu'?"
"Hai."
"You still do not remember?"
"Well... I remember Kenji and Quii got into a very heated argument about whether or not they should be hitokiri's or shinsengumi guards, but..."
"Ka... at least you are remembering something. Do you remember what you said to them when they came to us to settle the argument?"
"Ahhhh...." The light of understanding finally went off in Kenshin's brain. "I do remember."
"At last." Chuckling Saitou stood and pulled his confused wife to her feet, and then motioned everyone else in the room to follow. Once outside, Kenshin quietly closed the fusuma behind them leaving Kenji and Quii in the room alone.
"As I recall now, I said something about it not really mattering what they chose to be, as long as they portrayed themselves with honor and truth."
"Yes, and what did your precocious son have to say about that?"
Kenshin chuckled as he recalled the spiteful look on Kenji's face as he had turned to look at the younger dark-haired girl beside him.
"See, I told you so. We can't be Shinsengumi Warrior's because they were all men. The only girls in the Bakumatsu were the one's who lied to get into the hitokiri ranks. So, YOU have to be a hitokiri."
Kenshin had been astonished at his small son's cruel logic and had set about trying to set him straight as quickly as possible.
"Kenji-chan," He had begun carefully, obtaining the boys attention. "There was no dishonor among the girls who joined the Hitokiri's... they were very brave and just as honorable as those of us who were men. They were sworn to uphold the trust of the Meiji Government the same as if they had been men, and many of them were never discovered to be girls until the Bakumatsu was long over."
"But, Otousan..."
"No... Now, Kenji-chan listen to me. There was no dishonor in a girl being a hitokiri. The only dishonor was to the men who lost to her, and that was only if they considered losing to a woman warrior to be a dishonor to them."
"Wouldn't you, Otousan?"
"No, I would not."
"You wouln't??" The boy had been astonished. "Why wouldn't you?"
"Because your Mother gets the better of me all the time, Kodora, and she is a great Warrior."
"But that is different." The child had tried to reason.
"Why is it different?"
"Because she is Okaasan."
"Ahhhh, and that makes her being a warrior different than any other girl or woman?"
"I-I think so."
"Why?"
"I-Ah.... I..."
"There is no difference, Kenji-chan. The only difference is the one you have created inside of your own mind." The boy had been embarrassed and had quietly apologize to Quii, but Kenshin was not quite finished. "Besides, My Son, you must remember one more very important thing."
"Nani?" He responded just as quietly.
"Even the Kodora needs a Mesu Tora." And from that moment on, Kenshin had called Quii Kenji's 'Mesu Tora' whenever they played 'Bakumatsu' and for some reason, the two fiery spirited children always won the game no matter whom they were paired against.
"Even the Kodora needs a Mesu Tora..." Kenshin was smiling very gently as the old memory slid quietly from his lips and he lifted his lavender gaze to lock it with the mirth filled topaz eyes of the old Wolf.
"Yes, Battousai... You do remember."
"Hai. I remember... the words of my own mouth... I never even thought."
"I did... It hit me so hard that day, but I have chosen to ignore it all of these years. I guess I thought I had more time."
"We all thought we had more time, Old Friend." Hiko dropped a heavy hand onto Saitoh's shoulder. "But when the Kodora bested me in dueling kata's a few days ago... I was afraid his time had come and our time of waiting was over."
"Bested you?" Kenshin eyed his Father with worried eyes. "Are you all right, Chichi?"
"Hai. But he nearly gave me the closest shave of my life... and I was not in any position to have stopped him."
"What do you mean, Hiko-san? Are you saying he could have killed you?" Kaoru's eyes were huge dark pools of apprehension in her pale face. "Did he come that close?"
"That close?" The older man looked at her in honest incredulity. "He could have skimmed my head off before I even had time to blink. I could hardly follow his movements, and before I knew it, he had sliced through the tie of my cape."
"Kami-sama... faster than you could follow?"
"Hai. He humbled me... Kaoru-san. That bloody red-haired brat of yours humbled me in a way this baka-deshi never did." He cast his loving green gaze onto the shocked face of his own beloved and bewildered son. "And, much to the detriment of my pride and arrogance, he scared the shit out of me as well."
"Chichioya..." Kenshin was aghast at his Father's uncharacteristic admission.
"He's stronger than even you were, Aisoku..." He whispered. "Do you remember everything you told about the night he was born?"
"Hai."
"The lightening strikes, the tree, the marks in the ground around it?"
"Hai, Chichi..."
"The Hand of Fire...." Soujiro's voice came from somewhere behind Kenshin and Hiko looked over his son's shoulder and met the gleaming azure-blue eyes of The Sword of Heaven.
"Yes, The Hand of Fire." His deep baritone voice rumbled through the air and pulled on the power ki's of every warrior in the small room. "I believe now that Kenji's soul was ushered into this world by the elements and then blessed by The Hand of Fire. It was so marked in your own yard, Kenshin, right before your very eyes. I think you knew that already though. I think you have known it all these years. Haven't you?"
"Hai..."
"KENSHIN??" Kaoru's anxiety stricken whisper penetrated into his concentration on his Father's words, and he turned an apologetic face to her. "Is that true? Is that what all of those strange markings mean?"
"Hai, Saiai. Forgive me for not telling you, but I felt you had enough burden to bear just knowing Kenji had such a powerful ki to train. I know you have always been aware that he had some sort of special fate to be prepared for, that is why you have always supported my choices to send him to Hiko for his advanced training in the Mitsurugi... I did not want to burden you with more than that."
"But he is my son at well, Kenshin. Why would you hold something like THIS from me?"
"Because, Saiai, you suffered enough with my gifts and my trials... I did not want to see you suffer anymore. I wanted to try and protect you until the time came I could no longer prevent the inevitable."
"And it has come... hasn't it? Kenshin?"
"Yes, my Koishii, it has come... but so much sooner than I ever thought it would."
"But why now? Why when he is still so young?"
"I think I know..."
Everyone looked around in confusion as the quiet voice of someone they had not expected to be in the room with them integrated itself into the complex conversation. As Yahiko and Soujiro carefully stepped to the side, the small discouraged form of Saitoh Kuumi was revealed as she stood alone and somewhat forgotten in the corner of the room.
"Kuumi? Why aren't you in bed, Koishii?" Tokyo rushed to her daughters side and wrapped her arms around the trembling girl. "You're freezing."
"It is all right, Oka... I heard everyone talking, and I think I know the answer to your questions about Kenji."
"You do?" Kaoru walked over to Mother and Daughter and gently touched the pale, cold cheeks of the tremendously sad girl. "What do your feelings tell you, Koibito?"
"It is because of Chri-stan... because of Kenji's and Chri-stan's ki's."
"Their ki's? What about them?" Kenshin's curiosity piqued.
"The last coming together of them... when Chri-stan tried to... when he..." Her voice broke and she buried her face in her hands as a sob choked off her words.
"It is all right, Kuumi-chan." Kenshin reached out and took her from Tokyo's arms and pulled her close to his warmth. "I know what you are trying to say." Tenderly he stroked her long dark hair as he tried to comfort the pain he could feel tearing her apart inside. "What did you feel happen after their ki's mixed the last time?"
"I-I'm not completely c-certain, Uncle... It was like a... an opening of a-a door or something."
"A door?" He looked down into her face in confusion. "What sort of door?"
"It... it was like a birth... perhaps?" She sounded so unsure yet her eyes held the same level of intelligence and sanity that Kenshin had always seen in them before. She was not speaking from the effects of hysteria or distress. Her mind was very clear, but confused and he was perfectly willing to understand how she felt. After all had he not felt that way many times himself?
"A birth?" Kenshin felt the beginnings of a tell tale shiver of apprehension and… fear? slithering up his spine as he tried to comprehend what the confused girl was trying to tell him. 'A door? A birth? What could it mean?' He was feeling just as confused as she was. "What else did you feel, Kuumi-chan? What do you feel now?"
Kuumi buried her face deeply against the security of her Uncle's chest as her slender body was suddenly seized with an uncontrollable trembling. Instinctively Kenshin tightened his embrace around the girl and pulled her closer to him in an effort to calm the sudden rise of anxiety he felt growing within her.
"What is wrong, Chicchai-Angel?" He whispered gently as the tremendous energy of her powerful gift blossomed outward making the small hairs on his arms and the back of his neck tingle and stand on end. "What are you feeling?"
"Chri-stan…" Was her muffled cry of agony against his chest. "It is Chri-stan… He is in terrible pain and grave danger. WE MUST HELP HIM… WE MUST SAVE HIM FROM THE BEAST!" And then Saitoh Kuumi collapsed into unconsciousness within the circle of her Uncle's arms, leaving everyone baffled and frightened by her last words.
"Chri-stan?" Kenshin gently lifted Kuumi's fragile body up into his arms as his worried gaze met the wary golden eyes of her Father. "Why would she be feeling my other son?"
"And why does she want us to save him?" Saitoh carefully relieved Kenshin of his tender burden and watched with worried eyes as the smaller man winced in pain. "You should be getting back to your bed, Battousai. You've had a hellluva day. I'll watch over the kids… don't worry. I'll try and not let anything happen to them."
"WE will watch them together." Hiko strode over and arrogantly shoved his way in front of Saitoh and looked deeply into the troubled eyes of his son. "God knows you can't do it by yourself, Saitoh. Besides, that is MY grandson."
"Well, it's MY daughter." The old wolf snarled back as he gently handed Kuumi off to a smiling Soujiro who quietly took her back to her room.
"All right fine, so we both have a reasonable state in the matter, but you just better remember your place, Old Man."
"Humph, and where is that?" Saitoh snorted as he turned and walked back towards Kenji's room. "With my foot up your arrogant ass?"
"Dream on… Maybe in the next life if Buddha takes pity on you and gives you the chance to have a body that is even worthy to do battle with me… your nothing but a skinny old dog now."
"Really? So what does that make you, my dear Hiko? A wingless old dragon that is finally stuck down here on the ground with the rest of us poor peasants?"
"Wingless? Old?" Hiko sputtered in outrage as he followed Saitoh and the bickering continued out of earshot.
"Hmmmm, some things will never change." Kenshin smiled, shaking his head in amusement.
"So true," Kaoru agreed as she took his hand in hers and led him back down the hallway to their futon. "But then, some things are not meant to change and; therefore, never should."
"That they should not," He quietly agreed as he placed a tender kiss on her cheek. "That they should not."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Now, my dear friends I have a great favor to ask of you. Many of you already know Female Hitokiri Battousai, and have probably even read some of her works here on ff.net. She is a very talented up and coming young Author and well as a beautiful graphic artist. You can appreciate some of her work on my own webpages. But, to get back to my point… she has gone and done something extraordinary which I have found to be a magnificent show of the true individual she really is.
Please go to my webpage. You can reach it from my authors page here on ff.net. I can't seem to get the ff.net format to let me publish the link… it's weird. Anyway, the story is in my K & K archives. It is called 'Being Held In Your Arms'. And it is a KenKao fanfiction. She wrote it and dedicated it to a special friend of her's whose Mother is dying of cancer. It is one of the most exception, and truly magnificent things I have ever laid my eyes on. Please read it and offer her a few words of support and prayers for her friend and her friends Mother.
Female Hitokiri Battousai has given so many of us, including myself, many, many hours of reading enjoyment and pleasure… I believe this is a small way we can help her out in a time of her own need. I would not ask this of you if she were not already a dear and personal friend to me… but she is. Please help me show her that there are more people in this world who care for the lives of those who are suffering with the pain of losing a loved one to a disease that has no forgiveness. As a nurse, I have watched many people through the years die of different forms of cancer… even small simple words offer great comfort.
This is such a beautiful and talented person who is trying to do something beautiful for her friend. Please help me show her that she is worth more to us than just a good story-teller.
Thank-you, Kanzen Ne Tsuki