:waves: Hiya readers. Sorry this took as long as it did for me to write. I was hoping for it to take less time than this. :sweatdrops:
What really took a while was the editing process. Seeing as I've- thankfully- never been in Kazue's shoes, I had a hard time depicting her emotions correctly. I won't be surprised if you guys find some sort of problem with that.
Also something that bothered me was that this chapter is mostly just Kazue rambling. It does get a lot explained of course, but Kenshin and Sano don't have as big of a part as they should. I tried to fix this, but I soon found that I didn't even know how to start. So, this chapter ended up basically being my OC ranting. :sighs: Well, I hope the useful information makes it a little better.
Disclaimer: I still don't own Rurouni Kenshin. Heck, I can't even afford the DVDs.
"After my father and brother died, we lost the shop." Said Kazue, beginning her retelling. "No one wanted to buy from Europeans like Mama and I. Some merchants wouldn't even sell to us. It was only a month before all our money was gone. We sold everything we owned to get by, including our home."
Kazue slowly lowered her eyes so she was no longer looking at Sano's face, but instead his torso. Though Sano couldn't see her eyes turn foggy and gray, he did notice her body relax and her voice calm slightly. He could tell she was going into another revere.
"We found the cheapest housing we could. Unfortunately, it was in the underground. The day we got there, we ripped up some floorboards, boarded up the windows, and made a bolt for the door."
Sano slowly nodded. 'Smart move.' He thought. He knew how rowdy some of the men in the underground got, even when they were completely sober.
"Mama had been looking for a job since my father and brother died," Kazue continued, "but her Japanese was so poor that no one could hire her. Not like they wanted to anyway."
Kazue sniffed and bit her lip. "When almost all our money was gone, Mama sat me down and told me…that she was going to work at the brothel. I remember she was crying when she told me. She was really, really afraid.
"Even though I was only twelve at the time, I knew what a brothel was. I remember begging her not to do it. I tried to think of an alternative, but we both knew that it was her only option.
"But I was pretty stubborn, so we made an agreement. If she could, she would work for only one man, because we knew about the horrible diseases brothel women caught. Mama was very pretty, even though she was European, so we thought it wouldn't be all that hard to find someone. Turns out, it wasn't."
Kazue's eyes narrowed decently and her face shown with anger. "We thought we were pretty lucky when Mama first found Ezakiya." She said, kicking at the boards bellow her feet.
"He was wealthy, which was definitely a good thing. Also, since he was among the high class, he really didn't want to go to the brothel because he was afraid of being seen. It worked out perfectly for Mama.
"But it didn't take long until we saw the true Ezakiya." Kazue gritted her teeth and slammed her free hand down on the railing. She gripped the wood tightly, as if trying to crush it between her fingers. Of course, it held firm.
"Everything went as well as we could have hoped for the first few weeks. Mama hated it when she had to go over there of course, but she never missed an appointment. The money wasn't worth her dignity, but it did keep us both fed. That's about all we could ask for in our situation. We even started saving up so that when we had enough, we could take a boat to Okinawa. That's where my father's family lived, and we thought that they might help us out, even if we were European. After all, we were still family.
"Then Ezakiya started paying Mama less than the amount they had agreed upon. With as much money as he cut from the payments, she would've gotten paid more if she'd worked out of the brothel house!
"Mama threatened to leave of course. She wasn't dumb. She knew when she was being cheated. But that bastard threatened her! He reminded her how he was a weapons merchant, and he could come up with anything to give her a torturous death."
Sano leaned forward the slightest bit to get a better look at Kazue. She was visibly shaking now, and he noticed that her voice was rather strained. At first, she remained still, trembling. Then, she slammed her fist down on the railing, making Sano recoil but an inch.
"And then the bastard had the nerve to make her come more often, and stay longer!" she yelled, slamming her fist down again. "She was completely stuck. She had no rights at all. The government wouldn't support her, and she knew it!"
Kazue sniffed, gulping. "She started stealing weapons from his home to get make money." She said, wiping her nose on her sleeve. "He would always have one of two laying around. Even if the weapons market was declining, it wasn't dead. They were still worth a lot, especially the guns. She would steal them before she left and bring them back home with her."
Kazue lifted the gun up and showed it to Sano. "This was the last one she ever brought home." She said, turning it so that the light from the moon reflected off of it, making it easier to see.
"It was worth a lot since it could shoot a bunch of bullets without having to be reloaded. Plus, it was fully loaded. Since bullets cost so much, that was even better. With the money it would bring it, we would finally have enough to ship off to Okinawa. But when Mama brought it home, she was completely terrified. She said…"
Again, Kazue stopped. She rubbed her eyes with her other sleeve, wiping away the tears that had begun to fall from them. With an angry whine, she kicked the railings, which caused her the majority of the pain.
"We should have left!" she screamed, punching herself in the forehead and grinding her knuckles against her skull. "We should have fucking left for Okinawa right when she got back! If we had…Goddamn it!"
She flipped back the hammer, getting ready to shoot.
"Wait Kid!" Sano said, waving his hands at her. "Calm down…"
"You shut up!" she screamed threateningly. "If you knew what I've been through, you'd know why I want to die!"
"If you finished your story," said Sano calmly, lowering his hands, "then I would know what you've been through."
Kazue paused a moment longer, giving him an odd, almost suspicious look.
"What did your mom say?" he asked, trying to nudge her back into her recollection.
"…she said…she'd been seen." Said Kazue, looking at the ground. "When she stole the gun, one of the servants saw her leave. At least, she thought they'd seen her.
"A few minutes after Mama got home, some men showed up and told her to come with them. She…didn't come back.
"The next morning, she still wasn't back. I went looking for her. I knew the way to Ezakiya's house, so I headed that way. On the way there…I saw a crowd gathered near the river. There was…someone in the…water…"
Eventually, she had to stop talking. She stared at the ground and tried to regain her composure. However, her tears had become too abundant, too heavy to hold back. After only a minute's resistance, she collapsed onto her knees and dropped the gun beside her. She covered her face with her hands and started sobbing.
Back at the dojo, she had done a lot of sobbing and crying. However, as anyone in the Kamiya dojo would tell you, her sobs were completely silent. This was different. This time, she'd gone into complete hysterics. Her sobs were much closer to screams of sorrow than traditional crying. From where he stood, Sano winced. Now, she was not only acting like a scared animal, but she sounded like one too, or a dying one.
'Her mother…was Akechi Erika.' Sano thought to himself. As soon as she'd said that her mother had become a whore for Ezakiya, he knew exactly who the woman was.
"Kid…Kazue…you killed Ezakiya, didn't you?" he asked.
At first, Kazue didn't respond, her cries of hysteria still full-blown. Though Sano was no traditionally patient, he waited. He looked at the gun beside her knee, wondering if he should chance rushing her. If he went fast enough, he could probably swipe it.
Then, as he looked at it, Kazue's finger tapped against it. "With his own weapon," she said, moving her hands from her eyes. Then, to Sano's surprise, her sobs moved seamlessly from cries of distress to insane sounding chuckles.
"This thing must have been worth a lot to him," she said, giggling to herself. "He gave his life for it!"
Sano stared at her, a mixture of shock and confusion on his face. She wasn't just sad. She wasn't just scared. She was disturbed, maybe even insane. He looked down at the gun again, mentally adding up the bullets she had used. She'd used four just now to shoot at him, and apparently one to shoot Ezakiya with. If the chamber could really only hold six, there was still one bullet inside.
'How do I get her to shoot that last bullet?' thought Sano. He knew that if he tried to move towards her, she probably wouldn't miss again.
Kazue put a hand against her face, shaking her head as her snickers began to die down.
"After I killed him, I realized that this was all Zanza's fault." She said, bringing Sano's attention back to her. "If Zanza hadn't killed my father and brother, Mama wouldn't have to become a whore, and she would still be alive today. I wanted to kill Zanza just as badly as I'd wanted to kill Ezakiya.
"Of course I had no idea where to find Zanza. I'd looked for him before, when Mama was still alive, and he had disappeared from the underground. I'd asked around, and everyone said he'd retired. Plus, no one would tell me where he was without payment. All we had was the money for Okinawa, and I didn't dare go near that.
"So, after I killed Ezakiya, I wandered for a few days. Eventually I ended up here." Kazue gestured about her, indicating the bridge. "This was the river they threw Mama in after all. I stood here for hours, just staring at it. I kept thinking that maybe her spirit was still trapped in the water. I thought if that was the case, and I drown, maybe I could see her again. I wouldn't be alone anymore. It's all pretty foggy."
From his unmoving position in the shadows, Kenshin narrowed his eyes. 'So,' he thought to himself, 'that's what Kazue-chan was trying to do…'
"That plan fell through when Himura-sama caught me though." She said, leaning against the railings to prop herself up. "When I got my head on straight, I started looking for Zanza again. But of course," Kazue threw a hand in his direction, gesturing to him haphazardly. "Zanza had to turn out to be you! And I can't possibly kill you. You're Sano. I care about Sano. I can't kill Sano.
Slowly, Kazue reached down and picked up the gun. Then, just as slowly, she got to her feet.
"It's not fair…" she mumbled to herself. "It's not fair…" She raised the gun to her head once again. She looked up and stared him directly in the eye. Her face seemed strangely apathetic. "It was never fair." Then, she pulled the trigger.
:looks: Hm. What do you know? I ended another chapter on a cliffhanger. Whoops.
Don't fret though. Everything will be cleared up in the next chapter. Why? Because the next chapter is the last. That's right. The stories almost over.
In fact, all three of my chapter stories are headed for their finale. I've updated each one so that only the last chapter remains. These last chapters will all be posted on the same day, completing them all in one swipe.
Well, that's all for me. Please R/R!