Hikari
By KCSobe
A/N:Thanks to all our reviewers! We love you all and hope you will continue to read our story. Lots of reviews inspire us to write faster! Tee hee! Also, due to some slight difficulties, the spacing and dividers may be a little messed up, but we're trying hard to fix them. Just bare with us for alittle while.
Disclaimer: Please insert your favorite disclaimer here.
Shattered
Sagara Sanosuke walked down the streets of Kyoto cheerfully. The money in his pocket made a reassuring clinking sound as he rounded the corner. Today's gambling venture had been an excellent one, and no doubt it would only continue in the future. In the mean time, he had so many different ways to spend his yen, and so little time. Should he pay Katsu his rent for the first time in almost three months? Or should he try to shrink his tab at the Akabeko? Neither of these options sounded particularly appealing. However, he was getting hungry, and Tae would be overjoyed to see him actually pay for a meal.
As he began to make his way towards the restaurant, he heard people murmuring along the side of the road.
"Did you hear? There's been another one. Some European diplomat in that hotel over there."
"Another murder? That's twice in one week. What do we pay the police for when they can't even keep the town safe at night?"
Sano whistled softly through his teeth. Something really strange was going on. These outbreaks of violence had been comparatively rare over the past few months, but in just two weeks, dozens of officials had been killed.
Trying to be inconspicuous, he edged over to the side entrance of the hotel. While the policemen were distracted by a wailing mother, he ducked inside.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Kenshin had been sitting near the well, doing laundry, as he watched Kaoru and Yahiko train. After the first laundry incident, Yahiko had accepted it as a part of Shinta's nature. So here he was, scrubbing out his anger on a stained shirt.
His mind was relatively peaceful. The afternoon light that illuminated the dojo was a soft gold. Everything it touched seemed to shine with an inner glow. The water sloshing in the laundry tub reflected a dazzling array of light. Kaoru's silky black hair had been pulled back in its usual ponytail, but a few wisps had managed to escape, and frame her delicate features. As she bent towards Yahiko, to make another correction to his stance, her sapphire eyes seemed to sparkle with energy.
Kenshin stretched his arms out. It had been so long since he had been able to spend more than a few days in any one place. While he was still adjusting to the inhabitants, Kamiya Dojo had been growing on him. But that was not important. His mission would always have first priority.
Almost as if triggered by thoughts of the mission, Kenshin began to feel a strange sense of unease. Something bad was happening, and it had its roots in Kyoto. Hurriedly, he set down the laundry, and hurried out the front gate.
"Shinta?" Kaoru asked in a puzzled tone, as she watched him leave. Unfortunately, Yahiko seized that moment to land a hit on her shoulder. Distracted, she returned to her scolding. Still, she could not quite shake the red-haired man from her thoughts.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
The hallway was poorly illuminated, and as Kenshin slipped through the second floor of the hotel, he reflected on how easy it would have been to pass into the victim's room unnoticed. The room in question was easily identifiable, because an entire portion had been destroyed. The policemen on guard at the stairs had not even noticed his entrance, though they were supposed to prevent bystanders from taking a closer look.
The chamber itself was tidy, and showed no signs of the man being aware of his approaching demise. Some papers still lay on the desk, unsigned. Leaning over, Kenshin could make out a page or two of a recommendation to increase the naval patrols of Tokyo Harbor. However, the majority of the letter seemed to be missing.
The corpse lay at an unnatural angle against the wall, with its skull completely smashed in. No features of the man were recognizable. The wall to the left of the door had been completely decimated, as if an explosive device or gunpowder had been used to destroy it. The trained hitokiri in Kenshin had already observed the reinforced metal door, with the complicated lock. Striding over, he tried the handle. Nothing happened. The assassin had therefore entered and exited through the gaping hole. Bending over, he examined the edges of the gap. They were rough and jagged, but showed no signs of scorching, like they would have had gunpowder been used. There were also numerous cracks and fissures that radiated outward, hinting that an object had hit the wall at incredible impact. An impact that could have been generated by a bullet, except the hole was far too large. So what was it?
Kenshin sighed and straightened up. He would have to stop by the police station and see if Saito had any thoughts on the matter.
A new type of explosive perhaps? But how did Shishio get to it before the government?
In order to escape the guards' attention, he furtively crept down a side staircase, and began to walk towards the police station.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Sano was scowling in disappointment. He had gotten past the policemen at the entrance, only to be stopped by the ones at the stairs. So he was back on the street, glaring moodily at the hotel.
Or he was, until a flash of red caught his eye. Turning, he saw Himura Shinta quietly emerging from the side of the building in question. Now what the hell was Shinta doing, sneaking around the murder scene?
Stepping closer, Sano got a better view of the man. An unusually grim expression was on Shinta's face, and he was striding forward at a business-like pace far different from that of the ambling traveler. Everything about him seemed off. When he brushed roughly past a young couple, he continued brusquely onwards, without even a hint of an apology. He looked tense and serious, and the aura around him was positively dangerous.
Sano's eyes narrowed suspiciously. Trying to act nonchalant, he began to follow Shinta. Once or twice, he could have sworn that he had been spotted, but he kept careful watch until they reached the intersection between the business district and the shopping district. Here a large open market had attracted a crowd of enormous proportion. He had seen Shinta duck behind a large seafood stand, but when he had reached the other side, the swordsman was nowhere to be found.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Kenshin trudged back to the dojo wearily. Three hours of going through paperwork for every weapon shipment over the past two years had turned up nothing. As strictly patrolled as Kyoto was, it was highly unlikely that the strange explosive used to destroy the wall had been smuggled in. This meant that at some point it had been acquired legally, and there should be records of a business deal, or a large scale robbery, or anything. But there was nothing. At least, nothing that was capable of causing such a peculiar explosion, turning the wall into fine grains of dust, without even leaving scorch marks.
Three hours was three hours over the amount of time Kenshin could tolerate spending with Saito. After the first ten minutes, the cigarette smoke had started to make his eyes itch. One hundred and eighty minutes later, his throbbing headache had still not died down, and his throat felt raw and scratchy. Needless to say, the Hitokiri Battousai was in a foul mood.
"Oi! Shinta! I need to talk to you!" Sagara hopped off a low stonewall where he had been sitting. Kenshin inwardly groaned. His patience was threadbare at the moment, and he did not particularly look forward to hearing what the would-be-stalker had to say.
"What can this one do for you, Sano?" Kenshin plastered a smile on his face. Sagara, however, had an unusually grim expression.
"Look, I don't know who you are, Shinta, but I do know you've been feeding Kaoru and me a load of bullshit about your life." Sano glared down at the shorter man menacingly. Kenshin, his smile now looking somewhat frayed, opened his mouth to speak.
"I don't want to hear it," Sano snapped, effectively silencing any excuse Kenshin might have formed. "I don't care why I've seen you lurking around two murder scenes in the past few days. Or why you wander the streets of Kyoto at night. But I am rather interested in why you've been lying about being no good at fighting." Here, Sano grabbed Kenshin's wrist, and turned it so it was facing palm upwards.
"I doubt anybody as unskilled with the sword as you claim to be would have these calluses on your hands," he sneered. "But let's get one thing straight. If you ever even think about hurting Kaoru, I'll destroy you."
What little self-control that Kenshin had been clinging to snapped. He twisted out of Sano's grip, and met his glare with a cold amber stare of his own.
"How dare you even imply that I would think about hurting Kaoru," he hissed, his knuckles clenched white against the hilt of his sword. They held a silent battle of wills for a moment, each trying to break the other's gaze.
Finally, Sano broke the quiet, his voice dangerously low; "Kaoru and I first met in Tokyo. She had a man staying at her dojo, one Hiruma Kihei. She trusted him, and he betrayed that trust. He and his brother, Gohei, stole the deed to that land, and forced her out. That dojo belonged to her father, and it was the only possession she had left. She had to come to Kyoto with nothing but the clothes on her back. Now she's finally managed to open another dojo, and get her life back on track. I will not," here his voice, thick with anger, began to steadily rise to a shout, "stand by, and watch you screw up her life again!"
Sano ended his tirade and stood looking down at Kenshin. Then he smiled, a rather unpleasant, reckless smile. With a blur of movement, he spun around, and drove his fist into the stone wall.
Kenshin was forced to throw up his arms to avoid being blinded by the shards of rock that went shooting outwards. When the dust had cleared, he saw Sanosuke standing in front of a small crater where part of the wall used to be.
"That's what I did to Gohei when I found out why Kaoru had left. He was still in the hospital one year later, when I too started for Kyoto. That's what I'll do to you if you ever betray Kaoru's trust," Sano spoke softly, his eyes burning with hatred.
Almost as if moving entirely of its own will, Kenshin's sword shot out of its sheath, faster than the eye could track. Slicing through the air, it paused hovering at Sano's throat.
"Never presume to think that you can tell me what to do." Kenshin's amber gaze was icy with a frozen, calculating anger. "The next time you accuse me of hurting Kaoru, I'll make your head fly." Then, in a smooth, fluid motion, Kenshin sheathed his sword, spun around, and entered the dojo. Sano felt his hands, previously warm from his exertion, grow cold and clammy. Who was this man?
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Much later that night, Kenshin sat against the wall, his sword propped up on his shoulder. Sleep had eluded him for hours. His conversation with Sano was replaying over and over in his mind.
How dare you even imply that I would think of hurting Kaoru.
The fury that had surged over him as he had said that had broken the barriers that constrained the hitokiri within him as if they were nonexistent. Why had the idea of his hurting Kaoru set off such a powerful reaction?
Kenshin recalled Sano's smile as he had smashed that wall into smithereens. There had been a blind rage to it that made him wonder who Sano really was. His thoughts, although still in turmoil, began to drift, and finally he started to succumb to the embrace of sleep.
Just before his mind relinquished all conscious thought, a realization swept over him, once again destroying any chance he had at rest.
The wall that Sano had destroyed… The wall at the hotel… they were identical.
-o-o-o-o-H-o-o-o-o-
A/N: Hmm, well, it seems Kenshin has his first lead. Well, review please!
Next Time on Hikari:
As the sparks fly between Sano and Kenshin, one question arises: Who is the real murderer? But after the late arrival of an old friend, could Kenshin's true identity be at stake?