To Reveal All
Chapter 13: Revealing Sacrifice
By steelphoenix
Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin, or any of its characters.
Author's Notes: It has come to this one's attention that there are not enough SxM moments in this story. So this chapter has plenty. Plenty of meringue-y, waffy-ness. Enjoy, SxM fans…
The Kaoru/Rurouni/Battousai conversation (you'll know it when you see it, trust me) came about completely by chance. Yet again, my Muse takes over… I have a sneaking suspicion that Battousai's decided to become my Muse, what with all the strange plot twists and plots for fics that he comes up with…
I had so much trouble finding a title for this chapter – I wanted something a little less solemn and sombre, but couldn't think of a synonym for sacrifice. But, that said, I think Revealing Sacrifice works, especially with what happens here.
Since the 'replace chapter' thingee apparentlydoesn't show as an update, no-one knew that TRA 12 was there! This has only just occurred to me, so... here you are! A double dose of TRA! But... please note, Battousai (my Muse) is having trouble fighting off a particularly vicious writer's block, so updates are slow right now... grrr. I don't know how long it'll be until next update. Please have patience. It's quite hard writing such tense, emotional stuff constantly, and tends to wear me down... which is why the writer's block was able to attack.
Language Notes: The mark on the back of Sano's coat is the character 'aku', meaning 'evil', or 'bad'.
Warnings:PG-13 for violence and sexual situations/scenes. Minor language warning – Sano has a dirty mouth, to go with his dirty mind…
The fire-wielding Leader of the Kokuryukai was hard to fight, Sano had decided, but he was not as skilled as Kenshin. The redhead was easily the more flexible, quick, and better at predicting his opponent's movements.
What Sano had been hoping when he jumped forwards with the zanbato was that Kenshin was only partly unconscious, and that the small man would soon wake, and defeat Shishio.
But now, Sano's delaying tactic was almost spent. He knew it from the way the long blade of the zanbato was drooping. He knew it from the runnels of sweat that oozed down his back. He knew it from the burning in his biceps as he hefted the huge weapon.
This fight isn't going to last much longer… Dammit, Kenshin, WAKE UP!!!
Shishio circled carefully around the spiky-haired man, watching his every move. It's obvious he's tiring. He could see the exhaustion in the man's face, and the shaking of his muscles as he tried to lift the zanbato above his head again.
Shishio lifted his sword slowly, into a position Kenshin would have recognised instantly – right foot in front of left, katana downwards. The exhausted Sano was only just noticing and recognising it when Shishio allowed the blade to trail across the ground, a snake of flames following.
He leapt forwards.
"Homuradama!"
---
Yahiko had at last disappeared out of the woodsman's door, and Kaoru was alone.
She stood there, in a long pause, as she watched the small, sturdy gate close, swinging almost-silently on its hinges. The breeze swirled up, and with a whisper, flung her long hair into its currents.
Well, I have to go, Kaoru thought, but was nevertheless reluctant.
I know why I'm just waiting here. I'm scared of going…
Going means… flinging myself into a battle that I cannot win. Going means seeing more deaths. Going could mean discovering that… dear Kami-sama, that Kenshin is wounded.
She didn't even let herself acknowledge the other half of that sentence – the part that said '–or dead.'
But I have a weapon. She gazed down at the katana clutched close in her hands. And it was Kenshin's. His spirit is with me in this blade…
"Yes, Kaoru-dono, I am with you," said a voice in her head. She had the briefest of visions, of Kenshin standing in front of her, smiling.
"We are both with you, Kaoru, and we both love you," added another voice, deeper and darker, and Kaoru again saw Kenshin – but this time, Kenshin the Battousai, with the amber eyes, and his usually low-tied hair reverted to the high tail at the back of his head.
What?! There's the Rurouni and the Battousai?! They're both here… This is… scary…
"Courage, Kaoru-dono. Do not be afraid. We need your help, that we do." The light voice of the Rurouni was reassuring, but held the slightest tone of nervousness.
"He means we're knocked out right now, and this is the only way we can reach anyone that will do anything about it." The Battousai's was quite obviously cynical, and mocking the Rurouni.
The Rurouni's voice was strained, and Kaoru could have sworn that he was glaring at Battousai when he next spoke. "Please come soon, Kaoru-dono. Sano is being beaten, and our body must be woken, so we can save him."
"I'll come. Now," replied Kaoru, and, fitting actions to words, started off across the lawn, towards the Kokuryukai House.
I told you that would work. Battousai's voice was smug.
It did. Now let's go, snapped Rurouni, aggravated by his fierce counterpart's overt arrogance.
Tsk, tsk. Mustn't be tetchy, Rurouni, Battousai's voice grinned, and he followed his peaceful foil back to their body.
---
Megumi saw the crowd of Kokuryukai from the gate. Lifting the medicine chest before her, as both protection and identification, she pushed through the back of the crowd. Angry objections and yells followed her, but she ignored them.
If I ignore them, they'll think I'm here legitimately… her mind tried to say, but she knew it was the combination of adrenaline, fear, and fear for her friends that was setting her heart pumping faster than before, and clouding her reason more than a little.
When she reached the edge of the crowd, she saw what they were watching: A fight.
A fight between a rooster-combed young man, and a bandaged man.
She recognised both easily. Shishio, the infamous leader of the Kokuryukai Gang was the bandaged man. And the rooster-head was Sagara Sanosuke, ex-fight-merchant, dojo assistant, and her friend.
…Just friend…? Her conscience went into overdrive. You know what he is to you! Admit it!
Get lost, conscience… Megumi snarled mentally. I'm just here to treat any wounds he, or Kenshin, may have received…
Still, I can help encourage him…
"Sano! You can win, rooster-head!" she yelled out, completely forgetting her guise as a doctor in her concentration on Sano, her 'cautious fox' personality discarded temporarily, in favour of the 'mischievous fox' persona.
---
Sano saw the trail of fire behind Shishio's blade, and finally realised, He's going to use that Homura-…thing.
The zanbato stopped its attempted ascent, and prepared to fall on the opponent.
"Homuradama!" Shishio began coming towards him, and the yells of the Kokuryukai increased.
Then, the roar of the watchers was pierced a light shout, in a voice he would recognise anywhere. "Sano! You can win, rooster-head!"
His head snapped around, and he found her, just off Shishio's right shoulder. Long hair loose, formal kimono discarded, and carrying a medicine chest, she looked entirely different from the poised geisha Sano knew, but with the breeze flickering the tips of her black mane, she was beautiful.
All this went through Sano's head in a second. Then reality intruded, in the form of Shishio's attack. The zanbato dropped, attempting to shatter Shishio's katana, but its owner's attention was not fully on it, and it missed.
The Homuradama carved through the air, and landed, stinging and boiling, on Sano's left leg. A long, shallow wound, already cauterised by the heat of Shishio's blade, ran from the top of his knee to his hip.
Then, with a single effortless movement, Shishio turned back to the young fighter – who he had passed in his attack – and another, deeper score was laid next to the first.
Sano had immediately discovered that when cut by a sword that was a cross between a katana and a hot poker, his thigh would not respond. His right leg tightened, desperately trying to hold Sano's lean body on its own. Temporarily, it held up, but within a few seconds, his balance became precarious.
No! I mustn't fall…! screamed through Sano's mind. If I fall, I'm dead!
Despite all willpower in his body being focussed on the one point of standing, the thigh gave in, and he collapsed on the ground, hand still on the zanbato, refusing to give that up for anything, or anyone.
---
Misao watched in horror as the rooster-headed fighter fell to the ground, his face twisted in pain and shock. From the look on Shishio's face, she could tell what would happen next.
Shishio was known for his merciless torture and execution of insurgents within the Kokuryukai, and the secret – and not-so-secret – executions of outside opposition.
"Come on, Aoshi-sama! We have to help!" She pulled at the tall man's coat sleeve, dragging him into the mass of Kokuryukai. Unluckily, the part that they had chosen as their path easily contained the most people, and the most closely-packed.
Aoshi followed, pushing through the seething press of men. The ninja girl was making little progress, with her light weight and small stature. Eventually, he gave up on letting her lead, and, with a tug, pulled her towards him, and into his arms.
Blushing, and trying to ignore the fact that she was in Aoshi's arms, Misao craned her neck, trying to see what had happened to the fighters. The tall man noticed, and slung her upwards, so she sat on his shoulder, which made Misao blush a little less – but not much.
They were little more than two-thirds of the way through the crowd when Misao saw the Leader of the Kokuryukai stroll over towards the rooster-headed man, where he knelt on the ground.
---
Kaoru strode out onto the veranda, behind the crowd of Kokuryukai.
On the outskirts of the crowd, Kaoru couldn't see much, but she could make out a clear space where two figures were – Shishio, and Sano, kneeling.
Kaoru forced herself through the crowd to the makeshift arena, hoping that Sano was alright, and that Kenshin was around here somewhere.
Her wish was granted – she almost tripped over him. The redhead lay, sprawled limply over the paving stones, and with a shock, Kaoru saw an enormous hole in the right shoulder of his gi. The flesh beneath it was stained with grey powder and substantial bruising.
How did he get this?! Dear Kami-sama, don't let it be fatal…
The two spirits had told her that they needed the body to wake up, but Kaoru had no idea what to do. Following her instincts, she pulled the flaccid form into her lap, and began shaking at his uninjured shoulder, and calling out to him.
"Kenshin! Kenshin, come back… wake up. Please, Sano's in trouble… please, wake up…"
No response…
"Kenshin… Wake up, please… Kenshin, Kenshin!"
As she continued shaking, and pleading with the unconscious figure to wake, she watched Sano, and the man who had just beaten him.
With a smirk, Shishio noticed the girl trying to wake Battousai. I'll just finish off this idiot, and then… Battousai…
He strolled over to the hunched figure, and bent down, to speak.
---
"So, you lost. What's your name? I like to know the names of men I kill." Shishio's smug smirk indicated that he knew that Sano was going nowhere, and was at his mercy.
"Fuck off." Sano's voice was bitter at his helplessness.
The smirk only deepened at the defiance. "Oh, how sad. I can't even tell my men who I killed today. And I didn't even have to use the Guren-Kaina. Pathetic."
"I said, fuck off!" The fighter raised his eyes to Shishio's and chocolate burned into crimson, in what he knew was to be his last act on the earth.
I may as well go down fighting… just to give Shishio something to think about. He attempted to raise the zanbato, but shock was beginning to affect his body, and the muscles strained and shook, refusing.
"There is no way you can win." Shishio's voice was cold. "The strong survive: the weak die. That is the law of nature. You are weak, therefore you must die."
The katana, its flame now almost dead, was raised, and began to fall towards Sano's neck.
Searching the crowd for a certain woman, Sano sent out his farewell.
Goodbye, Megumi – I love you…
---
"NOOOOO!" The blade never came down on Sano's neck. Instead, he was shoved out of the way by a flying figure.
No! Sano can't die!
Megumi.
The fox-woman had dropped her medicine chest as she saw Shishio raise his blade, and she had sprinted with all the speed she could gather.
Kami-sama, let me make it!
She had dived in front of the blade, pushing Sano from its path.
He's safe! Thank Kami-sama…
But in the process, she had placed herself in the line of fire.
With a dreadful thud, the flaming katana hit her. It impacted on the point of her right shoulder, then dragged across, carving its way bloodily through muscle, cauterizing as it went. Then, with an excruciating collision, it hit her right shoulderblade, and bounced away. The force of Shishio's strike tumbled her over, and away from the man she had saved.
She flipped once, twice, and landed, sprawled on her face, limp from the shock of the blow.
But it doesn't hurt, she mused absently, and pushed herself up, to turn back over. The movement jolted the new wound, and the pain she had not noticed before was suddenly real, searing out of a blue sky and beating her to the ground.
Sano stared in wonder and horror at the fallen body. She did that for me?!
Shishio temporarily left where he was standing, tormenting Sano, and strolled over to the woman. Nudging her with his toe, he roughly flicked her over on to her back.
A gasping scream of agony manifested itself on Megumi's lips without thought or even impulse. The pain had doubled, tripled, as the wounded shoulder had slapped down on to the hard, cold paving.
The scream ripped through Sano's heart. She did that to save me! She didn't want me to die, and I don't want her to die… I love her, she can't die!
Megumi gasped raggedly as Shishio nudged her. "Why did you do that? Hmm? Do you love him? He's too pathetic to have someone love him." Shishio's gaze was directed back to Sano, and his lip curled as he took in the young fighter.
A pained smile curved Megumi's lips, ever so briefly. I may as well admit it, right, conscience?
The barely audible response was "…Yes…"
One word had never changed Sano's world so much.
She… she loves me?
Megumi…
How could this elegant, poised woman, the most popular geisha of the 'Red Sakura' teahouse, love him, an ex-fighter, a man who was only a dojo assistant? How could she love someone like him? He had thought it was only a forlorn, unrequited feeling… but to have her return it, that shook his world, down to the deepest foundations of his heart.
She loves me…
I have to help her…
His pain forgotten in the face of Megumi's, he shoved himself up, and crawled over to where she lay. Watched with scorn by Shishio, he lifted her with infinite tenderness, resting her uninjured shoulder on his uninjured leg, cradling her with the greatest care in the world.
Stripping off the worn 'aku'-marked coat on his back, he quickly bound it around her shoulder, trying to stop the bleeding, and hoping with all his heart that the wound wasn't serious enough to permanently damage.
As he moved her, she hissed through her teeth at the stinging pain. Eventually, the coat bound about her to his satisfaction, Sano lowered her again to the ground, and knelt beside her, ignoring Shishio, the Kokuryukai, Kenshin and Kaoru. His world right now was Megumi.
He gently, simply caressed her face. "You meant that? What you answered?"
She smiled up at his worried, yet hopeful face. "Yes."
His relief was palpable, a responding smile on his lips. "I love you, too."
Then Sano's mind went to the man behind him, and his face hardened. Megumi was wounded. Badly. And it was his fault. The bandaged man was a good swordsman – there was no way that he couldn't have stopped the blade before it hurt Megumi – so he had deliberately let the blade fall, deliberately injured Megumi. The young fighter's blood began to boil, for the second time that night. But this time, it was a hot, deep rage, not the simple anger at the bandaged man's hurting of his friend.
This time, it was the most anger he had ever felt. His innermost core was boiling red. This man had hurt the woman he loved, who loved him, and there was no way in the seven hells that Sano would let him get away with it.
---
With a shiver, Kaoru noticed that the flames of the torches around the perimeter of the courtyard were flickering. Then, with a quivering sigh, the branches of the sakura in the courtyard briefly shook, and the sakura already on the ground lifted for a moment in an unfelt wind.
The body in her arms gave a convulsive shudder.
She looked down, and a pair of eyes snapped open, and bored into hers.
They were neither purple, nor amber, but were gold-veined amethysts, hard and cold.
"Kenshin…"
The magenta-clad man sat up, then stood, with a smoothness that belied his injuries. Kaoru followed him up, standing beside him as he took in the scene – Shishio standing over Sano, who had Megumi in his arms. The wrecked gi fell off his shoulder, and he slipped the right hand out of the loose sleeve. Kaoru noticed the stiffness with which he moved the arm.
He found that difficult! How can he fight…?
Then he turned to her, and the cold jewels sparkled with warmth for a minute.
"Kaoru. I love you." And he bent over, and kissed her lips.
She stood stunned as he turned again, in a swish of magenta material, and started to cross the courtyard.
---
Sano stumbled to his feet, and unsteadily took up a fighting stance. I'll get him… hurting Megumi… when she was saving me! He knew there was no way he could get to the zanbato – it would be too heavy to lift anyway – but he could do some damage with his fists, at the very least.
Shishio smirked at his awkward posture, and swished his sword across into position for the Homuradama.
Then, the young fighter felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned his head.
Blazing amethyst-and-amber eyes met startled chocolate.
"Sano. Get out of the way. Now."
Author's Notes: Yay! More cliffhanger! I bet you all love me, and are going to throw (virtual) vegetables at me for that. At least I let you know what Kenshin's up to! The thing is, I like having something that will keep me reading – and this sort of ending is great for that. I hope you like it!
And SOOOO much SxM mushiness! I planned it for later, but… well… my Muse wrote it in here. Battousai likes mucking up my plot plans…
One thing that I had here which I planned was both Kenshin and Sano being topless… or mostly so… Aren't they just gorgeous?! /drools all over keyboard/
Review! Please! Onegai!
Review Replies: Thanks to all my reviewers, but there's no reviews for TRA 12 yet!