-
Sano pursed his lips in a soundless whistle as he looked over the bustling Korean seaport. They'd inched their way into the city over the past few hours, working street by careful street to this warehouse by the docks, avoiding anyone who looked official and no few hardcases just out to make a quick yen. Night couldn't disguise the lingering fires of the hosts of troops in plain view, or the sullen, cowed way the natives moved. "And you guys snuck out of here?"
Crouched on the edge of the rooftop slightly apart from the rest of them, eyes on shadows that might or might not be the two ninjas slipping off to scout the docks one more time, Saitou smirked. "We didn't have a rooster-headed idiot bumbling along in our wake."
"Hey!"
Looking between the two idiots, Megumi weighed her chances of taking them both out with the same burst of onmitsu sleeping powder. Misao had lent her three papery balls of it, just for times like this.
A bokken intervened, swooping down so close to Sano's nose he went cross-eyed. "All right, both of you keep it down!" Kaoru hissed in a low undertone. "Just because most people don't look up, doesn't mean everybody does!" Cherry wood jabbed at Saitou. "You - over there and help my husband plan how to get us onto a ship without getting anybody killed." The bokken swung toward Sano. "You - get down there and take over watch for Benkai. If we're going to be responsible for these eggs, we're going to need his best guess on how we can load them onto a ship without scrambling them."
"All right, all right..." Shaking his head, Sanosuke headed for the ladder down.
Point made, Kaoru rested the tip of her bokken on the roof tiles. Cast Megumi a significant look.
The doctor blinked. Huh?
Kaoru rolled her eyes. Jerked her head toward the wooden ladder, still trembling with Sano's solid weight. Tapped her foot.
Hiding a blush, Megumi swung onto the rungs and started down.
The doctor set foot in the portside alley, looking uneasily toward piles of unclean straw and refuse leaning against rough walls. But there was no more movement there than rats, a pair of yellow, curl-tailed feral dogs, and the odd stunned pigeon could account for. Any rats of the two-legged variety had cleared out the moment Kenshin and Saitou had let their ken-ki flare. I guess there's some advantages to traveling with Bakumatsu veterans.
Breathing shallowly against the scent of moldy hay and seaside rot, Megumi squared her shoulders and headed for the wagon. "So, any bright ideas?" Sano was saying.
"Hmm." Benkai hopped down from the wagon seat, scratched a curious watchbeast under the chin. "Chika always said eggs are tougher than you'd think. We shouldn't drop them, but as long as we treat them as gently as porcelain, they should do fine."
"Go tell the guys upstairs." Sanosuke jabbed a thumb toward the ladder. "And make sure you're crystal clear on the gentle part. The Wolf up there loves property damage on a general basis, and every once in a while Kenshin loses the clueless act and takes out whole buildings." His gaze fell on her. "Ah... Megumi?"
Casual. Act casual. "I - ah - came to look at your hand, idiot."
"But I thought you just changed the bandages a few hours ago," Benkai blurted. Caught her fiery glance. "Right. I'll just - go talk to Saitou-san..."
"The kid is not dumb," Sano said in an undertone as Benkai scrambled up the ladder. "Kami. Was I ever that young?"
"Younger," Megumi said tartly. "Let me see."
She took his right hand in both of hers, feeling its warmth in the night, seeing the strength in broad fingers that could shatter trees or pull a drowning friend from a river with the same casual ease. What would it be like to feel those fingers trace down her cheek, tingling down the side of her throat?
Mind on your work. Megumi felt along cloth and flesh-wrapped bones, pressing just hard enough to check ligaments and muscles were in their proper places.
"Ow. Ow!"
"Congratulations. All this time, and you didn't forget the technique." She pressed her way along his tendons up his wrist to his forearm, earning herself more dirty looks. "Just let it rest for a few days. You can get by with plain brawling for a while, can't you?"
"If we're lucky." Sano's jaw tightened. "Speaking of techniques..."
Megumi nodded slowly. Now we come to it. "Kenshin's fine." An ironic smile tugged at her lips. "He could use a few good meals and a week of sleep, but he may be in better shape than he was when he washed up on Kaoru's engawa in the first place."
Sano's jaw worked. He shook his head. "How?"
"He's not... we're not... entirely human." Megumi dropped his hand, looking into the gathering shadows. "Aoshi says what hurt Kenshin was something like how the Shin no Ippou works. The mind overriding the body. Most hanyou can't deny what they are, but ryuu-hanyou... they have so much magic, it can turn in on itself. Especially if they're afraid of what they are. What they can do." She rubbed her fingers over each other, feeling chill. "You saved him, you know. You're his friend. He trusts you. When you brought him a death... you showed his youkai blood you knew what he was. What he needed. That you accepted it. Trusted it. You woke it up just enough that it started fighting to live."
"I woke up Battousai." Sanosuke's voice was neutral. Expressionless.
"Yes." And now I don't know what to do. I know you're not an idiot, I know you're listening. "Kenshin hates to kill. But... he can't live without Battousai. Hiten Mitsurugi is his heart and soul. Without the demon, his own soul will kill him." Megumi felt her throat go dry. "And the demon needs blood."
Silence. Megumi fought to stand still, when all she wanted to do was pace. Or run. Or weep.
"So what do you need?"
"I don't want it to be about need!" Megumi burst out. "I care about you, you jerk, kami only know why. Cocky, footloose, always think you're not good enough for the rest of us - k'so, you know the cops aren't that persistent! You could have come back years ago, back to us, to... me..." She turned away, fists clenched.
"Hey. Hey." Awkward arms wrapped around her from behind. A chin rested against her hair as Sanosuke drew her into his embrace. "I didn't know foxes could cry."
"Why not? Dragons do." She pressed the back of her hand against the warm flow of tears. "I don't want it to be about need..."
"So maybe we should just start with talking, huh?" He hugged her a little closer. "How's a lovely fox-lady like you wind up in a family of doctors?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "But there was a story about my grandmother, Suma. That she was born floppy and blue, not breathing. The midwife was about to tell her mother it wasn't live when something distracted her. Something red."
Sano's face rested against her cheek. "Fox-red?"
"She always said so." At last, her eyes had stopped betraying her. "And then Suma cried, and the midwife looked back, and she was - fine. Pink as any little imp." Megumi shrugged. "And Great-grandmother left offerings to Inari for the rest of her life."
"Sounds like a good idea." Sano let go. Walked around her to look her in the eye. "Look, fox- Megumi. I'm coming with you guys because I want to, get it?"
"And we're your ticket out of Korea," Megumi said bluntly.
"Well, yeah - no! It's not that. K'so, Megumi, just listen." He looked aside, searching for words. "Walking around the world, it's fun. Lets you forget about your problems. For a while. But all the time I was gone, there was something missing. Something I needed. And it sure as heck wasn't Tokyo." He shrugged, giving her a shy smile. "So what do you say? I think I wore out my feet. Want to try putting them down somewhere instead. Somewhere there's someone who cares enough to chase me down across a whole ocean and drag me back by my ear."
Megumi crossed her arms, giving him a skeptical look. Don't you dare think you get off that easy, you idiot! "And you think I'd know where this somewhere might be."
"I'm not sure any of us knows where, yet," Sanosuke admitted. "Bits I've heard so far say Tokyo's out. Kyoto's probably a bad choice too; there's still enough old-timers around, there's no way Kenshin could walk down the streets without causing a panic. But there's got to be somewhere." He looked at her hopefully. "And... I already know the someone. If you want me - mmph!"
Sanosuke, Megumi reflected in the long seconds before she came up for air, was not a bad kisser.
"So," Sano said breathlessly, tangling a bandaged hand in her hair, "Is that a yes?"
"You're a gambler. Call it an opening bid." Amazing how a little play of lips and tongue could speed the pulse, make breathing hard as if they'd been transported to the top of Mt. Fuji. "What will you raise me?"
"Hmm." He bent back to her willing mouth, fingertips massaging her neck and scalp into slow tingles. "Let's see-"
"Sanosuke! Megumi-san!" Cotton whispered against the wooden ladder; the only sound that hinted at Kenshin's location. "We've sensed... kami, there's no time. We have to move!"
"Gotcha," Sano said reluctantly. "Okay, we're - ow!"
Megumi winced, ducking her head. "Move your fingers, you jerk!"
"I'm trying not to rip out your hair, damn it! It's stuck in the tape-"
A sigh drifted down. "Oro..."
-
They're here. I know they're here.
Demona perched on one of the stronger rooftops, hate seething in her heart. Only a few hours until dawn. Until oblivion would take her, locking away all her hurt and hate until night fell once more. She should be looking for a place to ride out the daylight.
She should be. She wasn't. Once again, humans had shattered a clan. Once again, they'd taken advantage of her weakness to steal her children away. Just as that accursed Princess Katherine and the Magus had, all those centuries ago at the ruins of Castle Wyvern.
They're Japanese. They came here to break the curse. Now they'll be fleeing back to that accursed island. With the eggs.
Assuming the humans hadn't simply shattered them at dawn.
No! I will not lose hope. They're alive. They must be here!
All she had to do was find them.
-
The leathery sound of wings swooped low. Kaoru shivered, unconsciously holding her breath. What does it take to stop her?
Although from the way Kenshin's fingers tightened on her arm where they huddled in the dark, her husband's thoughts were running more along the lines of, what does it take to kill her?
"I never would have believed I'd say this, but we need a miko," Saitou growled.
"She's a gargoyle!" Benkai hissed. "Not a demon."
"I've killed her three times. As has Battousai. We've tried blades, disemboweling, burning her to ash... even the tori atama's had his shot. You tell me what she is, ronin."
Benkai shut up.
"Kenshin!" Misao's voice hissed from above. "Aoshi-sama has a plan."
"One that will get us to the Island Star?" Kenshin asked, voice quiet as it could be and still carry up to where the kunoichi perched. They were close to the slow, steady merchant freighter. If they could just get to it, it'd be a slow ride back to Japan, but a safe one.
"Well... no." Misao paused. "But he says Saitou-san will like it!"
Kaoru's heart sank. I have a bad feeling about this.
-
Slow breaths. In, out. Listen. Feel. She's up there. Impatient. Angry. She's listening. Looking. Turning this way - now!
Kenshin darted out of the shadows, knowing his hair would catch the light of one stray red lantern by a teahouse. Behind and above, he felt the shock of surprise, recognition, hate-
Time to run.
Wind swooshed in leathery skin, bearing fangs and claws in a deadly stoop.
Wait, wait - now!
He leapt aside as she slashed through air, catching the edge of wooden roof beams and flipping himself upward-
Damn Korean thatch!
Toes clamped on his sandal thongs, Kenshin wrestled his way free of the prickly bundles, forced to wriggle across the primitive roof rather than run. Kami - haven't these people ever heard of fire codes - the warehouses have tile roofs, no surprise, the merchants treat their goods better than their people-
A shriek, and claws brushed his tail of red hair as he let himself fall, touching down on ground and... well, perhaps he'd rather not look at that too closely.
I'm burning these sandals after we leave land, I swear.
And that was his last true thought for some time. Instinct took over, sifting his senses for paths that would lead the winged death behind him a grueling chase over walls and roofs, all his will and reason narrowed down to one pure purpose.
Stay one step ahead of her. Just one.
Here's the time you need, Aoshi. Use it.
-
Crash!
Whirrr-
Splash!
Yet another screaming pirate tumbled down the gangplank; Kaoru shook her head, and thumped the man out of his misery. Trust Aoshi to find one of the few outlaw ships that would dare put into this port while half the Japanese Army's here.
Chafing his hands in the pre-dawn chill, Benkai hovered by the wagon. "Is it me, or are they having too much fun?"
"It's not you," Megumi said dryly, cocking an ear to the giggles as Misao made liberal use of sleeping powder, kunai, and one inadvertent flash of thighs at the stunned helmsman. The hilt of Aoshi's kodachi took that one behind the ear; the pirate crumpled like a wet rag. "They'd better make this quick, or the night watch is going to realize this isn't just another sailors' brawl."
"Don't slow me down, ahou!"
"Who took away your chew-toy, wolf?"
More shrieks. Wood shattered.
"We need the hull," Kaoru sighed. "In one piece..."
Shifting his weight from foot to foot, Benkai stared back into the sleeping city. "We should have gone with him."
"None of us could keep up with Kenshin," Kaoru said frankly. "He's done this before." Years before. "He's really, really good at it." He's alive. Despite a lot of Shinsengumi trying to change that.
"So the legends are true?" the young man asked cautiously.
"Depends on which legends," Megumi chuckled. "He's not eight feet tall, with eyes of fire and a sword of lightning. But he is deadly, loyal, exasperating, stubborn as Mt. Fuji, far too idealistic for his own good-"
Kaoru glanced at a flicker of movement. Tried to hide a smile.
"-And... standing right behind me, isn't he?"
Benkai tried to stifle his snicker. Failed miserably.
"Kenshin!" Kaoru took a closer look at her panting husband, checking for damage. No blood, at least no more than that left over from last night. But there were pale tufts of straw dotting red hair, amber stains that smelled of rice wine all over the blue gi and hakama, and - was that a shred of golden silk veil, tangled over his shoulder? "What happened to you?"
"Demona's persistent, that she is," Kenshin gasped out. "I think I lost her in the teahouse. For a time."
Steam shot from Kaoru's ears. "And just what were you doing in a teahouse?"
"More damage than half a dozen drunken samurai," her husband admitted sheepishly. "The half-dozen I interrupted at their courting of the local geisha; it seems even sake-sodden officers' swords will slow a demon if you encourage enough of them to point the right way..."
"Battousai! Stop dawdling and get up here!"
"Ah The wolf howls." Laughter gleaming in violet eyes, Kenshin blurred up the gangplank.
Thwack-thwack-CRASH.
Silence.
"It truly is not so difficult a decision, that it is not," Kenshin's earnest voice drifted from the still-shuddering ship.
"Um..." Came a shaky stranger's reply.
"All we require is transport to Yokohama. For which we can pay. And which I am certain you and your crew can - and will - provide. If you wish to remain on Shura-dono's good side, ne?"
"Um..."
"Shura?" Benkai whispered to Kaoru. "Wait - he doesn't mean the old pirate queen?"
"He does." Kaoru tightened her grip on her bokken. "I thought he said something about getting mixed up with shady types again the last time he went out on one of his pilgrimages. Ooo, when I get him home..."
"Then it's decided," Kenshin said briskly, stepping over to the rail to wave them aboard. "Let's go."
"What's wrong?" Kaoru asked in an undertone a few minutes later, as the bruised pirates started casting off before they'd even finished stowing the wagon contents. "Why are we hurrying?"
"Because they are." Kenshin nodded toward a half-dozen disreputable fishing boats much like the vessel they currently stood on. All had small lanterns bobbing around their decks, as crews finished a few last tasks before setting off in the pre-dawn darkness. "Even in this unsettled time, they'll be following the tide out to fish within the hour. Or what their cargo manifests will swear is fish, when they bring it into harbor." He listened to the wind. "Even should Demona realize we sought the port, I doubt she will find us in time."
-
Damn them!
Demona spat out blood from a torn lip, clinging to the night-cold smokestack of a Japanese troopship. Sake stained her deerskin top, bits of wood and straw clogged her red mane, and the violet membrane of one wing was half-ribbons from screaming officers' swords.
Damn him!
In retrospect, the little halfling's plan was obvious. Stall. Stall while seeming just one breath ahead, just one swipe of talons away from bloody vengeance...
She snarled an old French curse, red-glowing eyes fixed on the pirate ship hastening toward open waters. There. They are there.
But she'd never make it to the ship. Not with dawn fast approaching, and her wing near too damaged to glide.
At least, she'd never make it to that ship.
I will not be denied!
Determined, Demona spread her wings and dove.
-
"They are there," the blonde Weird Sister hissed, wrinkles still marring her perfect face.
"Safe from our magic, on running water," her black-haired sister snapped.
"But not - quite - out of reach." White hair fanned back as the third blew across her hand, wafting a gust into a gargoyle's torn wings.
Their unwitting servant soared a foot farther, swooping down into the hold before any human could catch sight of her.
"And now we must wait."
"Until sunset."
"But what is time, to an immortal?"
-
"Who'd have thought," Sano said in an undertone, watching the crew draw in long-lines for shark and marlin. Fish twisted and glimmered in the fading twilight, blue scales catching glints of gold and red fire. "They really are fishermen."
"Sometimes." Kenshin knelt by his friend next to the wall of the helmroom; the most out of the way place on a deck they'd found. That it had let all of their band takes turns keeping an eye on captain and officers to make sure no one tried to dump their unwanted passengers overboard was just an added bonus. "Sanosuke. Are you... all right?"
"Going to have nightmares about that Dragonfly for months," Sano said bluntly, chafing his arms as if he could still feel the twitch of purple lightning down his nerves. "Psycho bastard. At least he had the decency to stay dead."
Kenshin's eyes slid away from his. "That wasn't what I meant."
"I know."
Quiet wrapped them, broken by the time-honored curses of the crew, the slap of waves against the hull.
Maybe if I wait, he'll... ah, who are you kidding, Sagara. Kenshin can outwait you any day of the week. "A hitokiri is a hitokiri until the day he dies," Sano said bluntly. "First I didn't believe it. Then I thought it had to be wrong. You stopped killing. Which meant your weren't a hitokiri anymore, right? Only Saitou, Hiko, Shishio - they were all so sure you were." He shook his head. "Took me years to realize I just didn't get it, and even longer to track down somebody to ask."
Kenshin's fingers wove together, unnaturally still.
"There's still a couple of people from Choushuu who worked with the shadow assassins," Sano went on. "Not many, but a couple. And once you got past the hate, the fear, and the legends, one of them told me something that actually made sense. He said - it wasn't the sword skill that made them what they were. That was just a bonus. Something that made it more likely they'd last long enough to crack."
Woven knuckles were white.
"He said," Sano said quietly, deliberately, "That what makes a hitokiri isn't the body. It's the mind. Something in your head that isn't the same as the rest of us. Something that lets you pick a guy out of a crowd and decide this isn't a human. This is a target, and it's going to die."
Kenshin flinched.
"I can't imagine what that's like," Sano admitted. "I tried, once or twice. Stopped pretty quick. That was... scary."
"Good." Pain and loathing lurked in Kenshin's voice. "Don't try. You should never try that. You should never be that."
"Kenshin. All the fights I've been in with you? All the people I've hated down the years, before you knocked some sense into my head?" Sano snorted. "If I can't go into a fight wanting to kill somebody after all that, it's not going to happen."
"You can't be sure, Sano." Violet eyes creased with old grief. "Not when I am near. You can never be sure. My ki... even when I conceal it, it reaches out to those around me. Sweeps them up, to burn and blaze when the battle is fiercest. I saw it happen in the Revolution. It was part of why so many feared me, even after I left the shadows. Especially after. For when they fought by my side, and I allowed Battousai full hold, riding the wave of steel and fury... they were lost in it." He looked down at his hands. "And they killed, as they never would have had I not been there."
"But they lived," Sano argued.
"Some of them would rather have died." Kenshin drew in salt air. "They feared me. They hated me. I was a demon loose amongst them, and deep in their souls, they knew it. And to consort too long with demons is to risk becoming one yourself."
Okay, we have guilt here. Why? Jou-chan's her usual tanuki bad-tempered self, Megumi says Misao's protected by Aoshi from other youkai, and I know I'm fine. And the only other human in our bunch is- "Benkai?" Sano ventured.
Lips a thin line, Kenshin nodded. "Aoshi says his scent started shifting just before Demona trapped me. Saitou thinks it's settled now, but they both say it has changed. Mostly human, but... a trace of it is ryuu-hanyou. Like mine."
Sano bit back the urge to wipe sweaty palms on his pants. All those fights we took on together... kami, I really didn't know what I was risking, did I? "Does he know?"
"Aa."
"He doesn't hate you," Sanosuke said pointedly.
Violet winced. "He should."
"Why?" Sano asked flatly. "Damn it, Kenshin, when are you going to get it through your head that we want to follow you? That - k'so, we're better people because you're here? Because we see how damn hard you fight to stay a good guy, when it'd be easy to just slip into Aku Zoku San and never try to understand why someone like Megumi might fall into the shadows, or how you might get her out."
"Sano-" Words died, as red hair snapped to the side, listening. "We have a problem."
-
So close.
It sang to her on the wind as Demona crouched on the rigging above the dead and the dying, staring over night-hued waves as the dead hands on the helm drove her vessel toward the enemy.
So close. Wait... wait... now!
She leapt into clear air just as hull crashed against hull, sailors screaming, wood and metal howling protest. The gargoyle couldn't help but laugh. It would take them some minutes to realize their vessel was injured, but in no real danger - and by that time she would have slain them all-
"Pull!"
Chains and ropes swept through the wind, swatting the astonished gargoyle to the deck like an angry mosquito.
"Nice, Aoshi-sama!" a bright female voice chirped.
"Hmm."
Demona struggled against the net of chains, snarling ancient Pictish curses against the Weird Sisters and all their fay ilk. Immortal she might be, yet she no longer had all the wild strength of a gargoyle. Most of it, yes, but not that last wisp that would let her tear apart steel like rotten wood. If only I had the power Macbeth's curse stole from me... "Release me!"
"Why the hells should we?" Sanosuke growled back. "You tried to kill us. You tried to kill Jou-chan, and she never did anything to you!" He punched a bandaged fist into his palm. "We stopped you. We told you all we wanted was to walk away. We left you so you could walk away, damn it! You think we didn't know you wouldn't stay dead? We could have sliced you into bite-sized sashimi chunks and scattered you over every road from Red Creek to Seoul. The wolf over there probably would've enjoyed it!"
Saitou's teeth gleamed, fang-like in the starlight. "There is a certain satisfaction in... pest control."
"Enjoy the taste of victory while it lasts, halfling," Demona hissed. "I will be there when it turns to ash in your mouth. I will wait, and watch, and make your nights a living hell. And your children's nights, and their babes who will die with blood in their mouths-"
A wolf's snarl broke from the man. Steel sang free.
"Stop."
Battousai strode across the deck to face her, eyes a cold flame that seared her soul. "Children." His voice was empty of emotion. It might have been the sea wind, singing down the first whispers of storm. "You would hunt down our children. Innocents, who have never done you or yours harm."
Why am I trembling? Halfling, yes, with the magic of Oberon's kind in his veins, but he has no spells. Not like the Magus. All he can do is kill me.
Why do I fear this man?
It didn't matter. "There are no innocents!"
Amber met her gaze. Read something there, and nodded slightly. "Sayonara, Demona-san."
She barely felt the tanto slide home.
Pain. Steel in my heart-
Battousai stepped back.
Blood in my lungs-
Hard hands grabbed her; Aoshi's grim, Saitou's full of fury. Chains rattled, swung as they lifted.
Wind over my skin. Salt spray from waves against the hull - no!
"Hiyahh!"
Strong arms hurled her over the side. The shock of chill water closed over her head; she tried to fight, tried to struggle against the weight of steel dragging her into the depths of the straits of Japan.
I can't die here-
Darkness took her down.
-
"So..." Sano drawled, staring at the patch of ocean falling behind them as their ship raced for Japan. "You think that'll do it?"
Saitou growled under his breath. "Unlikely." I'll have to warn Tokio. And the children. And given that creature has magic enough to distort ki sense - time to dust off the plans for nightingale floors.
"It should take some years for the blade to rust free," Battousai said bluntly. "By then, our trail should be cold."
"There has to be a better way." Kaoru hugged herself against the night wind. "If only we knew why..."
"It might not make a difference. Some folk can't be saved, beloved." Himura put an arm around her. "For now, we have time. Perhaps she will abandon her hate. Perhaps she will never wake out of the deeps; running water has power to break many malign spells."
Saitou cast him a disgusted look. "And perhaps she'll be back to slash us in the night, Battousai."
The redhead shrugged, amber gleaming in violet. "What else is a sword for?"
-
Notes:
Sayonara - "If it must be so." Sometimes used for "goodbye".
Tori atama - "Rooster-head".
Nightingale floors are an interesting low-tech alarm in Japanese castle architecture; they're designed to squeak if stepped on.
