Disclaimer: Ken Akamatsu:I own Love Hina you idiots.
Tenshi: What he said.
Surrounded By Demons: Chapter One
"Dark Betrayal."
It was the year 895AD...
3 years ago...
It all started on that faithful day when adjoined clouds coated with the deepest shades of gray, blew heavy rain hurriedly against the empire of Lord Koroko's castle, even though it was a successful and proudest day of my life; it felt as though it was nothing but a mere failure.
The failure of being tricked by that monster.
Members of the Government officials stood tall with a high posture of respect. Their weapons neatly tucked in their strapped-waist clothing, emotionless faces, and their finest silk kimonos for ceremonial purposes. Many looked tired—which is disrespectful since it was a ceremony of honor, especially when the ceremony mostly involved my sister and me. We were comrades, allies, and most trustful friends that anyone could possibly imagined. The massive room was filled with silky layers of gold and red items, carpets, and weapons held high against the wall.
I looked wearily at my step-sister, Kanako Urashima, whom was adopted in my family, seeing that she was excited but held an emotionless facial that would always mask her beauty of truly being happy. Although, I could not blame her since we had tough times together. To kill, you cannot let emotions be a burden enough to avoid you from killing your enemies.
"Kanako," I whispered as soft as I could while lean towards her ear, "where is your fiancé'?"
Her eyes traveled briefly towards my muddy boots, even though she was 14, she is required to have a husband in order to continue the family blood-line; so unless a new-born baby appears alive in front of her eyes, then she must find a future husband. Fortunately she did, thanks to the Lord whom seems to found a perfect match.
I could almost see a slight blush appearing across her face, "He is in one of the crowds. I am slightly surprised and disappointed my future-husband did not come to say a fellow congrats."
"Maybe he's just scared that your going to murder him with your blade you used to kill one of the best warriors on the battle-field two days ago?" I humored slightly with an eye-brow cocking.
Kanako shifted her weight towards the opposite-side of me and gave a fellow warning of me getting killed by her. "Really now? Shall I use this blade to murder you instead, brother?"
My arm reacted by her poisonous sarcasm and was soon scratching behind my head for being nervous. "Perhaps Kyoshi would give you a fellow surprise after the ceremony?" I checked to see if her expression changed but it failed. Sometimes she was just too serious that it scared me.
"Attention everyone!" shouted one of Lord Koroko's assistant. "The ceremony will now begin! Please quiet down or else punishment will take place to any officers that dare disrespect this sacred ceremony of honor!"
The chattering soon lowered into silence and their attention was on Lord Koroko's assistant.
"Well... that worked," I muttered seeing how quickly disrespectful soldiers did not bother to argue.
"Urashima Kanako and Urashima Keitaro," Lord Koroko spoke with high formality, "when your village was burnt down to ashes and your family was killed, you had no where to go."
Kanako and I looked down to our feet, both feeling slightly shamed.
"Until one faithful day one of my Soldiers found you and took both of you to me. Kanako was at the age of 8 and Keitaro was at the age 11. One of my soldiers said to train you and to become the best officers in Hinata. Now, I have no regrets of taking you in my home and made your life of loyalty, much worth living."
"Keitaro and Kanako, raise from your kneel and stand with honor. To advance to the highest rankings at a young age of 14 and 17, is remarkable. Both of you nearly took down an army of arrows and men thanks to your skills. Since you now attain the grand-mastery of one of my best warrior's martial arts and swordsmanship at this age, I held this ceremony for you two."
"I now shall put you in the Grand-Masters Ranking level and you shall continue your training with Masters with intense-power so strong, that it will only take a second to wound both of youliterally."
His hand was held out of gesture, "Keitaro Urashima. Kanako Urashima. Will you accept this promotion that will succeed you greatly in this life?"
Kanako and I nodded, "we accept my Lord!"
"Good," Lord Koroko clapped his hands loud and twice to call out his assistants.
They scurried hurriedly, afraid that the Lord might send an army of officers if they did not hurry, and handed him two glass cases that were hard to see in my view.
"These weapons are made by the finest blacksmiths. Take these gifts as my gratitude of you representing Hinata Empire."
"Hai! We accept!" Kanako and I shouted with pride suddenly bursting within the both of us.
"Now let the celebration of honor for Kanako and Keitaro Urashima begin!" Lord Koroko raised his arm and slightly did a rough gesture, meaning for the crowd to cheer.
The remaining officers cheered loudly enough for the whole nation of Japan to hear. I smiled at my sister. She smiled at me. All that hard work of becoming the best paid off after-all. We trained day by day, assassinated the evils that dares harm our Lord by night, and we even prayed. Prayed for our mother that died an uneasy death. I swore to plot revenge on whoever burnt our village, friends, and family.
But first it was the celebration.
"Urashima, I'm surprised how your life became to a success. Although you are near my rankings of a high-officer, I doubt that you can defeat me in combat."
I could have sworn everything came to a pause. The officers stopped their movements. My sister stopped blinking. My Lord froze in his chair. Everything. Everyone. The scene was black and white. I could have sworn this looked like a painting of what I see now.
The only person that's moving is me. I was too shock. Yet so familiar of this event.
"It's also sad how Kanako's future-husband ended, too. Pity isn't it?"
After hearing the tone of a monster, my eyes immediately shot daggers at the person whom I hated deeply enough to easily burn Hell stronger. A growl escaped my lips and my hand was on the hilt of my blade. It was him.
"You!" I scowled in disgust while seeing his lips curling in a smirk. "You traitorous son of bitch!"
"Now, now, Urashima, I believe my name is Kentaro, funny how we similar namesKeitaro... Kentaro? Don't we sound like brothers?" His arms were crossed confidentially; the look in his eyes was mocking me, like always.
My eyes, they were slightly squinting in disgust. My body was trembling with hatred from the bowels of HellAnd my blood was boiling.
When he mention brothers, I cursed at its word, meaning, and tone used by him. Before all of this happened, many mistaken us as brothers.
We had similar names and a similar face. My hair was a tad bit darker and longer, unlike me, his hair seemed a lot lighter and his hair was oddly shorter. Our heights are the same and so does our body. The only difference we had was our eyes. Kentaro's eyes always looked like he showed true concern towards everyone. It looked like a faithful man that would protect anyonebut nowlook into his eyes.
The eyes of a traitorand the eyes of a monster.
"Don't you dare call me brother, never call me brother!"
Kentaro rolled his eyes. "But didn't we used to call each other that? We fought along-side each other, defended each other, and insulted each other. What happened to those times Keitaro?"
"That was use-to," I continued to scowled, "you betrayed us Kentaro. You murdered Kyoshi with your own blade before he could see his own future-wife's honorable success. You killed him! We will never forgive what you've done to him, Kanako and me! I still have that cursed deep scar on my back you've given me before you could have killed my sister!"
"Kentaro, you were a spy all along. The spy for the Sheimnrai-Ryu—our arch rivals and enemy! What right do you have to call me your brother—your comrade—your ally—you disgusting garbage of a traitor?"
I grabbed my blade and rushed towards him with a battle crymy arms raised high ready to strike when I jumped in front of him. I saw that he just smiled disgustingly; it was so sickening I could of sworn I was about to throw-up.
Surprisingly, I heard the clash of two blades meet for a second.
He backed away with lightning speed and his body launched up towards me with his knee pinning my stomach deeply enough for my mouth to cough up blood.
"...!" I was on stomach.
I remembered this event.
He smirked once more. "Oh really? Do you love me so much? That's your weakness Keitaro! Kindness! That's what keeps you hesitant before you kill the enemy with your blade! You're too emotional! If you only joined me, you could have had anything you wanted: wealth, power, and women! You could have had it Urashima! But it is your fault you refused when I burnt down the castle!"
The blade ripped my silky Gi in one stroke. It ripped my flesh so easily... like paper. It was deep enough to scratch my spine. If felt deep enough to cut my back in half.
"ARGGHHHHHHHHAAAAAAA!"
"This is your entire fault, Urashima!" He snickered evilly, "This is your fault for being too weak! Too weak to stop me! Too weak to save your precious mother! Too weak to save Kyoshi! Your sister could have lived happily with him but it's your fault for not realizing the obvious! You've made everyone's life a living hell!"
"And... it was your fault for calling me your brother! Your fault for trusting in me!"
"Shut up!" I cried helplessly, "Shut up Kentaro!"
Even I hated to admit it, he was right. If I didn't realize from the beginning. If I wasn't so weakI could of save mother. I could have saved everyone. If only I wasn't so weak, so emotional, I could have defeated Kentaro.
But I was weak. I was gullible. It was my entire fault.
"Urashima, this is the end."
I could only look at the corner of my eye. To see his two of hand grabbed his blade above me. His eyes so dark yet I could see that smile. That disgusting smile. I whimpered, remembering Kyoshi's corpse being engulfed with flames. Kanako's helpless criesand my pain.
The tip of the blade was aiming the center of my back.
"Now die."
And in that final moment. Before I would cry out in a bloody world of pain everything turned black.
"Onii-chan! Onii-chan!" Shrilled a voice sounding as if it was about to die instead of Keitaro.
Keitaro's eyes had a difficult time opening, especially when he didn't realize that it was a simple dream—no, a nightmare of memories. His eyes were half open and he saw a shadowy figure above him. The light seemed too dim, and the voice seemed it had too much echoes. It was hard to make out the character shaking him madly.
"Kana-Kanako-Chan?"
"Onii-chan," the voice whimpered, "who is Kanako?"
That got Keitaro's full attention when he finally realized that what he just felt was a nightmare of memories and realized it was that girl he saved hours ago. He groaned and sat straight up to see the figure.
"Ow... my head," Keitaro complained as he stared at the girl in front of him.
"Are you alright Urashima?" Her voice soothed while helping up Keitaro.
"Please refer to me as Keitaro, miss," he said well-mannered while trying to remember what the hell happened.
"Have you forgotten what happened? You saved me from being raped by a bandit and you insisted that I traveled with you since I have no where to go. You sort of—kind of—got knocked out by accidentally drinking tea that had sleeping powder in it."
"Why was there sleeping powder inside my drink?" Keitaro asked suspiciously.
"... while you were putting what you thought was sugar in your tea, you grabbed the wrong cup that looked like sugarbut it was actually the sleeping powder I use to make me sleep better. I'm so sorry!"
He smiled at her apology, "it was my fault, so no need to worry—um—what was your name again?"
"It is Shinobu Maehara; I'm 14-years old." She was disappointed that Keitaro didn't remember her name. Well... she would accept it this time since it was her fault for putting the sleeping there.
"Oh right, sorry."
"By the way, Keitaro, where exactly are we heading again?"
"Around Kyoto—I have a mission to do there."
"Hai... shall we go there now?"
"Yeah... we better go now."
Keitaro staggered to his feet, seeing to see if he had any bruises Kentaro had given him in his nightmare since it felt so real.
He remembered his mission. He remembered everything.
Ever since Kentaro Sakata betrayed Lord Koroko, Prime Minister of Hinata, Shinjitsu Nakahara, Government of Hinata, ordered his soldiers to find Kentaro and bring him back dead or alive. Betraying the rulers of Hinata is a bad idea unless you would love to get arrested and tortured till your dead, or at the very least hoped for death. After two years of heavy-searching for Kentaro, it was a failure. Kanako swore she would have her revenge, so she left her job of being a high-ranked officer and went off to kill Kentaro.
Keitaro wanted to kill him too but he just couldn't leave.
Nakahara-san and Koroko-san had a meeting with Keitaro after Kentaro's sickening betrayal. They said Keitaro is one of the best warriors in the castle. If he stayed, he would continue to earn enough wealth to support him on his missions. Keitaro had nowhere to go—especially no money in his hands but since they offered him so much money, it would be best to stay.
'My mission is to find at least one of the Sheimnrai-Ryu warriors that are going under-cover and bring them to Lord Koroko. I remembered Kentaro saying that he's with the Sheimnrai-Ryu, so if I find one member than I could get some info.'
"Keitaro! Please hurry!" Shinobu shouted on top of the hill, looking back with her rough-duffle bag she was carrying.
"Hai! Coming!" Keitaro responded by dashing towards the hills that led to Kyoto.
'I'm going to find you Kentaro—and once I do—I'm going to prove to you that I'm not weak at all!'
Tenshi's Conversation
Again, I am starting over on one of my favorite stories and these are one of my favorites. "The Betrayal" was my very first story and surprisingly my first story that had a hell lot of reviews. Intresting how a newbie comes in, yeah?
Chapter two will come up soon, so I'll update in a day or two because I have exams and spring-break is over! Ahhh... the horror!
Oh wells... at least I end school at 1:00... .
I watched the Ring 2 and Sin City... those movies were awesome! Sin City is kind of voilent but sexy with all those scenes- oh right, your going have to watch them yourselves.
The Ring 2... it was cool, freaked out about Sumara but still cool.
OKAY... well
In the next chapter- which characters do you want to see first? I can't say Mutsumi because I have to set up a third or fourth chapter for her to set it up.
Well even if you guys don't even vote, I know who's coming in.
But hey... at least I did a favor for all you Shinobu's fan, right?
Guess what? EVERYONE CAN FIGHT IN THIS AU! Isn't that hot?
Tenshi K. (Thank you Sensei!) (And... Dean... I'll see you with my fourth chapter so wait!)
It's great to have two beta readers! .
