WARNING: Spoilers! If you don't know who Kenji is, please read at your own risk!
WITH DUE CREDIT: This fic was loosely spun off from two fics - "Over the Sting" by sasori and "Chronicles of a Rurouni", one of my earlier fics.
------------------------------------------
Yesterday's Shadow is Tomorrow's Twilight
------------------------------------------
Chapter 2: Enter Enishi
/Yuugure?/ Kenji looked back and forth between the smiling Soujirou and the
boisterous crowd behind the other man. /Dog of the government?/
"Arara..." The blue-clad boy's smile grew even wider, "Jinguuji-san! I see they have not been able to detain you for what happened that last time! What a lot of people you brought today! Are we going to have a party?" Soujirou tilted his head slightly, still smiling.
The gentleman nearly faltered. He caught his tongue just before a wry remark let slip, however, and gestured for the person standing beside him to step forward. "I don't suppose you know the true purpose for my bringing so many men."
"I sure don't," Soujirou nodded.
Jinguuji smirked, and signalled for his men to do something. The person he had previously gestured forward quickly lit up a wick on the black, round ball he held in his hands. Before Kenji's mind registered that as an explosive, however, the man had already released the bomb from his hands and took many steps backwards as the people from behind him strode quickly to the front. They brandished large shields and formed an impenetrable wall. And the last thing Kenji saw just before the shield wall joined together, was a most evil grin from the person he had thought look gentlemanly.
A huge explosion rocked the alley inside out.
The billowing smoke from the debris and garbage the explosion had set on fire could be seen two streets away, where Chou was having his morning meal in. "Oh dear," the broomhead slurped the rest of his udon up, standing from his seat so he could have a better view, "it looks like the Yuugure fellows are up to something again." Directing his knowing glance at the white-haired man seated beside him, he continued, "I hope your partner wasn't caught in the fray."
Wordlessly, the other man rose to full height and departed the scene without glancing back.
"Hm," Chou's expression grew serious, "cold jerk. But," he glanced at the documents he had in his hands, "I do understand why Saitou wanted to use them."
He crumpled the paper into a pile and stashed it into wherever he always stashed stuff. Leaving his money for the food on the table, he left the roadside restaurant to the hearty cries of 'Please drop by again!'.
As the commotion grew rowdier and rowdier, the smoke in the affected alley began to subside at ground level. The men with the shields quickly dispersed so that they could check out the situation, and Jinguuji was the first to look around the charred pathway with disdain.
"Did we get him?" One of his subordinates asked nervously, the noise of the explosion probably still ringing in his ears. Jinguuji held a hand up to silence his band, seeming displeased about something.
It was no wonder, for not a moment after his action a larky voice chirped from behind his men.
"Jinguuji-san! What an explosive welcome that was!" Soujirou stood, unscathed and unalarmed, with little Kenji tucked comfortably under his arm, too shocked to feel real embarassment. Yes. Real men shouldn't be towed around by other men under their arms, should they? Thankfully for him, Soujirou released him soon after he had caught the opponent's attention, and he tumbled clumsily onto the floor. "I see you have gotten more violent weapons than before." The ice had crept back into Soujirou's tone again, even as his entire aura melted into that of cold consideration. He still, however, bore a smile, and Kenji decided that it was getting on his nerves how someone could smile so much. He got to his feet just as the Jinguuji guy began talking.
"You won't be so fortunate this time, Seta Soujirou! Men!" He hollered. "Attack! And make sure none of those two stay alive!"
"Hey, wait!" Kenji protested. "When did *I* become involved??!"
"Well Himura-san, I think you should start thinking of defending yourself now," Soujirou flashed past him slowly enough so he could see the dark-haired boy grin, "and ask questions later!"
Kenji watched as Soujirou slipped past the men with the shields at an insane speed. It didn't take a genius to deduce that he was going for the Jinguuji guy at the front. It also didn't take a genius, however, to realize that he had left all the other men behind for Kenji to deal with. They were angry, furious, frothing at the mouth, and basically like rabid dogs waiting to bite on the next victim. Kenji's faced remained composed, although he was screaming bloody murder at Soujirou internally.
He clutched tightly onto the metal rod in his hands, cold sweat rolling off his cheeks. Taking a quick glance around him, he saw that there were alot of debris lined up against the alley walls that were on fire, all the way further down the lane where he had been standing with Soujirou just prior to the explosion. It would have been a hazard for anybody to fight with such a large amount of people in such an environment, usually.
But for Kenji, it was an advantage.
He leapt nimbly over the large men and wove past them with practiced ease. Being small-built had its advantages sometimes. Managing to avoid the flail of attacks that were coming at him from both sides, he eventually broke through the wall of people and proceeded to run a long way clear of them.
A few seconds passed before he noticed a large stack of ruins littered over the dry grounds of the alleyway. He halted immediately and whipped around, rod in hand. Just as he had thought, the men with shields were chasing him. A quick glance side to side confirmed that he was in the desired position, and with a final steeling of his nerves, he charged towards his incoming pursuers.
He reached the first massive stack of burning garbage within a split second, and, without losing his momentum, spun and lifted the entire bulk with a swipe of the rod.
/The attack that comes after a spin, that is called a Ryuukansen./
The large, burning heap landed in the middle of the alley, and Kenji was before it in an instance.
/And when the weapon can't reach the opponent, use the ground to help you to. That is called the Doryuusen./
"Doryuusen!" Kenji found himself mouthing as he dug the rod into the ground before the burning debris, and lifted it up in it's entirely, ripping the hard chunks of dirt out as he did and sending soil, rubbish, and licking flames flying in all directions at his fast approaching opponents. They gawked and immediately raised their shields to prevent themselves from being rained on.
"Wrong move, pals!" The triumphant voice of Kenji sounded out from behind them, where he stood with yet another large pile of burning garbage. The men's eyes widened. "Doryuusen!" Kenji executed the move again and sent another shower of flames upon the men, who now had fire striking at them from both sides, as well as from above them.
It was, needless to say, not a pretty sight.
Jinguuji stood atop the tiled roof of a nearby hut, cursing under his breath as his men were taken out easily but the likes of a young boy not even half the height of some of the men. He immediately turned when the results became obvious, only to come face to face with the barrel of a revolver he was only all too familiar with.
Beyond the revolver was the dark face of Soujirou. Still with a smile. It faltered soon, however, as he said, "Going somewhere, Jinguuji-san?"
A click could be heard. It was the sound that the pistol was ready for firing. "You wouldn't..."
"I would, wouldn't I?" Soujirou laughed mirthlessly. "I'm just a dog, after all, am I not?"
"The... The Yuugure fears not death..." there was an obvious jitter to the man's tone now, "... especially if it is for the sake of the coming Twilight! Long live-"
He was rendered speechless quickly as Soujirou pressed the cold barrel of the gun hard on his forehead. "Goodbye, then!" He smiled, looking like he was very happy.
And pulled the trigger.
It was a loud gunshot which attracted the attention of Kenji once again. He broke concentration from surveying the damage he had dealt to the men just now to quickly see where the sound was coming from. Not far from where he stood was the silouette of Soujirou and Jinguuji, atop the roof of a hut. Soujirou had a hand outstretched, and Jinguuji was very, very still. Even as Kenji took off towards that direction, he could see the figure of Jinguuji slide motionlessly onto the roof, before tumbling down to the ground.
The boy stopped short of being squashed by the falling body. Jinguuji collapsed in a heap on the ground before his eyes and Kenji did nothing but afford him an emotionless stare. Soujirou then leapt down from the roof, his shinai carefully sheathed by the hems of his hakama.
"There are no bullets in the revolver," Soujirou smiled at Kenji when he caught his eye, tapping the pistol lightly against his shoulder, "but they do make very loud noises should you even just pull the trigger! What do you know, Jinguuji-san is scared of loud noises after all!" He laughed.
"You should have killed him," Kenji stated monotonously, earning for himself an almost ludicruous stare from the older person, "because the policemen are not going to be able to keep him reined for long. And when he's free again, you'll be in trouble. Again."
For a long time both Kenji and Soujirou stared at each other; Kenji, because Soujirou was staring at him, and Soujirou, as he tried to read underneath the unfathomable violet eyes of the young boy.
Eventually, the older Soujirou broke into a smile and carefully placed the pistol in his sleeves. "Well, Himura-san-"
Another by-now familiar sound cut him short. Crowds had began to filter into the entrance of the alley to find out what had happened, and with them, an entire entourage of policemen. Soujirou gave a small 'meep!' and, grabbing Kenji by his wrist, started to flee the scene yet again.
"It's those two again!" One policeman shrieked. "Somebody go after them! Don't let them get away!!"
"Nooo!!" Kenji tried to wrestle himself free from Soujirou's iron-grip; to no avail. "For the last time! I'm NOT involved! Let me go!!"
"Ahahaha," Soujirou laughed again, in his silly little sing-song way, "I'm so sorry Himura-san, but I think you are already involved now..."
The red-haired boy burst into a fit internally, although his expression didn't so much as change on his countenance. He sighed, and just followed as much as he was able to behind Soujirou. After all, the man was right. The people must already think he was involved, no matter how hard he would try to deny it. Might as well play along.
It wasn't like he had anything else to do, anyway.
After rounding the umpteenth corner in the maze of streets and houses, Kenji was beginning to wonder if they hadn't been actually running around in circles when he heard a soft 'thud!' and found Soujirou almost falling back into him. He looked upwards to see a white-haired man staring down at the both of them expressionlessly.
"Thought I'd find you here." The man had his attention on Soujirou. And Soujirou gave yet another sheepish grin. The scary looking man then looked in the direction of the smoke in the distance, where the explosion happened, and raised an eyebrow. "I hope you didn't get into too much trouble. The resident station wolf is going to bite your head off for- !!"
It was at this point of time that the man's eyes wandered and stopped on Kenji. And Kenji dare say that this was the expression which personified the phrase 'hit-in-the-gut-by-a-hundred-pound-dumbbell', nevermind dumbbells didn't exist in back then in Meiji Japan and nevermind there was no such phrase to begin with. All in all, this white-haired man was not just shocked. He was beyond shock. Kenji could literally see him turning into stone by the second.
When the shocked man did lift a finger to point, however, Soujirou smacked him squarely in the face with his shinai, turning around and smiling at Kenji, "His name is Himura Kenji. I saved him from one of the Yuugure, who was trying to level him with another one of their pistols."
Kenji twitched at the memory. He was pretty sure he could take the guy on without Soujirou's help, however, but said nothing of it. After all, you couldn't say anything to Soujirou when he was dazzling you with such a dazzling smile. He sighed.
"And this scary looking white-haired man over here," Soujirou continued smoothly, "is Yukishiro Enishi-san, my long-time partner-in-crime ever since we met that one bloody night in the forest of Kyoto fighting over the last piece of bear meat-"
It was Enishi's turn to bap Soujirou over the head with his hand. "The pistol?" He asked pointedly.
"Ahahaha..." Soujirou rubbed the bump on his head good-naturedly, before reaching into his sleeves to draw the revolver he had gotten from the burly man out, handing it over to his 'partner-in-crime'.
Kenji was sure he felt the blood drain from his face at the quirky exchange between the two men. He tried hard not to let it show, though, and was succeeding.
"Hm..." Enishi was saying, as he examined the pistol with expert ease, "... there's no doubt about it. This is one of the Yuugure goods all right." He flicked the empty bullet containers out, "Let me see the bullets."
"I have no doubt you will come to the same conclusion," Soujirou smiled, handing the bullets over.
"..." The white-haired man rubbed against the bullets, frowning slightly. He sniffed at the little objects and blinked. "Poison." He concluded. "Did anybody get shot with this?"
Before Soujirou could reply, Kenji spoke, "The blacksmith's assistant."
Enishi glanced briefly at the boy again, a glint of something intense visible in his eyes. "Okay," the man nodded curtly to acknowledge the reply. He then breathed out a heavy sigh. "Guess this means more updates for the broomhead and the resident station wolf, meaning I have to see their faces more times than I want to."
"Yukishiro-san," Soujirou's eyebrow twitched ever so slightly, "Sawagejou-san and Saitou-san have names, you know?"
"Sure." Enishi chose to ignore the point behind the statement, and instead focusing on a fluff of silver on the ground beside Kenji. The silver fox lifted it's hind-leg and scratched its' ear in the most adorable way it could muster. "That your fox?" Enishi asked.
"No."
"What a pity," the man bent down to pat the fox on its head, "he definitely looks much cuter than you, at any rate."
"Oi oi..." Kenji's face was drawn back in a strained smile.
"In any case, we appear to have implicated you into this affair on more counts than one," Soujirou nodded at the boy at the same time Enishi straightened to begin walking out of the maze of houses, "come along with us. We'll try to fill you in as much as Saitou-san allows us to."
"What, no grabbing me and running off this time?" Kenji asked mockingly.
"Well," Soujirou grinned, then leaned closer to whisper softly, "I would love to, Himura-san, but Yukishiro-san loves to move at his own leisurely pace - and only he knows where the rendevous is, so..."
Kenji sighed, and moved so that he could catch up with Enishi before he disappeared around the corner. He knew it wouldn't be wise to travel alone now that the Yuugure, whatever a kind of organization it was, recognized him as the enemy. He slid the metal rod he still had in his hands between the loops of his hakama belt, feeling he might need it at another time. Soujirou walked briskly and fell into step behind him, smile in place.
"By the way," the older man was saying, "that was some powerful skills you used back there just now. Have you a teacher? What school do you practice under?"
Kenji did not reply. And Soujirou did not pursue. They walked slowly through isolated alleys all the way to their destination in mutual silence.
... to be continued
--------------
3/7/03
xd@tougenkyou.net