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.
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Yesterday's Shadow is Tomorrow's Twilight
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Chapter 15: Arrival
"You WHAT?!"
"Jumped, Himura-san," the perky wanderer strolled casually along the young redhead, "we jumped across the crevasse, and here we are!"
Deciding that it would prove nonsensical to ask about the actual mechanics of /how/ one could leap across a ravine that was further apart than the proverbial stone's throw, Kenji returned his attention to the road and mused silently.
"Aww, come on," Soujirou, sensing Kenji's disbelief, quipped, "it's not that hard, Himura-san. You can do it too, if you tried!"
"May I never have to," Kenji quickly interjected, adjusting the weight of the box in his hands. "Does this mean that we go on the rest of the trip on foot, then?"
A small bout of silence ensued.
"Yes," Enishi deadpanned, "unfortunately."
Kenji groaned, although it was barely audible. Soujirou just smiled and kept walking.
The sun rose mercilessly over them.
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The trio managed to stay out of trouble throughout the entire Shiga prefecture.
It was late afternoon by the time they arrived on the outskirts of Kyoto, yet
the sun still hung high in the skies. Kenji put the wooden box down under the
shade of a nearby tree and sighed loudly. He promptly sat down on the box and
began fanning himself with his hands.
"It can never get hotter than this!" The boy grumbled.
"You obviously have not been to Okinawa," Enishi eyed him strangely.
"The sun is just taking a bit more time to set today, don't worry!" Although Soujirou's voice was still cheery, he, too, had settled down beside a large root under the same tree Kenji was fanning himself on.
Enishi, however, looked as cool as he sounded when he next asked, "So when's that guy you met in Kanagawa going to show up?"
Shrugging, the redhead replied, "He said he'd look for me."
"Hmm..." Soujirou had a lopsided smile. "... Kyoto is a rather large city by itself... How should he go about looking for you?"
"He never said, and I never asked," Kenji held his hands out whimsically.
"I don't want to hold on to this thing longer than we should," it was Enishi, and he sounded mildly cross, "we should we go into the city and look around for that farmer."
"Before that, Yukishiro-san," Soujirou gestured for Kenji to move off the box, which he did, "there's just something that's been bothering me..."
He approached the box, and without a word of warning whatsoever, ripped the nailed cover off like he had been lifting the lid off his teacup, the loud tearing sound making even Enishi jump. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" The white-haired man managed to gasp by the time the implications of what he saw sank in.
"Well the farmer didn't say we have to deliver him his goods in the same box, or for that matter, that the box should remain lidded," Soujirou smiled brightly, rummaging through the contents of the box, "let's see..." he removed a bottle of wine from its place among the padded interior and shook it, holding it close to his ears, "... sounds like liquid all right!"
"What else were you expecting it to be?" An exasperated Kenji asked.
"I don't know, secret government documents, for example!" The wanderer laughed and shuffled around in the box again. "Hmm... nothing suspicious at all, how very strange..."
"If anything's suspicious, it has to be that piece of paper in the money bag," Kenji quickly began to feel around his clothing, wondering where he last tucked that sheet of paper. "Ahah!" He made a noise when he appeared to have found it. Brandishing the folded piece of paper, he continued, "I've yet to figure out the meaning behind this text, even after staring at it for so long... have you, Soujirou?"
The busy wanderer took a few moments to turn around and shake his head negatively. He quickly returned his attention to the wine bottles, having emptied the box of them, and proceeded to inspect the interior of the box.
"Let me see," Enishi motioned, and Kenji passed him the piece of paper. He then unfolded it, took one glance at it, and his entire countenance transformed. "This... thing..." He managed to stammer. "You said you found it where?"
"In the money bag the farmer gave us," the young Himura was nonplussed at Enishi's reaction. "You know what it's about?"
"Kyoto."
"Huh?" Kenji blinked. Even Soujirou had stopped looking through the box to stare bemusedly at his partner.
"Don't you dorks know?" The man was as perplexed as they were. "Because the streets in Kyoto have mostly been built to be aligned with the four cardinal directions - among the underground, a cross with some markings beside it to indicate houses - usually refer to Kyoto."
"I'm so sorry I didn't know about underground codes," Kenji rolled his eyes, not sounding sorry at all. "So what else can you deduce from the piece of code, O Great Decoder?"
Shooting the boy a stern glance, Enishi proceeded, "The star indicates a meeting point. But..."
The pause made the chirp of the crickets hiding among the grass even louder.
"But?" Soujirou prompted, attention now entirely riveted on the older person.
"Just a few questions..." Enishi's eventually spoke out in a mulling tone, "From which middle point to start looking... from which direction to go from that point... and," he frowned, "what does a simple farmer have to do with wine bottles, government secrets and underground ciphers? Was this message supposed to be for us in the first place?"
There were already the soft clinking sounds of wine bottle against wine bottle in the midst of his asking the questions, attracting Enishi and Kenji's attention to the source of that noise.
"Why think so much?" Soujirou sounded as calm as the soothing sounds of glass bottles knocking against each other. He finished packing the last of the goods in the box and carefully replaced the lid, slowly rising to full height. "I say we just go with the flow and see where it brings us!" He grinned. "We've come so far doing just that. We can't possibly go wrong now!"
"Soujirou..." Kenji was not sure if he wanted to go along with his friend's optimistic outlook on life in general, or if he should reach over and give the darker-haired swordsman a hard yank on his ponytail.
He looked over at Enishi just in time to see the man fold the paper up and pocket it somewhere he could not see. His face remained empty of any outward show of opinions. "All right, let's move it," the man was saying, walking down the dirt path which would finally lead them into Kyoto proper, "if we start now, maybe we can figure things out by sunset."
"Yes, of course!" Soujirou hefted the box under his arm and quickly took off after the tentative leader of the pack. Watching their receding figures, Kenji afforded himself a slight smile - whatever for, he had no idea. The boy slowly sauntered towards his companions, arms crossed and stature hunched, taking in the ancient air of the city of old traditions he always felt had an attraction to.
Thus they entered the city, not realizing how close they really were to their ultimate target all the time.
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Near a rundown shack on the fringe of the city, a bush rustled. Slightly, at
first. A while passed before the crackling sound of dried leaves against dried
twigs came to fill the air, and with a loud snap a dark figure stepped into
the clearing before the shack, peering around himself intently from under his
veiled straw hat.
He held his scythe closer to himself and had an almost disappointed pout on his face until a dark figure hiding in the shadow of the shack moved. "I didn't know farmers nowadays needed to carry sickles /that/ big around," the sombre voice said simply.
"Ah well," the farmer stepped into the sunlight, fully revealing his form, "the weeds in the field were pretty big today. Hey, but I cleaned the blade." He slid a single gloved hand slowly across the silver steel. "Nothing you should worry about, really."
There was a long silence.
"What do you want?" The voice asked again.
"Always straight to the point, aren't you?" The farmer crooned, almost like he was baiting the other. The affable smile on his face dissolved, however, when he carried on. "I think it is unfair for you to keep such important information from us."
The shadowy figure made a noise. "I will do whatever I deem fit with my information."
It was obvious that the farmer was frowning, even when most of his face was made invisible by the veil. "We're talking about the fate of an entire nation versus your prejudice against a single man," his voice was laced with deep feelings of incomprehension, "you selfish bugger."
There was a sound, and the mysterious man pushed himself away from leaning against the wooden hut. "Prejudice," he said, almost in a mumble, "is a wrong word. This is just precaution on my side. While you say 'one man' like he was insignificant to the outworking of events," he breathed, "one man... one man will be all it takes to bring down the work of the nation you say you are trying to protect."
The man had started down a trail into the protective cover of the forest even as he spoke. "People," he stopped, however, when the other, the one in farmer-wear stated, "people change..." There was a sigh. "I've changed. You've changed. What makes you think he hasn't?"
"You can't be sure," was the stoic reply.
The farmer scoffed, jiggling his large scythe around slightly. "Well at least now I know one thing's never changed.
"You're still as cold as I last remembered you were."
Sounds of rustling grass told the dark-clad farmer that the man had already resumed his trudge down the grass. "Now if you'll excuse me. There's something I need to find out..."
"Find out?" Adjusting his hat slightly, the farmer watched the retreating figure until it completely disappeared behind the foliage. For a moment he contemplated what the other person could have possibly meant. Soon, he started down his own passage towards an unknown destination, leaving the shack as lonely and reserved as it had been since times past.
A short while, and the crickets began their tune of chirping again.
It was like no one had ever stepped foot in the clearing before.
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"Hmm... this city is really packed for a hot afternoon," Soujirou
commented as he ambled his way through two larger men in front of him in a feeble
attempt to remain within sight of his two companions.
"Looks like they're all rushing towards the same place or something," Kenji further observed when two shrieking teenagers ran past him and disappeared around the same corner a horde of people were going towards, almost knocking the smaller boy down in the event. "Some festival?" He blinked.
"You are half correct, Himura Kenji," a new voice answered. All three stopped short in their step and whipped around with amazing consistency to find themselves staring at a smiling face. "The newly opened tavern just around the corner is having drinks on the house for the opening night. Everybody wants a piece of the pie! So while it's no festival, the people of Kyoto are pretty much in a festive mood!"
"Kamatari-san!!" Soujirou alone was overjoyed. He wrestled against the crowd and went up to his old comrade. "I knew it! It really was you!"
"Sou-chan!" Kamatari held both hands out and instantly tackled the approaching wanderer. "It's been such a long time! How have you been? I missed you so... AAH!" He screamed, causing more than one head to turn in his direction. Lifting his hand up from where he had glomped the poor traveller, his eyes reflected that of a grieved animal. "Blood!" He shrieked again, grabbing Soujirou by his shoulders. "What happened?! Who did this?"
"Uhm... Kamatari-san..." Soujirou tried to pry his hands off, not relishing having bloodied handprints on his shoulders. "... should we like move somewhere quieter? We're attracting quite a bit of attention here..."
The petite warrior turned around and saw that the statement was true - for practically all the passers-by slowed down as they approached the ragtag gang of four, taking care to whisper quietly into each other's ear their conclusion of the matter in sight. "All right." He mouthed.
A few turns later, they found themselves at a relatively silent back alley, comfortably shaded from the scorching afternoon sun.
"Okay," Kamatari stared sternly at Soujirou, "now you can explain."
"Easy there, Kamatari-san..." the smiley face grinned. "First things first, this is just an old wound which you have unknowingly reopened. Don't worry! It's not that big a deal now. Nothing I can't handle." He nodded. "Just so you know, I got this injury when we were sneaking around the Tokyo Yuugure Headquarters. Real fun, that was!" He laughed.
"Still on the Yuugure mission, I see," Kamatari sighed. "Does Saitou never know when to give his men a break? He must have mobilized his entire pool of underground contacts for this job."
"Takes a thief can catch a thief," Enishi shrugged from his position beside the wall, "you still owe us an explanation for this," he reminded the scythe-wielder, tapping the wooden box in his arms.
The police spy afforded Enishi a cursory glance. "Oh, that!" His face lit up. "Well what can I say? I knew you guys were the right people for the job," the voice turned sly, "I couldn't have possibly handed such delicate and important information to anybody else."
"So it really is classified information," the white-haired man snorted, "you could've gotten us killed. At least warn us beforehand next time."
"Next time?" Kenji raised an eyebrow.
"You know me so very well, Enishi," Kamatari giggled, putting a hand over his mouth.
"I know you enough not to ask you to stop giving us dangerous things to do."
"Does everybody who work for Saitou behave like Saitou?" The young Himura pondered aloud. He was instantly caught in a headlock.
"What!? I heard that, boy!" Kamatari tightened his hold. "You said I behaved like that inhuman werewolf?! Wipe your eyes clean and look again! How dare you put me in the same category as that poison puffer! You shall suffer for that statement!!"
While Kenji's face turned various shades of interesting colours, Soujirou began to attempt to placate the fuming spy. "Now, now, Kamatari-san... you shouldn't take his words to heart... I'm sure he meant no harm... uhm... Kamatari-san, he's going to suffocate at this rate... Kamatari-san??"
There was a loud crashing sound. Kamatari had finally let go. "Watch your words next time, rookie!" He warned. All Kenji could do in response was to gack for air.
"Where exactly did you hide the documents?" Soujirou asked immediately after Kamatari had spoken his piece, hoping to draw the person's attention away. "I looked through the box... couldn't find anything..."
"Aah," Kamatari put a finger against his lips and winked, "that is a trade secret!"
Enishi snorted. "He must have put them in the bottles, where else?"
"The bottles?" Soujirou tilted his head slightly in confusion. "But they contained liquid. Wouldn't the papers be ruined?"
"It's just a trick," the white-haired man removed the wooden lid and took a bottle out, shaking it slightly so that everybody could see the liquid sliding up and down against the glass, "in actuality, the water is only contained in the hollow space inside of the glass itself, whereas the inside of the /bottle/ is nothing but air."
Like a magician, he uncorked the wine bottle, overturned it, and withdrew a piece of roughened paper from the interior. Visibly, there was still water in the bottle - yet even when upturned and uncovered, not a single drop of liquid escaped from the mouth of the bottle.
"Brilliant," Kamatari smiled wistfully, "though, I would have expected nothing less from an underground mafia boss himself."
Kenji sat up from trying to catch his breath while crouched on the ground, attention roused by the current conversation.
"Formerly from the mafia," the older wanderer quickly amended while stuffing the piece of paper back into the bottle and corking it. He replaced it in the box and slammed the cover over, holding it out for the spy, "all right, take this, and we've got nothing to do with each other now."
After glancing briefly at the box, Kamatari gladly relieved Enishi of the burden. "Well, boys," he said before any of them could turn tail and flee, "interested in joining me for a little while more? There are some things in Kyoto that I must show you before you run along!"
"I don't see the need," Enishi scoffed slightly, turning around. He started to walk away.
"I'm sorry, Kamatari-san," Soujirou bowed, slightly apologetic, "I'll catch up with you some other time! You haven't finished telling me what happened in that American female boarding school you went to last year yet!" He grinned cheerfully. Kenji had somehow managed to pick himself off the floor, and, offering Kamatari a semi-suspicious, semi-fearful glance, prepared to follow his two companions.
"Not even if I bring instructions from Saitou?"
It was like a cold wind had frozen all of them in a picture perfect scene of immobility. Slowly, the trio turned around to regard the spy cautiously.
Kamatari simply smiled.
... to be continued
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29/8/03
xd@tougenkyou.net
A/N
One mysterious man unveiled, another mysterious man appears!! Kamatari hasn't
gone back to... well, embracing his manly origins. He's just in disguise, and
what better disguise to don than one that is an entire disparage of your original
appearance?!
Silver Nightingale
Absolutely! :D I couldn't leave Kamatari out anymore!! (he wasn't supposed to
make an appearance until the end of this chapter. bah, but when characters start
moving on their own, they are unstoppable!) Well but I wrote another mysterious
man in. :D Hope you have fun with him. XD
sasori
Evil. *_*x Eeeeeeeeevil! What plot churn do you need?? I HELP!! T_Tx
Zeromaru: Chaos Mode
As soon as Soujirou comes in contact with a real sword, I guess he'll deal out
some serious damage! XD
C.M Aeries Queen of Insanity
The stick man?? O_Ox W-Who's that?? Am glad you like the story, though! ^_^x
CurlsofSerenity
No, of course not!! *_*x Kenji is The Hero! The Protagonist! The Good Guy! How
can he ever get fatally wounded??! XD XD XD It's against anime laws! XD
EEevee
I hope you slept well. o_Ox;; There's no need to lose sleep over a fanfic! XD
And yes, no K/K!! MUAHAHA!! *gets beaten up* Looks like Kenji isn't too popular
with the fans. XD All right! I have a new task to achieve with this fic now!
*strikes pose*