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.
*tacked hastily on a run-down brick wall with the insignia: FROM HELM'S DEEP WITH LOVE*
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Yesterday's Shadow is Tomorrow's Twilight
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Chapter 18: Peerless
"You all right?" Enishi's dull voice brought Kenji's train of thought
back on track. The young boy gave small sound of surprise and glanced upwards
at the white-haired man with wide eyes. It was evident he had still not gotten
over the shock of the previous battles. "Pretty good moves for a novice,"
the man continued to say, as he held a single hand outstretched, "come
on, are you gonna sit there the entire evening?"
Looking hesitantly at the hand Enishi offered, Kenji slowly grabbed it, and was hauled immediately to his feet. Gasping at the rapidity of motion, the boy stumbled a few times before he could balance himself on his feet. "Thanks," he muttered curtly, feebly attempting to dust his hakama. He realized with dismayal that his hands were trembling due to a combination of delayed fear and muscle exhaustion. Stealing a glance at Enishi to see if the man had caught sight of his quivering hands and if he was going to make fun of him, he saw instead that Enishi had his full attention on the arena. Blinking, Kenji turned to look as well.
It was at this point of time that the boy finally noticed that silence had once again overtaken the crowd. The setting sun was struggling to shed light upon the ring and its occupants, but could not provide enough luminosity to enlighten Kenji clearly about what was happening within the ring. All he could see was two shadowy outlines, facing each other. Even the large throng of people hardly seemed to be present when they remained in such a hush.
And what made the entire scene so much more frightening than the impending darkness, was the cutting aura rippling out from the center of the ring, from the two poised warriors. Just by looking at Soujirou alone, Kenji would never have guessed that the amiable looking wanderer could give off such an intensive battle aura. And that tall, hooded guy still seemed so familiar, Kenji's head was starting to hurt at all the possibilities. There was, however, no noteable malice present. The air stilled after a minor round of staring. Both combatants fingered their weapons at the same time.
The final rays of the sun disappeared behind the mountains.
For one short moment Kenji saw nothing but pitch darkness, and the occasional flickering of light from afar from a random home in Kyoto. There was a sharp whistling of air, however, and Kenji knew that Soujirou and the stranger had both taken the momentary darkness as their unofficial indication to begin their match. The resulting force tore outwards in pockets of air which made up quite a powerful gale. Kenji could hear the strong 'whoosh' ringing in his ears, just before several of the fire lamps around the plaza were lit up by the attendants, bathing the entire place with a soft, orange glow.
The two competitors were not where they once stood.
In fact, Kenji noticed almost bemusedly, they had switched positions, and both had their backs facing each other. Soujirou held his shinai in a standard ready position, feet slightly bent, while the stranger stood straight, his half-sheathed kodachi languishing easily in his right hand. There was still dust settling from what must have been a rather long run for the both of them. How they had managed to do that within that split second of darkness, Kenji had no idea. He must not have been the only one who noticed the change, because whereas the crowd had previously been hushed, it was now overwhelmed by a deathlike silence.
"They both look all right," Kenji blinked.
"Just watch, kid," Enishi's voice was stern and laden with displeasure.
The next few things happened at the same time. With a small cracking sound, the top of Soujirou's bamboo sword snapped into half. The damage was not so great that the entire shinai was rendered useless, however. It was the thin, barely visible line of blood gradually appearing on Soujirou's cheek Kenji was truly alarmed about. Before he had time to even get over his apprehension, he noticed quickly that Soujirou's ponytail slipped slightly, until it no longer held and sent the wanderer's hair cascading around his face and shoulders in smooth transition.
Soujirou's long tresses obscured his face from general view, but his ever-present smile stretched slightly wider.
Kenji only found out why when he turned to check the condition of the hooded stranger. Right before his very eyes, the sheath of the person's kodachi burst into fine dust, scattering gracefully about the weapon previously laid within it in an intricate dance of mockery. The tall stranger made a movement to stare at it for a brief moment, before turning around slowly to face his opponent again. Soujirou did the same thing, and both unhurriedly raised their weapons in challenge.
"Let me see..." Kenji held his hand out, "... one hit on the shinai, one on the cheek, one on his hair, and God knows how many on that sheath to make it crumble into dust like that!" The boy stared at his hand. "In one second??! ONE??"
"The precise timing, I believe, should be-" Enishi intercepted.
"GARGH! Who asked you?!" The redhead cut him short. "Don't you see the /point/?!"
Enishi shot him a doleful look. "That the Tenken's not yet fighting at his full abilities? Of course I know that without you telling me, d'oh!"
Young Kenji took a deep breath, and released it. Yes. He was calm. He was not yet going crazy from how the people around him misunderstood every nuance of his words into something he never knew he was even implying. He jerked his head upwards in a quick motion, however, when the full import of Enishi's words sank in. "He's NOT fighting at his full abilities?"
The white-haired man caught Kenji's disbelieving stare with a lopsided grin. "Just watch, okay?" There was a tone of finality in his statement, after which he returned his attention to the ring and did not show any indication that he would give a reply to any other questions Kenji had on his mind.
Filled with a strange, new kind of determination, Kenji turned towards the arena and squinted slightly. The sand particles in them had long been flushed out, although his eyes were still smarting slightly from that particular encounter. Blinking, he almost missed what next happened in the ring.
Previously just a standing figure, Soujirou stooped once, slightly, and immediately became a trail of footsteps and flying sand. Dramatic as it appeared to the onlookers, the hooded stranger stood his ground and received the incoming, inhumanly fast attack with something slightly less than one disgruntled step back in retreat. Kenji didn't even see Soujirou pause for a breather, for the footsteps swerved and dived in for the kill again, from another direction. This series of movements repeated itself until the stranger had nearly backed into the edge of the ring. None of Soujirou's attacks had managed to even come near him, although it was also clear the stranger had no real time to react accordingly to the rapidity of attacks.
He made a stand, however, when he saw that one step further back would place him among the throng of audience. With his single kodachi he held it at an arm's length and proceeded to slash twice quickly in a cross-formation, halting the approaching Soujirou enough for him to slip through the offense.
In that moment Soujirou paused enough for everybody to finally see him in the flesh. The boyish wanderer turned his head around to regard the hooded stranger with a mischievious smile, as if what had just happened had been nothing but good fun. Which was probably true. He leaned the blade of his shinai against his shoulder carefully, and tapped lightly on the ground with one foot.
This time the stranger did not wait for the attack to come. He leaned low, kodachi primed, sharp side of the blade towards his opponent, flat side of the blade against his other backhand, and dashed forward first. They met with a tremendous noise in the center of the ring and engaged in a deadly whirlwind of attack and defence. Kenji found himself quite unable to really see what was going on at all, what with the speed and agility the competitors were executing their skills with. He did, however, find himself amazed with something else as well.
"How in the world does a bamboo sword hold up for so long against a metal blade?" The boy asked nobody in particular. Behind him, Enishi chuckled knowingly. Kenji decided he would throttle an answer out from the man after the match was over.
In the meantime, the duel in the center of the ring appeared to be reaching a culmination, when both warriors separated from the mini cloud dust which had arisen from their stomping and individually leapt backwards, readied their weapons, and charged towards each other again.
To everybody's surprise, the stranger drew his weapon back while running to fling it towards the obviously astounded wanderer, who had not counted on the man letting go of his weapon at such a critical moment at all. He had to bring his bamboo sword up to deflect the incoming blade away, but in that instant left himself dangerously open to attacks. Soujirou could hear himself gasping when he felt the stranger's ominous presence gradually nearing. Although it registered in his mind that there was a decidedly serious punch on its way, he was still recovering from the movement he had made to block the flying kodachi, and so did not have enough time to muster up a proper defense for the blow this time. He only managed to hold one hand up in a feeble attempt to reduce any damage on his body proper, whilst the other he lashed out with his shinai at the approaching figure.
Both hits connected.
While the hooded stranger stumbled a few steps backwards, Soujirou practically slid the whole radius of the ring, still standing on both his feet. That condition did not last, for as soon the effects of the blow hit him, he collapsed against one knee and held his side painfully.
It was the same side he had been previously slashed at by the wakizashi.
Ignoring the warning signals, Soujirou used the tip of his shinai to get himself back on both feet. He peered intently around himself and could see no one. Reading the aura, however, he knew that the stranger was now standing behind him in readiness. There was just something about this stranger he could not put his finger on. And he would find out if it was the last thing he did tonight.
As events turned out, he hadn't needed to find out at all.
From behind him, the stranger, previously weaponless, brandished two more kodachis from where he had hidden them on his back. Soujirou could feel a strange stirring in the air, and even as he continued staring in front of him, an image flashed by and vanished quickly. The wanderer would have dismissed it to be a hallucation caused by the flickering orange glow of the fire lamps, had he not see another one. And then another. And yet another, until eventually, multiple mirages of the stranger with his twin kodachis encircled him in a rapid flow of movement and energy.
His heart nearly stopped at the realization. "Kodachi Nitou Ryuu..." He gasped. "Ryuusui no Ugoki!!"
But there was hardly any time to ponder about the possibilities at the moment. If this person really was who Soujirou thought he was, then there was only one way to break through the slow, but deadly flow of mirages.
Although he had no sheath, Soujirou stood erect, drew his shinai against his left hand poised by his waistline, and slid it through an imaginery scabbard, holding the bamboo sword in place by wrapping his fingers around it. He stepped into a forward lance, and stooped with his right hand drooping before him.
Enishi blinked. He discreetly moved three steps back while grabbing Kenji by his shoulder, all the time wondering if three steps were enough. And Kenji had no time to even question what the older person was doing.
Shun Ten Satsu broke out before anybody knew what was happening.
Utilising the speed of Shukuchi, Shun Ten Satsu was more than just a straight-line battou-jutsu, as Soujirou now demonstrated to the masses. He vanished from sight so cleanly, not even the slightest winds caught him in his wake. Going through every single mirage on a rounded path, Soujirou just about made a pass at all the illusions in the twinkling of an eye, and quickly found where the person was standing in actuality.
His next step brought an earth-shaking tremour throughout the plaza, and a small crater formed where he had placed that one foot on. In the next moment he soared through the air, bringing his weapon down to a crashing collision against the other man's blade. The residue force tapered off violently into slips of wind surging outwards where the masses gathered in a circle. Being mostly drunk and shakey, most of the people in the front row began to topple over the ones at the back, who then toppled over the ones at their back... and so on so forth. Bamboo against blade, the winner soon became obvious, when Soujirou's shinai gave a dangerous cracking sound and started to develop a split near the hilt, where the sharp kodachi had caught it in defence.
Soujirou's eyes widened slightly, and he quickly broke off contact, landing lightly on the ground, a completely different person from the one who had added a new crater to Kyoto by a single step of his foot just now. He stared mournfully at his damaged shinai, not bothering to look up at the man with the twin kodachis anymore, even though the stranger could now easily chuck a blade at the wanderer and gave him another injury to worry about.
No such thing would be happening, however, for Kamatari had wandered his way to the ring with a few men in tow. "What's going on here?" He shook his head at the drunk men who were sprawled all over the floor from having been on the receiving end of a Shukuchi with nowhere to go. The scythe-wielding spy took one look at the ring, the upturned grass, the crater, Soujirou, and the hooded stranger, and understanding dawned. Beckoning for the men behind him to help some of those drunk people on the floor, Kamatari stared evenly at the stranger, who was, perhaps, not so strange any more. "My dear onmitsu," he smiled sweetly, "is /this/ what you said you wanted to find out about?" He gestured at the messy surroundings.
The man did not reply, only making an action to slide his kodachis back into their holders fluidly. "No," he stated frankly, "but I've gotten the information I needed." He leapt backwards, still with the hood over his face, rendering it unreadable. He turned to glance briefly at Soujirou, then back at Kamatari. "Farewell for now," he muttered carefully, before melding with the shadows in the plains, unseen and unheard.
"Hey!" Kamatari screeched, waving a fist. "Come back here you pathetic block of ice! I'm not done with you yet, Shinomori Aoshi! What, you think you can just come in here and throw the entire place into chaos and then get away with it just because I think you're cute?! You haven't seen the last of me yet, you sad excuse for an onmitsu okashira! You-"
"Kamatari-san..." Soujirou had both hands out in a fanning motion, a silly smile on his face. "... I think he's out of hearing range already. Calm down!"
"Sou-chan!" Kamatari whirled around pointed at the wanderer instead. "Why did you humour that unreasonable slab of wall? Oh! You guys will all be the death of me!" He kicked unhappily at a loose rock and pouted.
"I don't think," Enishi had returned from his temporary hiding place from the Shun Ten Satsu just now, and walked easily towards Soujirou and Kamatari, Kenji in tow, "that was what you originally intended to tell us about 'that block of ice', was it?"
Kamatari's gaze turned from angry to thoughtful within a second. He glanced about around him for a while more, before turning towards the trio and beckoning them closer. When they were within whispering range, the spy sighed, "The Oniwabanshuu have a vital clue about the location of the Yuugure in Kyoto," he explained, "but for some reason, they're not divulging it to the police. Obviously, Saitou is none too pleased about this. He thinks there's something going on about this secrecy..."
The spy breathed.
"And he wants you to find out what it is."
... to be continued
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3/9/03
xd@tougenkyou.net
A/N
I'm so tired (... 4:30am *.*x) *rubs eyes* and I really don't have anything
much to say other than - sorry for bad action. -_-x;; My mind just did not move
for this chapter because my usual IRC and MSN idea bounceboards were not behaving
themselves...
(^_^x = Me, Maiki = My Idea Bounceboard)
^_^x it's okay about the fanfic
^_^x i'm stuck with soujirou and aoshi just looking at each other atm
^_^x maybe i should just make it a quick fight
* Maiki sweatdrops
Maiki make them kiss XD
^_^x ...
* ^_^x pushes maiki into the well
Now, XD is a person with an imagination too active for her own good, and thus spent a good lot of the day trying to dispel weird images in her head from that bit of conversation alone (yes, there is MORE, and it involves dishes and Shinsengumi loinclothes). *bangs head against wall* *ahem* All right, I think I'm a little more sane now. Let's hope the next chapter turns out better. *shameless plug* Please visit jbramx2's deviantart website to see a wonderful art of Kenji, Sou, and Eni! - jbramx2 . deviantart . com (remove spaces!) XD XD XD
kenshin_admirer
Yes, you're right, it's Aoshi. :D Kenji is a little fighting genius. *huggles
him* And he's so cute.
jbramx2
KYA!!!!!!!!!!!!! I went to see the art - it's so pretty!!! Your line art is
so solid and nice!! :D~~~ I'm so honoured *huggles jbramx2* You're right that
Soujirou's hard to draw, btw. O.Ox But I think Enishi was the real bugger, his
hair stands up at all the wrong directions! XD
April-san
*points at note pasted on run-down wall* So anyway, quill was really difficult
to write in, but I hope Aoshi still remains as sexy as he was in your eyes,
because he sure is still like that in mine. *cackles with insane glee* You're
smart by taking a few steps back. :D
Shahrezad1
Yes, it's Aoshi. *giggle*
EEevee
Definitely, Kaoru punches harder. XD My poor brain cells. I think I levelled
the lot of them. *_*x Now I'm just a blathering idiot ogaa!
Silver Nightingale
*repeats* Yes, it's Aoshi. Heheheh, funny is my middle name. I can't write a
serious fic at all, nuh-uh. XD