DISCLAIMER: All copyrighted characters belong to their respective owners. No money is being made out of this fanwork. Please do not distribute without permission.

WARNING: Spoilers! If you don't know who Kenji is, please read at your own risk! POSSIBLE CHARACTER DEATH AT END OF STORY.

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 46: One Step Closer

The silence that occurred immediately after Guang's entrance was thick and brooding. Only Enishi appeared as if he wanted and was ready to beat something up. Aoshi and Soujirou were comparatively relaxed, lounging somewhere in the background.

"If you want to go first and leave one person behind to fight me," Guang grunted monotonously, "I tell you is useless. Ming ordered us to shift entrance to dungeon so it is different from where your other friends are!"

"Oh, how thoughtful," Soujirou clasped his hands together. "That means that we shouldn't be wasting time here with you, but using our time more productively in the search for this new entrance, right?" He turned to face his comrades.

Aoshi nodded sombrely. "A logical decision," he remarked.

"Damn," Enishi lowered his sword. "And I really needed to trash something up, too."

Before either three of them could turn to walk away from the massive mafia man, however, said man slammed his wooden pole against the upraised corridor, driving a hole cleanly into the floor. "Even with three of you," Guang rumbled, "you will not find dungeon entrance by sunset. And then everything will be over." The huge man flashed a rare smirk at the trio, and it certainly looked like he had something big up his sleeve. "Cannons." The one word alone transformed the previously somewhat lighthearted atmosphere into that of shock and gloom. "Kyoto will be finished!"

All three warriors stared at each other, the urgency of the situation suddenly descending upon them with those few broken words. It did not seem like the man Guang was lying about it either. While the trio were still trying to resolve the questions in their minds, Guang pulled his weapon out from the floor and held it primed beside him.

"But Ming said," the big Chinese man continued, "if you fight worthy, then I will tell you where the entrance is. And maybe you have chance to stop us." He grinned. "But maybe not." Without waiting for a reply from any of the three, he swung his long, flexible weapon in the general direction of his opponents, who each took only a split second to assess the situation, before leaping clear from harm's way.

"I don't care about the entrance anymore," Enishi snarled. "I just want to beat this guy into bloody pulp right now." He sheathed his sword and charged at the man with his bare hands.

"That's excellent!" Soujirou grinned. He had yet to even touch a single part of his weapon, his hands being firmly folded within the interior of his gi since his arrival at the temple. "Being bloody pulp is at least better than being in ten bloody pieces all over the temple rooftops, right?"

From where he stood beside the cheerful wanderer, Aoshi twitched.

Enishi and Guang were further away from them, in a world of their own. Enishi was cracking his knuckles, sneering openly, while Guang stayed cautious, weapon outstretched and armour in place. "Fists only, sir?" He eventually quipped, when it became apparent that Enishi did not intend to use anything sharp. "I have gotten stronger since last time, Lao-da."

"I'm not your Lao-da anymore," Enishi casually disclaimed. He blew at a fist, then slammed it into his other palm. "But if you insist, then I should probably teach you a lesson or two in /manners!" He charged, faster than the blink of an eye. There was a loud metallic 'CLING!' when his fist met hard armour. It did not appear to have gone as well as it should have, however, as Enishi found himself bouncing backwards with a smarting fist. He stared at his sore hand first, then at Guang, poker-faced.

"I told you, sir," Guang smirked, "that I am stronger now."

A small trickle of blood began to run down Enishi's hand, until he licked it entirely off. He said nothing, rising to full height, aura blazing.

Somewhere in the background, Soujirou was scratching his cheek. He turned to Aoshi. "Wouldn't it be faster if we attacked him all at once?"

Aoshi was silent for one second. "That is true," he then replied, pulling out a kodachi from inside his sheath. He threw the other kodachi that was still in the sheath to Soujirou, who caught it wordlessly, nodding to show that he knew that he was supposed to watch it until the thing was over. "Soujirou, don't interfere for now. We need you for something else later," Aoshi commanded firmly, and the younger man blinked in initial surprise. But he could ask no questions, for the tall man was already walking forward into the fray.

Shrugging, the young looking wanderer relaxed and backed away to take shade under a conveniently placed tree in the courtyard. He leaned against it, watching the battle in the yard with mild, waning interest.

His real interest, was on the multiple sets of crossbows mounted beneath the tiles of the roof surrounding the courtyard, each tingling with awareness - loaded and ready to receive the command to fire with but a simple trigger or two.

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When Kenji woke up, the sun was nearly midway to the peak of the sky. All around him, there was nothing but the sounds of rustling grass and leaves. He sat up from where he had been sleeping the night before, rubbing his eyes. Looking around him, he saw that he was in the house, and he frowned. He last remembered being in the heart of the forest. He had been getting knocked out cold for the umpteenth time, right after seeing the smirking face of the old man Hiko.

The thought of his temporary master immediately annoyed him. He clambered to his feet and burst out of the house by its filmsy door, glancing all around. He could see the lone figure of Hiko imprinted against the horizon, a little further down a hastily cleared road, so he wandered in that direction. As he walked, however, he noticed that he did not remember ever seeing this particular path before. The stretch of road looked like a giant had descended upon the Kyoto outskirts and stomped hard on this area to clear out a flat path on it.

"Finally awake, huh?" Hiko's voice reached him before he even came close to the old master. He sighed in defeat, deciding to run the rest of the distance, which he did. When he came close enough, Hiko turned around and shot him a knowing smirk. The kind that irritated him the most. He made a face back, causing Hiko to smirk wider.

"Where's everybody else?" Kenji asked instinctively. He saw that Hiko had returned to looking down the path of cleared trees, and so he looked down as well. It was certainly a rather long stretch of road, possibly a convenient way out of the forest. "Did you do this?" He asked, half-amazed and half-offended. Hiko had certainly not struck him as the kind to do something so troublesome for a simple stroke of convenience.

"Of course not," Hiko raised an eyebrow in disbelief. He continued, "Those damn smugglers came and cut down all the trees so they could transport their stuff." He shook his head. "No respect for nature, young people nowadays!"

Kenji stared at Hiko. "What!" He suddenly leapt up and down. "Does that mean that Soujirou and Enishi are gone already!"

"Since the break of dawn, I believe," Hiko helpfully supplied. He took a swig from the bottle of sake tied on his hand.

"And you didn't wake me up!"

"What am I, your grandfather?" Hiko snorted. He gulped down another mouthful of wine. "What kind of a swordsman are you if you can't even wake up by yourself, anyway?"

Kenji growled. "But it was your fault I trained so hard that I'm still feeling pins and needles now!"

"It's your fault that you're so weak," was the cool retort.

"AARGH! Enough! Enough!" Kenji grabbed his hair in frustration. He stalked forward, turnning around to face the composed Hiko. "I'm going after them! You're not gonna stop me, are you?"

Hiko stared at the pouting boy for a short second. He snorted and waved dismissively immediately thereafter. "Suit yourself, greenhorn. But you do realise that there is a /reason/ why they had not intended to bring you along at all, don't you?"

"I...!" Kenji opened his mouth to give his convinced reply, but snapped it shut again. He looked at his feet. "I... I know..." He sighed. "I wouldn't want myself around either, if I were them..."

"If you really think so, then do both them and yourself a favour and don't go anywhere," Hiko pointed out.

"I never said that!" Kenji growled at the older man again, and Hiko had to admit that this particular stubborn streak was getting to be a rather familiar sight for him. He had no idea why he had such an effect on teenaged redheads. He just did.

"What do you really want to do then?" Hiko prompted, growing solemn. "You say one thing and want to do another. Make up your mind kid," he shook his head at the boy. "Or are you going to stand here all day being indecisive?"

Kenji's eyes narrowed in offence. He stood and puffed his chest out. "I said that I'm going after them, and I will!" He declared, once and for all. He stuck a tongue out at Hiko, whose eyebrow twitched at that particular action, and bounded down the path without a second word. "And I'm gonna win! And you're gonna have to eat your words about me! With chili sauce! And bottles of vinegar! And..." The boy's shouting trailed as he got further and further away.

Hiko watched, until Kenji vanished into a certain part of the forest. He slowly sipped his sake. A thought struck him, and he opened his eyes from savouring his wine.

"Oh no." He thought out loud to himself. "I think I forgot to give him the map."

A pigeon cooed in the background, and the sun slowly clambered to the highest point above.

"Ah well," Hiko shrugged. "He'll come back when he realises he's lost." He turned dramatically, striding big, confident steps back into the house behind.

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"Thanks Shinomori, but I don't need your help," Enishi sneered at the quiet man who had slinked into the heat of the battle without a sound. Aoshi glanced at him from the corner of his eyes, and he did not seem impressed by Enishi's acting tough.

"Pull your sword out and fight properly, then," the ninja stated. Enishi ducked, narrowly avoided being smacked upside the head by the long wooden pole Guang was waving around with expert ease. He gave the pole a firm kick, sending both it and its owner off balance for a while.

"Pointless," he spat. "You can't cut that pole up with a normal sword anyway."

Aoshi looked disbelievingly at the white-haired man, as if meaning to question if Enishi had just admitted he could not do something. By then, Guang had regained his balance and now swung the pole in Aoshi's direction, possibly hoping to catch him off guard. Aoshi merely turned his head around to face the attack, and brought his kodachi up to parry the pole successfully. For a few moments, it was metal against flexible wood. Aoshi was staring at the pole, assessing it. Finally, he tossed it aside, leaping slightly backwards so he was out of its reach. "I see." He muttered. "A pole of modified rubber, and not flexible wood."

"That is correct," Guang boomed, grasping the pole with both hands. "I can use it like a solid spear, or make it become whip!" He demonstrated his words by curving the long pole upwards, so that it struck at one of the tiles of the roof, making it explode into dust and fragments immediately.

This caused Soujirou to whistle appreciatively, clapping once. "Sawagejou-san had a sword like that before!" He chirped, not at all affected by the destructive qualities of the pole just extolled. His cheeriness got on the nerves of both Enishi and Guang, whereas Aoshi remained silently disinterested. "By the way, the sun is almost halfway to the sky!" Soujirou pointed upwards, smiling radiantly. "Keep at this rate and I think we /will/ see fireworks at sunset!"

"Dammit, can you just shut the hell up for one second!" Enishi glowered at his partner, who shrugged and returned to fanning himself with a huge piece of fallen leaf. Aoshi had already readied his kodachi and was charging at Guang with no mercy intended. Enishi shook his head and withdrew his longsword silently. "Game's over for you..." he whispered under his breath. His eyes seemed slightly distracted. And suddenly focused. He took a single step, then disappeared completely from sight.

Aoshi met Guang head-on first. The long, curving pole twirling around him, trying to get a hit on him. As seasoned Guang was with the weapon, however, he was not able to get it to do what he wanted. Although it was a highly destructive weapon, it was hard to maneuver. Aoshi thrust his sword in the middle of the whipping pole, catching it as it tried to bend away. He used the momentum to trap the distorted pole, twisting it such that it now wound snugly around the kodachi. Aoshi grabbed the tip of the pole, which was now wrapped all around his kodachi blade. He stared at Guang from beneath the shadow of his hair, taunting him to try something.

Guang tugged, but was unable to tug the pole free. If the pole had been weaker, or the kodachi sharper, then maybe he could have managed to sliced the wound up portions away with a bit of movement. But since Aoshi had tested that it would not happen, no matter how much tugging Guang did, the stick would not budge.

Not that he had time to try it anymore. A shadow darted out overhead from behind Aoshi, diving swiftly and mercilessly at the flabbergasted Guang. He let go of his weapon just in time to step back once, narrowly avoiding being decapitated. He quickly prepared to leap backwards, but by that time, the shadowy figure - Enishi, had stretched a long leg out, succeeding in tripping the big man. Guang fell sprawled on his back towards the ground, shrieking in pain when his heavy armour made the fall harder than it should have been.

Even before Guang could recover or roll away, he could hear the sound of a metal blade thrusting threateningly into the hard soil beside him. Looking first at the dangerous blade that glinted in the sun, hovering just barely above his throat, then at the grinning Enishi, looming over him, he gulped. Though his whole body - throat included - was protected, he could not help but feel nervous.

"So you've gotten stronger." Enishi was saying. "How much stronger?" His smirk stretched. "Have you been working on your speed? Your stealth?" The white-haired man plucked his sword out from the soil and swung it casually, flicking the dirt on it off. He stamped firmly with one foot on the fallen man's chest, then pointed the tip of the sword at his forehead. "Obviously you've not been working on any," the man remarked coolly. With a deft swipe, he dislodged Guang's helmet and sent it flying in the air. "How else would your armour be so easy to remove?"

"Lao-da..." Guang began, tentatively. Still afraid of something. The piece of headgear continued on its upwards descent in the air. Enishi did not reply to Guang. He did not even appear to have heard the man. His eyes were upon the helmet, which was now succumbing to gravity and falling to the ground. With strokes so fast that one could hardly catch them, Enishi sliced the helmet cleanly into shreds. He thrust his hand up into the metal that was falling to the ground in pieces, and retrieved a piece of white paper from within the falling rubble.

"Oh my!" Soujirou put a hand on his lips, suddenly understanding what Enishi was trying to do. Aoshi had finally untangled the flexible rubber pole from his kodachi and tossed it to a side, where it landed heavily on the ground but produced no sound. Enishi turned to look at Guang, his expression a cross between rage and frustration.

"Go back," said the white-haired man to Guang. "Tell Ming: that there is nothing in this world you know that was not taught by me. And there is nothing of yours that I cannot break. Not even..." He paused, aiming his sword at the pole that Aoshi's kodachi was unable to cut. He twisted his sword in a strange angle, and with great strength, slammed the sharp blade into the pole, tearing it into two. "...things you came up with by yourself." His point made, he lifted his foot up from Guang, who was paralysed with certain fear, and stepped aside. "Thanks for the entrance map." He stated, rustling the piece of paper in his hand.

By the time Guang snapped out of his reverie, Enishi was already moving off the courtyard, into the corridors within. Aoshi was somewhere behind him, and so was Soujirou, although the boyish wanderer was a short distance away from the other two. The trafficker cursed under his breath for his careless mistake. He struggled onto his knees, pulling a trigger box out from under a metallic pocket. "You all will die!" He snarled angrily, placing the box on the ground and punching it hard.

There was an instant click, which caused three swordsmen to stop immediately and two to heighten their senses for unseen assailants. For a while, the world seemed to be on hold. Time passed, and nothing happened. Enishi and Aoshi relaxed slightly, but still stared at Guang, who looked at them with confusion written over his features. Again and again he punched at the trigger box, trying to ignite something, but failing.

"Oh!" Soujirou suddenly chirped. "I don't suppose these belong to you?" He turned around, removing two thick bundles of lethal looking arrows from within his sleeves. "I found them mounted on crossbows under the roof tiles! Very dangerous things, these are!" He remarked offhandedly, tossing the arrows up into the air, pulling his sword out in two quick flashes to render all arrowheads broken and useless. The crushed projectiles dropped to the ground like dead flies. "You should really stop playing with these things," Soujirou smiled at Guang. "They could hurt someone one day!" He bent down to pick something up.

"Impossible!" Guang gasped. "You never moved from under tree at all!" He grit his teeth, knowing his game was truly over.

"But I guess you naughty boys won't really learn until you have a taste of your own medicine!" Soujirou was saying, completely ignoring Guang's distress. There was a single arrow that had not yet been sliced cleanly in half, and that was what Soujirou had bent to pick up. From his other hand, he brandished a crossbow he had not been holding before. "Hmm..." He loaded the arrow into the crossbow and examined the weapon. "...how do you use this thing? Like this?" He pressed something on the bow.

The arrow made a clunking sound. Then it shot out from the crossbow, before anyone had the chance to even blink first.

Slicing through the air faster than the naked eye could see, the stick found its target - the forehead of the frozen Guang, and smacked dead center. Guang shrieked like a little girl, then fell to the ground, unconscious from shock. Aoshi stared. Enishi gaped.

Soujirou went, "Oops!" and scratched the back of his head. He then brandished the arrowhead that was supposed to have hit Guang, but obviously did not. "Just kidding!" He dropped the point along with the crossbow, pouting "Never could figure out how all these western weapons worked!" He pointed at Guang. "But look at him! He got hit by just an arrow /stick/ and he fainted!" Soujirou giggled. "This is such a great way to start the day off!"

Aoshi repressed a sigh. He continued to walk towards the corridor, ignoring Soujirou's yelp of pain when Enishi's fist connected with the younger wanderer's head.

A silver fox scurried across the courtyard. But they did not see it.

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... to be continued
17/2/05
tougenkyou . net / xd

thanks to all your feedback regarding the scenario of a possible character death! i'm really grateful that you guys didn't take the announcement with offence! hee hee :hugz you all: please rest assured that i wouldn't write it just to deliver something shocking. if i had wanted to, i wouldn't have put out a warning at all! once again thank you so much for being understanding!