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 48: Velocity Power
"I see that you are back with the main players of this game," the unmistakable voice of Saitou could be heard from a dark corner near the foot of the door. He had been biting on the unlit cigarette dangling from his mouth, which would explain why neither Soujirou nor Enishi had noticed him until he spoke. They had grown to associate the police chief's appearance with the thick smell of tobacco and a tendril of poisonous smoke.
Enishi raised an eyebrow and could not help but jibe, "Did someone finally decide to notice the smoking-kills campaign?"
The police chief merely shot Enishi a cool glance. "I frankly suppose that my personal habits have nothing /worthy/ to merit your honourable attention."
"Okay, okay," Soujirou waved his arms about, attempting to diffuse the situation. He had had enough of alpha arguing to last him the rest of his life. He understood the need to have an edge over the enemy with cunning and wit, but he certainly did not understand why his friends felt the great need to argue at least once every time they met. "Shall we put our non-existence differences aside for now and figure out a way to conquer this huge door for once and for all?" He asked, as sweetly as he could.
Of course, everybody currently present stared at him like he had been speaking in another language. Saitou flicked his unused cigarette onto the floor, and was about to say something when the interruption arrived.
"Yo, Saitou!" Chou waddled into view from somewhere. Despite being brightly lit, the huge room had more hiding places in the dark than anyone initially thought. The police spy gave the others a cursory glance, stopping when his eyes fell upon Soujirou. "Oh! He's here," Chou flashed a grin at Saitou. "Good, 'coz we're all ready where we are, too."
Soujirou could feel question marks mushrooming out of his head. "Huh?" He asked, feeling that it was a rather intelligent question, in view of his current lack of knowledge of the situation.
Chou stared at him for a while. "They haven't told you yet?" He asked, withdrawing cautiously.
Soujirou found it in himself to smile, brighter than the fire torches of the room. "No." He stated in a tone that demanded that someone tell him now, or the person nearest to him would be a few limbs and digits short of a full body. Having had to face enough of suchlike aura in the past, Chou shrugged outwardly, and tried to suppress the cold sweat that was threatening to burst out from his forehead.
"This door's some heavy shit," the sword collector began, "we've been trying everything we can, pushing, pulling, slicing, dicing, blasting and exploding - nothing works."
"So that makes you think that I can do better?" Soujirou was miffed and slightly annoyed. He may be strong to a certain extent, but even he himself would stop to think thrice about a declaration that he could bring down a stone door which a bomb had not been able to.
"Of course!" Chou pat him on the back in a friendly manner. "You're the only one who can get us through this door now, I'd dare say!"
"You're insane," Enishi butted into the conversation. He was standing near the door and had evidently been listening in. "This door is nearly forty times his height, and probably four hundred times his weight. I don't see how he's going to be able to budge it, much less move it out of the way."
"Thanks for the vouch of confidence, Yukishiro-san," Soujirou chirped good naturedly. "But yes, he is right," he turned back to Chou, who shrugged and jerked a thumb backwards at Saitou. "Saitou-san?" Soujirou asked the solemn man. "This was /your/ idea?"
Again, when Saitou opened his mouth to say something, he was interrupted. This time, by Misao and Kamatari, who both leapt down from somewhere high and previously unseen. "Saitou, we're done on our side too," Kamatari announced, slamming the hilt of his scythe into the soft soil once, causing the chain on the weapon to tinkle against the blade. He tilted his head and grinned at Soujirou. "Hi, Sou-chan. So glad of you to offer to help us out here! We were really wondering how to go on!" His eyes darted over to where Enishi was and his mood waned visibly. "Hi to you too, cactus."
Enishi returned his greeting with a two-finger salute; neither agreeing to nor denying the charge that he was nothing but a pot of thorny desert plant.
"Wait." Soujirou, however, refused to acknowledge the greetings he had gotten so far. "Why do I feel like I'm missing out on something that will alter my life here after?" He still had a smile on his face, but his smile was evil. He looked at Aoshi from the corner of his eyes. "Perhaps this has something to do with the 'thing' you said I would be needed for while we were at the courtyard?"
Saitou cleared his throat loudly. Everybody's attention immediately was upon him. "Thank you," he graciously said, retrieving his sword from where it was leaning against the wall beside him. He walked up to Soujirou. "You wish to get through this door and get your hands on the Yuugure too, don't you?" He calmly questioned. Soujirou smiled.
"I believe that was what you hired me for, wasn't it, Saitou-san?" The boyish wanderer chirped.
"I am glad you still remember that you're working /under/ me," Saitou half snorted, turning to look derisively at Enishi, who simply looked back blankly. "And since you remember, you may do well to remember too that you will listen to my instructions and not question me, unless you desire very much to be kicked out of his case and for the entire police force to be actively on your case again," Saitou's eyes narrowed more than they were already narrowed. "Is that clear?"
Soujirou was not sure if he wanted to answer that. On the one hand, he had a raising urge to kick Saitou where it would hurt for the rest of his life, just to show the man what he thought of having the entire police force on his back. On the other hand, however, he had pursued the Yuugure case for months and yearned for closure to the matter - hopefully when he was present personally. Weighing his options carefully, Soujirou decided that kicking Saitou now would not benefit him in any way, besides make his wandering life a bit more exciting. He could kick Saitou after everything was done. So for now, he nodded and smiled. "Yes, sir!" He exclaimed, relishing in the echoes that his loud voice produced in the cavern.
"Excellent," Saitou sighed softly. He beckoned to Misao and Kamatari, who nodded at his signal and advanced towards the confused Soujirou with various thick rubber padding and lengthy metallic ropes.
The wanderer took it in his stride by not backing away instinctively, but allowing the two excited younglings to attach the rubber pads around his arms, waist and feet, then the metal ropes over the pads. He stared at the chains, trying to trace where the other ends were attached to. He saw that they stretched into the darkness behind him, and then curved upwards to some point on or near the stone doors. Soujirou was silent for a while. He considered the possibilities very carefully. Then he turned, also very carefully, back to facing Saitou.
"You don't mean," he asked, slowly, keeping his smile intact, "that you have got one end of some chains attached to the huge door, and then the other end attached to me... because you want me to run forward and hopefully use the force of my running to topple the door down?"
Saitou looked once at Soujirou. Then a positively evil grin took over his previously blank facade. "That's right," he agreed. "It should be chicken feed for the power of the Shukuchi, shouldn't it?"
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Kenji burst through a grove and landed flat on his face against hot gravel stone, for which he quickly scrambled to his feet and fanned his heating face dramatically. The silver fox, who had been leading him, paused and turned back to stare at him.
It almost looked like the fox was grinning playfully at Kenji's plight, but from what Kenji knew, the fox had been grinning since the first day he saw the animal. Kicking a stone away in silent protest, he broke into a run again, trying to catch up with the fox, who had began running ahead again.
Halfway through the courtyard, he noticed that the fox had paused in front of a fallen body and its fur was standing up. The fox crouched on its front legs, as if ready to strike the motionless figure on the floor anytime. This made Kenji instantly suspicious. He softly padded over, sneaking a glance at the fallen man. His eyes widened in surprise. This was one of the men who were walking along the forest path that particular day!
Immediately, he glanced around for a weapon. His own had been sacrificed to the waterfall when Hiko slapped it cleanly out of his hands, and he had yet to really get a new one. His entire training with Hiko had involved branches and twigs of various sizes and weight, but he knew that twigs alone were not going to be very intimidating or useful. He saw a long rod lying on the ground somewhere nearby and took it into his hands immediately. It was much too long for him, but this would have to do for now.
The fox started to yip, forcing the boy to return his attention to the scene on hand. The huge man who had previously been frothing at the mouth on the floor was slowly getting up.
Kenji's eyes flashed, as the events of that particular day along the stretch of mountain road came back to him with striking detail. He heaved the long stick as he would a bokken, relieved that the weapon was not very heavy and was easy to swing around despite its length. Before the huge man knew what was going on, Kenji gave a war cry and swung the long weapon at him, striking him squarely in his big stomach area.
The huge man was sent flying across the courtyard, crashing spectacularly into one of the empty rooms along the corridor.
"That was for calling me a rat, vermin!" Kenji screeched, amidst the noise that was paper doors and unused shelves falling to the weight of a man who had just flew into them from across the garden.
After the dust settled, the young swordsman regained his senses and blinked. He straightened himself, staring in the direction the huge man had flew off into. "Wow," he mused aloud to himself. "I didn't know I was hitting him /that/ hard."
The fox simply stared once at him, grinning. Then it bounded away in a seemingly random direction, its swishing tail the only sign of which way it went, for Kenji was still marveling at his newfound strength. He quickly shook himself and returned to reality, giving chase to the fox before he lost sight of it entirely. He also abandoned the long stick, for he figured that it was not really his kind of weapon. He sighed, deciding to keep a lookout for another weapon. Going into enemy terrain bare-fisted was not the most ideal situation he wanted to get into now, but if he had to do it, then he would.
It was nearly midday. Still some time left to sunset.
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"I would really like to repeat myself," Soujirou's voice was calm, but there was mild hysteria in his eyes, "in case you didn't hear me the first time, that no, this is /not/ the right way to use Shukuchi. In fact, I have /never/ heard of anyone using speed to pull down stone doors so I /really/ don't think it's going to work and..." he sighed when he realised that nobody was listening to him, although Misao and Kamatari were still checking the metal chain they had tied around his limbs, ensuring that they were secure. From a safe distance, Soujirou could see Enishi yawning, completely uninterested in defending his occasional but long-time partner from the mob insanity. He bristled.
"Okay, we're done," Misao happily announced, and took a step backwards. Kamatari soon did the same.
"All gear secured and ready to go!" The spy nodded, sounding equally happy. Soujirou bristled even more. They were certainly having great fun at his expense.
"Well, Tenken no Soujirou," Saitou waved at him apathetically. "It's time for you to show us your stuff."
For the next few seconds, there was complete still and silence. A stale wind blew through the cavern from between the small cracks that were available or had been made by Misao and Kamatari in their quest to anchor the door to Soujirou's appendanges. Even though Soujirou appeared to be in deep thought over something, it was hard to tell what was really on his mind.
Finally, the wanderer sighed softly. However soft it was, the empty room amplified it, such that everybody present could hear him.
That was just as well, for his next words were meant for all. He turned, flashing his onlookers a beautiful smile as he declared, "I am going to kill all of you if this fails."
Silence was his only reply, with Chou and Kamatari both sensing beads of cold sweat rolling down their cheeks. Soujirou crouched down into the familiar pose of Shuntensatsu, wondering again and again why he was doing what he was doing. Ah yes, he remembered. It was so that he could put an end this Yuugure nonsense for once and for all.
Well, if he succeeded in tearing down the door with Shukuchi speed and translated energy, he would skin all the Yuugure he saw on his way out alive. If not, he would just skin Enishi alive. What a win-win situation this was. He giggled, causing everybody to step back once out of self-protection. But without further ado, the wanderer leant forward.
In the blink of an eye, he vanished into the realm of superspeed.
All the onlookers could see was that the chains suddenly tightened, digging deeply into the massive door that hindered them from their next step, loosening much ancient soil. In just a split second, the formerly towering presence of the heavy looking door came tearing off its natural hinges, splitting into myriads of minor cracks where the hooks had been set in. Although the entire door had been dislodged in one clean move, the tip of the door instantly succumbed to gravity, tilting dangerously forward, threatening to collapse on anybody and anything that stood below it. The shadow of the door lurched forward, growing bigger and bigger - bigger than it should be.
It would have completely collapsed onto the floor, effectively squashing anybody and anything beneath it, if it had not been longer than the width of the room itself. The fallen door groaned loudly as it dragged itself downwards into the wall it had been facing when it was upright. Eventually, the groaning muffled into a loud, yawning stop. The door had fallen to its limits, stopped halfway to completion by the wall opposite it, forming a downward ramp that led to the room just behind it. The few who were beneath it, a breath away from being squashed, heaved collective sighs of relief.
"Oh man," Misao quickly scrambled to the narrow ledge that would still be available for walking even if the door should completely fall. She looked at the fallen door and shuddered. The door was as thick as she was tall, and that did not sit well with her. This thing doubtlessly weighed a ton. She had sudden newfound respect for Soujirou and the explosive latent power behind the speed of Shukuchi. And she noted to herself that Soujirou was to help with all last minute grocery shopping the next time he dropped by the renovated Aoiya.
"It looks like it worked," Saitou blandly announced, still leaning against the wall with not a shadow of fear upon his hooded, confident features. The fire torches had all been blown out by the wind caused by the massive door falling. The only source of light they had now was from the other room, the room they now had access to after forcibly yanking the impossibly huge door open. Saitou cocked his head in a direction to a figure who was standing somewhere on top of the slanted door, engrossed in his own affairs. "Very useful skill you've got there, Tenken."
From where he stood atop the stone slab that was once an upright door, Soujirou raised his new sword, bringing it down upon the final constraint of metal that was on one of his his wrists. With a firm clink, the barrier fell, broken in pieces, to the ground. The rubber padding beneath it exploded in scattered fragments.
"Ah well," the boy shrugged. "I guess I could always find a reason to kill you... some other day!" He promised with a brilliant smile.
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... to be continued
25/2/05
tougenkyou . net / xd