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 49: In Suspension
"What the hell do these people think they're up to!" Chou cursed incessantly under his breath. The slowly lowering ceilings of the tunnel his entire entourage was travelling in amplifying it so that everybody heard it anyway. They cast him strange, bothered looks.
Noticing this, Chou simply snorted and turned his nose up in the air. "You /all/ saw how /huge/ that damn door was! Can you tell me seriously that you don't feel like you've been cheated after you realise that stupid door leads to a cramped, narrow /tunnel/ that can barely fit two people shoulder to shoulder at a go!"
There was a brief silence, which was punctuated only by Saitou's soft sighing.
Chou bristled immediately upon hearing the putting down tone in Saitou's voice. "Whatever bullshit you want to toss in my direction this time, you can save it, buster," he half-snarled, knowing that even if Saitou was to berate him like a little boy, he would be powerless to stop it anyway. That did not mean that he would stop trying to jump on every available nerve of the man who constantly put his life through torture and peril, though!
But Saitou simply shrugged in response. "How could I possibly dream of wasting my breath on brainless morons like yourself," the question was stated as if there was nothing more about the topic to argue for or against. Chou could feel a blood vessel throbbing on his forehead, ready to burst anytime. Before he could get down to shouting at the - in his opinion - over-confident dog of the government, Kamatari bravely walked in between the two men in conflict, holding up placating hands.
"Okay, okay, please don't get into an internal scuffle at this point of time," he shook his head. "We don't need to enemy to laugh at us for breaking down from within before we even reach them," he reminded.
"I believe those words were meant for you, broomhead," Saitou sneered at the still fuming Chou, who was trying to clear his head to accomodate the logic behind Kamatari's suggestion. Once Saitou spoke, however, the urge to murder leapt up at him from the darkest recesses of his mind once more, ready to really murder with just one more push of the button.
"Stop it, both of you!" Kamatari huffed, when he noticed that Chou returned to glaring and growling. He whapped Chou upside the head and kicked a stone at Saitou. That was all he could do. He did not know what he could say that had already been said before in his long service working alongside the quarrelsome duo.
Their petty squabbling had also attracted the attention of everybody who was currently walking along the tunnel. Some were curious, others were disapproving, and yet others nonchalant. All in all, it certainly made the situation less amiable and more uneasy. Not the best kind of atmosphere to have just prior to a huge showdown with the enemy.
It was somewhat to everyone's relief then, that Aoshi's calm, unaffected voice was to be next heard, lifting the tension among the group of warriors. "Saitou," he addressed the man directly, determined to ignore the outburst that had just occurred, "did you also know about the Yuugure's plans for sunset?"
Saitou stared at Aoshi for a long while. "There was a spectulation, but up until now it still remains just a speculation."
"If your speculation has anything to do with cannons and Kyoto, then it isn't a speculation anymore," Aoshi informed.
"What do you mean?" Kamatari's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "And how did you know anyway?"
"That man stationed to intercept the two of them," Aoshi gestured at Soujirou and Enishi, who had remained exceptionally silent thus far. "He is one of the three who are closest to their leader. He warned us that by sunset, Kyoto will be under attack. Whether or not there is an ulterior motive in his information I cannot tell, but one thing I am certain of is that his information was true and should be taken seriously," the ninja's slightly animated hands returned to their usual spot, folded across his chest.
"But why would they want to attack Kyoto for?" Misao asked the question lingering upon everybody's mind. She tilted her head and ghosted two fingers over her chin. "Wouldn't it be a big waste of money and power? I mean, not that I /want/ Kyoto to be attacked or anything," she disclaimed quickly, "...but it just seems illogical. Unless they've got a lot of firepower in their arsenal, I don't see how such a big-scale operation on an entire city can get them anywhere... except in trouble with the government. Which can be quite suicidal for a comparatively small organisation like them, huh?" She grinned at any who were listening to her.
"For once, I see that you have finally developed a brain," Saitou remarked offhandedly, casually knocking away a kunai that came sailing in his direction immediately after his half-hearted praise of sorts.
"The attack on Kyoto may be for many reasons," Saitou continued, "in their case, probably a statement of power. To accurately deduce what their actual purpose is, of course, we need to find out their motive for being in Japan is in the first place. Once that is established, everything else falls into place naturally. And as I suspect that this Yuugure thing have access to the most advanced weaponry the western world has to offer," he added as an afterthought, "so I doubt they fear if the government can do anything to them."
"Some enemy we're up against," Kamatari snorted. "Are you /sure/ just the few of us are enough to handle this large underground ant nest?" He directed his question at his superior. Saitou simply shrugged.
"Chop the head off and the body can't survive for long," the police chief produced an evil smirk. "That's how it is with all human organisations."
The group continued moving slowly through the dimly lit tunnel in silence, each starting to get lost in their own thoughts. Soujirou glanced once in Enishi's direction, noticing that the man was mumbling something to himself. He was not making any noise, but merely moving his lips. Soujirou could barely make out what Enishi could have been saying by reading his lips, and the darkness did not help. He did know, after a while, however, that Enishi was muttering in a foreign tongue. And as he watched on, he thought he could make out a few words that Enishi was mouthing.
Didn't think. Go this far. Stupid idiots. Brainless trash. Once I get my hands on you. All die. Muahahah.
It was not something Soujirou was proud of - that his knowledge of the Chinese language consisted mainly of threats and close to twenty vernacular permutations of the word 'fool'. That was all Enishi had been willing to teach, after all. Still, it helped him get a rough idea of what Enishi might be up to. He felt sad quite suddenly. "Yukishi"
"Stop," Aoshi's commanding voice halted everybody in their steps and effectively cut off Soujirou's intention to speak with Enishi. The younger wanderer stopped as instructed, gazing out to what was before them that had gotten Aoshi's guard up.
They had apparently reached the end of the tunnel. There was darkness. Nothing but sheer darkness.
"There's a cliff drop if we keep walking, Aoshi-sama," Misao mildly remarked, earning her an approving nod from the taller ninja. "What should we do now?"
Aoshi only took a moment to think. "Soujirou. Fire torches." He stated.
The smiling boy blinked at the sudden instructions, but quickly acknowledged it. He vanished, and the tunnel behind the group went quickly from dimmed to darkened. By then, Soujirou had at least ten fire torches standing upright against the ground within the circle of people that had somehow been formed in the respite. All of that happened in the time it took for most of those present to hitch a breath.
Even Aoshi, having expected such a quick and efficient outcome, was rendered speechless for a whole moment. Eventually he simply turned around and gestured at Kamatari this time. "Use your scythe to find the edge of cliff. Misao, throw him a torch after he finds it. Make sure you light up the entire edge so we can see it." He was addressing Kamatari, who had already begun to use the hilt of his scythe like a guiding stick of sorts, carefully trying to find the cliff edge in the darkness. Turning to the rest who had been reduced to mere observers, he said, "This shouldn't take long."
As if on cue, Kamatari's voice drifted in from a random direction. "Tomboy One over here please"
Misao pulled a burning torch out from the ground and bit her lower lip to kill the smartass retort she was about to say. She tossed the torch in the air and flung a kunai at it, hitting the handle dead centre. "You're the /last/ person I want to hear challenging my /feminity, young /man!"
Carried by the force of the dagger, the fire torch flew across the darkness towards Kamatari at high speed. The scythe wielder caught it with ease, sniggering at Misao's poor attempt to rile him up. "I'm afraid you're going to need a better way with words than that, lady," he stabbed the fire torch deeply into the soil, as close to the cliff as he could. The area was lit up immediately, so Kamatari moved on to another darker part of the cliff.
"One here too, lovesick /baby," he chided, hearing a low growl emitting from the girl. The next torch came hurtling towards him with unrivalled speed and deadly accuracy, but he caught it all the same. "Thank you" He chirped, having much fun with the event. He and Misao continued in this game of fire torch tag complete with intelligent rebuttal, until the entire cliff area was lit up by an eerie, orange glow.
"If I didn't know any better," Soujirou had mentioned briefly to Enishi, "I would really have thought that they were the best of pals, playing a game of fire torch tag!"
Enishi rolled his eyes. "And the sun will set in the east, the moon will bleed red, and pigs will fly," was what he thought of the very idea of Misao and Kamatari coming anywhere near to terms with one another.
In the course of their conversation, their eyes had by then gradually adjusted to the intrusive darkness. With the aid of glow of the fire torches, they could now have a good idea of what the end of the tunnel looked like - as well as what laid beyond the cliff drop.
The cliff went all the way down into the darkness beyond. There was no way any light, short of very strong sunlight, could reach the bottom of the valley to show the people on the cliff what actually laid upon it. There were four shakey looking rope-and-wood suspension bridges, bouncing around to the undercurrent wind coming up from beneath. They criss-crossed each other like stacked ladders, one bridge leading downwards and another leading upwards, so on so forth.
There was a signboard standing alone somewhere off the lines, and Kamatari was nearest, so he approached it and squinted at it. After staring at it for a while, he laughed dryly into the air. "Hey guys," he called out to the others, who were expecting him to tell them about the contents of the signboard. "Looks like our good friends are all prepared to meet us one to one!"
Enishi scoffed. "Tell us something we don't already know, sissy," he almost spat, his annoyed tone annoying Kamatari as well. The latter checked himself, so that he would not flare up and try to drive the sharp side of his scythe into Enishi's head, temple to temple. He flashed all onlookers a bright grin.
"Okay, I'm going to read the words on the signboard out now!" He chirped, trying first and foremost to hypnotise himself that no, he did not have a grudge against Enishi and no, he would not go over and kick him down the cliff right this very moment. He turned to the signboard and squinted again. "Oh /man, who wrote this notice out anyway? The language sucks!" He whined. After a brief silence, Kamatari cleared his throat as an indication.
He recited: "Welcome to Inari Underground. Commendable you made it so far. We Chinese mafia very fair, so we give you four road to find us. One bridge only one can walk. After walking the bridge will fall. Please walk on lowest bridge first and mind your step. We only wait for you until sunset."
"There we go with the sunset again," Chou snorted. "I know that's the name of their organisation, but they seriously need to work on their vocabulary."
"It's a scare tactic," Enishi suddenly spoke out loud, seriously, from where he was leaning against the tunnel opening. "They're trying to scare us into assuming that something serious will be happening at sunset."
Everybody stared at him. "You mean, nothing is /actually/ going to happen at sunset?" Soujirou ventured the question that was undoubtedly on everybody else's minds.
"Something will still happen," Enishi was by now looking at the ground, deep in thoughts. He did not even insert a trademarked snide remark or two into his answer. "But usually..." his eyes paced about the cavern, "...usually, if there is any grand event planned after a one-on-one duel against the rival gang, then the event is to be kept top-secret, until the one-on-one is over... after which the rival gang can be given a surprise, whether they win or lose..."
Time rolled by slowly, as the small tidbit of information slowly sunk in. Saitou breathed loudly, standing upright and facing the ex-Chinese mafia leader. "I see." He declared. "It looks like we've interrupted a much larger part of their original plan than we initially thought." He sneered at Enishi. Enishi just glared back.
"They are flustered," Aoshi explained, for the benefit of any on scene who were slightly confused by the sudden turn of events. "We have gone and interrupted with so many of their plans that they can no longer operate accordingly. That is why they are trying to warn us - intimidate us, so to speak, with the constant threat of doom at sunset. Anything to deter us or dampen our spirits."
"And it's not that they're making empty threats either," Enishi's one palm now covered his entire lower face, making the intense glow in his eyes especially evident. "It's just that because we've caught them so off guard, they need time to prepare for the ultimate showdown. Our only comfort lies in the fact that in their fluster, they may have forgotten something important, but the way I see it..." He trailed off, mouth moving but voice restrained. "...I wonder how much more high-tech have the equipment gotten since I last saw them?" The man grinned to himself.
Soujirou tapped him on the shoulder. "You know, Yukishiro-san, there's only one way to ever find that out," he flashed his partner a bedazzling smile. The kinds that made Enishi's hairs stand on ends more than they already were standing. Soujirou continued, "You walk across that bridge and go get 'em!" Before Enishi could protest, Soujirou was already herding the white-haired man across the terrain, towards one of the dangerously shaking bridges suspended across the chasm that was so deep, it could not be seen.
Specifically, he stood at the bridge that seemed to be the lowest of all four. "See? This is the simplest and lowest bridge of all - it doesn't even twirl around the other bridges like the rest does," the boyish wanderer pointed out. "I wonder if it's true that the bridge will fall once a person steps foot on it?" He slapped Enishi on his back good naturedly. "Show us, Yukishiro-san!" He pushed the man, and Enishi tumbled forward onto the bridge.
The bridge immediately started to shake spectacularly. Even after Enishi stopped moving, the rattling bridge did not stop. For a while, it continued to sway, and Enishi stared at it with great fascination. Finally, a single rope connecting the bridge to the other side snapped, the twinging sound it made reverberating off the deep crevasse, bouncing into everybody's ears.
Enishi only had time to shoot Soujirou a glare that would properly translate to, 'you-are-so-dead', before turning tail and running towards the other side of the shakey bridge, whose old ropes and corroded wood fell, bit by bit, into the valley beneath.
Sometime after the entire bridge gave a loud, roaring sound and fell completely into the darkness, Soujirou turned around to flash the rest of the entourage a wide, happy grin. "Looks like our opponents weren't lying!"
Somewhere beyond the valley, safe, sound and shaken from the other side, Enishi could be heard cursing as loudly as he could.
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... to be continued
25/2/05
tougenkyou . net / xd