Wow… it's been a while since I updated this story, hasn't it? Sorry about that… I was getting caught up in all my other stories, school was hot on my heels and biting me in the ass, and… stuff. A couple months ago, someone reviewed this story and said that he guessed I was never going to update again… once again, I apologize that it looked that way…
Plain and simple… I lost inspiration for this story. I knew how it was going to end, and I knew the next few chapters. However, I hit a snag – I lost the inspiration to actually write the story (that, and a certain cat of mine keeps jumping up on the desk as I'm trying to write, and he breaks my train of thought). So… the story dropped out of the lime-light… However, whenever I'm doing something that's completely a bore – mowing the yard, sitting in the car, going to church (I'm not exactly the most religious person you're going to ever meet… if you can call me religious), or anything else like that, my mind starts to wander, and I start to think on my stories.
Thursday evening, I was mowing the yard, letting my mind wander, and BAM – I got an idea… exactly what this idea is, you're not going to know right now, but believe me – you will in time. However, it inspired me to update this story, and take it out of the limbo I left it in. I'm changing around almost EVERYTHING this story was originally going to be, but in the end, I think it'll be an improvement…
A little warning to all of you before I begin… get a site open with the list of Kenshin's techniques… I'm not going to describe each one of them, and I'm just going to say the name. Off hand, I can't remember any sites that tell them, but if you go under a yahoo image search, you'll probably find one without much difficulty. So, if you don't know what the Do Ryu Sen is, I'm not telling… I'm just saying that it happened (if it happens).
Anyways, I'll get the disclaimer out of the way… I don't own Rurouni Kenshin – it's property of Shounen Jump Manga and Nobuhiro Watsuki – the distributors and the creator. The Shinsengumi was a real group of people, and since the last member died a hundred years or so ago, NOBODY owns them. So, without further ado…
:The River Called Time:
:Chapter One:
:Mission:
:Kyoto, Japan:
:Mansion no Takeda:
:July 31st, 1864:
:9:28 PM:
I am a servant of Takeda Senjukuu… I am indeed in his service. This is my first day in his service, and until now, I have not known my name – I have been Nanashi for the last fifteen years, and now that I am Takeda-sama's servant, I am Minamino (servants and slaves are given no family names in these times). Before today, Takeda-sama has had no need for another servant, but earlier today, his most faithful servant went missing – this is why I have been purchased.
After I was given a tour of the house, my first command was to prepare the house for guests – guests which I was not told the identities of, but I guessed they were of a most prestigious manner. I was to sweep the floors and wash them until they shined like mirrors, and try not to mind Takeda-sama's presence… after being in the service of three masters over the course of my life, it was the most impossible to deal with this man… he had a presence about him that I found intoxicatingly putrid… and in all my years of cleaning, this man was the worst.
Whatever assistance he had hired or bought in the past, it was of poor, hasty quality. Not all the scraping and washing in the world could remove some of the stains and marks left on the hard wood floor… one would be liable to slip on these floors, and knock their head against the wall. These walls in this, the waiting room, are made of hard wood, not rise paper… you would be liable to have your senses knocked out of you if you were to hit your head against these walls… I had seen one man split his head open on a wall, he fell so hard, under my old master…
I found that this problem could easily be countered if one were to keep their sandals on their feet, and not remove them – however, as is custom in Nippon, one removes their sandals inside of doors… if I remember, I shall tell Takeda-sama of this, especially since I will be getting the floor wet when I clean it…
I have also noticed that this mansion has been constructed on a rather peculiar concept… some walls of this place are made of wood, and others of rice paper… rather, all doors are made of rice paper, but the walls are not… if I am to grow reckless, and I am asked to clean the walls, I might accidentally puncture a door, where I would undoubtedly fall upon some valuable object beyond – a vase from the mainland, or another piece of furniture, perhaps.
I sweep the floors in the waiting room and the meeting room, and I make sure that not a single speck of dust is left behind… I let my work allow me to investigate my new work area, for however long I am to live here… I acquaint myself with every nook and cranny, as knowing all the details will make all my work easier and swifter. Cleaning up is not a satisfying job, but it has its advantages… I get to meet interesting people from time to time, though they pass out of my life too quick to be of any significant value to me… my masters tell me that the person I must meet is important, I should meet them, and it would make my masters happy for this to happen. Then, all to quickly, they leave… without my masters' permission, I often take a memento from them, all those my masters wish me to meet. They never care, and they never notice – and even if they did notice, they still wouldn't care… they never have, and they haven't stayed angry long enough to matter. My masters have always approved.
I do not know about this master… he might find this habit unorthodox and improper… not that it would stop me from doing so, but to each his own…
It is a mere half hour or so before Takeda-sama's guests are due to arrive… all refreshments have been set by the slaves working the kitchen, and they've retired to their cots for the night… I wouldn't trust those cots if my life depended on it… I've seen what kind of spiders live in that room, and I'd prefer sitting on the roof. They're asleep right now, so they won't have to deal with all the noise that inevitably will come from here… I hate social gatherings… I meet some interesting people, but I hate social gatherings… of course, since they're asleep, that means I'll have to serve the sake and everything else…
As I finish cleaning up in the meeting room, I put my sandals and bag just outside the doorway. I have a feeling that I'll be needing them in a moment, one way or another.
I sense him coming ten seconds before he even enters the room… that putrefying stench comes before him like lightning before the thunder. I finish sweeping this part of the room, drop the broom where I am, and turn to face him as he enters from the adjacent room. The less said about his appearance, the better… suffice to say that he has teeth like a rabbit, glasses with points, and his head isn't much above mine… he also smells of sex, which I attribute to a brothel… and I try not to think of it.
"Slave, is the room ready?" like nails on the chalkboard… it never fails…
"Hai, Takeda-sama. Sessha has just finished sweeping this room." I respond, speaking in the polite manner of a slave.
A suspicious look comes to his face, and I notice his sandals have been removed, "Hadn't I told you to sweep and wash the floor?"
"Sessha already has. Sessha dropped a bag of sugar and spilled it on the floor… Sessha was just sweeping it up."
"A bag of sugar?" he demanded, "The last bag of sugar?"
"The last bag of sugar. Sessha noticed that the bag in the kitchen was empty, so he went to get some more. But, Sessha slipped on the wet floor, and he spilled the sugar on it. Sessha was cleaning up his mess."
"Baka!" he cursed, "That was to be served with the sake! Saitou-san prefers it with his sake, and he told me at the last meeting that Okita-san would, too!"
"Why does Takeda-sama not just serve sake without sugar? Surely, Takeda-sama's guests would not mind?"
"Ai! Ai! Slave, you do not KNOW Saitou-san as I do! When he is drunk and displeased, he goes absolutely APE! You tell me to displease the Third Captain of the Shinsengumi! I would run myself on my sword before he does so to me!"
"Takeda-sama entertains the Shinsengumi?"
"Insolent slave!" he addressed me, "It is not your place to question your master! If you speak a word of this to anyone, your body will never be found! Do I make myself clear?"
"Hai, Takeda-sama."
"Good… I have a task for you, then… slave…" he commanded, "First of all, have you the faintest how much sugar costs?"
"Hai – Izumi told Sessha before… Izumi told Sessha that sugar costs five yen per pound."
"That's outrageous!" he bellowed, "Ai! They charge that much for sugar?"
"That is the truth."
"Here… take ten yen…" he said after cursing some more, slipping the notes out from his pocket and into my hand. I put them in the pocket in the inside of my gi. "Slave, do you know Banzai's Shop?"
"Sessha knows Banzai's Shop."
"Ask the woman who works there to give you two pounds worth, and to give you the discount because one of Takeda Senjukuu's slaves was a foolish dullard, and he has guests that are due shortly! Ai! How much more time do I have?"
And the alibi is set…
"When last Sessha looked, it was twenty of ten."
"Kisama!" he cursed, "How fast can you run?"
"Sessha can run very fast."
"How long would it take you to run there and back?"
"Sessha does not know how far Takeda-sama's home is from the shop. But Sessha knows that he can arrive very fast, that he does."
"Get to it, then!" I bow, and turn to leave. My sandals were left just on the other side of the doorway. I hear him sniff the air, and I imagine him wrinkling his nose.
"Slave! What is that smell?"
For a moment, I actually thought that he meant the smells he was giving off… the kind that intoxicated me when he was near, and almost made me vomit. Then, I realized that he meant the other smell. I'm rather surprised that it took him that long to smell it. And so, I replied, "When Sessha arrived earlier, he found something on the floor… he did not know what to do with it, so he put it in the closet until Takeda-sama had more time, and could tell him what to do with it!"
"What kind of 'something'?"
"Sessha does not know what Takeda-sama will think of it. Perhaps Takeda-sama would prefer to look at it himself?" I hear his sandal-less feet tapping against the ground as he walks toward the closet. As he does so, I walk to the other side of the doorway.
As he opens the closet door, I put my sandals back on.
"Ai! Ai! Mattsu! Shimatta! SHIMATTA!"
By now, the slave's blood had already congealed, and it wasn't going to spill out on the floor. So, when Takeda opened the door, the boy's body fell at his feet, but no blood. Flies had already infested the body, and maggots were starting to form in all the spots that were still warm. I knew what he saw… the boy's throat was slit open, and the bruises from strong, slim fingers remained on his cheeks, while his lips were split where the palm of the murderer's hand pressed against them.
On his chest, I remembered, there was a note pinned with a spike… it's been a while since I read the note, but as I remember, the note read:
Takeda Senjukuu,
Heaven's justice will sing tonight. Blackmail keeps mouths silent for a while, but threats keep them silent forever. Speak of this to no one, and accept no guests tonight. Accept guests tonight and speak openly of this, and the Buddha will judge you.
Good night, and pray that you do not meet us.
-Ishin Shishi
It wasn't until I was hired that I learned his name… but, since it's inconsequential now, I forgot it already. Takeda-sama screamed in shock and anger… I, of course, having seen this many times before, gave no apparent reaction.
"AI! What happened? AI! AI! WHAT HAPPENED HERE? AI!"
Usually, I don't stick around to hear witnesses ask those kinds of things, but when I do, it's more of them merely asking where the assassin went to… and he obviously isn't reading the note. That is when I begin the final step.
"Koro shite yaru, Takeda-sama."
He didn't believe me, and so he replied, "Usotsuki! You're just a slave, usotsuki! Who did this?"
Denial is the most predictable of human responses. He truly doesn't believe, though… I wasn't presented to him until after I stuck the servant in the closet. The squirmy ahou almost saw it coming… I remain silent in response, and he lets a few things that might pass as thoughts sink into the wet sponge that might pass as a brain…
"Bah! You wouldn't know! I've bought a delusional slave! When I find the man who did this, I'll repay him ten-fold and have his ass WHIPPED!"
When I drew my sword (which lay hidden underneath the folds of the hakama) he began to believe me. I decide to take him up on his promise with a challenge, "Kocha koi."
"What did you say?" his voice is strained… a bit of fear and realization… for the few times when I let my victims know I'm there, I get that a lot. That one incident a few months ago gave me a nasty cut on the cheek…
"You heard, Takeda-yaoi. Now that you know who the man is, it is up to you to fulfill the promise. I humbly replied in kind – it is not often that I give my target the chance to question me."
He grunts in rage, and I see him get angry in the eyes. The clumsy, hurried steps he takes to the mantelpiece to grab the family's sword lets me in on how easy this will be… I could have dealt five slashes to him in that amount of time. I have to make this look good… there is only a finite supply of blood in his body, and I have to splatter it in just enough places to look convincing… I want this to look like the building was stormed by a group of men, and not just one assassin… I'll give him a minute to live, and let his fat carcass destroy the rest as he resists.
He finally grabs the sword, and he turns the long way to face me… unless you're back-handing a sword-draw attack, you never do that, especially if your foe has the sword ready and is unfazed. He flings the scabbard away, and he puts the sword up in what I can only imagine to be a mockery of the Hiratzuki. Exactly why the Shinsengumi even drew their swords and let him see the attack is beyond me, but one thing is apparent – he's no Okita.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAA!" I time the seconds and count the steps, though it isn't necessary… it's a pity that I'm wearing the sandals, and he's still in just his socks… Three seconds to cross fourteen feet… too slow. Against a normal Shinsengumi, I would have to actually take a few steps aside to avoid the inevitable side-swipe, but his reaction time is so slow, I only need to take one, and I let the slippery floors and his momentum do the rest.
HR-THUDD!
He falls headlong into the wall, and I hear his grunt and yelp, as well as his careless ripping the sword out of the wall. A few feet to the side, and he would have gone through a rice-paper wall… I wouldn't have had it any other way, because of his recklessness, he bent the sword so much that no power on Earth could get it to fit in the scabbard again. The indent on the wall is barely perceptible, but the small spatter of blood from his nose makes it palpable.
He takes his sweet time in recovering… one fall and he's already out of breath – he exhales harshly through pursed lips to get the dripping blood off his lips. I turn around slow enough for him to regain his breath a little, and when he raises his sword a little to prepare, I close the distance again, but not so quickly.
He swings that crooked sword faster than someone with his inexperience should… not that it matters to me, because it misses for a mile when I duck under it. He almost drops the sword, and he almost loses his balance, wheeling around halfway… the idiot set himself up for a Hi Ryu Sen… and at this close a range, when I send the hilt flying at him, he's going to feel it like a sledge hammer…
I don't hear the impact, but I feel it, and I also feel him go flying through the rice-paper door. It rips, and I hear him slam his head against the expensive vase from the mainland, and both he and the vase come crashing to the ground at the same time. The difference is that one breaks, the other one grunts… I only feel sorry for the vase. By the time he opens his eyes again, I have the sword back in my hand, and I start moving towards him – by now, I'm sure that he's feeling the gold in my eyes – the sword never scares them, it's always the eyes. He makes a big commotion, and he gets to his feet to try running… if he tried it earlier, he might not have forgotten the broom I left on the floor.
Hwoomp! THUDD!
The broom goes flying, and he hits his face on the floor with a thud. By the time he gets to his feet, I stand a mere few paces away… and before he catches his breath, he swings that sword of his again… not that I'm worried, of course. I spin around, putting my back to his side, and I start to swing my own sword. By the time he realizes that his sword hit nothing but air, I'm behind him, and the Ryu Kan Sen is homing in on the space right between the solar blades.
The blood hits the air, and I hear the buzzing of fly wings, already attracted to Takeda… a house fly can arrive at a dead body from a mile away in less than a minute and a half, and the more blood that's been spilt, the more of them arrive. Takeda isn't dead yet, but there are a lot of flies around, and I've made him spill a considerable (though moderate) dosage of blood. The slash makes it look like he was attacked while running away, and odd-shaped puddle on the ground tells that he landed back-first.
It's hard to believe, but he smells worse on the inside than he does on the outside. What's worse, he's getting the smell all around – the metallic smell of blood dripping everywhere, and unfortunately, from my sword… I'll polish and disinfect it later, shit smells better than this. As he scrabbles away slowly, I speed him up with a little provocation… his hearing isn't sophisticated enough to feel this in its full force, but oh well… he'll get the idea…
I put the sword's tip just inside the sheath, and I start walking closer… when the first fly starts to bite me, I slam the sword full-force into the sheathe…
CHING!
The dead flies all drop to the ground like little beads, and Takeda drops the sword to cover his ears and scream. If it weren't for my own training, I would also be succumbing to the Ryuumesen's effects… thankfully for me, I had a good master. A bit crazy, but a good master.
I've let this fight continue for eight and thirty seconds. He only gets twenty two more seconds left to live… I don't have enough damage yet to make it look like a group-attack. Time to make up for it.
I grab him square by the right shoulder, and I pull him to his feet. He holds one of his hands out in a signal to yield. I, of course, ignore it, and with one jerk of my sword-hand, I send it flying. He recoils back and clutches the stump of his arm, screaming like a mother giving birth. The key difference is, I'm taking his life, and he's not giving life to anything (except, of course, to me, by force, and then to lies and the media). I flick the sword, and send the blood on its surface flying across the room, splattering against the wall.
The man is obviously petrified now, and he's running out of seconds (he's down to fifteen)… that's when he decides to run himself. That's all to my liking… I need to contaminate more of the house… and I might as well give him an incentive to do so.
Hh-CHING! CHAKK! CHAKK! KR-UNCH!
I start slashing like mad, letting the sword destroy anything that comes near it, just like it would if he were being chased through the house by a bunch of Imperialist mercenaries. Ten seconds later, and an untold number of destroyed items later, I end the chase.
I leapt through the air, sword to my side, and aimed it at his neck…
"Kuso shinezo."
… and liberated his head from it.
Without a sense of balance, and a considerable amount of momentum, the body stumbles to the ground, rolls a little, and twitches a few times before the head hits. For a brief few seconds, the blood spurts all over the place, but as it loses more blood, it starts slowing down. I look to the clock above the mantelpiece through the doorway… 9:45 PM… his guests will be arriving within the next fifteen minutes. I have to leave the note, I have to wash my hands off, I have to change my clothes…
…and I have to buy the sugar.
The slaves are away in their cots, and in the two minutes that have elapsed since the screaming began, there hasn't been enough time for them to come running yet, and besides… from what I've asked them before, Takeda-sama tends to act crazy sometimes, especially if he had alcohol. They'll blame the screaming on that, most likely… especially if they ration that his guests arrived early, and they were served their drinks early. Saitou has, and always shall be, a party animal when drunk… one with a tendency toward murder, but a party animal nonetheless… They'll blame it on that, that they will. They won't after they get questioned, though… but, until then, they'll stay ignorant.
I pull the gi off (taking, of course, the ten yen out of the pocket inside), throw on another one from the bag I brought with me, and put the farmer's hat on to keep others from looking in my face for long. I also pull out a piece of paper with a note on it… I'd almost forgotten it… one last time, I take a look at it:
Takeda,
You did not heed our warning. Heaven's Justice has been delivered tonight. The servants of the Shogun will fail, and those who back them will die in our new order. Deliver this message with your corpse.
-Ishin Shishi
As I tag the message to the corpse, I wipe away the blood and sweat from my head, and my hands next. Lastly, I wipe the blood from my sword, and I hide it under the folds of the hakama. Keeping with my little tradition, I take a momento from the scene… I'll probably forget it after a while, but I'll have something to remember the mission by for a while.
I choose a hand-mirror that looks like it's almost glowing in the moonlight that comes through the window. Full moon tonight… maybe I should make a wish or something… no, it's not worth giving my life up over by staying here an extra few seconds for the Shinsengumi to march through the door. A few of the grunts I could take out, but if Saitou and Okita are coming, I'd better not push my luck…
I put the mirror in the pocket inside my gi (alongside the money), and I leave without so much as a second glance… I'd stood enough of Takeda while he was still breathing, and he only smells worse as time goes on. I look to the clock again, and find that five minutes have passed. Strange… I don't usually take that long… probably was just due to the fact that the note was hidden amongst a variety of other slave things. No matter… the guests haven't arrived yet, and Sessha must be on his way to buy the sugar…
When I leave the mansion, the stars all seem to be veiled behind black clouds, threatening to rain… but the moon seems to pierce it like a knife. As I look down the walk, I see a group of men walking up. Their blue haori jackets give them away… the tall one in the lead is the party animal.
I lower my head and try to pass by without attracting much attention, but the Wolves of Mibu seldom let people pass without questioning.
"Stop," the man in the lead says. Saitou… I comply.
"State your name, and your purpose here."
I comply. "Minamino."
"That sounds like a surname, slave."
"Sessha cannot choose what his masters name him."
I said nothing false, so they had no reason to detain me. I smell of blood because Takeda-sama accidentally cut himself on a sword while exercising earlier, and I bandaged the wound and washed his clothes. I was leaving the premises because I was sent to a small store on the outside of Kyoto to pick up some sugar. No lies… they only get as much as they ask for, and the full truth isn't there.
Finally, after I answer all their questions, and show them the yen I was told to buy the sugar, they let me go. I walk quickly towards the gate, keeping the illusion that I'm in a hurry. As I pass the gates, I hear the screams, and a grin comes to my face, below twin eyes of gold.
Mission complete.
To Be Continued…Posted: June 11th, 2005
I already said everything I needed to say in the first author note, but I'll make one last note here.
There are those of you who will argue that this story should be rated PG-13 (T), due to the high gore content of this chapter. However, I am writing to tell you otherwise, and that it fits in the PG-13 (T) category. In Japan, Rurouni Kenshin is rated 14 and older, and as you well know, there are scenes like this in the flashbacks to Kyoto. The difference between those and this is that, in the flashbacks, the actual wounds aren't shown… BUT, in Japan, the Samurai X OVA is also rated PG-13 (T) (whereas in America, it is rated R (M)). In Samurai X, they often show dead, mutilated bodies, and the actual deaths in process, as well as a host of uncensored curses. Therefore, keeping with those guidelines, this story fits within the PG-13 (T)range. If you are to offer a sound argument otherwise, and I believe you, then I shall offer an apology and a retraction, and move this story to the rated R (M) category.
With that said, I'll only ask you to leave a decent review.
Best/Dan