Oops, I forgot the disclaimer last time. I don't own Bloody Roar! Phew! Call off the lawyers. Everything's good now. Except, of course, that I don't own sweet little Kenji. Though he wouldn't be sweet for long after I got a hold of him. Oops, did I say that outloud? Ahem.

On with the story.

The Assassin's Shadow

Chapter One: The face in the mirror

It had not been a good day for Kenji Ohgami.

After the meeting with Busuzima, Kenji had fled back home, dropping through the second story window so he wouldn't wake Yugo and Alice in the room downstairs. ( Uriko was staying at a friend's house for the weekend. ) Peeling off his ninja garb, he changed into his old sweatpants and stuffed the suit into his hamper so he wouldn't have to look at it. Flopping on his bed, he covered his face with the pillow and tried to forget everything his former master had told him.

But, he couldn't sleep.

"Bakuryu is gone," he whispered to the ceiling. The cracks in the tile seemed to grin at him, mocking. "That part of my life is over. He is not a part of me anymore."

That's a lie, and you know it.

Kenji shivered at the cold, familiar voice and buried his face in the pillow. But, he couldn't hide from something in his own head. Briefly, he wondered if it was just his troubled memory playing tricks on him, or if it really was the voice of his past self, rising from the darkest corner of his soul torment him, again.

You know perfectly well that its me, Kenji Ohgami.

Kenji hopped out of bed, turned on the light, and flipped open a science book. He'd done his homework hours ago, and it had been thoroughly proofread by Yugo--who still insisted on doing older brotherly things like that--but the teenager double-checked it for accuracy and mistakes anyway, just to keep his fractured mind occupied.

It was a long night.

The day didn't get any better from there. The next morning he was exhausted and pensive, and at breakfast Yugo mentioned that maybe he should stay home from school, as he looked kinda sickly. That was fine with Kenji; he didn't feel like being around anyone at the moment, especially normal people with their normal lives, reminding him that he would be forever different. He also knew that a certain bouncy classmate would see that something was troubling him, and he didn't want to talk about it. Anyone else would think he was behaving in a perfectly Kenji-like fashion, but Uriko had an uncanny sense for picking up on his innermost thoughts and feelings. And though Kenji was truly grateful that Uriko knew him so well, bothering to probe beneath that cold, aloof exterior where others would've given up, he wasn't ready to share this newest revelation with his girlfriend.

'Because, what if she probes too far and discovers the monster still inside me?' he thought later that afternoon, lying on his bed attempting to sleep; a futile effort. All he had succeeded in doing was thinking himself into an even worse state. 'What if Bakuryu is still in there, and comes out one night and does something to hurt her? What if...what if he kills her? Or Yugo? Oh god, what if I kill Riko and my brother with my own hands?'

Fortuanately, a knock on his door interrupted him before he could think himself into a panic. "Yo, Kenji, you awake man?" came Yugo's deep, booming voice. The man could not speak softly, even if his life depended on it. "Your girlfriends' on the phone."

His voice was teasing, and Kenji winced. He did not want to talk to anyone now, even Uriko. 'I'm sorry, Riko. But I can't face even you right now.' Turning away from the door, he closed his eyes and feigned sleep until he heard his brother walk away, explaining to the person on the phone that he was still in bed. Then he heard the front door slam as his brother left the house. Leaving him with his thoughts. Alone...

You were always meant to be alone.

Kenji sat up. Walking over to the mirror in the corner, he glared at his reflection in the polished glass. A evil doppleganger stared back at him, smiling a cold smirk, a malicious, predatory gleam in his eyes.

Who do you think you're fooling? shadow Kenji--no, Bakuryu, this could only be Bakuryu, asked. Kenji felt a chill run down his back as he heard his own voice in his head, yet colder and more inhuman than he could have imagined. Pretending to have a nice little house and family and girlfriend. Pathetic. You've gotten attatched. You know this will only end in blood, and you still allowed yourself to become attatched.

"This is my family, now," Kenji said, baring his teeth in a silent snarl. "I am no longer Bakuryu the assassin. That part of my life is over."

You cannot deny your true nature, Bakuryu replied calmly. We were meant to destroy. Home, family, love; these are for normal people, whose hands are not stained with blood and and innocent lives. They can never be ours.

"You don't control me," Kenji spat, a coil of hatred beginning to stir from a dark corner of his heart. "I will not let you hurt my family anymore. I'll fight you for the rest of my life before I let that happen."

Fool. Bakuryu narrowed his eyes. You speak as though I am the illusion and you are real. Listen to me closly, Kenji Ohgami. You are the fake, the intruder, the shadow of me. This body we share is MINE. Kenji Ohgami doesn't exist. It is only a name, given to a boy who remembered nothing, not even how he came to be.

"Liar," Kenji hissed, feeling the cold chill spread to every part of his body. "I was brainwashed by Busuzima. I didn't know what I was doing."

No. Bakuryu's face was a mask of stone. That second time, Busuzima only helped you remember who you were all along. Kenji Ohgami might have been brainwashed, but Bakuryu knew what he was doing from the very start.

"Shut up." Kenji's hand clenched into a fist.

I will reclaim my body soon, Kenji. Then, everyone around you will suffer for your transgressions.

"Shut up!" Kenji's fist smashed into the mirror, and the glass shattered into a thousand pieces. The noise was deafening, and Bakuryu's grinning face disappeared into shards of fragmented light.

Shaking with rage and fear, Kenji looked down at the broken mirror, seeing hundreds of cold gray eyes staring at him from the floor. Blood dripped from his sliced fist onto the glass and carpet, but he didn't notice. For one insane moment, he had a ridiculous image of a tiny Bakuryu army, creeping from under his bed to swarm him in his sleep. But then, he blinked, and the fractured faces in the mirror were his own again.

Soon, Kenji....an evil voice whispered, fading away. Soon....

"No," he whispered back. "Never. I'll never let you hurt my family. If it comes to that, I'll..."

He trailed off, thinking back to that night in Busuzima's lab, where he had turned on his master and set fire to everything, hoping to erase all evidence of the scientist's evil. Including himself. But, Gado had rescued him before he could end Bakuryu's reign of terror, and Kenji had spent his entire life working hard to repay him, and the people he owed his life to. Not just his life. His heart, and his soul; two things he was sure Bakuryu had destroyed with his evil. First Yugo, and then Uriko had come along, shining a little light into his dark existence, encouraging him to keep going, to try to make himself better than he was. He was eternally grateful to them both, and if keeping them safe and happy meant ending his own life, he would do so in a heartbeat.

If he didn't know that Uriko would cry. And Yugo would never forgive himself....

Sighing, he lowered his arm. Everything was so complicated now.

He winced, looking down at his mangled hand, beginning to feel the pain now that he actually saw the injury. Which was fairly serious, as he'd struck the mirror with enough force to shatter someone's nose through their skull. His fingers had deep lacerations, probably down to the bone, and slivers of glass were poking out of his skin like a hedgehog on crack. His zoanthrope metabolism would heal the injury in no time, with not even a scar to show for it, but the wound still needed looking after.

Cradling his wrist, he was heading to the bathroom, when he heard the front door slam. Kenji looked back to his bedroom and winced.

'Great. Yugo is not going to be happy about that mirror,' he thought with a sudden stab of guilt. 'What can I say that sounds believable?'

He quickly slipped into the bathroom and began running the water, knowing he couldn't hide the fact that there were blood droplets all the way down the hallway from his room. 'Quick, Kenji, think of an excuse to why you punched your mirror into oblivion. "Yeah, Yugo, Bakuryu was pissing me off so I smashed his face in," is NOT going to cut it.'

"Kenji? You in here?"

Kenji, in the middle of looking for a pair of tweezers, froze. It wasn't Yugo, after all, he realized, as his heart began a loud, irregular rythem.

It was Uriko.

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Wow, I actually got reviews! I'm so happy people still read BR fics after all this time. Well, I shall endevor to keep everyone happy and continue. Thanks to Tiger( some impossible number here ) and everyone who read this and took the time to comment. I'm so happy. Well, gotta start on chapter two, now.

Ja,

Sylverkitsune