Red Wolf- Chapter Two: The Emerging of the Red Wolf
Author: Hakubi
(Whoops, forgot to do this last time!)
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN RUROUNI KENSHIN OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS FROM THE SHOW! I ONLY OWN THE CHARACTERS I HAVE CREATED!
This is so sad! I have gotten only a single review for this new version, and it's better than the old one! wails Why? I sent email to the ppl who reviewed it---and none of them read it…yet. Oh well…maybe I could get some more feedback on this chapter? Pretty please? I'll give all the nice people who read and review some plushies for all their hard work!
kaoru-ken: I'm glad you liked it. I hope you like this chappie too!
"So tell me again why you were out in that terrible storm?" Takagi Kojuurou looked down over the rims of his western-style glasses at the shivering young woman with red hair and vibrant emerald eyes.
"I had no choice. I won't put up with it any more." Her white hand, calloused and slender, fisted in the thick blanket she had been given.
The knuckles, which were red with dried blood, had already been injured when she had used her hand to catch herself as she had hit the wood of the engawa, and were starting to drip again at the extra force that had been placed upon them.
"May I ask what it is that you refuse to put up with, child?" Kojuurou took the box of bandages and bowl that his daughter Tsuru handed him, shooing her out of the room.
He took the girl's hand and sponged the blood from her knuckles, staining the clear purity of the water with wine-red fluid. He twined the white linen bandage through her fingers, over her palm and the back of her hand and back again until he was satisfied that no contaminated air could seep in and infect the wound.
"…Thank you." Eimi examined the dressing for a moment, then her hand slid beneath the blanket once more. She seemed more distant now than fiery, and for a single second, Kojuurou swore that he saw pain flickering like a dying flame in her emerald eyes.
"You're more than welcome. Only a heartless man would leave someone to catch their death in a storm." Kojuurou noticed her stiffen.
"The rain has stopped. I thank you for your kindness, Takagi-san, but I am afraid I must leave. I don't wish to impose on you." Eimi stood, allowing the blanket to slide to the floor and pool around her bare feet.
"Nonsense. I insist that you stay here. You are a ronin, no?" He paused, waiting for the girl to ask him what he meant. "And ronin, who have no masters, look for work. To put it quite bluntly, miss, I am offering you a job in my house, under the name Takagi Tokio."
A corner of Eimi's mouth lifted at a crooked angle to form a smirk. "Why Takagi Tokio?"
"It makes much more sense that I would hire someone believed to be my own daughter as a samurai than some girl I hardly know, would it not?"
"I accept…Tousan." Eimi picked up the blanket, wrapping it around her shoulders once more before sitting down. "By the way…my name is Himura Eimi. I am the first pupil of Seijuurou Hiko the XIII."
"Seijuurou…sou ka." Kojuurou rested his hand on his chin for a moment, his glasses sliding down his nose. "If I may inquire once again, Eimi-chan…do you know why your master gave you the name that he did?"
"I don't. All I knew when I accepted it was that I had a real name…that I was no longer someone who could die and no one would care." Eimi said softly.
"Eimi…was the name of my wife. She was Seijuurou-san's dearest friend…and he despised me for taking her away from him. He hates me because my wife died in her second childbirth…twins. A boy, named Seijuurou after his mother's best friend…and Tsuru, whom you saw a few minutes ago." Kojuurou said. "Our first child was…a stillborn daughter called Tokio."
"So I was just a replacement for his friend who married of her own free will?" Eimi's injured hand fisted once more in the blanket.
"I do not believe that Seijuurou would do that…although I believe that if he gave you the name of his best friend, he cares deeply for you." Kojuurou said.
"Aa…" Eimi's tone turned sarcastic. "Drinking until he passed out is really caring deeply for me. All he ever cared about was avoiding that ex-whore Sakura and trying to keep his son out of his life."
"There is something that you must know about Sakura. She was his wife…and had an accident after Kazuki was born. The serious woman disappeared, and left a slow-thinking shell behind. Hiko discovered what had happened while he was traveling under his damiyo, and was so distraught that he never returned. Sakura had no choice but to become a geisha to support herself and Kazuki." Kojuurou sounded sadder than Eimi had thought any man ever could.
"I don't care about my master's past. I only want to look ahead, at the future of this country my father protected until the day he died." Eimi's red hair slipped down over her shoulders, and Kojuurou saw why Hiko had called her Eimi.
She was full of fire, just like his wife…full of the flames of life and death.
And it would burn in her eyes until the day she died.
--Three days later --
Eimi disliked the stares that the other samurai employed by Kojuurou gave her. They were of different variety, from obvious lust to disdain at a female samurai. Most disturbing to her, however, was the look that she was receiving from a dark-haired, bronze-skinned samurai.
"Have you got a problem, buddy? I'll be willing to take you on if you have a problem with a female samurai." Eimi lifted the smooth wooden shinai from its resting place on her shoulder, pointing it at him.
"Strange, that though you've run errands for my father countless times, you fail to recognize me." The man smirked, shaking his head.
"I'm not in the mood, Kazuki. Fuck off." Eimi snapped.
"Is that an invitation?" Kazuki quested.
"Try it and I will make it so that you can never have children, creep." Eimi told him.
"Tokio, enough." Kojuurou gave his "daughter" a reprimanding look, and she stepped up to him, grumbling under her breath.
Kazuki raised an eyebrow. Tokio, huh? Strange how many names you seem to have, Eimi…I wonder what my father would say if he knew about your deception?
"Pardon my rudeness, Kojuurou-sama. I did not realize that Tokio-san was in your employment." Kazuki smirked, bowing low at the waist.
"Enough pleasantries. I am not unawares to the looks that you have been giving my daughter, and so, the man who can prove to me that my daughter is not as good a samurai as any man can have Tsuru as their wife." Kojuurou told them.
Takagi Seijuurou took a step back at his father's words. There was no way in hell that he would let an uneven match take his twin's innocence from her.
"Kojuurou-sama, may I be allowed to try my hand against Tokio-san? I don't believe that I can beat her, but I do think I can put up a decent fight against her." Kazuki lifted his own shinai from his shoulder, tugging at his obi and tucking the wooden blade against his narrow hip.
"Go ahead." Kojuurou sat back, holding behind him a carefully crafted blade meant for Eimi should she prove herself against at least two of his men.
Eimi saw what Kazuki was hinting at, and tucked her shinai in her obi. She slid her right foot back a few inches to bring it out of line with her shoulders, and bent her left knee so that the line of her shoulders pointed diagonally towards the wood of the dojo floor. Her left hand, the one that had been injured, rested casually on the practice blade, her right hand hovering just above the hilt.
Remember, Eimi, the will to live is absolutely essential. Even in a mock battle, should you forget this you will die!
Hiko's words echoed loudly, almost mockingly, in her mind, and Eimi bent her hips, using the movement of her body to clear her head.
A split second later, the two shinai met in an almighty crack of wood on wood, neither combatant losing ground.
Time seemed to stop as a hairline crack violated the smooth wood of Kazuki's shinai, followed quickly by its fellows. The practice blade shattered all the way down to the hilt, leaving its owner with nothing but a broken stump.
"Impossible! No woman could be that strong! There must be a metal rod in that shinai!" One of Kojuurou's men, a Chinese man called Kang, opposed.
"Is there, Kang-san? I will let you have my shinai. Break it if you wish; it matters not to me. There is not a metal bar in that wood." Eimi tossed the practice blade to the foreigner, who caught it and snapped it over his knee.
His skin turned from dark tan to moon-white as blood drained from his face. "J-Jus t what the hell are you?"
"A ronin, Kang-san…a former ronin who ran away from her heartless master." Eimi replied.
"No woman is that strong. You're not a human…you're nothing but a vile demon!" Kang's brother Xiu screeched, drawing a tanto from his sleeve and lunging at the girl.
She sidestepped the tiny dagger, bringing her foot down on Xiu's wrist as he hit ground. She grabbed a handful of his hair, pulling his neck back just far enough to hurt. "I am no demon. That is, unless you perceive me as such, Xiu-san…"
"Xiu, Kang, enough of this foolishness. I would expect better of two men from such a noble family of China." Kojuurou stood, seeming more formidable to all, small man that he was.
"Forgive us, Takagi-sama. We meant no harm." Kang bowed low to the floor.
"Tokio, release Xiu, onegai."
Eimi relinquished her hold on the man's hair, and he fell with a soft thump to the floor. "Next time he pulls something like that, he's mine."
She stepped away, bare feet making no noise on the floor she padded across. Lustful glances were no longer cast in her direction, and fear of what could happen if the woman wielded a real blade settled as an unwanted shadow over the dojo.
"Master Kojuurou, may I try? Only I would like to see how I fare against Tokio-san when she is holding a real blade." A male voice slid through the air like water slips through the thinnest silk, and a lone drop of ice ran through her spine.
"Usankusai, are you sure that it be wise? Ninja and samurai arts are different." Kojuurou pointed out.
"I accept your challenge, Usankusai-san. This should be interesting." Eimi walked over to Kojuurou, who reluctantly gave her the special blade.
A seemingly normal samurai sword, although slightly longer, with a carefully wrapped handle with an underlying blue silk base layer against the steel hilt of the blade. Sharpened to a diamond point, the blade would cut anything and everything that its master called it to. Eimi tested the weight, and it felt as though it had been made especially to fit her hand, right down to the grooves that adjusted perfectly to her fingers.
Eimi allowed a smirk to form on her pale lips, and tucked the sword against her hip. "Shall we begin?"
"First blood wins?" Usankusai asked.
She nodded, and stepped back, taking the same stance she had when opposing Kazuki. Kojuurou removed a coin from his wallet, holding his hand out above the floor. His fingers opened, and the coin began its descent towards the floor.
Two blurs raced across the floor, and there was a soft clinking of blades. Usankusai knelt on the floor, as did Eimi, although opposite from him. His dark sleeve separated along the seam, and Eimi's gi split down the line of her spine to her waist, the sleeves sliding halfway down her arms to expose the strips of white linen covering her breasts and torso.
Seijuurou gulped as Eimi's gi split, and he felt blood rushing to burn his pale cheeks. This woman was beautiful. Absolutely drop-dead beautiful.
He knew that this girl wasn't Tokio.
Eimi stood, turning to face her opponent. She didn't seem to care that she was practically nude from waist up; living with Hiko for eight years wouldn't allow her the luxury known as modesty.
A grin contorted her features, and she laughed. "Now that's the first time in a long time that I've had an opponent worth fighting."
"Am I, Tokio-san? I think you have merely been deprived of all opponents save your master." Usankusai replied.
"That may be. I would like the honor of fighting you again, Usankusai-san. Perhaps you will win next time." Eimi gestured at the rip in his sleeve.
"I believe it was a draw, Tokio-san. You drew no blood." The ninja stood.
"Or so you believe." Eimi gestured again towards the torn sleeve, and a single cut manifested in the man's alabaster skin, the dark red welling up to make a stain.
It was Usankusai's turn to laugh. "Very sneaky, Tokio-san. Were you not already trained to be forthright, you would make a fine ninja."
I don't believe I could ever do that. Eimi said nothing, but in remembering that she was in a room full of men, covered herself as best she could.
"Tokio-chan, take my gi." Seijuurou tugged the worn blue fabric from his body, and held it out with one hand to his "sister."
"Arigatou, Seijuurou." Eimi took the younger man's gi, covering herself.
Well, they're not laughing at me, so I would guess that I'm right about this guy being Tsuru's twin. They look so much different, and yet their ki is almost the same. Eimi walked out of the dojo and returned to the main part of the mansion, feeling her cheeks begin to burn.
She slid down against the wall of her new bedroom, resting her head against her knees.
Shinta, I hope you're okay…A tear slid down her cheek, and she stared off into oblivion.
--Two months later--
Eimi pulled the blanket up to her chin, feeling stiff and sore. Her mind was clouded, and her head hurt. Not to mention that the room she was currently in was not her bedroom.
What the hell had happened?
She remembered a party for Tsuru and Seijuurou's fifteenth birthdays, and being offered sake. She saw Kazuki, passed out, a male whore approaching her; unsure as to how he was allowed inside. Refusal, and Usankusai coming up behind her.
Chuckling, giggling on her part, and heated kissing---
Oh Kami, what had she done?
No wonder she felt sore, she had allowed Usankusai to take her innocence from her.
Something she should have saved for the one she loved most.
Lips on her neck startled her from her worries, and she could not protest as Usankusai pinned her to the futon, kissing her passionately.
She pushed him up off her. "Stop, Usankusai."
"What's the matter, Tokio-chan? Or should I say…Eimi-chan? That is your real name, isn't it?" His lips moved along her jaw line and down her neck.
"Stop, Usankusai. This is wrong." She pulled away, turning her back to him.
"Don't be such a little hypocrite. If you truly thought what we did last night was wrong, then you would have stopped me, drunk or not." He pulled Eimi back against him, enjoying the warmth of her body next to his, and the feeling of her struggle.
"Gomen nasai…but that is not the way that I was raised. My master was an idiot, but he taught me morals. Now, please, Usankusai, let go." Eimi was more insistent this time.
Usankusai was angry now, and he pinned his formerly innocent lover beneath him, her arms above her head. "I'll only say this once more. Don't be such a little hypocrite. Stop blaming the alcohol for what you allowed me to do. You let me deflower you; I didn't hold a kunai to your throat and rape you like some desperate old man. Don't make me angry, because if you do…" He lowered his head until his lips were next to her ear, purposely letting out a large gust of air to make her shiver. "…Because if you do make me angry…beyond my breaking point, I will not hesitate to kill you, no matter how much I desire you."
"If I remember correctly, I was the one who defeated you two months ago, not vice versa. I have no reason to fear you." Eimi prayed the ninja would buy her bluff and let her loose.
"You beat me with a sword, oh dear, naïve little lover of mine. Without your precious toy knife, you are harmless. You're just an ordinary human, posing no more of a threat to me than your adopted sister." Usankusai purred.
"Tokio, if you are quite finished with your lover's spat, then I suggest that you dress yourself and go outside with the others. I have need of your blade." Kojuurou snapped, rapping sharply on the wooden frame of the paper door.
Eimi somehow managed to steal one of the blankets from the futon, wrap it around herself, and grab her discarded garments on her way to the screen that offered a little privacy.
-Outside-
Kazuki chuckled as Eimi stole her way out of the mansion, a crimson blush staining her pale cheeks. She stood beside him, and he nudged her gently in the ribs. "You do realize that everyone in Kojuurou-san's service knows what you did last night, right, Tokio-chan?"
"Shut up!" Eimi hissed. "I've already gotten enough humiliation from 'Tousan without your input!"
"And the lesson learned is---don't make so much noise when you're with your lover next time, eh?" Kazuki grinned.
"Hentai no baka!" The hilt of Eimi's sword came crashing down upon Kazuki's head, and Eimi no longer cared whether or not if the entire company heard.
Let them call her a whore for all she cared.
"If I can have your attention, please. All of you." Kojuurou glared at the entire company, and Eimi, out of all of them, was the only one to glare back. "Ishin shishi are moving in on the territory of the shogunate."
Eimi rolled her eyes. So what's new about that? Come on, old man, get to the point already.
"The problem is that they have a new manslayer." Kojuurou's eyes narrowed, and he crossed his hands behind his back. "One they call the Hitokiri…Battousai."
Eimi's heart leapt into her throat. Battousai…the name that came from the mastery of the sword art of battou-jutsu…she had been called that herself, and only one other currently could be called that, that she knew of.
Kenshin. Shinta. Her baby brother.
"'Tousan, what is this hitokiri's name?" She prayed that it wasn't him. Anyone but her little brother whom she had fought so hard to save from the bandits years ago.
"I do not see why it matters to you, Tokio, but his name is Himura Kenshin." Kojuurou replied.
Eimi collapsed, and Seijuurou was the first one to her side. "Tokio-chan! Tokio-chan, are you all right?"
"Kenshin…" Her eyes faded from amber to dark green, half-open and lifeless as she allowed her mind to steal consciousness from her body.
"Who is Kenshin…?" Seijuurou questioned softly, stroking his sister's cheek as she slept fitfully, clasping his hand like a lifeline.
Kazuki sighed. "Kenshin…is her younger brother. Her blood brother. I can't see such a timid little boy as a Hitokiri, no matter how hard I try."
"You've met him, then." Seijuurou said dully.
"…Yeah. Last time I saw him, he was clinging to Tokio like she was the one thing that could keep him safe." Kazuki told him.
"I know that Tokio is not her real name. I only call her that because that is the name I came to know her under." Seijuurou looked at the floor, almost as though he was ready to cry.
"She shares two names. The first, the one that my father gave her; Eimi is the name she shares with your mother. Tokio…" He broke off.
"Tokio is the name that she shares with my dead sister." He pried his hand from Eimi's, as she was finally still. "In a sense, 'Tousan has replaced the original Takagi Tokio. He always said, that had she been healthy, she would be like 'Kaasan was; beautiful and burning with the fire of life. But that disease is what took both of them…"
"You mean the thing the westerners call tuberculosis." Kazuki said.
"Yes."
"It took Eimi-san when the original Tokio was old enough to remember her. And then the real Tokio was married to Yamaguchi Hiroaki of Edo a year ago…and died less than a month after they were married." Kazuki murmured.
"Hiroaki-san was very distraught. He did care for my sister… even if only as a friend. And rumors tell now of him marrying another woman who cared for him after the death of his wife. A woman with fire-red hair and bright blue eyes." A tear slid down Seijuurou's cheek.
"Don't cry, kiddo. Your sister is watching over all of us…she wouldn't want you to be sad." Kazuki stood. "I promised Tokio-chan…that I wouldn't be sad, and that I would never cry, no matter how much I wanted to."
--Eimi's Dream--
"Shinta! Shinta, don't do this!" Eimi's voice was thundering in her ears, yet it could not be said that the projection of sound was more than a whisper.
"Nee-saagh!" Kenshin's cry was cut off as a blade went through his heart blood filling his mouth, and he collapsed atop a dark-haired woman who lay in a pool of her own blood. A scar shaped like a Krishitan cross was carved into the flesh of his left cheek, and his violet eyes were hollow.
A wolfish man stood above him, golden eyes glinting with fire and bloodlust. "He's dead now, Tokio. Come."
"SHINTA!!" Eimi reached for her sword, only to find it replaced by the jade pendant she always wore around her neck. She collapsed, unable to move anymore, and cried. "Shinta, you stained your hands with the blood of another. You were just like those men that took 'Tousan and Kanashii from us!"
"Don't cry." A hand pulled her to her feet, and Eimi found that she was staring into the eyes of a dark-haired copy of herself.
"Who are you?"
"You know me, Tokio. I am the one that you share your second name with."
"You were stillborn…you can't be here."
Tokio shook her head. "No, no, Tokio. 'Tousan wasn't yet ready to tell you that I died only a year ago. I called you here to tell you something."
"And what would that be?"
"The man I showed you…the man holding the blade in that vision. The one who killed your precious Shinta."
"What about him?"
"That man…Saitou Hajime, is your future. When you carry his child in your belly, do not doubt that he loves you with all that he is."
"And why is this important to me, exactly?"
"Because if I did not tell you now, you would die. You would kill yourself because you believe that Hajime did not love you. You have a full, long life ahead of you, Tokio, with many children by Hajime."
"Children? But I am…"
"You may be Usankusai-san's lover at the moment, Tokio, but one day within a few months, you will meet Hajime. Please remember what I have said to you."
"Please don't leave me alone. I don't have anyone."
"You will meet Hajime in the near future, I promise."
She began to fade.
--End Dream--
"Tokio-chan, wake up." Seijuurou shook Eimi lightly, and she opened her eyes.
"What is it, Seijuurou?" Eimi sat up, rubbing her head.
"The mission was postponed until you woke up. 'Tousan won't let you out of it." Seijuurou sighed.
"It's because Hitokiri Battousai is my younger brother. I have to face it sooner or later." She pushed herself to her feet as she said this, reaching for the sword lying next to her futon.
"I still can't believe that he expects you to fight your own brother. Are you honestly going to go through with this?!" Seijuurou grabbed Eimi's wrist.
Amber eyes fixed on him, and Eimi wrenched her wrist from his grasp. "If he loses the will to live in a fight against me, then he will die. He's an Ishin Shishi, and I fight for the shogun. He's not my brother right now; he's a filthy hitokiri who wants to do nothing but shed blood."
"No one likes the roaming bands of hitokiri. But why do you have such a grudge against your brother now that he has become one?" Kazuki pointed out.
"It was a band of rogue hitokiri that took my father and sister away from me. I won't stand for it."
The shoji slammed shut behind her without another word, and she stepped outside.
--Northern Kyoto--
Snow had begun her freezing dance in the air, her partner, Wind, cradling her and guiding her steps. Their affair had begun once more, and would coat the ground in white as temperatures dropped.
Kenshin sighed, drawing his knees up to his chest. His lover and partner, Minami, placed a blanket around him.
"Thinking of your sister again, Kenshin?" Her soft voice did not comfort him; their relationship was purely physical, although he considered her a dear friend.
"I still don't blame her for running out on Hiko. She was so grateful to him, and yet he trampled us down like dogs." Kenshin replied.
"Grateful? How could someone be grateful to a man like Hiko?" Minami, though wise for her age, did not understand.
"Hiko gave her a name. A real name, and she always respected him for it. Demo…then she ran away, without giving a reason why." Kenshin sighed, shaking the light dusting of snow from his hair.
--Takagi Mansion --
Eimi's short strides left an odd trail in the snow, jerking footsteps making it seem like a crippled child had run through the forest.
"So where did Father say that this place was?" Eimi tossed her head and shook the snow from her ponytail, casting a glance back towards Seijuurou.
"It's just ahead. According to our spies, it's a small village that some of the shogun's soldiers lost to the Ishin Shishi, and it's now run by them. Are you sure you still want to go through with this?" Seijuurou asked.
"Don't ask me again, Seijuurou, please. I've made up my mind, and I will go through with this. If we meet Battousai, we meet Battousai; it's as simple as that." Eimi shrugged, then stopped. "Hold up."
"What is it?" Seijuurou crouched behind Eimi, peering over her shoulder at the village at the bottom of the grove.
A man stood there, holding a naked sword and pointing it at a young girl. She was crying, hugging herself and shivering. He was obviously ordering her to do something, and she kept refusing, shaking her head.
After about three seconds, Eimi had had enough, and drew her sword, dashing down the hill at a silent, but dead run.
The silver of the katana glinted above the white purity that was the snow, and then the sword angled down. Cold metal pierced a layer of flesh, then a spine, stopping for a second.
"Only a coward would attack an unarmed girl. Now…die." Eimi's eyes flashed amber, and she pushed the blade through the man's heart, feeling the strong, steady beat grow wild…and steadily weaker as she made her first kill.
"Tokio…" Seijuurou felt his voice leaving his throat, hiding itself somewhere in the air.
The young samurai jerked the sword from the dead man's breast, watching the girl flee in absolute terror. She turned to Seijuurou, eyes swirling emerald and amber. Blood dripped from the sword, and Eimi lifted it to her lips.
Her tongue darted out, seductively lapping the fluid from the blade, dirtying her lips and nose. It was almost like a she-wolf standing over a dead animal, stating that she and she alone had rights to the meat.
For a second, Seijuurou saw the image of a wolf replace Eimi. Slender, with perfectly formed paws, deadly fangs, and fur red as wine. Blood dripped from her muzzle, and she growled.
"Red wolf…"
I hope that this was enjoyable! Please review!