Past and Future by hitokiri-san
A/N: So. I run into writer blocks every two chapters, poor me. And right now I have ran into a great problem (not essentially writer's block, but some theoretical time thingy) that I've been unable to solve for about three months rolls eyes so anyway, I've just turned 16, which is great; and I'm gonna get the Kenshin PS game for my birthday, which is basically greater. sighs Talking about birthday presents¡Kso, enough random ranting. On with the latest chapter...
Ch 16 Instinct: Protection and Betrayal
It really didn't help for Kenshin to know that it was, with no doubt, Battousai's own voice... in fact, this knowledge only made matters worse. The rurouni was a man who could keep his calm with him in every circumstance; ironically, he tended to lose it every time Battousai was involved.
And that was why Himura Kenshin the rurouni was running, in a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow, to the place where he knew the voice in his head was originated. Eyes focused only ahead, arms unguarded; he would be easy prey to anyone who had half a heart to ambush him. But that was the last of his worries now.
However, there was one person who could follow each and all of his movements with the precision of a hawk.
Kenshin didn't feel that something was wrong. He'd failed to notice the person leaning just behind the bend, waiting for him.
But he did felt it as his left sleeve snagged on the blade of a katana, pulling his lighting-fast motion to an unsteady stop - and ripping his whole sleeve apart in the process.
The shock it brought must have awoken the wanderer's fogged mind, for he unsheathed the sakabatou once he'd steadied himself, pointing it in the face of ...
...One Okita Souji.
"You know," Okita said in his mild, non-threatening voice, "I could easily have skewered you in that first strike."
He waited until the hitokiri had drawn his last breath, until the unnerving amber eyes had lost all of their venom. And the smoldering golden hue was gone, replaced by a glassy, lifeless yellow; a color that was about one-fortieth percent as scary as the ordinary one.
Battousai's head lolled weakly to the side; but his eyes remained wide open, as if trying to identify the ambusher even in oblivion.
"Damn, you can't blame me," the person stared into the wide, empty orbs as he walked out from the dark with a sweep of his fabric. " It is Katsura's fault. Well, it is also him who started putting young boys on the path of no return. You are his sacrifice to the thousands of those who want him dead."
He bent over to whisper in the young hitokiri's ear, knowing that he couldn't hear it; knowing, with grand certainty, that he could never hear anything again.
"You yourself said that you would never fall for a betrayal trick. But you did; you trusted me. That is why you have to die." He smiled, a maniac smile that carried no hint of regret.
"You may have the skill any assassin would crave for, but you're young. Far too young. You have yet to learn the ugliness of a human heart, boy. Betrayal isn't just a trick, ready to be used at a particular given moment. Betrayal is life, instinct. You don't have to learn it, but you'll do it when the situation arises - naturally."
As if knowing that Battousai would only react with an emotionlessly blank stare if he weren't sprawled on the ground, the man ceased talking. Instead, his eyes caught sight of the fallen katana that had once been firmly gripped in the boy's hand. He reached for it, transfixed by the perfect arc that curved the blade; more transfixed, perhaps, by the dull carnelian color that he could imagine lining the edge of a killer's sword ... not knowing that he would never find such a color on its edge for now.
"Leave that alone." The command was abruptly spoken, as if the speaker had just turned his head around to see what the man had been doing.
The man shrugged, nonchalant. "That's just a normal katana, Kizuka. You can stop being that suspicious."
Hiroi Kizuka spared him a side-glance, disgust and irritation carefully banked away from his own eyes. He wasn't that suspicious to believe that Battousai's katana would self-destruct or impale anyone in sight when touched by an unidentified person - not that he would care if the blasted double-dealer were impaled to death - but he felt somehow...reluctant to let the said double-dealer lay a hand on the boy's weapon. He didn't have any intimate feelings for Battousai, but allowing such a cold-blooded, maniac person touch his weapon was the worst insult to the now-dead boy hitokiri.
He'd already taken the boy's life; Hiroi was not sure that his conscience would forgive him if he allowed the boy's honor to be taken away from him also.
Hiroi walked over, picking up the hitokiri's katana and gently depositing it in the numb hand of its owner, so that the assassin's finger was closed loosely around the hilt. That was all he could do for his enemy; for the young boy who had unwittingly chosen to walk this path of no return.
"I have to go for Okita-sama now ... he would be most likely interested in the events around here." And perhaps send a few medics around for my men. " You may choose to follow me or - if you are sensible enough, disappear on your own." His voice was business-like, with no warmth reserved for the person standing behind him. He swept off the other side of the pavement, leaving the person staring spitefully behind his back.
" Che, I hate working with you, Kizuka."
"And I you." The Shinsengumi first troop vice-captain replied evenly, cement eyes sweeping back to the boy hitokiri stranded on the ground, his own blood soaking up and darkening the already navy gi. It was a dismal sight.
And Hiroi Kizuka found his thoughts dwelling on the boy. He was young, and looked more so when his eyes wasn't sparking with waves of menace. Did he, then, have a family? If yes, did they know what he was doing for a living? Or did the boy had simply led a double life ... a smiling teenage son before his parents, a cold-blooded hitokiri before his enemies? He knew that Battousai was ready and willing to die - But was he equally willing to kill his targets in cold blood?
Hiroi had seen the killer's momentary hesitation in killing him. He didn't understand it, and would never have; if he hadn't seen for now how an assassin would return to what he truly was upon death. The blank yet accusing amber eyes screamed boyhood, and now he understood. The hitokiri was also the boy. The boy could be the hitokiri. It was one and the same.
He had murdered a boy.
"Farewell, Matsukaze." Was all Hiroi said as he vanished around the corner.
Matsukaze.
Matsukaze, spy for the Ishinshishi and information provider for the Shinsengumi, riveted his gaze back to the blade that Battousai now held. He could not deny that he had a special attraction to the weapon, for it was, apparently, an enchanting artwork particularly designed for what it was for - killing in an instance. Battousai was dead and Hiroi was gone; no one would stop him if he wanted the blade for his own.
But the sight before him told him otherwise.
Matsukaze gaped as his gaze met the hand that held the katana securely in place. It was not numb as it should have been; contrarily, it was gripping the handle with such ferocity that for a brief moment the spy thought the metal hilt would break under the force. Nonplussed, Matsukaze stared into the hitokiri's face...
Where a pair of deadly amber eyes was directed straight at him, the hatred and anger in them almost knocking him senseless. If those had been terrifying before, it was nothing compared to the molten gold that burnt now. He was frozen on the spot, eyes glued involuntarily to what he knew was death and madness personified. Matsukaze's mind was screaming for him to get the hell out of there; but his body just didn't have the heart to obey.
Battousai stood unsteadily up, knowing - with a smirk bordered on psychosis - that his prey was going nowhere, and that he could take his time getting up. And if Matsukaze really had decided to go somewhere else, the hitokiri would immediately kill him off. It was simple as that.
"You want my katana. And so..." Battousai stated quietly as he balanced himself on the said blade. Matsukaze noted without any trace of amusement that Battousai's radiating glare had somehow managed to penetrate through his blood-red strands that obscured his eyes.
The boy raised his sword skywards, the edge of it glimmering silver in the scarlet moonlight.
"...you may have it!"
A/N: To be truthful, I hate this chapter. This seems to be talking about nothing at all...and yes, that's my way of dragging it till I've solved the problem blushes I seem to have a talent in writing chapters which have nothing in them. Aw, wish me good luck in solving the technical problem, will you, guys? And yes, I'm proud to announce that I now seriously need INPUT! Anyone with any idea how this story should go on, please leave it in a review or email. I'm earnest, really. I sort of feel that I'm out of ammunition...
xZig-zagx: Have you lost your beta reader recently? I saw you mention it in someone' s review page...but you said you've got one here, I'm confused...well, if you won't mind I may want to be one of your beta readers, if you don't mind my horrible grammar mistakes...I'm on summer vacation now and I think I have plenty of free time, although I'm trying to squeeze free time out of work.
Justice Stryfe: Thanks for the nice compliment, I feel so loved¡Kbut I hope this chapter will not disappoint you. (since it disappointed me) Erm, and I've left another cliffhanger around this time (cliffhanger lurks around corner) but believe me, it's not that evil. Everyone knows what's going to happen next, anyway! /nervous laugh/
The sacred night: We are in for a couple of fights-in-the-dark, believe me. Sorry for the late-as-hell update, I'm just trying to do everything at once in my summer holidays, erm, like trying to read comics and read books and draw and write a story in Chinese and write a story in English (namely this one) all at once. And I finally got the idea that I'm going nowhere and that I have to update. Aren't I great?
Lucrecia Levrai: Um, did I mention in my bio how I love Kenshin-Hiko moments? (not yaoi, mind you) I had it in my old bio¡Kmaybe I left it off. I love Bakumatsu, Hiko-Kenshin training moments, that sorta thing. Sorry to have let you down, I really take ages to update, do I?
Jupiter's light: I wonder which chapter you've got on to? Thanks for your support anyway!
Jovian Angel: You've reviewed this before, sure. And I'm positive that I've read your story on cheese, where Aoshi-sama is NUTS! /snicker/ I'm freaking crazy? It's sad to hear the truth, but I endure. Personally I think that working in a hospital as a volunteer five days a week from 9am to 5pm has an admirable effect in aggravating my nuttiness, and passing the psychiatric ward every day just doesn't help. I think that instead of dying, cliffhangers have an uncanny ability to duplicate themselves like germs...I believe there are two this chap. Or maybe I just work in the hospital too much.
BakaBokken: So you're finally back with my 15th review! /pummels a certain baka that is shaped like a bokken on the ground/ hmph! Cliffies exist for the sole purpose of annoying the heck out of readers, and that's why I'm eager in sprinkling them around. /receives anonymous glares/ I really have to call this chapter "stupid", as out of the previous 15 chapters, I hate this the most. No kidding. And, at which point I realize my story is going nowhere and I need an input to guide me in the right direction...
Megume: thanks for the many reviews! I think you're up to where Battousai meets the Shinsengumi with Tasuka, ne? As I know, there's no Tasuka arc in the official Kenshin manga because...drum roll I made Tasuka up. There's no such person in RK!
PhoebeOtaku: So I finaaly get to solve the great Otaku mystery. Another mystery, though...does that mean you're a fan of Phoebe? Or Phoebe's a fan of you? Or you're Phoebe, a fan of RK? Aw, that's getting complicated. I think it's the third, ne?
