SHADOWS OF RED
Author's note(s): THANK YOU SO MUCH! Thanks to the sacred night for all of your reviews! I noticed that I totally messed up in some places...but I'm too lazy to go back and actually change it, then upload it again, and whatnot. Thanks for pointing out my idiotic problems though. Here's what I have to say:
the sacred night: The womanizer thing. Trying to interject some humor. It apparantly didn't succeed. Or Sachiko's just being the sour person she is. Like a grapefruit. The pseudo-fight (haha, that makes me laugh) Sachiko's trying not to be a stuck-up ass and admitting she's probably not as good as Battousai. But she does say that he'd get a few key wounds...meaning life-threatening or serious injuries. Trying to make her humble.
Thank you again! And please tell me if I make anymore (stupid) mistakes. Goes to show I need to proof-read.
Chapter 6-Truth upon the Ground
He was a tall man, but not broad or muscular, garbed in a simple grey gi and white hakama. Short-cut black hair tossed in the wind. He stood before his employer, straight-backed and apparently at ease.
"Before we begin…" his voice was smooth and betrayed no fear.
"Would you be as kind as to give me your name? I am truly amazed to meet one such as you, hime. You fight as ten of my men."
His gloved hand went to his katana.
"I promise I will whisper it to the winds as an offering when I have your head."
Sachiko grinned at him.
"Why, I'd rather know your name, good sir," she replied equally lightly.
Tensing slightly, she pointed her katana upward.
"It will be written amongst the thousands of others who have fallen to this sword."
With a clean sweep, she ran forward to meet him.
Bringing her katana upwards, she slashed at his throat.
Steel rang against steel.
"Blocked. Who hired you?"
She disengaged, darting to the side.
"I'll never tell you, will I?" she said with a mock smile.
In the moment he took to straighten up, she slammed into him, sword extended to pierce his side.
He parried.
He's not that bad, Sachiko thought with surprise. I can challenge this one.
"What, getting tired and slow?" he taunted as he whipped his katana upwards to miss her throat by a hair.
"No…just lazy."
They fought, steel meeting steel numerous times. Soon, he began to sweat and stumble. Sachiko felt her breath coming a little harder.
All right then. We'll play, she thought grimly.
Taking her katana, she slid her fingers back along the hilt, until she barely had a grasp on the sword.
This time, when he swung, her missed her entirely.
"What did you do!" he yelped as she ducked into his zone.
"Nothing for you to know, my friend," she bit out and swept her katana along his legs. A razor thin line of blood sprang out.
Suddenly, he crouched and tossed away his katana. A grin lit his face and bloodthirst entered his eyes.
"Then I'll just show you my own little secret," he said.
Out of nowhere, two small blades shot towards Sachiko. She twisted, barely avoiding being slashed. As it was, a cut welled up on her cheek.
She leaped back.
He held two short swords and spun them by their rotating hilts. Coupled with centrifugal force, his weapons became ten times as deadly.
"Your blood will wash my blades when this is over!" With a yell, he charged forward, rotating his blades and his arms. The swords whirred and became a blur.
"Ah, but you forgot one thing," Sachiko whispered.
She sprang into the air, turning high above him.
When you spin your weapons, you lose control over their precision and speed!
She could see the ground coming up and turned a final spin, the world momentarily blurring but for a patch of grey.
"Rosu Hiyou Kou!"
The ground trembled as she landed, facing away from the man, arms pulled backwards by her katana.
It protruded from the man's chest, shining steel the center of a bulls-eye of spreading red.
"Your secret isn't enough to save you."
She turned and pulled her katana from his chest, watching as his eyes clouded over and his fingers dropped from his weapons.
She turned to face the man who she had set out to kill.
"You are a woman with a broken soul." The words were said calmly.
What? Sachiko stood before Mogami Kaito in surprise.
"You are a hitokiri. That, I understand. But what look what you have done."
He gestured gracefully and Sachiko turned to look, compelled by an emotion she could not name.
Blood spilled everywhere over the peaceful garden. Men lay discarded like piles of garbage, their humanity gone with their lives.
"You have brought evil to a place where they had been none."
Her stomach twisted in anger. "Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about! What can you say, you Bakufu who go around making the lives of the people so miserable!"
Her katana trembled.
Kaito continued. "Ah, but my child. Who were you?"
Who were you?
The words struck her like a sword piercing her chest.
"What are you saying?" she whispered.
"Who were you before this blood touched your life?"
He turned to contemplate the trees, still swaying gently under the dying sky and crimson sky.
"Who are you beneath the bloody mantle you wear?"
"Why do you do what you do?"
"SHUT UP!"
Sachiko, frenzied, stabbed her sword wildly at him. It struck him in the heart, and he doubled over with a gasp.
"What justice have you brought…to Kyoto?" he gasped out, blood spilling onto his kimono. He sank slowly to the ground.
"What…have y-you be…become…"
He crumpled in a heap leaving Sachiko standing alone in the garden filled with blood.
More notes and suchlike:
I forgot, should clear something up. In the previous chapter, with the confrontation between Battousai, Sachiko, and the drunk mob, the part where ashes swirl? That's in response to Sachiko's swordsman's spirit. Rather like Kenshin's leaves and Shishio's fire for those who have read or seen RK. I chose ashes because she's a dark sort of person on the surface.
Japanese terms and other random info
1. Rosu Ryuu Kou...hahaha I laugh at my lame attempts to make up a sword style. This translates roughly as Downward Flying Tiger. Heehee, if you haven't noticed, Sachiko's "animal likeness" is a tiger. Rather like Battousai's being the dragon...Traditionally though, the tiger and the dragon are great enemies. We'll see what happens about that.
2. The Reason why Sachiko changed her grip...for all who haven't read RK, a swordman has his (or her, must be equal-opportunity) own "zone," or place where their sword/s can reach easily. To fight an opponent, one has to enter their zone, except for Kenshin's Dou Ryuu Sen. Thus Sachiko holding further down the hilt increases her zone and takes her further from her opponent's zone. In a fight, just a couple of centimeters can be the difference between being hit or not.
3. What have I forgotten?...apparently, the sun's still shining at eight in the fall. ? My imagination is running away from me.
Onward!