Author's Note: Thanks for all the help, you guys! I really appreciate it! A little thought: I was reading over my chapters recently, for some absurd reason (homework procrastination, I suppose). As I reread the first two chapters, I was astounded at how horrible the writing seemed (no, wait! Just let me continue first!). Then I moved on to the next chapters, like the 5th, 6th, and 7th, and was struck in the face by how awesome the details and metaphors were compared to the first chapter. Okay, y'all may think I'm bragging now, but seriously! I'm glad I'm improving, just by writing a fanfic. Proves that some excuses for homework procrastination really benefit you, for the better. I'm BLABBERING away in my Author's Note- -!
Review Responses (very short as well):
Whisper of Darkness, DragonMaster271, Brittanie Love, catti-dono, little bumblebee: Thanks a bunch! YIPPEE!! -skips around- I got SO happy after I read your reviews! -skips around some more-
Shihali: NO! I HATE PLOT HOLES!! Must research more...Ah, yes, on the topic of research. I went on to this fantastic website that told of how each event proceeded, in precise detail. And I read up on the Kyoto Arc, and now the future chapters will have less plot holes, I guess. But for that one... How about if another event had happened before that...that told the Kenshingumi that Shishio was alive... Well, you're like my beta-reader (not that I have one), catching each of my BIG mistakes! And not everyone knows the Kyoto Arc in great detail like you do...so ah...let's just explain this away, hmm? --;;; Or will that work?
Arteme: Thank ya! You're such a good reviewer...-tries to hide tomato-red cheeks- hahaha....I'm embarrassed now. --;;;; Seriously, thank you so much!
rurouni madness: Don't worry about it--Kenshin's plotting something...oh you bad boy you, Kenshin!
assassinatorgirl: I'm so sorry to hear that! (For my own sake --;) I'm waiting for your next chapter! I can't wait for when Jin-e turns all mean and shows his face! Thanks for reading my story! I really appreciate it! (And what's more, you actually like it! Gasp!)
Okay, I was lying when I said there were going to be short review responses...
Disclaimer: Don't own Rurouni Kenshin, this story idea is mine. Too brain- dead to think of something really creative.
A Cloak of Protection
Chapter 9: Liquid Amber Eyes
DAY TWO -- 9:00 am
"Sorry to interrupt the little--ah--moment, but I'd like to have a little chat with the Battousai," came a silky, cool masculine voice from the front dojo gates.
The tall, spiky-headed man stiffened visibly. He quickly drew up his large, knuckled fists and swiveled around, feeling his brown eyes narrow as he glared at the figure standing nonchalantly at the front gates. The long red ribbon wound once around his head flared up angrily, undulating frantically.
Yahiko quickly drew himself away from Kenshin's warm, comforting embrace, automatically reaching down for the wooden bokken he had tucked into the tie of his forest green hakama.
Kenshin, in surprise, snapped his head around to lay his amethyst violet eyes on the dark-blue outfitted man. His shiny fiery hair swirled around his shoulders, catching the morning light shining onto the dojo grounds. He cautiously stepped back with his sandaled left heel, turning around to face the stranger.
Leaning casually and rather nonchalantly against the right pillar of the front gate was a tall, slender man dressed entirely in dark blue.
His sharply slanted, narrow golden eyes were those of a hitokiri's.
Beside him, Kenshin could hear Yahiko slowly draw in a surprised gasp. Sano didn't budge from his still, drawn-fist position.
In the stranger's gloved right hand, he held a slim white cigarette up to his thin lips. A slight sneer curling his lips, he gently blew out a gray column of smoke through his nostrils. Dark, stringy brown hair hung over his eyes, giving him a mysterious aura--the rest of his cropped hair was slicked back. His pale face was sharply angular, clean of facial hair. He looked to be around Kenshin's age, or maybe older.
Sano visibly twitched, feeling dangerous, uncomfortable vibes coming off of this tall guy with the bad hair. He clenched his knuckles tighter, bent casually forward, more than ready to launch a punch at this guy if anything ...unexpected...were to happen.
Stepping forward with his right foot threateningly, Sanosuke angrily demanded, "Who the hell are you? What the fuck are you really doing here?"
The stranger smirked carelessly, extracted the smoking cigarette from his lips, and flicked it onto the ground. Grinding it under his shiny black heel, he reached up with his right hand and lifted off the blue police cap he had perched on his head.
"Fujita Goro, at your service," the tall stranger coldly replied, a tiny smirk lifting up the corners of his mouth once again, and mockingly bowed to the livid Sanosuke. "Now, I would like to speak to the Battousai, if you don't mind." These last words he threw in Sano's face like a splash of icy cold water.
Sano recoiled angrily, stepping back from his fighting stance, curling and uncurling his fists. He could imagine sinking one of them into that bastard's smirking face, grinding it in, drawing it back again and launching forward, into the clean, angular nose...
Fujita Goro lifted his head and looked away from Sanosuke, at the still Kenshin.
Kenshin stared back at the stranger, something flickering in his violet eyes. He slowly stepped forward with his right foot, unnerved by the stranger's eyes. Something oddly familiar about them... Just step away from the whole picture--away from the police outfit--
The tall man's mocking smirk deepened.
"There's something different about you, Battousai..."
Kenshin's back straightened. He looked Fujita Goro in the narrow eye. "There's something different about you, too, Saitou Hajime."
'Fujita Goro' stepped back quickly, surprised. His already narrow golden eyes narrowed even deeper, turning into twin slits. The smirk disappeared from his angular face. Then it returned again.
"Well, well....nothing less from the great Battousai." Saitou straightened and glared at Kenshin again. "Or are you? You don't have the strong chi of the legendary hitokiri any longer. You've turned soft." It wasn't a question.
"Saitou Hajime, Captain of the 3rd Division of the Shinsengumi," Kenshin returned solemnly. "Aku Soku Zan, was it? Kill evil instantly. But now -- " Kenshin indicated Saitou's dark blue police outfit with a downward tip of his bushy red head--"you're working for the police now, aren't you?"
Saitou's smirk dissolved to a straight line slashed abruptly across his face. "The secret police, yes." His liquid amber eyes narrowed even deeper, and he brusquely continued, "I've been sent here by the police chief. But you, Battousai--your chi has weakened, and your whole demeanor almost radiates ...gentleness." His lip curled at the exaggeration.
Kenshin lifted up his head and stared at Saitou, memories of before playing through in his head.
They had been fighting, he knew that. And Saitou had been very strong...IS very strong, Kenshin dutifully corrected himself. The battle was very close, and they hadn't been able to finish. The victor hadn't been decided yet--and it had looked as if it would be a draw...
Saitou glared back at Kenshin, folding his arms nonchalantly. He, too, was thinking of the past... drawing up his bloody blade to fend off the Battousai's surprisingly strong blows, nimbly executing each strike, trying frantically to measure the Battousai's sudden swings...
And then he had gotten the lead. Then it was the Battousai's turn to lead. Then--it would have all been over by Saitou's hand had not they been abruptly interrupted.
"We'll finish this fight, Battousai..."
A slight parting, tinged with bitterness.
Saitou's eyes flared venomously. He uncrossed his arms and pushed himself up angrily from his casual position against the front gate's right pillar, gloved hands down at sides, golden eyes fixed on Kenshin's solemn face.
Kenshin stood there stiffly on the dojo steps, shoulders back, thick red hair whipping against his shoulders and back, also thinking of their incomplete fight...
Yahiko, tongue against his teeth, looked between the two men. He could see the tension boiling up between them, feel the pressure crackling like solid electricity hanging in the air. The tops of the leafy trees beyond the dojo gate tossed slightly in the breeze, murmuring dry whispers. Several green leaves escaped from their branches and swirled in the slight wind, over the dojo gate, and onto the dojo grounds, swirling in a neat circle between Kenshin and Saitou.
Saitou abruptly broke the glass-spiked wall of tension, taking a striding step forward. He stopped there, looking Kenshin straight in the eye. His tongue darted out of his mouth, the tip lingering at the edge of his thin lips. "Let's finish this, Battousai." The edges of his mouth turned downwards in a grim, determined line.
Kenshin jerked with a slight tremor running through him at the four icy words. Finish--the fight--ten years ago? He felt his eyes catch on fire, burning with a molten amber color.
Saitou spoke, icy water splashing over his words. "Inside. We'll finish the fight inside this dojo--no one will stop us then."
Sano had had enough.
He bit down hard on his lower lip angrily and purposefully strode toward the still Kenshin, whose eyes were shadowed by his long fiery bangs. "Kenshin--I can't believe you would--"
Kenshin's eyes narrowed.
He thrust up his hand at Sano, indicating Sano to stop. "Stop it, Sano."
Kenshin slowly glanced up at Sanosuke then, and his bangs fell away to reveal a pair of gleaming, narrowed, liquid-gold eyes. "I will finish this fight with Saitou."
Saitou smirked visibly.
Yahiko grimly knelt down, hands on the knees of his forest-green hakama, and hoarsely shouted out, "Sanosuke! We shouldn't interfere with this! It looks like Kenshin and Saitou're knee-deep in the past! Whatever happened between them, we should let them at least kick it out of the way, before going to get Kaoru! At least let Kenshin have that!"
Sano stopped. He took a halting step back, away from Kenshin, and glanced over his shoulder at Yahiko, who seemed in desperation. Desperation to get Jo-chan back without any obstacles, Sano thought with a tinge of sadness. But if Kenshin were to get hurt fighting Saitou, then their little advantage would plummet...
Kenshin abruptly turned on his heel, the dry, small sound resounding in the tensed silence, and headed into the dojo without another word. Saitou's narrow eyes flashed for a moment, and then he followed.
Yahiko and Sano looked at each other. Then they too followed, the air still and heavy with what was to come.
---------------------------------
9:30 am
She had kept this up for a long time, to no avail. Her arm muscles were sore and stiff. Tomorrow, she thought ironically, she would develop large muscles like Sanosuke's.
Every time she angrily rubbed at lightning speed, muscles pumping, wood grinding against wood, bright sparks flew in all the directions from the center of the grinding wood.
She was going to set this place on fire soon if she didn't stop this pointless activity.
And, Kaoru mused, grimacing, as she glanced around the room, this place really is a ready tinderbox.
A tinderbox with wooden walls, hardwood floor, hardwood table.....
"Baka! Baka!!" Kaoru chided herself grimly. Then the corners of her rosebud lips drew up in a half-smile, and her heart swelled with longing. Exactly how many times had she called herself a baka while 'residing' in this room? And how long had she been in here?
Almost angrily, Kaoru deftly flung the oil-streaked two-legged wooden side table away from her lap. She gripped her makeshift bokken tightly in her right hand, and used that as an unsmooth leverage to boost herself up.
Kaoru bit her bottom lip in pain as her back straightened out from her hours of crouching over the two pieces of wood, trying to grind them together. Her lower spine was a little numb, but that would go away shortly. Her head throbbed, making her a little dizzy also, but she shook that away quickly.
Standing up gingerly, Kaoru gently shook out her stiff limbs. Then she raised the reconstructed table leg up to her calculating sapphire eyes, seeing what she had accomplished.
It wasn't much. Rubbing wood against wood hadn't helped that much. But some of the sharp Oriental angles seemed to be slightly smoothed out, and most of the slick redwood oil had rubbed off onto the circular surface of the side table.
So maybe the hours of frantically sanding had kind of paid off. Better than sitting around and not building up her muscles, to prepare for ...the future. It didn't look too bright as of now.
Kaoru set down her bokken, absently chewing her lip in deep thought. Going after the next person who came into the room with a bokken...surely she could escape that way! And then Shishio wouldn't have the privilege of using her against Kenshin--!
Kenshin. Her head swam, dizzy waves pummeling her.
At least she hadn't thought of him in hours. That was a start, in her goal to strengthen herself up.
Kaoru closed her eyes tightly and brought her hands up to her head, clutching her forehead. She wouldn't...she wouldn't...she WOULDN'T cry again.
Licking her dry bottom lip, she brought down her hands to her sides, trembling. She was fine--she had willed back the looming tears, the threat to spill herself over.
She would train--yes, she would train! Harder than ever, every day in this wretched, boring place, she would push herself to strengthen her muscles. Fight against that bandaged mummy, fight against the always-happy Soujirou, find a way to escape out of here.
She took a step forward.
Suddenly, a crashing wave overcame her. A feeling of lightheadedness swam through her.
Oh yeah...I haven't eaten or drank in days. The dawning realization came trudging through thick, resistant mud to her.
The dimly lit room seemed to sway before her eyes. The yellow couch wavered, and vaguely swam around.
Kaoru blindedly stumbled forward, and managed to grip the end of the yellow couch. Gasping in dry, long breaths, she rapidly blinked her sapphire eyes and tried to will away the lightheadedness.
Stumbling up, she slowly grabbed her bokken off the ground. Have to--have to hide it--what if someone comes -- takes it away--
Kaoru hastily tripped over to the yellow couch, cerulean blue eyes squinted, gripping the end of the bokken in her almost-limp hand. She managed to throw the bokken beneath her, and it rolled into the couch's soft back. Eyes fluttering, dark lashes standing out against her increasingly pale skin, she landed on the bumpy bokken, onto the couch. One end, the magenta obi-wrapped end, protruded out.
That was the last she could sense before everything merged to form a black, black tapestry.
TO BE CONTINUED
Author's Note: I had fun typing out this chapter! It was like everything merged together to make me muster up details rapidly. Sorry if some of the characters are a bit OOC! I tried to make them act like themselves the best I could. I'm updating weekly now, due to my tremendous homework load, so expect me to update on Saturday or Sunday!
-Twilight Sky