Hullo my peoples! I am so incredibly sorry that it took me this long to update, but lots of things came up. First off, school, second off, violin and piano, and third, whenever I've had a break so far from school I've gotten terribly sick, and then that goes over into school time, so I miss school, the homework piles up, and pretty soon I find myself knee-deep in stuff I have to get done and zero free time. And, I wanted this chapter to be extra long and have lots of action. Thank you all for sticking with this story, and please review.
Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin, but I do claim this plot and my characters. Please, only use with permission.
Also, please read short note at end of story that has to deal with something that happens in the story, but I won't talk about here because it'd spoil the chapter for you.
'Divided Waters'
Chapter Five:
Oath
By KatDramaIt had been several weeks since that day her arm had been put back in place. They had tightly braced her broken leg so when it healed naturally it wouldn't be completely crooked. With the help of a crude crutch she was able to walk, dragging the injured leg behind her. Every day she improved in health and strength as she went out to the riverbank and practiced swinging her sword. Every now and then she would glance up the path out of the village, hoping against wistful hope that someday she would see a familiar red headed man, or even better, a certain spiky haired kid coming to her rescue. Today the sky was overcast. Dark clouds blotted out the sun and the wind stirred the rustling grasses of the fields. With a heavy sigh, Sachi turned away from the path and tied the sakabato to her waist. She then started on an exercise of a new kind by...
"Sachi, why are lifting rocks above your head?" Sakura blurted as she came walking up the path with their meager lunch containing one rice ball for each of them.
"It's to build strength in my arm so it won't ever become dislocated again." Sachi smiled as she threw the rocks she had been repeatedly lifting to the ground. She accepted the rice ball from Sakura and slowly munched on it, letting the sticky rice slowly get mashed around in her mouth, savoring every last ounce of juicy flavor before swallowing it and taking her next bite.
"Summer's almost over." Sakura looked sadly up at the dark sky. "It's going to storm soon."
"Yes. It's too bad too. I was really enjoying the nice weather here." Sachi leaned on her crutch heavily and relaxed her other leg.
"Oh, normally it's very nice all the time. Sure, it gets a little chilly in the winter but..."
"Sakura! Sakura!" Little Toshi was running up the path from the village. Almost out of breath her ran into his sister and tugged at her sleeve.
"What is it Toshi?" She patted his spiky brown hair with her free hand.
"It them! They're back!" He exclaimed, his young brown eyes wide with terror.
"Who's back? The samurai?" Sakura's voice quavered.
"Uh-huh." Toshi nodded his little head, the little spikes of brown hair bounced in the wind that was gradually picking up.
"Sachi, will you be able to..."
Sachi cut the worried girl short as she drew out her sakabato with her right hand and supported her crutch with the left arm. Looking down the back of the blade she stared at the grass. "I'm ready as I'll ever be." Her long, golden bangs covered her downcast eyes and she spoke in a tone as cold as the steel of the blade. It sent a shiver up Sakura's spine.
Shaking the startling feeling off, the girl began running toward the village. "Then let's go!"
"Right behind ya." Sachi smirked as she stumped forward, dragging her injured leg behind her.
Grabbing a farmer's hoe that was leaning against a house for a weapon, Sakura hid around the corner of a house. Sachi and Toshi joined her. Together they peeked around the edge of the building at the mangy band of samurai. They were picking on the very pregnant housewife of a poor farmer.
"What's that you say? You have nothing left for us to steal?" One smirked sardonically as he slapped her hard, making her fall back unto the dusty ground. Some little children gathered around her.
"Back off ya big bully!" A little child pointed. "Ya!" The others backed him up. "Leave her alone!"
"Oh, and who are you to resist against me? What are you gonna do? Bite me with your little dull teeth?" The renegade bent low and sneered at them. Behind him, a group of about twenty rough men laughed evilly. Their leader raised his hand to smack the child when a loud voice yelled from out of nowhere.
"Don't you touch him!" Sakura shouted, smacking the man's large hand away with the backside of her hoe.
"Why if it isn't the little 'warrior girl'." The man's smirk grew even wickeder as he rubbed his reddening hand. "And who's this with you, some lady with a crutch? Boy, you sure know how to raise up an army, don't you?" He mocked.
"Oh yeah? Well...well...you'll never be half the warrior Sachi is!" Sakura retorted.
"Uh...Sakura...um..." Sachi gulped. "I hate to put a fork in your speech, but um...don't you think you're making things a tad worse by saying that?" Sachi nervously whispered in the girl's ear.
"Shut up, Sachi. Listen, I know they look tough, but you can beat 'em easy!" Sakura whispered back.
"Heh...heh...if you say so." Sachi's face grew paler by the second.
"Oh, so your injured friend is a warrior, is she? We'll be the judge of that, won't we boys?" The leader scratched his stubbly face.
"Yeah, we'll show 'em what a real warrior is!" His men backed him up.
"All right boys, teach 'em a lesson!" As the leader shouted his men drew their swords and rushed forward.
"I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!" Sachi's mind screamed as the bloodthirsty renegades came ever nearer.
"Sachi, don't just stand there! Fight!" Sakura shouted above the melee. Moving with the quickness and the agility of a child, Sakura dodged back and forth between the men so that some of their attacks hit their fellow renegades instead of her. Every now and then she would strike out with the blunt side of the hoe, because somehow she couldn't bring herself to want to gore someone with the sharp, pointed side.
"Well, I guess it's now or never." Sachi sighed as the men finally surrounded her. In a flash she quickly dug the end of her crutch deep within the soil, and in one swift motion, swung up and around it, kicking men in the face with her good leg in an arc around her. When her foot finally touched the ground she gave them no time to gang up on her, for now she flicked her crutch out and swung low around her to sweep out the feet of the second wave of men. Thus, by repeatedly using her crutch she kept an open circle about her.
Finding herself swamped in a mass of bodies with no easy way out, Sakura suddenly remembered that they weren't all alone. They should call for the backup! "Toshi, sound the gong!" She shouted.
"Oh, yeah." The little child began running around the fight to their house.
"Oh no you don't you little brat!" A wiry man with odd hair stepped out of the fight. "You ain't gonna scare us off again!" Toshi screamed with fright and covered his face with his arms as the sword came crashing towards him.
"NO! TOSHI!" A girl's scream split the air.
--
The thunder overhead began to boom more steadily. Sachi bent and tied a makeshift bandage around a gash on her leg, which was, fortunately, the only injury she had acquired. Standing up she sadly turned to look in Sakura's direction. The little berserker had succeeded in scaring away all the samurai. Sachi shuddered at the decapitated body that lay in the village center. Once her wrath had been unleashed, Sakura had not held back, and swung with the sharp blade of the hoe, severing the head of one of the samurai. But the cost for this victory was too great.
Sakura kneeled on the bloody ground and pulled her little brother into her lap. His crimson blood stained her arms as she hugged him close to her body. There was a large gash where the sword had been run clean through his small body.
"Sakura, did I do bad?" The little boy hoarsely whispered.
"No, no, Toshi...you did very good." Tears fell shamelessly from his sister's eyes as she gently caressed his face with her blood stained hands, smearing a trail of red across his cheek.
"It hurts." He shuddered as a trickle of blood poured from the corner of his mouth.
"Shhh....shhh...be very quiet. It won't hurt for long." She gently rocked him back and forth.
"Sakura, I'm scared..." His pale eyes searched for her face.
"I'm right here. There's no need to be scared." She reached out and wrapped his tiny hand in hers. The tears continued to flow.
"But...what's going to happen to me?" He began to cry.
"You're going to go to a fabulous place, Toshi." ::see author's note at end of chapter::
"What will it be like?" His pain increased.
"There will be fields of flowers just for the picking, and a mountain stream that is filled with many fish. There the cherry blossoms are always blooming, and their sweet scent perfumes the air. There will be no pain or hurt. And Mother will be there." Sakura softly whispered.
"Mother?" The boy exclaimed.
"Yes, Toshi. Mommy is waiting for you. Don't be scared. Go to her, her hand is outstretched to you. Take her hand, Toshi." Sakura's body began to quake with sobs that she desperately tried to oppress for the sake of her little brother.
"I...I see her!" His little eyes began to cloud over.
"Yes Toshi, go to her." Sakura laid her head on his little chest as it stopped moving, her tears spilling out unto his deceased body as tiny raindrops began to fall.
Sachi stood motionless, overlooking her friend with mixed emotions.
"This has gone too far!" An old craggy voice made the girl nearly jump out of her skin.
"Mrs. Tenuki! You scared me!" Sachi clasped a hand to her beating heart.
"Up till now there were just harmless disputes with few injuries, but this loss of life cannot continue!" The old woman's face was hardened into a frown. "I thought that maybe we could handle the situation, but it is obvious it has gotten way out of hand. I have no choice but to write to the Central Defense Office in Tokyo." She gravely nodded.
Sachi's heart skipped a beat at the word of her past home.
"Terrible, just terrible!" Mrs. Tenuki muttered, wandering off to her house.
Without saying a word, Sachi limped over to Sakura's side. Sakura lifted her head in surprise as a pale hand reached over and pressed itself against Toshi's chest wound. She picked up her hand and stared blankly at the blood that dripped off her fingers and mixed with the rain. Sakura gasped as Sachi reached up and wiped the bloody hand through her bright bangs, staining their ends red. Then, she placed her other hand over the wound and rubbed the blood through her long ponytail.
"What'd you do that for?" Sakura blurted. "You'll ruin your hair! If that dries it might not come out!"
Sachi looked into the younger girl's eyes. Her own eyes had turned an icy shade of blue, and looked grimly dangerous. "This is an oath I make here and now. I shall stay here and see this fight through. I will avenge your brother's death and restore peace to this village. On this I swear even more so than I have ever sworn to protect you before."
"But, Sachi, I already killed the man who did this!"
"One man's blood is not enough to repay the blood of this child. Every mangy samurai of that band shall pay with their lives." Her words gripped Sakura's heart with fear.
"But I never asked you to murder them!" Sakura protested. The rain began to fall down harder now. A flash of lightning illuminated the sky. "Please, Sachi, don't do this! Don't become a murder!"
Another flash of lightning revealed the cold steel of Sachi's eyes, and the blood from her bangs that dripped down her face. It was such a cold-hearted stare that maybe only the glare of the Hitokiri Battosai might rival it.
--
A few days later, after Toshi's sad funeral, there is a little grave built for him on the edge of the riverbank. After paying their respects, the villagers stand by the edge of the road as a wagon pulled by a single old mare is loaded up for the long trip to Tokyo. Along with Mrs. Tanuki's letter to the government, there are also many lists of much needed supplies from the big city: seed for crops, new equipment, toys for the children, ect. Several men and woman gather in the wagon, for it is a rare thing that a wagon goes to Tokyo. Sakura's father looks down from the wagon. He is going to deliver Mrs. Tanuki's letter along his personal plea and list of grievances. He speaks to his 'adopted daughter'.
"Are you sure you do not want to come? This is probably your only chance to return to your home." He holds out a hand for her to climb in.
Sachi bows politely and refuses his hand. "There will be other chances. But I have vowed to stay here and see this through."
"I understand." Akio gravely nods. With a crack of the reigns the wagon lurches forward, and the non-traveling villagers return to their daily life. Only two girls stand in the path, watching the little wagon travel out of sight.
Sakura sighed. "Are you completely sure about this?"
Sachi nodded, her red stained bangs waving in the breeze. She stairs ahead with her hardened eyes at the horizon.
--
::author's note:: I do not know much about Japanese religion, and so this part was entirely made up. This is not my personal view of what happens when someone dies, but I felt it was necessary for the story. Anyways, please do not criticize me about religion. We all have our personal beliefs, and I mean not to offend anyone.::
Okay, so now do you guys get a little better grip of the plot? Please review! I'll try to update sometime around when I get my Thanksgiving break...but if not then, for sure Christmas break..