Disclaimer applies. (the song used in this chapter is not mine either. hitomi is not talented enough to write songs.)
Notes: The title of this chapter was based on a particular scene/quote in RoTK featuring my favorite Tolkein pairing, Eowyn/Faramir.
Kakusei: Awakening
Chapter Three - Darkness Unescapable
"There is a woman," he calmly informed his men as they gathered around him in their plain white room. Hanya was leaning nonchalantly against the wall. "Kanryuu wishes us to watch her. I do not know what she is to him, or why she is so important. But this does not matter. Her room is next to Kanryuu's... We will take turns -- there should be at least one of us watching her at all times. These are Kanryuu's orders."
"But, Okashira..." exclaimed the short man standing to Hanya's right.
"What is it, Beshimi?"
"Iya... it is nothing."
"Beshimi."
"That man is scum!" the tiny man burst out angrily. "I... there is something wrong about him. Just wrong." Beshimi shuddered. Beshimi was an excellent judge of character. Aoshi took strange comfort in that fact.
"I know," he said softly. "I know... Be strong, men. Come next spring, we shall have no more need for this foolish bastard, and then we shall leave this place for good."
Beshimi bowed his head.
"But first... we must do our job. Beshimi, you explore the inside of this building and get a detailed map of all three floors drawn. Shikijou and Hyottoko, you two scout out the outdoor grounds."
As the three bowed and left to their respective posts, the one remaining man stood up from his position against the wall.
"And as for me, Okashira?"
"And as for you, Hanya, I have a special request," Aoshi replied, slipping a folded origami crane into the masked warrior's hand. Hanya glanced at the crane sitting in his palm as the young okashira strode out of the room. Then he unfolded it. His eyes skimmed swiftly over the neat black brushstrokes flowing across the colored paper.
Who is Takani Megumi?
- - -
Takani Megumi was not a stupid woman. She was well aware that Shinomori Aoshi was no ordinary man, not like the blundering fools Kanryuu was normally so fond of hiring. That much at least she knew. Something about the man troubled her. Kanryuu and his common rogues she had at least understood. She knew their motivations. What they feared, what they desired. Greed and lust were straightforward concepts, and she was not a stupid woman. But it did not seem to her that it was for power or simple worldly desires that Shinomori had come to this mansion.
There was a strange fire burning within her heart as she thought of the newcomer. Anger, envy, longing, hatred, despair. Her trembling hands clutched the folds of her yukata until her knuckles turned white. The fire raged fiercely. It would consume her, she knew, the way it had consumed her mother and her two brothers, eating away at her until there was nothing left but an empty cold shell.
She did not care. All she had now were her pride and her wit, and she would be a fool no longer.
Anyone who would willingly work for a worm like Kanryuu was even lower than Kanryuu himself. She was certain of this. And she would drag them all down to hell with her. Every last one of them.
It was only a few days later, as she pored over dusty old medical textbooks in Kanryuu's personal library, when she met him again. She had guessed from Kanryuu's talk that he was some prodigy from the Bakumatsu years. A young leader, left with only a few men at his command. She suspected that he had sent his men to watch over her room, though she never caught even a shadow of a movement as she sat on her bed at night, reminiscing.
Even so, she was sure that they did not know the truth behind her role in Kanryuu's business. She had not been sent to the basement since Shinomori had been hired. So they could not know, could not have followed her, could not have seen the truth. She was not sure exactly what Kanryuu was planning. Perhaps the merchant did not wish the other man to know either.
Perhaps that was why she was so startled when he walked in, gazing about wonderingly at the shelves of books, like a child experiencing the colorful crowds of the outdoor markets for the very first time.
"Not you again," she said scornfully. She was the only one who ever used the library. She slammed her book shut and stood.
He turned with a start. He had failed to notice her presence.
She sighed audibly. "Very well, I shall come back some other time, then." She began to walk away.
In three long strides he caught up to her and grabbed her arm. She stiffened at his touch. The sound of rain filled the empty silence.
"What..." she whispered furiously, "do you want?"
He said nothing, but loosened his grip. Immediately, she jerked away, backing up.
"What do you want from me?" she repeated, louder.
At last he replied, in a soft low voice. "Answers..."
Her eyes widened with shock as he tossed a familiar hateful triangular packet to the ground. Her mouth slowly rounded into an 'o'.
"Opium, is it not?" he asked quietly.
She thought of running away. But then she looked up, glaring into his eyes.
"Yes, opium! Are you satisfied now?"
"Then you are the one who --"
At that, her hand reached out, and she slapped him. Stunned, he touched his cheek, stinging from the pain.
She turned her face away. "You're a smart one, aren't you," she whispered, venom lacing her voice. "None of the others ever figured it out..."
Before he could answer, she spoke once more, the words tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop them. "You are a beautiful man, Shinomori Aoshi... Beware, for Takeda Kanryuu covets beautiful things." She laughed bitterly. The sound faded, washed away by the drumming of the rain.
The voice of Kanryuu's manservant broke through the rain and the silence. "Shinomori-sama--"
He turned his head, refusing to look her in the eye.
"Shinomori-sama, Takeda-sama is leaving now."
Angrily, she continued to laugh. "Welcome to the darkness, Shinomori..." she spat viciously at his retreating figure.
He swept away without another word.
- - -
He had insisted that Hyottoko come with them. The rain had paused for the moment, but he felt uneasy still. And Hyottoko was a good man. He did not think Kanryuu was pleased with the arrangement, somehow, but the businessman said nothing of the matter, even as the three of them walked down the bustling streets of the city he had once known as Edo.
Kanryuu seemed in a particularly good mood. The businessman had said something about watching kabuki. Aoshi had not been aware that the man was fond of anything but making a profit.
Even after nine years, he was still not used to walking about openly in the middle of a busy street. All his old habits seemed to come back to him as he surreptitiously began observing his surroundings, watching for abnormal behavior. There was a feeling of agitation rising up his throat. He wondered if he were a fool.
A white horned face. permanent leering grin. the masked warrior is pacing back and forth when he comes to listen to the man's report. the man is acting strangely.
bakayarou, says the masked man as he tosses a triangular packet to the floor. you fool.
he feels his heart constricting.
it does not matter, he says at last. we are but the man's bodyguards. this has nothing to do with us.
so desu ka? okashira.
this has nothing to do with us, he repeats.
takani. do you not recognize the name? a family of doctors from aizu. even their women and children were learned in medicine.
takani megumi... he whispers. he should have known. the takanis were well known. besides, her accent is recognizable. and she carries herself like a woman of aizu. tall and proud.
what is a takani doing here, in edo? he wonders. but he already knows the answer.
do you? the masked man would ask, if the man could read his mind. do you really?
so he does not say anything.
don't tell the others, he says, instead. don't tell them, don't let them know.
and he looks out the window and watches the rain come down in sheets of gray water.
Sometime when he had not been paying attention, the rain had started up once again. The kabuki theatre was crowded and hot. Hyottoko had never been to a kabuki play before, and was enjoying his first experience thoroughly. Aoshi, however, stood at the door, watching the rain fall.
Suddenly, his senses told him that Kanryuu and Hyottoko were no longer inside the theatre. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, drawing a deep breath. Then he walked into the rain. They were in a narrow alley behind the theatre, he realized. A dark alley that they had passed earlier in the night. A sense of foreboding filled his heart. He began to run.
As he neared the alley, he could see Hyottoko at the entrance, fending off a group of shadowy figures. One, two, three, four, five... eight of them. All armed with katana. He put on an extra burst of speed, drawing out his kodachi.
"The fire," he whispered urgently, "use your fire!" even as he realized that Hyottoko's only weapon could do no good in the heavy rain. But there was no time to regret his foolish decision to bring the fire man along on this trip. He swept down upon the shadowy attackers like a hawk upon its prey, kicking down one man and slashing across another. Hyottoko acknowledged his timely arrival with a quick grin.
Even weaponless, the fire man put up a good fight. But the young okashira could see that his man was already hurt, and the two of them remained outnumbered. Aoshi scanned their wet surroundings quickly, thinking hard. Then he tried to catch the fire man's eye, signaling to him his next command. Hyottoko looked up and saw the young okashira's subtle gesturing. The fire man nodded and proceeded to maneuver himself and three of the attackers deeper into the dark alley. Out of the corner of his eye, Aoshi noticed a grayish lump in a shadowed corner of the alleyway. Kanryuu's blurred, pathetic figure huddled, still alive, behind the gray bulk. Aoshi felt a sudden odd burst of anger. He punched viciously at the three who had remained to fight him.
Hyottoko had reached the end of the alley, where the eaves of a building hung over and shielded the ground from the falling rain. Aoshi pushed aside his fury and shouted, "Now, Hyottoko! Now!"
Hyottoko took a deep breath. And then fire came bursting from his mouth. There were screams, muffled by the pounding rain. Burning flesh, hissing steam. Aoshi ignored the noise, ignored the smell, concentrating only on the fight before him. He moved as if in a dream. There was nothing left but him and his opponents and the rain. Yet somehow, even as Hyottoko breathed fire into the shadows, and the cold steel blade of his kodachi sliced through the night, and blood spurted into the air in a scarlet spray, Aoshi thought he could smell the fresh salty scent of the sea.
The fresh spray of the sea upon his bare skin. the lonely cry of a gull soaring high above him.
"ashita hamabe o,"
angry dark violet-blue waves, crashing against a rocky gray shore, breaking into foamy white.
"sa ma yo eba..."
it is a simple, almost childish tune, yet eerily haunting. he has heard it in his dreams and his memories so many times now that he can recite the words by heart, but he cannot for the life of him remember why the melody seems so familiar.
the sky is tinged with a grayish pink. it is an odd feeling, looking at this otherworldly sky, for he has been dreaming of fiery orange suns sinking down below crimson skies stained with blood, and yellow moons in an inky black night sky. he has not dreamt of the sea in ages.
sometimes it rains. usually it does not. this time, the sky is clear, save for a few wispy stray clouds, lazily drifting past.
he walks along the quiet beach, feeling the grains of sand shifting between his toes. this he finds strange, too. he cannot recall the last time he walked barefoot.
"mukashi no koto zo..."
echoing, lingering notes. they fade away at last, reluctantly. he glances back and sees his footprints, a lonely trail in the smooth sandy shore. it begins to rain.
and the sun explodes even as it rises, a scarlet flower in a darkening sky, and his ears are filled with the mournful wailing of gulls circling above him like vultures, then falling to the earth like fluttering white scarves.
the beach burns. the furious flames leap high into the sky, dancing all about him.
he burns. it rains. the wind howls with rage. and then there is only the inescapable darkness.
it smells like death.
It smelled like death in the darkness of the night.
He gasped for breath. The rain battered him like a thousand cold daggers piercing him all at once.
It felt as if he were suffocating, suffocating within the ever-encroaching shadows.
Tsuzuku
Credits for the song:
"Hamabe no Uta" (Song of the Beach): Lyrics by Hayashi Kokei, Music by Narita Tamezo, English translation by John Higgins.
Ashita hamabe o (I love to wander along the beach,)
Sa ma yo eba (at the very break of dawn.)
Mukashi no koto zo (It brings sweet mem'ries to my heart)
Shinoba ruru (of the ancient ones who've gone.)
Kaze no o to yo (The ocean breeze is whispering,)
Kumo no samayo (the clouds are drifting by;)
Yo su ru nami mo (Old mem'ries rush like the morning tide,)
Kai no i ro mo (and with joy my heart will cry.)
According to my notes, Edo fell in May 1868, and was renamed Tokyo in October of the same year. According to the Shinsengumi folks, Kanryuusai was killed in June 1867. This story takes place in 1877, 10th year of the Meiji (and thus one year before the Kenshin series). It is currently around February, I think. Just to get everyone oriented, including myself. :-P (10/18/06 -- this may be outdated info! I think I've since laid out a more definite timeline, but not sure, have to look it up.)
And Hyottoko literally means "fire man."