Disclaimer applies.

Notes: This chapter is dedicated to the lovely mij, who had just had a birthday at the time I posted this. (January 2006ish?) :-)

Kakusei: Awakening

Chapter Six - Interlude: Come Spring

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
- T. S. Eliot, "The Waste Land"

The final gray days of winter passed without incident. Spring came, and with it, the gentle spring showers, light and fleeting, leaving the scent of hope and life lingering in the air. The sun woke from its long gray slumber, bathing the earth in hazy golden warmth. Green sprouts peeked through the damp dark earth, and everywhere there was the sound of sparrows twittering as they dashed across a faded blue sky. The whole world seemed fresh and new.

Hannya and Beshimi had retrieved the dead men from the alley the morning after the attack, laying them out at the edge of the property. The bodies of the dead were cremated within the mansion grounds. When forty-nine days had passed and the rains had ceased, Aoshi chanted "Namu Amida Butsu, Namu Amida Butsu..." one hundred and eight times in all as the ashes were scattered to the winds.

It was a habit Aoshi had fallen into, ever since the Oniwabanshuu had been turned out of Edo Castle. Performing funeral rites for those he and his men had vanquished, those who would otherwise remain lying in the dusty streets, picked apart by stray dogs. He did this, he told himself, to make sure that he and his men would leave no trace for meddling police to track them down, as any proper ninja should. Not that they were traceable even if they did not take such precautions, but it was always good to be safe.

As the days grew warmer and Hyottoko and Aoshi regained their strength, Aoshi set up a guard schedule. The grounds surrounding the building were guarded by Kanryuu's own hirelings, but the mansion itself was the domain of the Oniwabanshuu alone. All of them took turns shadowing both Kanryuu and the woman Aoshi identified to them only as "Megumi." But only Aoshi and Hannya went on guard duty whenever Kanryuu had business, or when the woman worked on her drug. The three who were not tailing either one would be sent to watch over the various entrances to the mansion.

Aoshi and his men settled quickly into their new routine, as they always had. In due time, every secret passage and hidden room within the mansion, as well as their contents, was discovered and reported to the young okashira. Aoshi himself saw only glimpses of the boy called Tetsuo, stowed away in one such room. He assumed that the woman was secretly caring for the boy. And if his men noticed the boy's presence, they made no mention of it, nor did they question the fact.

He was waiting by the mansion gates for Kanryuu one morning when he heard a voice call out.

"Look, Aoshi-sama!" laughed Shikijou, pointing excitedly like a young boy.

Look, aoshi-sama, whispers shikijou, as they walk together down the long dusty road to tokyo.

and he looks, though he has already seen.

the first sakura of the year, continues the scarred man, in a bitter mixture of reverence and spite.

aa, replies hannya. the sakura, it mocks us.

the blossoms drift down like clouds of pale snow, surrounding them all in a pink flurry, and he thinks that hannya is right.

they are trapped on the brink of nothingness, lost in an empty pink storm.

A single pink petal floated down from beyond the great stone walls.

"Tonight?" Shikijou prompted eagerly.

"Aa," replied Aoshi, something stirring within his heart. "Tonight."

Shikijou beamed, a wide happy grin that soon shifted into an annoyed frown as they both heard a new voice calling from the path.

"Aoshi!"

The scarred man disappeared silently. Aoshi did not turn. He waited coolly for their employer to reach his side.

"Aoshi." There was a smile in the businessman's voice. A gleeful smile. It made his shoulders tense. "I shall be going away for a few days to the city. A business trip."

"I take it things are going well."

"I am about to close in on an excellent deal. A wonderful deal! My profits shall double, no, triple!"

Aoshi said nothing in the almost expectant silence that followed.

"You'll join me, won't you?" murmured Kanryuu. "As my bodyguard."

"No."

"What?" Kanryuu gripped his sleeve. Aoshi fought the urge to shake the man off. "What do you mean by this! Am I not your employer? Are you not meant to do my bidding?"

"Take Hannya," replied Aoshi firmly. Still he refused to turn. "Hannya is far better than I for jobs like this. Unless you would rather have a repeat of what happened last time."

"No! I insist that you come with me," said Kanryuu, toning down his voice in an obvious attempt to soothe the young okashira. "I do not trust that despicable masked demon for an instant." There was something disgustingly smug about his voice now. "He would kill me the moment we set foot from this mansion, the moment we stepped out of your sight."

A pause, hesitation. "To distrust Hannya is to distrust me," Aoshi said coldly. "For he is my man." And not yours.

"But--"

"This is the perfect opportunity for Hannya to collect information on the man known as Ebisawa," he continued quietly. "Or have you forgotten already?"

Kanryuu lingered helplessly at his side, knowing that he had lost. At last, the businessman sighed.

"Very well."

But Aoshi thought he detected a hint of poison in the oily smoothness of the other man's voice.

- - -

Hyottoko and Beshimi were waiting some distance away, tossing kunai at a tree.

"Fifty-four! I win!" Aoshi could hear Beshimi cackling gleefully as he and Kanryuu approached.

Hyottoko laughed together with the smaller man. "So you did, you little shrimp!" But there was no edge to the insult.

Beshimi smirked, then whirled around. "Okashira!"

Aoshi nodded curtly in acknowledgement, glad for the chance to get away from the slimy businessman tailing close behind him. "What is it that you wanted to speak to me about?"

The small man glanced first at Hyottoko, then at Aoshi, then eyed their employer warily. He made a small gesture that Kanryuu could not see and moved off to a more secluded area in the woods. Aoshi followed him, after glaring sharply at Kanryuu to make sure the businessman stayed with Hyottoko.

Beshimi stopped and turned to face him.

"It's nothing, really..."

Aoshi waited patiently.

"Aoshi-sama --" Beshimi burst out at last. "It's about that woman. I don't trust her!"

A pause. "Why not?"

"I -- I don't know," admitted Beshimi reluctantly. "It's just -- a feeling."

Aoshi's mouth turned down subtly in some semblance of a frown.

"She flits about the shadows like one of our own, and sometimes she laughs and stares at the corners where we're hidden, as if she knows we're there," Beshimi continued with a barely perceivable shudder. "But of course that's impossible --"

"Yes. We have dealt with paranoia before," interrupted Aoshi, a slightly reprimanding hint in his voice.

"It's not just that," insisted Beshimi. "What I don't understand is -- what is this woman here for? She cannot be his mistress -- he hardly even visits her, much less talks to her. But I cannot understand what other use she could be to him! She wanders about the empty halls, at odd hours of the day, or about the gardens, which smell disgustingly sweet, or else she lurks in her room, flipping through books, watching, watching..."

"A wife, perhaps, gone mad."

"She is always watching. Watching, waiting, for something. I do not know what. But I can see it in her eyes -- something inhuman, Okashira..."

"Inhuman?" Aoshi repeated slowly.

"Kitsune," whispered Beshimi. "Those trickster spirits of Inari... It is plotting something. I do not know what, but it cannot be any good. It possessed the woman, or perhaps transformed into her, and bewitched Takeda Kanryuu. Perhaps it will bewitch us all."

Aoshi stood silently for a moment, lost in thought.

"Aa," he murmured under his breath. "Perhaps it will bewitch us all."

- - -

Meanwhile, Kanryuu had lit a cigar. He had not yet moved from his place. Hyottoko too stayed behind, awkward, uncertain.

"Do your other comrades also distrust you so?" asked Kanryuu, almost offhandedly, as he stared down the path Aoshi and Beshimi had left on.

Hyottoko glanced at him suspiciously, confused. "What do you mean?"

Kanryuu sneered slightly. "Why, my poor, poor man. I should have thought it obvious what I meant."

Hyottoko only looked more confused.

"Isn't it obvious how they scorn you? The secrets they keep from you. A pity, such a talented onmitsu such as you, yet your comrades keep you constantly in the dark. When was the last time they confided in you their plans?"

Hyottoko shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Aoshi-sama trusts me."

"Oh, I was not referring to your -- most noble Aoshi-sama," replied the businessman delicately. "But rather, those sly, conniving men who call you friend while in secret think you gullible, and stupid, and worthless." As he finished speaking, Kanryuu glanced up with a slight smirk upon his face, gazing at the returning figures of Beshimi and Aoshi.

"When do we leave?"

Kanryuu jumped, dropping his cigar. He frowned, then quickly composed himself as he realized it was Hannya.

"At sunset," said the businessman curtly, obviously still unnerved at the masked shinobi's sudden appearance.

Hannya gave no indication that he heard, silently staring instead at Hyottoko. Hyottoko seemed uncharacteristically lost in thought, but shifted uneasily again when he felt his comrade's steady gaze upon him.

Kanryuu crushed the fallen cigar beneath his heel and left without another word.

Neither Aoshi nor Beshimi noticed the odd tension in the air when they reached the other two.

All four onmitsu headed back to the mansion in silence.

- - -

The shadows grew longer. Kanryuu and Hannya had left. The mansion was large and empty. It was cold.

A sudden din in the halls disturbed Aoshi from his thoughts.

"Hey, hey! So this is the pretty prize Kanryuu's been hiding from us!"

"Oi, you his whore, girl?"

"Come along and comfort us lonely men, eh?"

"I wouldn't have believed it of that slimy toad! Can't deny he's got good taste though!"

"Come on, come join us a few drinks!"

"Leave me alone, you dogs."

Silence.

Then laughter, loud and raucous. "Feisty one, isn't she?"

"Come on now, come on..."

"I told you to leave me alone!"

But there was a slight tremble in her voice now, and he knew as she knew that they could sense it. They would pounce now like a pack of hounds at the end of a hunt, the smell of fear racing through their blood.

He stepped forward, out of the shadows. But before he could say anything, another voice, dark and smooth, wormed its way into the harsh laughter of the men.

"You are not allowed here."

He looked up and saw a stranger with a pale, haggard face, dressed in a black Western suit. The woman moved as if to flee, but Aoshi caught her arm.

The laughter faded and there was a chill in the air. There was a stink of sake and piss, and in the dull eyes of the men Aoshi saw fear and hate and decay.

"Leave," whispered Aoshi, his voice like frost creeping in upon the fields at night.

They fled like dogs with their tails tucked between their legs, stumbling down the dark hall.

The pale stranger smiled thinly. "I believe we have not yet met, Shinomori-sama." He bowed, his skeletal figure bending like a snapped stick. "I am... the 'butler'." His lips formed the last word in English, spoken with a delicate inflection. Aoshi thought he had seen the man before, flitting about the halls. They had indeed never spoken. Kanryuu had many menservants, all of them harmless, all of them irrelevant. Invisible.

And then the man turned and Aoshi found himself alone yet again with the woman. He was still holding her arm. Her sleeve had slipped down to her elbow and he saw the smooth skin lacerated with angry scars branching down to her wrist like a long, wiry fence. In his mind he could see rivers of blood, washing away the dust and the ashes.

She tore her arm viciously from his grasp. "I don't need your help!"

"Come join us." The words slipped from his mouth. He saw her staring at him with a strange look on her face. "Bring the boy with you."

Come join us, the little girl pleads. it'll be loads of fun. cooking is fun. jiya says so too.

he does not reply. they have been here a week and already he can see. they do not belong here. they have been here only a week and the people are afraid, and they do not come. there are rumors only but perhaps they fear that one day they will find poison in their food or wake up to find their bodies pinned to their beds with a dozen kunai. his four know it, can feel the whispers and the stares boring into their ugly backs, but the others are blind and happy and think only of hope and the future. they are young but the old man should know better. but the old man has never grown up, or perhaps he clings to a dead vision of a dead past that will never be again.

they are the last of them all, the only ones left after five long years, the ones who linger and are irrelevant. and yet even so for a while they stay.

they leave with the first blossoms of the year.

"The first blossoms of the year," the woman murmured at his side. The boy stood now with her, white and fragile as he had looked the last time Aoshi saw him. They stood, all three of them, at the gates of the great mansion, faces turned to the night. "I hadn't noticed."

"Aoshi-sama! I've got the sake!" Shikijou's exultant shout trailed off as he noticed the woman and the boy. The boy cocked his head, staring back at Shikijou.

The woman sneered, her red lips curving slowly upward. "I see. Hanami."

"In memory of those who have fallen," said Aoshi as they moved off into the wooded area.

"What are you doing? What do you want with us?"

"This is the only way we can keep an eye on you."

"Yes, that's right," she said slowly. "I'd forgotten that Kanryuu hired you to be his watchdogs." Her eyes narrowed. "And how, if I may ask, do you propose to get past his other hirelings?"

"Kanryuu's out, so most of them are too drunk to care anyway," Shikijou spoke up then, quietly, in a strange tone. He grinned. "Not that they'd notice us even if they were doing their jobs properly." A slight pause. "Okashira?"

"You go ahead. Can you take the boy?"

"No problem," said the scarred man, and crouched down. Before the woman could protest, the boy, shaking off her grasp, crept over obediently and climbed onto Shikijou's back. The scarred man grabbed onto a tree branch and swung onto the wall, then leaped off and landed on the other side without a sound.

The woman whirled around, dark hair whipping back behind her. She glared at Aoshi, crouched and tense, like a cornered beast.

"I will not be carried around like some child's toy," she hissed.

Aoshi stared at her. No words would come to him.

"I won't go. The butler will find me missing. He will tell Kanryuu."

"What is his name?"

She looked surprised. "I don't know."

"You are no toy. You would burn the child who touched you."

She laughed. It was not a pleasant sound.

"I'll take my leave, then," she paused deliberately, "Shinomori-sama."

In an instant he moved, too quickly for thought. His tantou materialized in his hand. He pinned her back against the tree with his free hand, pressing the blade against her white throat.

Time froze.

The sound of breathing, harsh and quick, red lips like roses

like blood

and black, black hair

"Will you kill me?" she said, and she laughed again, a raspy, smoldering noise. "Kanryuu may think of you as his prized pet, but I am the golden goose that lays his eggs. He will not be pleased."

He loosened his grip on her shoulder and tucked a stray strand of her hair behind her ear. With a nimble flick of his fingers he flipped the tantou around so that the blade faced him instead.

"This is for you," he said, cold and impassive.

"This!" and she shivered involuntarily. "You bastard," she snarled. "How could I possibly --"

"Take it," he said, but she did not move.

"You are not a doctor, Megumi."

She slapped him.

"Take it," he repeated. "It may be that you will find it... useful."

This time she grabbed the handle with trembling hands. She stared at it wordlessly for a few moments, and then with a sudden movement, thrust the blade towards his chest. Aoshi made no move to stop her. Her arm froze in midair. The tip of the blade scratched against his skin.

Once again her laughter scalded the air. He could see the trails of wetness forming on her cheeks.

"You and I, we are the same."

"No. We are different."

"Pitiful, damned fools," she continued, ignoring him.

"We are different," he said again, but she smiled a dangerous red smile as she wiped her face with a lavender sleeve.

"We should go," she said sweetly. "Your men are waiting for us, are they not? They will wonder what is keeping us."

He put his arm stiffly around her waist and looked into her eyes.

Frost crept back into his voice. "Don't even think about escaping."

She smirked, and lowered her eyes demurely.

"Why would I?"

- - -

His men looked at them strangely when they arrived at last to the secreted place, a secluded grove in the outskirts of the city that was no longer Edo, yet still within the shadow of the great white mansion. Aoshi thought of the sakura trees in Kyoto, forever in full bloom in his memories, and watched the strange pale boy grabbing listlessly at the drifting blossoms.

"Boy," he said. "Come and have a drink."

The boy looked at him with cool gray eyes.

"He is hardly old enough," protested the woman.

"He is fifteen, and a man."

Beshimi laughed incredulously, but said nothing.

"Come, drink with us," Shikijou said, laughing as well. "You're a good kid."

Hyottoko said nothing but smiled, and the boy went and drank.

The hours that followed passed like a dream. Aoshi hated the taste of sake, but still he drank it, for his men would not have him abstain. He sipped in memory of those who had fallen, of those who had not, of opportunities lost and thrown away.

He did not notice if the woman drank. And if she did, he did not ask to whom she drank or why.

One thing only troubled him that night as he lay down to sleep.

He could remember nothing of the butler's face, save for a pair of glinting sea-blue eyes.

Tsuzuku

This was the incident to which "Seiya no Kinen" refers (in part), though I probably need to do some retrofitting once Kakusei is complete.

Note that at the beginning of the chapter those were not proper Buddhist funeral rites (for example, ashes are generally kept I believe, not scattered, and entire sutras are recited), but more of a makeshift ritual of sorts. 108 and 49 are auspicious numbers, and show up often in Buddhism. "Namu Amida Butsu" is the phrase for "invoking" Amitabha (Amitofo in Chinese), the buddha who presides over the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss (Xi Fan Ji Le Shi Jie), which is something like the equivalent of the Christian heaven (i.e. not nirvana), and generally plays a role only in the Mahayana sects, but not in Theravada.

And Inari, who Beshimi mentions, is the Japanese fox god. Sorta. Google is your friend. And forgot to mention in the notes of the previous chapter that the title comes from the WWII poem by Edith Sitwell. Also changed the title of Chapter Four to "Shape Without Form, Shade Without Colour," from a line in T. S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men."

Also note that I changed the way I'm spelling Hannya's name... I only realized this was the proper spelling after realizing that it's the name of a type of (noh) mask (as are the other names, except possibly Shikijou, which I can't find). (10/18/06 -- this may be fixed in future updates)