Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews, they made me very happy. I hope yourholiday waswonderful and that you enjoyed the weather, whatever it is wherever you are/were. (I love my snowy weekend myself. )I'm in a playful mood today, which is why I'll be doing an omake theatre at the end of this story to make fun of my weird little writings or things I'm peeved with already. Yura of the Hair from Inu-Yasha inspired one of the characters in this chapter. Gomen nasai it took me so long to update, my only excuse is...I was being lazy all of holiday break, so nyah nyah:P Onegai, enjoy!
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Saitoh felt tired of perusing the same material over and over again. It was time to go get some real hands on experience with the perpetrator of the heineous crimes. He would have to be especially careful that there would be no eye witnesses when he caught up with the man-eating oni. Standing up from his austerely clean desk, he replaced the file in one of the large drawers. He picked up his sword from where he placed it against the wall and buckled it to his uniform belt. This would not take very long, he thought to himself as he exited the police office building.
No one walked the dark streets this night. There was a new moon out, and it was cloudy. No normal person would be able to see clearly in such weather. But Saitoh could. Day or night, his vision remained the same, no matter the enviroment. Whistling softly to himself, he strolled along casually, waiting for the oni to appear.
The files said that the murderer only targeted lone police officers and took with him or her the livers, tongues, eyes, and hearts of the victims. That is why all police officers patrolled the streets in pairs now. Saitoh, being in the secret police, did not have to abide by the rules the others followed. He deliberately was baiting what he recognized to be an oni from the file documents. He did not even need to use anything special to dispatch this type of yokai, oni normally were easy to slay.
His eyes noticed a flicker of movement in his left perephrial vision. The oni was chosing to shadow him for now. Saitoh expected her to attack when he went a little farther away from the more heavily populated area he presently was walking by. He approved of her choice of attack, because he did not want any unlucky eyewitnesses to chase away the oni by their presence.
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The after-dinner discussion did not last long. Hiko claimed to be weary from his journey- Kenshin could tell he was lying, the martial arts expert rarely tired from anything- so the household retired for the night not long after sunset. While Kaoru was prepping the futon for the night, Kenshin asked her, "What's bothering you, Anata?"
Startled, Kaoru replied, "What?"
"You've been figeting all night, and your brow is wrinkled like it always does when you're worrying," Kenshin stated. "I want to know what is disturbing you so much."
Sitting back on her heels, Kaoru paused what she was doing. "Anata, I'm fine. Nan demo nai, just something I'm thinking about. I'll stop worrying now," she said with a small smile.
Kenshin did not like having to leave the topic alone, but he could tell that Kaoru was not ready to discuss whatever was giving her trouble. He respected her wish, and did not say anything else that night besides a quiet oyasumi after Kaoru blew out the candle when they had settled down.
After her husband fell asleep, Kaoru stopped feigning sleep and rolled over to stare at the ceiling. What Hiko said really was grating on her. Why did Kenshin look so young? He was nearly thirty five and did not have any wrinkles! She was twenty three herself, and she had a few lines. Kenshin had none. Absolutely none. How could this be so? Kaoru did not think she could chalk it up to a parental inheirtance, because Hiko possessed that unearthly youthfulness as well. From Hiko's comments, Kaoru suspected that it was connected to Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu. 'Tommorow,' she decided, 'I will get some answers from Hiko.' Frustrated with her confused thoughts, she rolled over on her side with a huff and tried to sleep, which was long in coming, but arrived after awhile nonetheless.
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Dousing the afore-night's fire with liberal amounts of dirt and water, Bai Ru commented, "I think we should stay off the path for a few days, just to be cautious."
"Yeah," Sanosuke agreed, "The police in Japan tend to be nosy and paranoid about strangers. Wouldn't want someone tailing us to Tokyo."
Shui Ping asked, "So, should we all just transform?"
"Nah, don't wanna leave Sano here alone," Li Jin replied. "Let's just try not to leave too much of a trail, right Shui Ping?" The black-haired raven rakshasa teased the monkey rakshasa.
"You're beating a dead horse, Li Jin," Shui Ping snapped, peeved that a certain occurence was being subtly- or not- brought up again.
Everyone else hid a smile at the heated exchange now occuring between the two rakshasa. Li Jin treated Shui Ping like a younger brother, so it was a case in fact that they fought nearly ninety-percent of the time they were around one another.
"Not that this isn't highly amusing, you two, but shouldn't we get going?" Heng Hai asked. "I don't want to get wet again."
"The turtle that doesn't like water," Li Jin said, focusing his teasing on yet another victim in the group.
"Enough, let's go," Bai Ru barked. He acted annoyed, but he really was amused. Sadly, however, they could not afford to dwadle.
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Author's Notes: Well, that's the end of the serious part of the chapter. Haha. Now we go on to the wacky omake I've cooked up for ya! Enjoy, onegai!
Omake 1: Did you say...?
Kenshin reads aloud, "Scared face that never shows the pain inside..." He trails off, then exclaims, "Nani! What gave the baka sensei that idea!" Flashbacks to getting his face cut, loosing Tomoe, getting cut up by katanas on occasion, getting beat over the head by Kaoru... "Obviously she's no REAL fan!" he huffed.
"Totally right," Sanosuke agrees. "Hey! She says you look eighteen when you're thirty, but you only look fifteen!"
Kenshin death glares at Sanosuke at maximum malice and promises of death and mayhem power.
Sanosuke squeaks, "Eep!" and runs off from the scary ex-asssassin.
Omake 2: It took how long...?
Hiko reads slowly, " It took years for his delicate, honed senses to allow even a small crowd's noise to not give him migraines." Glaring at the text with creepy, glowing vampy eyes, he roars, "It would never take that long for me to learn anything! I am the greatest! None can match my intelectual speeds!"
Misao asks, "Then why can't you use a knife and fork when eating at a Western restraunt, Hiko-sama?"
"...because Westerners should use chopsticks like any civilized person ought to!" Hiko replies.
Misao smiles a shit-eating grin. "Riiiiighhhht."
Omake 3: That song is...?
Megumi reads aloud slowly, "Humming a wordless tune to himself, Himura scrubbed the dirty clothes by rote." She puts a hand to her mouth and laughs. "I know what song he was humming! It's that one from Snow White!"
Sanosuke's eyes go wide. "Are you serious!"
"Totally! He was humming it the other day when he thought no one was around!"
Omake 4: How fast...?
Osamu reads aloud to the other rakshasa crowding around, "'Bai Ru, don't fall behind!' Sanosuke taunted his friend. Shouldering his heavy pack, he started running up the steep mountain trail."
Li Jin smirks. "Yeah, Bai Ru won that race didn't he?"
Heng Hai grins. "Yep, by a mile and three quarters."
Curiously, Shui Ping asks, "How did you know that?"
Heng Hai replies, "Oh, well, that's where Sano tripped, fell on his face, and got knocked unconcious. Too much weight on his back, you see. He fills those bags of his up with too much Western beer."
Omake 5A: Did you notice...?
"But does Kenshin not look young as well?" Hiko asked, prodding her mind as much as he dared to help her follow to the conclusion he wanted.
Kaoru gasped. "He's not...? He's not getting plastic surgery is he!"
Omake 5B: Should you do that outside...?
"If you have to hurl, do it outside," Li Jin told the queasy rakshasa.
Nodding, Heng Hai attempted to get out of the room before he started blowing chunks. Unfortunately for all involved, he ended up spewing all over a few of the boat's passengers, causing the whole rakshasa group to be flung off the ship.
Li Jin sat on the docks, his head in his hands. "So, the turtle gets sea sick."
Omake 6: What could kill us...?
Sanosuke shrugged, "Like that's going to kill you."
Just as he said that, it began to hail with ice chunks the size of footballs falling down like rapid fire from a machine gun.
Staring at the outdoors, Sanosuke said, "I take that back."
Author's Ending Notes: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I think it's my longest yet from this series! Yay! Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week! Oooh...I'm looking forward to Christmas break, yes I am...
Review Responses:
omasuoniwabanshi:Yes, I do like good murder plots as well. This part of my idea, though, was inspired mostly by Bleach, Full Metal Alchemist, and Inu Yasha. You'll see why laters... Thank you for saying Hiko is being subtle...that's what I was aiming for. Yays for recognition! Yeah, she going to be a tad bit upset about that once it dawns on her that that will happen...heheh...did I say Omasu? I meant Osamu...I'll have to change that...gomen nasai. As for caffeinated beverages yellowing your teeth over time, that's not because of the caffeine itself. It is because of the acids they put in those drinks. Chocolate is actually very good for you, because it has a lot of anti-oxidants in it, but not the milk or white chocolate...the REAL chocolate, yup, I mean pure dark chocolate. Oh, and Arizona Green tea isn't real green tea. It may say it is, but it really isn't. The tea they use for that is probably from mainland China, not Japan, so the tea doesn't compare. The reason I say this is because green tea is the color of a soft, light green when properly prepared, and Arizona Green tea is brown. And another reason is because green tea has a shelf life of only six to twelve months when packaged. Once the package is opened, it instantly drops to a 2-3 month shelf life. The reason why is because the oxygen is being replaced with nitrogen over time. Isn't that fascinating? Same thing happens when you cut an apple in half, see it all white and nice, then come back thirty minutes later and it is brown. So drink real Japanese tea and enjoy the benefits of slowing down the aging process. Oh, and it tastes wonderful once it's properly prepared. Thanks for the long review, I appreciate it muchly. :)
CHOSU: So do I. I love Rurouni Kenshin, obviously, so using the characters to follow my little plot bunny makes it very fun. Thanks for the tip about rating, I do agree, I'll change that right away. I kinda want to rewrite the poem, since I'm going through a 200 level Creative Writing class, I've gained a lot more experience with allegories, visualization, imagery, etc. What do the rest of you readers think? Another re-write for the poem? Or maybe I should go ahead and re-write the poem and post it, but keep the other posted as well? Thanks for the long review!
Cleo: I like the name! My cat's name is Cleopatra. I do try to keep my facts as straight as possible, though I have no problem with taking creative liscence with a few things...heehee... Thanks for your review, it made me happy. I hope this new post fufils your standards.
