Fugue of Spastic Melodies

Chapter 2: Caged Lion

I lay still for what felt like hours. Pain was coursing though the left side of my abdomen while a constant pounding as beating a rhythm against my head. I tried opening my eyes again but my eye lids seemed to be ignoring the commands I was giving them. Then I tried moving other parts of my body, but they, like my eyes, were ignoring me. What happened?

Then, I remembered.

I was fighting…that assassin that HARM sent to kill me…Hitokiri Battousai… in my house. He was good…but something he did caught me off guard that came to this ultimate demise. As I flicked through the memory of that battle, I remembered something odd. How did he know where I was when I was in my camouflage form?

It made no sense. Not even light-sensitive security cameras could detect me. I continued to remember the battle and reached the end of my memories. He had deflected my attack, and I saw out of the corner of my eye a sheath raising over my head. Then, blackness.

Okay, now I'm pissed. I lost?

Bastard.

My head began to hurt less as I felt my body began to tense. Okay, so whatever I was drugged with was wearing off. I waited a few minutes and felt my body begin to listen to me. But I avoided moving my eyelids. I'm probably in the Battousai's custody, and I'd rather not alert him to the fact that his prisoner has awoken. And then, I heard the soft grinding of pavement against tires under me and realized a horrible fact: I was being transported.

I mentally felt what my body was touching. I was lying on soft leather seats. Hmmm…the bastard had stripped me of my main weapons. I felt ropes tighten across my wrists, legs, and feet. Thought of everything, the cocky little prick. However, I felt a slight thin weight across my belly…my silver belt was there though without its little weapons. I also felt my boots were still strapped on. Okay, so all I have to do is make it to the secret compartment in the third leather strap from the bottom to get my Swiss Army knife. I guess I have to alert him to my awakening otherwise I can't get the knife without being detected.

I let out a soft moan. I heard the car rev into a higher gear.

But I didn't hear a voice.

I moaned a little louder, pretending to struggle slightly with my constraints.

Nothing. Bastard.

"Whe…where am…I?" I murmured in the fake lady-in-distress voice I used in one of my recent movies and opened my eyes through squinting eyelashes.

"In my car," was the cool voiced reply. I heard the car rev down a gear.

Hmm man of few words? A gentleman at heart. Or a pervert.

"Who are you?"

"Battousai."

"Where are you taking me?"

"To my place."

Pervert

"Why?"

"Till further orders."

Man, talking to this guy is like talking to a stone wall! Even my normally super enticing voice and fluttering of eyes routine isn't working…dammit!

I looked up at him and caught his reflection in the read view mirror. What an ugly bastard! Okay…maybe that was just my anger speaking. His face was heart-shaped and chiseled as if he modeled for a Greek coin. Framing his face was silky long strands of crimson hair which was at the moment loose. But it was his eyes that struck me as the most beautiful. A soft gold light seemed to sparkle in each pupil as if a little sun seemed to hang in his sight all the time. Okay, okay…he's pretty hot. But like my old saying went, the only men I've ever been close to end up dead a second later.

Okay, Kami, think. First course of action, distraction from main plan. Main plan: kicking his ass.

"Battousai? How did you find me, even when I was invisible?"

He paused for a moment, his eyes flashing in the rearview mirror at me before returning them to the road.

"Your smell of white plum blossoms was slight but I could find the source, you, easily though them. Also, your heart beat becomes softer when you are considering your next attack, so I could hear the changes of heart rate," he replied, no amount of pride felt in his voice.

Great, the guy has some super human powers too. Dammit.

I unlocked the secret compartment in my boot strap with a finger and felt my knife slick out from the heel and ready to cut with the slight movement of my legs. Alright! All I got to do is keep the conversation flowing.

"Do you have powers as well?" I asked louder to avoid the cutting of my restraints from being detected by his super human hearing.

"I suppose…I do," he said. "I prefer to say it was due to patience and training. I have a question for you."

He caught me off guard as I had stopped from slowly sawing the ropes with my knife in unison with my words and his.

"What is it?" I asked feeling a few fibers of the rope brush against my hands.

"How did you get your powers? Your ability to become invisible?"

I laughed out loud for two reasons. One because that's not the first time I've heard that question from my prey. Second, because I kicked back so that the knife would cut deeper the ropes. A little more.

"Honestly, I have no idea. I'll tell you what I know," I said talking slowly and loudly.

A little more…

"I fought in the war against the nation's rebels in Japan 7 years ago. After the war, we had to exterminate or capture the remaining rebels. I was shot in the leg and lacked out from loss of blood. When I woke up, I suddenly became invisible. After a while, I could change into that mode at will."

One more strand…

Battousai's POV

So she's like me, I thought as I listened to the assassin's story. I can't remember how I got these abilities. But I found mine while training with my master, Hiko Sensei.

"Master, I can feel and hear your heart beating. I can run and attack with speed greater than yours. Am I freak?" I asked after a strenuous training of swordsmanship by continual beatings.

He laughed out loud, and conked his apprentice's head with a fist.

"You are not a freak, though you are a bit stupid. Listen, your abilities are a part of you. They are real. Don't regret having them but embrace them. They are not something that will alienate you from others," Hiko Sensei said with a warm smile to his 12 year old apprentice. "Always remember though, that no matter how fast you are, I can still beat you!"

He smiled toothily as I bristled to that last remark and charged at him head first with my dull metal sword.

I snapped back into the present day when I felt a cold metal knife pressed against my neck.

Dammit! I let my guard down for a few seconds and she's already up!

She bent over the driver's seat and lowered her soft pink lips to my right ear. A few strands of her beautiful black hair slid onto my shoulder.

"If you want to live, drive me back to my house. And I'll kill you there in another battle," she venomously breathed in my ear, dropping her original sweet sounding voice she used in the conversation earlier.

A chuckle fought to free itself from my mouth, but I managed to retain it. My own prisoner wants to fight me? I was tempted to fight her again, see those beautiful black eyes narrow in concentration. It would be amusing...

"As you wish," I decided. "However, it seems the car is low on gas and will only make it to my home. We will fight there," I said as I watched her eyes change from sweet vengeance to thoughtfulness.

She glanced at the fuel gauge in the car's dashboard and thought for a few seconds then smiled sardonically.

"Okay. But I will still hold you prisoner till then."

Now I really had to fight back a laugh. It was so ironic that my prisoner thought of me as a captive.

After about ten minutes of silence, we made it to my house. It was humble, an old dojo that the previous owners sold to me cheap. I redecorated and repaired its slightly rotten wooden walls, and I thought it looked rather beautiful now. The carefully tended Feng shui garden was the final touch I recently added to the house around its miniature clear pond.

I parked the car beside the main house of the dojo and felt the girl remove the knife from my throat. I stepped outside of the car and took a breath of fresh air. Whew! If I hadn't let her fight me, my throat would have been sliced in there!

I turned around and saw her exit the car, a face of awe written on her face by the house/dojo.

"You live here? In this beautiful dojo?" she asked with a slight twinkle in her eye.

I didn't know why she was so amazed by it. It was beautiful but probably not nearly as so expensive as hers. Man, getting into her house was hard! Even with the aid of one of HARM's officials.

"You like it? It's a newly renovated dojo," I said, taking chance to admire her powerful and lean physique out of the corner of my eye while she wasn't looking.

She stared at the Feng Shui gardens a bit longer before turning to me, her eyes losing its sparkle.

"Nice house. Well, ready to fight?" she said, her voice losing the admiration and switching into its venomous tone.

Wow, she went from sweet to a devil in a matter of seconds. Well, it can't be helped.

"Yeah, let's get to it," I said as I pulled out her swords from my sport car's trunk. I handed her the pair of interesting swords she had fought with a few hours ago in her house. They were beautiful with an engraving of a lion on each one. The tails of the lions stretched to the tip of the sword. I wonder if they mean anything.

I motioned her to follow me to the backyard. When we arrived at the destination I turned to face her. Her face was set with fierce determination. A determination to kill.

Kami POV

Why is he looking at me like that, the cocky little bastard! He turned his back on me as if he knew I wouldn't kill him. Oh but I will! I never lose. Never.

"Before we start, I have to ask you something."

"What is it?" I asked gruffly, slightly agitated by the wait.

"Why are you an assassin?"

I put on a fake grin. I guess no harm in giving a dying man a last wish.

"Because I fight for my memories before the war. I can't remember them. I think I was somebody nice, and I want to know who I was, what family I had, what kind of life I lived in that long ago past life. And now, my corporation promises to find me those memories as long as I continue to work for them. That's why I kill. What are you fighting for?" Why did he have to find out?

"Revenge. I got these powers out of spite, and I want to know in the end if it was a curse or a blessing. I fight and kill so that I can find those answers," he said, his gold eyes turning a soft shade of purple before reverting back to their original color.

"Then, why don't you kill any of your targets?"

He didn't answer. His face contorted in rage.

He mumbled something incoherent.

Battousai POV

"Because, I killed my sensei."

Kami's POV

I couldn't here what he said. It didn't matter.

I pulled my swords out and held them in a ready stance for my first move.

"Forget about this. Let's fight!"

I didn't think he'd attack first. He used a sword drawing technique and attacked my left side at speed that exceeded the speed he had fought with earlier. Had his emotions now enhanced his fighting capabilities?

I avoided the attack by somersaulting backwards and switched on my camouflage. I walked slowly in a circle until I felt the wind blow back my hair. He couldn't smell me if the wind is blowing my scent away from him. Then I began to breathe, practicing a soft breathing movement I learned from my yoga guru.

When I opened my eyes, he was facing the wrong direction. He didn't know where I was.

Battousai's POV

Dammit! I can't find her! Did she figure out how to mask her scent and hide her heartbeat?

I felt the wind blow my hair around my chest. Of course! The wind was blowing her scent in the opposite direction!

I moved toward a clump of bushes and turned my back to them. The only way to attack me is to either go head first, which would put me in a downwind advantage or from behind where the rustle of the bushes would alert me to her.

I smirked and waited. There! I heard a slight crunch of twigs from behind me to the left. I waited as the sound grew closer. But wait! There's the scent of white plum blossoms! Was she in front of me or behind me?

I had to make a decision; the scent and the sound were coming closer. But the scent was drawing nearer. I had to attack the scent. I attacked in front of me using my battōjutsu as an advantage.

But my attack was blind; I only attacked air.

Kami's POV

Got him! I attacked him from behind, but the attack was reduced because he pulled up his sheath at the last minute. Dammit! .

He fell forward with a thud. His back was cut open, blood flushing out. He struggled to stand up and accomplished to lift himself onto one knee with the aid of using his katana as a crutch.

Okay, I have open sight…I can kill him now…now…why do I not feel like killing him? I let go of my camouflage and faced him. He looked up at me, his eyes an ultimate gold, pure as lightning. He pulled his sword up in front of him, ready to attack.

"That was an interesting way to fight, Kami-dono," he said, his breath slightly ragged from over exertion. "You used your ability to float in front of me, causing the scent to flow in my face downwind. And you threw sticks that were camouflaged in your hands in the bushes in such a way so that I believed you were in two places at once. You're a very skilled assassin. However…" He paused, raising himself in a sheath drawing stance. "…I will not lose to you!"

He rushed at me with such speed that he seemed to have vanished. It must be his famous battōjutsu, hence where his namesake Battousai came from! But before I felt the cold touch of his sword, I heard the sound of swords clashing.

In front of me was the Battousai, his sword locked with dual kodachis wielded by a man in a long cream colored trench coat.

"Battousai, you were supposed to capture her, not kill her." the stranger said in an emotionless voice.

He turned. He was drop dead gorgeous. Sexy, dark and handsome were the first three words in my mind. He had on a black suit under the overcoat, his hair a shock of blue-black hair.

"Hello, Kami. I am Aoshi Shinomori, leader of the HARM syndicate."

Kishofwings

Well this the end of a rather long chapter, eh? Sorry but I wanted some of the main storyline to unfold in this chapter. I had to introduce Aoshi, one of my favorite characters from the Rouroni Kenshin. Any thoughts?