Ok… I am finally updating again after being gone for so long. Really sorry but I have been busy sorting myself.
Chapter 4: One Last Performance
As Kaoru entered the performance hall her face was kept perfectly blank and her ki carefully hidden. For a meeting between 2 teams of the common side, tensions were unusually high. Each man was watching his counterpart with such vigour that no movement would go uncalculated, unnoticed or brushed aside as accidental. Settling down, she waited for the signal to begin whilst attempting to ignore the fierce amber eyes that eyed her – almost as though it expected her to spring up an attack him. But why? Did he know of her as not any kotou player?
Keeping her eyes on her fingers strumming the kotou, she began her specially composed melody; strumming each note right while the men fought their silent battle. The tiny beginnings of war are always fraught with uncertainty between both sides and within both sides. It has rumored that the Ishin Shi had recruited supernatural beings – vampires in their forces to combat the Shogunate's fiercely loyal and strong samurais. With a history of discord and distrust between humans and the vampires it is a no wonder these men are behaving the way they are. Of course, such an alliance can be avoided if you are prepared to be slaughtered in the most painful manner within a time span of a day.
She should have never taken up the offer. There were too many complications that could arise from one simple performance but the money made would tide Tae and the tea house through this rough patch of time. At least for as long as the inflation caused by fears of war remained in check.
The amber eyes never went away and her sixth sense was tingling. He Knew. It would be the most likely reason behind his continuous attention to her. He was blatantly ignoring the man who was eyeing him! She felt a shiver run down her spine and stared down and hard at her Kotou she would not look him in the eye. It would most likely rain blood again if he did not stop at just looking at her. As she ran across theories in her mind on how to get away or if need be kill him she felt the presence of foreign ki.
Every male's head turned towards the doors, ceilings and walls in an attempt the guess where the intruders would enter. Their hands gripping their swords ready to unsheathe their trusted blade; wordlessly they shoved her away uncaring for her safety whilst giving her glares. The fools actually suspect her of bringing samurai idiots? If she hadn't been in such a predicament she would have laughed out loud at their stupidity. Being unable to leave the hall she drew to the corner of the hall, her eyes closed and she pretended to cower in fear; slipping into the role of a helpless maiden, she waited for the Shogunate's samurais to burst in and so create mayhem for her to hopefully slip through without much trouble and damage to the kimono.
They were taking long but it finally happened. The falling of the shoji doors marked entry and she calmly slipped through, taking advantage of the samurai's sense of chivalry. It was too dangerous to reveal her fighting from in an area half filled with vampires. Then she felt once again as she fled to the garden, those amber eyes as they slit through every single organic being to reach her back.
Immediately recognizing the threat, Kaoru immediately formed a katana in her right hand just in time to meet his blow. As her eyes rose pass their swords to meet his, she saw determination ans as the sides of his lip curled to from an arrogant smirk, she immediately formed a bunch of small knives in a blue orb above her head and shot them with her mind at him.
He dodged barely and held an amused look on his face while he uttered one word, "fairy". Having a considerable distance between them now, she dissolved the katana in favor of a bow and arrow and as he began to move she shot numerous arrows which burst into flames with explosive force upon contact. This resulted in increased chaos as the building caught fire yet battles reigned on. While one managed to graze his leg, she was forced to block his attack once again with the empty bow. A moment later and she would have lost her right arm. Forming an arrow upon pulling the bow string, she attempted to shoot him again but he simply moved his body away from her firing range while keeping is sword connected to her bow.
He was fast, too fast for her to keep up with in this form. She would regret this move later but for now she had no other choice. His skills with the katana would out match hers easily, she had known this the moment she had caught his blade. Transforming into her vampire form would allow for more speed and agility but it also meant her being more susceptible to the effects of blood lost. Biting her lower lip, she transformed, changing her raven hair to deep purple and eyes from sapphire blue to blood red. She lashed at him with her empty bow and long nails.
She was moving much quickly now, he noted but it was not something he could not keep up with. After all, the speed he showed her thus far was only a tenth of his true potential. Their weapons clashed repeatedly and Kaoru had been forced to revert to using the katana as she fought. With higher agility, she was able to take advantage of the gaps between his attacks and managed to slash him on his left arm.
He cursed; no one would inflict a wound on him. He was angry…play-time would stop now. He caught her blade when she tried to exploit the opening available between attacks and watched her eyes widen in realization and in shock as he radiated deathly ki which was never present before. 'He is getting serious only now?' She thought, 'that means...all this time he was…'
With a further clash of blades, she was suddenly flung against a tree with multiple wounds on her left arm, legs and sides.
'Playing with me'
Using small knives once again like before to stagger him a little while she recovered from her blow and the shock. Many of her old wounds had reopened again on that one fling and she cursed. Blood was flowing profusely creating channels on her arms and legs. She raised her blade against him, who was no standing a mere foot away from her. She knew a losing battle when she saw one she would go down in a fight, she promised herself that barely a year ago during the incident with the fairies.
She charged at him, absorbing his blows with her sword, dodging each attack barely and as the battle went on her movement slowed to the point she was barely dodging the attacks in time to avoid more cuts. His attacks slowed down as though watching her, waiting for her to give up and perhaps faint from the blood lost which she could not sustain in her vampire form. She had no other how she had sustained herself despite returning to her usual form which reduced her speed. Eventually the chaos around them begun to fade away – began to go under control. Taking advantage of his moment of inattentiveness, she hit him to the ground with her sword hilt and dissipated into little sparkles which flew off.
Battousai cursed as he stood from the ground and glared in the direction the little sparkles had taken. She had proven to be an interesting rival. Brushing his hand down his gi to rid it of dust he smiled. Now, a little welcome wagon would be on its way to pick up a rather broken girl.
"Himura!" called Captain Fujiwara
"Hai"
"Return to base, that bloody kotou player had some idiotic samurai tail her here…untrustworthy bitch…see to it that she is killed or captured. Preferably the first".
With that Captain Fujiwara walked away. Battousai rolled his eyes uncaringly; that little attack was his doing…well no entirely. All he did was to have Aoshi drop this little info to the nationalistic geisha's ear during his visit. Yuri's desperation to secure a danna had been vital. Also, there was this little thing about Kaoru being there. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
Kaoru stumbled by the trees that led up to the tea house her ki still carefully hidden. Flying took up much energy which was the primary reason why she does not employ the technique in combats. She cursed herself for her carelessness. Suddenly sensing foreign ki, she reverted back to the form of little sparkles and took to the sky to observe from up there.
Then she saw blood flowing out from the tea house as 2 males left. One with long brown hair carrying a katana and the other with short jet black hair carrying an extremely long sword which she suspected was actually 2 kodachis. As anger and pain overwhelmed her she swooped down, beginning to take on her human form when Tae's bloody hand reached out for the man with long brown hair. This stalled her movements as she watched her friend drag herself on the floor so that her chin would be at the man's heel. With a faint voice she begged, "Let her go please…she's…she's…a…gen...tle…urgh"
"Keep it for hell" he muttered with a look of pure disgust on his face as he unsheathed his sword to stab her in the heart, this time twisting the sword around before removing it and kicking her hand away.
Tae gurgled on her own blood and as she began to fade she spotted the familiar sparkles. With the last of her strength, she twitched her hand in an attempt to wave the sparkles away with a small smile on her face.
Both men turned to the direction the dead woman was staring at. But all they saw were stars in the cloudless night.
"I was expecting her to attack"
Yay on chapter down! Please let me know how you feel about this chapter and the story so far. Really appreciate it! Thanks!