A/N: Yeah, my life's been in turmoil for the past week. Studying for a Chinese History test, getting drunk from a tiny glass of champagne (my friends laughed themselves hysterics at this), getting flu today, amidst frequent tears and mood swings. And that's why I needed RK all the more, and this story.
And yes, I've drawn a new pic for Final Chess Piece. It can be viewed in:
http : hk. geocities .com / hitorkiri(underscore)battousai(underscore)ishinshishi / fchp1 . JPG
Of course, you have to delete all the spaces, for apparently doesn't like web links. Mou, I hope you like it! Or you can view it on my Bio page. On with chapter 2!
Teachers and students. They revolve around my world now, each having his own thoughts, each unique. Different. You need to see past their common façade to reach the heart beneath.
Ch2 Anonymity
To Kenshin, school next day was a matter of waiting for a Physics lesson. Not that he ever liked Physics that much, but still...he needed Physics. More accurately, he needed the Physics teacher right now. Very badly.
Having dismissed his most recent injury as a fall down a steep slope to his concerned classmates, Himura was now watching idly as Sagara Sanosuke scribbled away at his homework, copying directly off Kenshin's neat, well-formed one. He sure doesn't give a damn about plagiarism. Well, I wonder if he could even spell that word... Kenshin sighed, elbowing his friend lightly.
"It's superior vena cava, not superior vanilla cove, Sano." He indicated the wrongly spelt term, turning a raised brow at Sagara. Really, students these days were plainly ridiculous with their common sense. Maybe they'd never realized how difficult it was to lead a normal life - to flip through a textbook without the conception that missing a sentence or two would result in a failure in your mission, or even your own death. Kenshin had had his Biology lessons during the civil war – but lessons then had been different. Grossly so. He had learnt about the functions of the heart only to know the fastest way to put it to a stop. He had studied human bone structures with the sole intention to break them apart in a fight. It was two entirely diverse perspectives.
Next to him, Sano gave a nonchalant shrug, viciously crossing his mistake out and replacing it with another scrawled word. "Aw...who cares? Looks the same to me."
Kenshin shook his head slightly, amused at the tori-atama's devil-may-care attitude. Sano might not be the best person to confide in – not as if Kenshin would dare revealing that he was the notorious Battousai of all legends – but nonetheless a loyal, fiery friend who would stand by him till the end. For this, the ex-Battousai was eternally grateful. After all, Sano was the fist person to admit him into the life of a school student, deeming that he needed some help from the thugs and bullies that often circled the outskirts of the campus like vultures.
"Sano?"
"What's up, Kenshin?"
"You know when our next Physics lesson will be?" the redhead glanced over at their class teacher, one Komagata Yumi, who was then admiring her reflection in the window, completely oblivious of the conversation between the two boys. Himura didn't want to risk it – he'd known, by pure war instincts, that the woman had been watching him for a long time. Out of what, Kenshin didn't know, but he wasn't going to let his guard down either.
Sano was about to respond with another "who cares" type of answer, but obviously someone was ahead of him – overly enthusiastic to reply to that particular inquiry, nevertheless.
"We've got a double today, third lesson, and a single lesson tomorrow, in the sixth lesson; another double on Thursday, eighth lesson."
Kenshin blinked in surprise at the reply originating behind him, then turned to see Okon and Omasu leaning over to grin at him, gazing lovingly at the timetable on their desk.
"Seems like we aren't the only ones here adoring Physics, eh, Himura-san?" Okon flicked her dark hair backwards, regarding Kenshin enthusiastically. The ex-Battousai mentally made an amendment to their statement – what the sisters adored wasn't Physics itself; it was the Physics sensei that they were in love with. And a Physics lesson wasn't what Kenshin needed; it was the Physics sensei that he was in need of.
Speaking of which, Physics in Tsutoki High was taught by a man with the official name of Hiko Seijuro.
"Hiko-sensei!"
The tall, muscular man turned around to see a certain violet-eyed pupil running after him with a Physics textbook. He frowned at the picture.
Hadn't he told the baka enough not to go running after him in the school?
"Hiko-sensei..." Kenshin skidded to a halt at his side, looking up to the person who he'd been waiting for in the whole school day. "I have a problem with the chapter on radio length..."
"If you have a problem with your Physics, come to me after school. I have a lesson right now." The man stated, coolly irritated by his thoughtless deishi. In the eyes of the school's general population, he and Himura were never even close. Just a teacher-student relationship, with neither side liking the other too much. Was the little baka trying to spoil this impression? He dismissed the boy with a wave of his hand, deciding to give the deishi a piece of his mind later. A hand tugging the sleeve of his jacket, however, stopped him in his departure.
"Sensei! Please...this is urgent!" Himura dropped his voice to a whisper, amethyst eyes bearing into his teacher's pleadingly. Hiko's eyes traveled to the large bruise on his cheek questioningly, and the boy nodded. It was urgent – Kenshin wasn't kidding him in the very least.
"Follow me."
"...So, you say that Saitou is already suspecting your identity?" Hiko flipped at the Physics book absently, listening as his deishi recounted the event yesterday as concisely as possible. All this information, in truth, was out of his careful calculation. He knew there would be a few mutterings about Kenshin's hair, and general appearance in all; but had never anticipated them to get that far.
"Hai, shishou."
Seijuro observed the myriad of bruises on his apprentice's forearm for a while as a subtle connection, of time and events, began forming in his head. "Kenshin, do you know someone by the name Sekihara Sae?"
Kenshin tilted his head to the side, a little uncertainly. "Sekihara Sae...isn't she Sekihara Tae's twin sister? I heard both of them have immigrated to America this year." He had known Tae only by name – the girl was a prize student in Accounts. There was even rumours that she was going to start a restaurant right after she finished with high school Lately, though, she hadn't been spotted around the school anymore.
"That's what the students, and most of the teachers, are told. My sources informed me that Sekihara Sae was murdered in the school's laboratory a week ago. When her body was found next morning, they found that her left cheek was marked with a cross."
The redheaded student nearly dropped his book at the news. "WHAT? That's...someone's trying to..." he exclaimed, then remembering to lower his voice.
"Yes. Someone's on your trail. He's trying to lure you out." Hiko's eyed each corner briefly, before leaning closer to whisper in his deishi's ear.
"If he has to use such tactics, it probably means that he knows of the Battousai's presence in this school, but having no idea of who the exact person would be. Thus, he's making use of the Shinsengumi to find that out for him..."
Kenshin exhaled sharply. He'd always known that Tsutoki High was a Shinsengumi-operated school - he knew that way before he enrolled. Tsutoki High was literally working in the iron grasp of Kondo Isamu, the principal, Hijikata Toshizo, the vice principal; Okita Souji, the smiling Chemistry teacher, and Saitou Hajime, the detestable PE bastard.Yet, provided that the Shinsengumi had never met him in his real form, and that Tsutoki High was the only secondary school available in the area, Kenshin was willing to disregard the danger of having the Miburo in his midst. After their business was done, Hiko had promised to bring him out of Kyoto, where he could start a new life altogether.
The boy could hardly decipher what sort of thinking had steered the Shinsengumi members into opening a secondary school. He had had a hard time imagining them as simple, harmless teachers; but then, he had the idea that the Mibu wolves would be shocked to death if they ever knew the infamous Battousai was still eligible for a place in a high school.
After all, he was only sixteen.
"Watch after your back, baka deishi. Remember one thing, though: you can drop out of Tsutoki High when the need calls. School is not worth dying for. And about that second make-up lesson..." he shrugged once, "I guess you'll have to go. Not many "normal" students have the guts to stand Fujita-sensei up, eh?" the momentary too-serious look dissolved into an arrogant smirk.
Kenshin growled, the second time in two days.
School was dismissed by the ring of a bell, much to the dismay of Himura Kenshin and the joy of other students.
Kenshin winced obviously as Makimachi Misao, too eager to leave the classroom in a hurry, bumped directly into one of his most serious bruises. He fell to the classroom floor with an unceremonious thud; having to remind himself that any ordinary student, at the very least, would be lying in a heap on the floor with the impact.
"Ouch!"
"Oh, gomen Himura!" Misao apologized, helping the unfortunate boy up by the arm. She looked sincerely sorry for her latest blunder. "I didn't see you!"
"Sure you don't. Aoshi's the only person you can see on this world." The redhead replied good-humoredly, dusting himself off. Misao's obsession with Aoshi was general knowledge in the school, and Kenshin wouldn't mind teasing the weasel girl for a bit more, considering it payback for the collision.
Shinomori Aoshi was considered a hot icicle in the class, mixing constant silence, handsome features, good grades and the total lack of interest in the opposite sex in one single body. It was a common sight to see infatuated girls circling him like moons around a planet; but this icicle alone never seemed to have a tendency to melt under the waves of scorching passion. Kenshin saw past all that – to him, Aoshi was one curious person who had the impossible power of X-raying him: his secret thoughts, his desires, his caution, and...crazy as it might seem...his past. All under that thickly cheerful, thickly normal mask. Sometimes, he found himself squirming under the icy blue gaze of Aoshi's; as if he was a woman ugly beyond any word could describe, and Shinomori could, by some means, see through the overly applied makeup to the mortifying face below.
It made him uneasy and, in the other way, baffled.
Himura found that their souls – his and Shinomori's - were made of similar materials. Both evasive yet interested in the other's making, both experts in masking what they had to mask. He commenced socializing, Aoshi didn't; but both watched the world around them, giving nothing personal away.
If anything...or anyone could give something about Shinomori Aoshi away, it would be Makimachi Misao alone.
He had half expected Misao to blush or to protest lamely; so Kenshin was faintly perplexed when she frowned, a sudden gloom looming over her face.
"Aoshi-sama's been a bit weird lately..." the girl said, half to herself and half to Kenshin, "he's been jumping classes and kendo practices, disappearing over the school altogether...sometimes, sometimes I just don't know if he's even in the school anymore..." she closed her eyes in genuine worry, so very different from the genki enthusiasm she'd displayed a short while ago.
Himura started at her words. Aoshi, jumping classes? It didn't seem like him, really. Aoshi was many things, but being irresponsible or rebellious was totally out of his character, that's for sure. Aoshi could be loosely defined as his friend, a friendship based on inquisitiveness and unnatural understanding. Himura seldom spoke much to the taller boy, but communication between them usually passed from a fleeting contact of violet and ice blue eyes. He thought he could grab Aoshi's character quite precisely from that.
"By the way, Himura, if you see Aoshi-sama around, can you tell him that I left onigiri in his locker?" Makimachi smiled, deciding to brighten up for a bit, "I have to go now, Himura. Ja!"
Kenshin stared after her retreating form, a feeling of restlessness residing in his stomach. Sekihara Sae...Sekihara Tae...Shinomori Aoshi...a murder, a cross scar marked on the victim's face...this day was full of mystery, without a trace of any answer. He'd have to dwell on the issue today, after he got through Saitou's beating.
Wait, what happened to Sekihara Tae?
Sekihara Sae was now lying under the earth's surface, but Hiko never said what happened to her twin sister. The straightest possibility, of course, was that someone silenced her with death, to stop her blurting about her sister's disappearance.
Who, then, would have the heart to kill her off?...
"Himura-san?"
The short student jumped heavenwards, surprised by the sudden mentioning of his name. Who on earth could sneak up on him like that...?
The answer presented itself in the form of Soujiro, lingering by the classroom door. His usual smile was in place, only it looked rather...strained...today. Strange really, considering how Soujiro could always bring about a smile with ease. Kenshin greeted him with a casual wave.
"Why are you still here, Soujiro?" Kenshin fidgeted with the strap of his backpack, finding its length rather uncomfortable for his height. This reminded him how painfully short he really was. He tried tugging the strap in both ways, distractedly waiting for the other boy's answer.
Soujiro regarded him with serious jet-black eyes untouched by the smile lingering on his lips, choosing to ignore the previous question."Himura-san, are you going to see Fujita-sensei now?"
"Well, I guess I have no choice." The redhead shrugged in what he deemed an offhand fashion, heading for the classroom door. He had no wish to trouble Soujiro by his conflict with Saitou.
Before he reached it, however, Soujiro was ahead of him with a speed he deemed impossible, barring the door with one hand. The smile had died from his features then, intensity setting in with full force. Himura stared, thrown by the sudden reaction.
"Himura-san, don't go."
"I thought I told you, Soujiro – I don't have a choice." Kenshin stated, evenly as he observed the other side of Soujiro before him. The part of Seta Soujiro he hadn't a chance to explore was now before him, standing between him and Saitou with a wish to protect his friend. This made Himura felt slightly unreal.
"Do you want that guy to murder you? Do you want him to torture you again and again until you can hardly cover it up in front of our class?" the raven-haired boy persisted, heated emotions flying off his words. From his voice, Kenshin could know that he thought the redhead's action to be complete stupidity.
And Kenshin could understand his point.
"Soujiro..."he chided gently, not willing to have to force his way round the kid, " I don't think you want me to get a zero in PE? I understand your concern, but you should know that Fujita-sensei has no wish to really harm me." He finished, lamely. Convinced as he was that Saitou actually found relish in tormenting him, he couldn't very well tell Soujiro the same thing. Seeing the faint falter in Kenshin's words, Soujiro's face seemed to darken down a shade.
"Feign sickness. Tell Fujita-sensei that you have other activities. Do whatever else you can – but don't let him get to you, Himura-san. Fujita-sensei..." he breathed, a dark smile returning to the chiseled features.
"...is more than what you think he is."
Himura Kenshin started, his eyes darting up to meet the wide black orbs which had suddenly gone abyssal with mystery. What did he mean, "more than what you think he is"? The redhead, of course, knew Saitou for what he was. He was a former Shinsengumi, and a bastard at that. But 't have known that. It would have shocked him senseless. It would have made him want to transfer to another school immediately. It would...
"Sou ka? Then what do you think I am, Seta?" a cold, sardonic voice behind the door announced a tall, lanky Miburo, the last person Kenshin or Soujiro wanted to see at this moment.
Both paled.
Glossary:
Tori-atama: rooster head, as referring to Sano's spiky hairstyle
Genki: spirited
Onigiri: Rice ball
Miburo: also Mibu's wolf, as a way of referring to the Shinsengumi
Not sure if I left anything...if I did, please tell me! I'll just go on with my replies to reviewers: 5 reviews, a good start!
Lilmatgirl007: Yeah, I noted that most high school fanfics are based on romance, and mostly KK ones at that. Personally I don't read high school romance, so I think it will be a good idea to start a high school action/adventure story, just to test if I can actually do an AU fic. Thanks for reading!
xZig-zagx: Whoop! Nice to see you again. So yeah, I've started a new story, though this one seems to need serious plotting to work straight. 'Kay, let's work hard together, no?
Bakabokken: yes,I myself also tend to avoid high school AU, so my aim in this story is to change the petty happenings in a school life to more...erm, Hitokiri-san style ones. You for one know that I never write romance! Not that I have anything against romance, but I simply don't like the "love at first sight" stuff. I prefer serious romance, really.
Blazewing: Argh! I switched the definition! I guess I really need improvement on those Japanese terms...well, thanks for your correction; I've got it right now. I hope this story will continue to intrigue you!
Lucrecia LeVrai: Okay, I intend to continue this fic at all cost, though more attention will be put on PaF. So you stop being suspicious As I've said, I don't write this solely for breaking the writer's block. The story itself has a separate soul from Past and Future, too. And the evil PE thing...jeez! I have no idea PE is national language ( so I'm stupid...) ok, I will erase it as you have suggested. Look forward to seeing you again...ja!