The Faerie Chronicles of Kenshin & Kaoru: The Sleeping Prince, a Rurouni Kenshin fanfic by Raberba girl
Chapter 9 - In which Kenshin and Kaoru travel to the Unseelie court.
"Out then spoke an old grey knight,
Looking over the castle wall,
And said, Alas, fair Janet, for thee,
But we'll be blamed all."
Tam Lin
o.o.o
Kaoru yawned and stretched, and was disappointed but not surprised to find herself alone in the bed. After a moment, she sighed and rolled to her feet, dressing unhurriedly and combing her fingers through her hair before shuffling out of the bedroom.
Sôjirô was leaning against the wall, keeping watch. He smiled when he saw her. "Good morning, Kaoru-Jooh."
"'Morning," she said dully. "What time is it?"
"Just after 10:00," he told her.
She sighed again, wondering morosely if her husband was still around, or if he had left without saying good-bye. "Is Kenshin still here?"
He shrugged and said carefully, "He stepped out earlier this morning - didn't say where he went, though."
Kaoru nodded and went in search of breakfast, with Sôjirô trailing her good-humoredly. After she had eaten, she found Titania out on the main terrace.
The Faerie Queen was frowning as she sipped from a goblet of juice and gazed far out into the gardens, where the handmaids were frolicking. She did not acknowledge Kaoru, except to complain, "He's been dancing out there all morning."
Kaoru shaded her eyes and peered out at the handmaids. Now that she looked closely, she could make out the red-haired figure flitting to and fro among them. "Is that Kenshin?" she said in surprise.
"It would seem so," Titania said darkly. She tossed her cup aside (it bounced to the floor as an acorn cap) and marched out resolutely. Kaoru accompanied her, feeling uneasy.
As the two women approached, Kenshin noticed them with alarm and spun away. Titania looked angry at first, but then suddenly laughed. "Little mortal queen, get around on the other side, it can't avoid both of us."
"My husband's not an 'it'!"
"Of course not, dear," Titania murmured soothingly. They circled around him; the handmaids giggled madly and gracefully got in the way, leaping and spinning right under the noses of the two queens. Titania flung them aside, where they subsided sheepishly, and Kaoru guiltily began to shove her way through them as well. At last they cornered him, and he turned from one to the other with a distressed look. "Big magic!" he declared to Titania, "Bad!" Then he shot a nervous look at Kaoru. "Kaoru-dono! Much love! Go away!"
Kaoru gaped at him. His appearance was very odd, with a smudginess about the edges and a soft, slightly bloated look about the skin. His features were not defined well, his body somewhat disproportioned; she got the supremely odd sense that she was looking at a doll rather than a person.
"Oh yes, love," Titania told him, "very bad." Then she seized him and pressed her lips hard to his; he stared at her with wide open eyes, unresponsive and unresisting, hands fluttering in distress.
For about two seconds, Kaoru's body went numb with shock, and her throat felt completely blocked with rage. "G...Get - your hands - off him!" The words came out in a ragged whisper. A silent scream was roaring in her ears, and she felt herself take a stumbling step forward.
Titania completely ignored her. She pulled away and gazed into literally melting blue eyes. "How fitting," she said bitterly, "that the only kiss I can claim from you tastes only of desperation and childish magic." She released him gently, and as her hands lifted away, he dissolved into the air and vanished, except for a strand of red hair which drifted to the ground.
Kaoru gasped and fell to her knees, feeling about senselessly in the grass, as if she could find him there. "What...what...?!"
"He's long gone," Titania said flatly. "Probably left some time between midnight and dawn."
"What are you talking about?!" A renewed surge of rage washed over her. "You kissed him! You kissed him! My husband!"
"I kissed a simulacrum," Titania said contemptuously. "And a badly-made one at that, though I suppose I can't blame the boy for his mixed-blood magic." Her fists clenched and she took a step. "Fine!" she shouted into the distance. "Go, then! I tried, and that is more than you had any right to expect! It's not my fault!" She whirled stormily away, then stopped when she saw the handmaids, who shrank away fearfully.
"We were forced," one of them said in a quavering voice. Immediately, the others took it up. "We were forced, we were forced to! We would never have crossed you, Merciful Queen!"
Michiko slowly reached up and drew the violets out of her hair, letting them drop to the ground. "We helped him willingly," she said quietly. "Let your wrath fall on me alone, my lady."
Titania suddenly smiled. "Very well, then. Come attend to me in my chambers, Michiko-chan." The girl wordlessly came near, and Titania took her arm to translocate. As they vanished, a sheet of fiery magic flashed through the group; Kaoru only felt it sting briefly before it passed on, but it seemed to cling to the handmaids like cobwebs. Their dancing now was a maddened expression of pain, until the furious spell died away and left them sobbing in miserable heaps.
Stunned, Kaoru knelt by the nearest girl, her hands hovering uncertainly. "I'm sorry...I don't know what to do- Please, what can I do to help you?"
"My primroses," the girl moaned despairingly. "She's burned my flowers...I need them! Oh, please, I need them back!" She did not seem to see Kaoru, her glazed eyes wandered restlessly. She translocated, so slowly that her body took several seconds to fade away, and Kaoru looked around to find that the others were doing the same, crawling away to comforting shelters.
Kaoru was left alone. Kenshin was gone...she had no friend in this place, except- "Sôjirô," she whispered, scrambling back to her feet.
o.o.o.o.o
He was in the last stretch of woods before the terrain opened out on Unseelie lands. There was a sudden rustling among the leaves. Kenshin laid a hand on his sword hilt, then took it away again when Tomoe burst through the trees, halting when their eyes met. "Why have you come?" she asked coldly.
"You know why."
"Enishi wants you dead. You know that," she said, moving forward.
Kenshin studied her carefully, wondering how much she knew. "It doesn't matter. There's something this one is much more concerned about, Tomoe." As he looked at her, she suddenly drew in a breath, knowing already what he would say. "Tomoe...why did you do it?"
It took her a while to be able to answer in a level voice. Her eyes hurt. "I shouldn't have. I knew even as I spoke the words that it was wrong...no matter what Enishi had promised me."
Kenshin's eyes widened. "He...he has found your heart?"
Tomoe looked at him silently, her eyes glistening.
"Tomoe," he said slowly, confused. "This one does not understand." He was married now. The door had closed on his future as Tomoe's husband, and she was not the kind of person who would force her way over another woman's rightful claim.
"Think about it," she whispered brokenly. When she saw the realization in his expression, she put her hands over her face. "Forgive me..."
He moved to put his arms around her, full of happiness for her sake, and compassion, and an unsettling hint of irrational jealousy.
"I asked Enishi to let me cast the spell myself," she murmured thickly. "He couldn't understand why I allowed you to preserve Kenji for fourteen mortal years. I thought Kenji would be safe until I could convince Enishi of the truth - but then Kenji drew the sakabatô." She took a shuddering breath. "It wasn't worth it. Even for Akira-san's sake, it wasn't worth Kenji's life."
"No," Kenshin said softly, "it wasn't."
At that moment, a blade was inserted between them, the sharp edge turned toward Kenshin's throat. "Get your hands off her," a wrathful young voice commanded.
o.o.o.o.o
"Look, don't cry about it," Chou said in exasperation. "Those girls are a sneaky lot, they're always getting in trouble for something or other." His reassurances did not appear to be helping. "Look, they're okay! They actually got off easy, you know. You should see some of the stuff dished out at the Unseelie court."
Kaoru sniffled. "I miss Kenshin," she said in a small voice. Sôjirô patted her shoulder sympathetically.
Chou looked uncomfortable. "Look...um, look here; Battousai wants you to be safe, right? So yeah, I'll take you back home to your kids - the kids you made with him, remember? - and everything will be fine. Okay?"
"I want to go after him," Kaoru decided.
Sôjirô's eyes flickered thoughtfully, and Chou looked alarmed. "Look, Jooh - I have to take you back home. Battousai will have my neck if anything happens to you, and Bamboo Curtain Head is expecting you."
Kaoru said impatiently, "Then let me talk to Bamboo- I mean, Saitô."
"Aw, c'mon, Jooh-!"
"Chou," she said sternly, "Now."
Chou looked unhappily at his queen. "Fine."
Kaoru settled the headband over her hair rather nervously. "Saitô?" she said uncertainly.
"Hold up, I've gotta connect you first." Chou took her hands and cast out his magic like a wire between the worlds, navigating through the shifting time boundaries. "Oi."
"What now?"
"The queen wants to talk to you."
"The fae or the tanuki?"
Chou grinned. "The second one," he answered prudently.
"I heard that, Saitô!" Kaoru burst out, still in shock over being able to hear Saitô's voice from a whole different world.
"What do you want?"
Kaoru shook her head. He was still as rude as ever. "I wanted to tell you that I'm not coming home yet. I'm going after Kenshin, and we'll be coming home together."
There was an exhalation; Kaoru supposed he was smoking. "So you figured out what that fool is planning, eh?"
A stab of fear shot through her, but she fiercely rejected it. "What?"
There was a pause. "Are you telling me," he said slowly, "that you don't know what he's planning, and you intend to throw yourself in the middle of it?"
"So what if I am!" Kaoru burst out. "This is my family we're talking about, I won't sit on the sidelines and expect Kenshin to do everything alone!"
There was a sigh. "With rulers like this, it's a wonder the country has lasted this long..."
"What was that?" she said challengingly.
"Listen," he said contemptuously. "Battousai knows what he's doing, I'll give him that much. You, on the other hand, don't. Yet you intend to interfere, even if it means the complete failure of everything you've set out to do in that world."
"What do you mean?" Kaoru said hotly. "Are you saying that if I go after Kenshin, then we won't be able to save Kenji?"
"I have no idea. Neither do you. That's the point."
"Why can't you give me a straight answer!"
"Because I don't have one," he said harshly. "This decision is yours." Then his tone lightened, as if he was grinning. "Besides, it makes no difference to me. Whatever happens, there's always the prince. Since he is unable to rule at the moment, someone will have to be regent on his behalf, should something happen to his idiot parents."
"You had better not be implying that you intend to steal the throne!"
"Of course not," he answered smoothly. "A wolf's place is in the shadows, after all. So, shall I be expecting you soon, or no?"
Kaoru was silent, caught in painful indecision. Finally she spoke, her words soft. "You said...you implied that if I knew what Kenshin was up to, I would go after him." She waited for a response, but there was none. "Well?"
"I can't control how you choose to interpret what I say."
"Argh! Fine then! No, I'm not coming home!" She abruptly cut herself short, breathless with the declaration.
"Hmph. As you will." A soft hissing filled her ears as the connection broke and Chou took his headband back.
"There. Happy now?"
"Not yet," Kaoru said, sounding more decisive than she felt. "I don't know where the Unseelie court is."
"You can't be serious! I am not taking you there!"
"You most certainly are!"
"They threw me out! Titania'll kill me if she hears I went back! And who knows what they'll do to me if I dare show my face there again?"
She shook her head in exasperation. "Fine, then just lead me far enough until I can find it myself."
He folded his arms. "No way."
Kaoru narrowed her eyes. "You want me to tell Titania that you work for Saitô Hajime?"
Chou slapped his hands over his eyes. Yep, agreeing to assassinate Himura Kaoru back then had definitely been the biggest mistake of his life.
"Kaoru-Jooh," Sôjirô now spoke up. "Let him go, he's helped us enough. I've been to the Unseelie court, I can take you there myself."
Chou sighed in relief, and Kaoru looked at her bodyguard in surprise. "Sôjirô...you'd go against Kenshin's orders?"
He smiled, and gently raised her hand to his lips to kiss it. "My first allegiance is to you, Kaoru-Jooh," he said softly. "If you are determined to do this, then I will help you." His smile turned mischievous. "Besides, I can get you there much faster than this slowpoke. The king has such a head start on us, after all."
Kaoru threw her arms around his neck gratefully. "Sôjirô! Thank you, thank you so much!"
Chou shook his head. "You really don't know what you're getting into, do you...oh well. Not my problem."
o.o.o.o.o
Kenshin spent so long staring at the ice sprite, sizing him up, taking in the jealousy and passion and nervousness, that it was only when Tomoe gave him a surreptitious poke in the ribs that he realized he was still holding her. He quickly let go and stepped back, smiling at the sprite. "Forgive this one...Akira, is it? No harm was intended."
"You," Akira growled, taking Tomoe's arm and pulling her behind him, "have caused enough grief here. Go back to your wife and leave us be."
Kenshin saw the tip of the sword trembling, ever so slightly, and he saw the fire in the man's ice-blue eyes that drove him to nevertheless challenge a warrior who had once been the greatest of Shishio Makoto's deadly assassins. "This one is happy for you," he said sincerely. "For both of you." He carefully stepped past them and walked on.
"Where are you going?" Akira demanded.
"He has business in the Unseelie court," Tomoe reminded him as they followed after.
Akira stared at Kenshin's back as the other man walked ahead. "You mean you're really going to go along with your enemy's plans?"
"This one has no choice," Kenshin said grimly.
"You would do that for a boy you don't even know?"
"He is this one's son," was the icy response. Then, more gently, "If you had children, you would understand."
"What I don't understand," Akira burst out, "is why a fickle half-breed would care about a virtual stranger when he once abandoned a fiancée he claimed to love!"
Kenshin's shoulders went stiff, but his tone was mild when he said, "So you would devote yourself to her, whether or not her contract with the Seelie queen is ever broken?"
"Of course," Akira said firmly. "Tomoe-san is a treasure among women, brave and wise and beautiful...my life is hers, I don't care if I can never have her as my wife."
After a moment, Kenshin murmured, "It seems you are a stronger man than this one, then."
Tomoe thought of Kenshin's reluctance, all those years ago, to let her go. She thought of the tears she had seen Akira weep when he thought no one could see, and she knew that both men were lying. But they were not aware of it, and she said nothing.
o.o.o.o.o
When they were close, Sôjirô stopped running and carefully let Kaoru down from his back. She was so dizzy from the insane speed of their travel that she stumbled and barely managed to keep her feet, even with Sôjirô supporting her. "Kaoru-Jooh, are you all right?"
"Give me a minute," she mumbled. When she finally straightened and began walking forward, she was able to focus on the dark palace that towered up before them. It was a forbidding structure, black with turrets that twisted and seemed to be in different places whenever she glanced away and looked back. They came to a halt some distance before the gates, before which hovered a dark mist that stretched away in both directions.
"Well," Sôjirô remarked. "This certainly wasn't here before. Let me check it out, Kaoru-Jooh."
"Hurry," Kaoru said nervously, her glance darting from side to side as if she expected ugly monsters to come jumping out at her any second. Sôjirô nodded, then seemed to vanish in a slight rush of air.
Shaking her head, still not used to that crazy speed of his, Kaoru found herself pacing after only a few minutes, from nervousness and impatience. What was she going to do now that she was here, anyway? The things she had heard about the Unseelie court had not painted a very pleasant picture in her imagination...what did Kenshin mean to do here?
"Sôjirô, where are you?" she grumbled. How long did it take to examine a magical trap?
Kaoru bit her lip, staring at the unmoving fog before her. Kenshin was in there, somewhere. He had been gone for hours and hours... Were things going the way he had planned, or was he in trouble?
"Sôjirô!" she suddenly shouted. "Sôjirô!" There was no answer.
Kaoru's breath was coming hard now as she fought to stay logical. Kenshin knew what he was doing, he was comfortable in this world. He wasn't infallible, though. He had had to struggle against the Seelie queen, his own grandmother. What would happen to him here, among his enemies?
"Sôjirô!" she screamed again, nearly stomping with impatience. Panic was beating at her mind, as if begging, 'Why are you just sitting around?! Why aren't you going to Kenshin? What if he needs you?!'
"Sôjirô, if you're not here in one minute, I'm going without you!"
For a little longer, she forced herself to stay still, to wait. Then she could not stand it anymore. There was no other way in - she seized her bokutô and walked resolutely into the fog.
o.o.o.o.o
Kenshin stopped short when they came out into the open, and it was at once obvious why. A monstrous figure was approaching them, so enormous that it towered up into the sky despite the distance between it and them. Yet each step it took brought it closer by such great increments that it had already halfway reached them in the time it took to identify the figure and observe the nature of its progress.
Kenshin clicked his sword loose from its sheath. "Tomoe," he murmured warily, his eyes fixed on the giant.
"It's all right," she told him quietly. "Fuji-san will not harm us."
"Wouldn't mind if he stepped on Battousai," Akira grumbled under his breath, but subsided when Tomoe gave him a little kick in the ankle. The three of them held their ground, heads tipped up, riveted by the sight.
In less than a minute, Fuji was kneeling before them, covering them with his immense shadow. "You left," he rumbled.
"Temporarily," Tomoe called up to him, before either of the men could figure out whom the giant addressed. "I meant to return."
"Mm." Fuji's eyes fell on Kenshin, and narrowed in a frown. "I cannot see you well, swordsman. Permit me to take a liberty."
Kenshin swallowed to moisten his dry throat. The giant's face was lined with hardship, but free of all sly or malicious expression. In any case, Tomoe seemed to trust him. "All right."
He watched the huge hand descend, and stepped carefully into the callused palm when it came to rest on the ground close by. He put a hand on the thumb to steady himself as Fuji lifted him. The giant obviously tried to be gentle, though the wind from the rising movement sent Kenshin's hair whipping wildly at his face. When they were eye-to-eye, they studied each other warily for a minute.
The afternoon sunshine glinted on the swordsman's bright red hair and highlighted the deep color of the cross-shaped mark on his face. The giant's hugeness was grotesque, every tiny flaw and blemish mercilessly magnified, yet the features were pleasantly symmetrical and well-formed, the long chunks of shaggy hair shining silver in the light. Fuji could have been a handsome man.
Kenshin was startled to realize that the metal links circling the giant's neck, which had seemed like ornamentation from afar, were from this proximity clearly a method of restraint. Who had dared to chain this creature? Was he a prisoner or a slave?
The rumbling voice came like thunder. "You are the Battousai everyone has been speaking of."
"What of it?" Kenshin said gravely.
"Your strength is legendary. I had...foolishly...hoped to cross swords with you one day." Kenshin's eyes widened a little. "Now I shall never have the chance."
"No," Kenshin agreed, "but even if you had found such an opportunity, this one would have declined the honor, that he would."
A grin quirked the corner of the huge mouth. "Are you afraid of me?"
Kenshin grinned back. "Is there reason to be?"
The smile vanished. Fuji's gaze was piercing. "Look at me."
"This one is looking," Kenshin said softly, "and he thinks that a sword at the waist should not be paired with a chain around the neck."
"So a slave has no right to claim a warrior's title?" the giant rumbled dangerously.
Kenshin smiled sadly. "As one who also once wielded his sword for a cruel master, this one thinks, rather, that the sword of a warrior has no right to be bound to dishonorable duties. How many have you killed with your sword, Fuji? How many of them were true opponents? If your life is anything like this one's once was...the answer is, 'Not many.'"
There was a silence. "You are free now," Fuji whispered, tight with anger.
"Then you should be, as well."
"You're not a monster!" And with the outburst, the hand suddenly closed around Kenshin, threatening to squeeze the life out of him. Tomoe cried out below. "So easy, Battousai," he murmured, watching the swordsman gasp for breath but otherwise offer no struggle.
"For a monster, yes," Kenshin managed to say, though the challenge in his expression was clear and unwavering. "Are you really a monster, Fuji?"
The moment lengthened, and no one moved or spoke. Then the giant's wondering whisper came like the sighing of wind. "It's a choice."
"It's a choice for all of us," Kenshin said quietly.
Another smile came to that great face, softening it, bringing out some of its hidden beauty. "I hope you are right." The fingers relaxed; Kenshin fell with a gasping rush of breath, stumbling to his knees in the giant's palm. Fuji set him back down so gently that he was able to catch his breath even in the long transition. He had fully composed himself by the time Akira (and Tomoe...but it was Akira who mattered) could see him, and he stepped back to the ground as if nothing had happened.
"Oneesan," Fuji murmured, though even his quietest voice made the trees rustle. "Have you found a place yet?"
"Not yet," Tomoe said unhappily. "You would fare even worse in the human realm than you would here. The only place I could think of would be the wilds of Faerie, but it's very dangerous."
"I think I can take care of myself," Fuji said politely. Akira snorted in amused agreement.
"But it would be lonely," Tomoe said softly. Then her eyes widened, and she turned to Kenshin. "Kenshin- Do you know a place? Somewhere Fuji can live once he is free?"
"Well..." Kenshin thought for a while. "A possibility occurs to this one, but..." He smiled a little and shook his head. "Permission would have to be asked first, and this one can no longer do so. Perhaps if you petitioned him, Tomoe, Hiko Seijûrô would be willing to make an arrangement."
"Hiko Seijûrô..." she mused.
Kenshin suddenly blinked. "How long have we been talking here?"
"Not long," Tomoe said in puzzlement. Then she stiffened in realization. "I do not favor crafty spell-work."
"Forgive this one for being suspicious, but he has recently had too much experience with deliberately-planned delays," Kenshin said dryly.
"If I thought it would stop you," Tomoe said unhappily, "and if I wasn't in such debt to Kenji...I would be doing my best to delay you as well."
Akira was looking hard at her. "You really do like him, don't you."
Tomoe smiled, took his arm, and gave it a little pat. "Jealous?"
"Any man would be!"
Her smile disappeared. "This is not some mere rivalry, Akira-san. This concerns life and death."
Akira looked a little ashamed, but said nothing.
"Battousai," Fuji said, "will you really agree to cooperate with the king? For the sake of this boy?"
"I must."
Fuji sighed regretfully. "Very well, then. I will take you, if you are in such haste. That is, if you are not adverse to traveling in such a way."
A smile broke over Kenshin's face. At the sight of that relief, Tomoe felt like she wanted to cry, and Akira felt restless and somehow unsatisfied. He would do anything, anything for Tomoe; apparently, Battousai would go to great lengths for a loved one as well. It hurt Tomoe, and Akira didn't know whether he wanted his rival to succeed or fail.
Fuji carried all of them, Akira and Tomoe in his right hand and Kenshin in his left. The motion, though windy, was quite steady, and Kenshin suddenly wondered if the giant was accustomed to carrying people of ordinary size. He worried a little that having both hands occupied left Fuji open to possible attack, but they reached the palace quickly and without incident.
"Thank you, Fuji," Kenshin called up.
"Mm," was the only response as he set them down. A shadow had seemed to close over his face now that he was back in such close proximity to his place of bondage.
Kenshin entered the outer courts with his head held high, gazing straight ahead. Tomoe flanked him with the same resolute dignity, so that Akira was forced to accompany them.
The fae who rushed out to meet them were all, regardless of dismay or anger or delight, in a state of great excitement. Kenshin continued calmly on, appearing heedless of the shouts, the blows, the tears; the pixie who landed on his shoulder to snuggle against his neck, the lutin who clung to his back and snarled at those with ugly intentions.
"Why have you come, Battousai?!"
"Why did you stay so long away, love?"
"At last! I've been looking forward to this, heheh..."
"Put that away, stupid, the king'll kill you if you hurt him too early."
"Niisan! How could you?!"
"I hate you!"
"Come to bed with me while there's still time..."
"Oh, YAY! Come play, come play!"
Curses, laughter, threats. Kenshin made no response to any of it, though he nearly chuckled to find that he felt almost as at home here as he did in the Seelie court. He paced on, until the great doors to the throne room opened, revealing the rest of the court waiting with Enishi at their head.
A tiny glittering figure came rushing up to Kenshin's face. "Himura! What are you doing here?"
"This one could ask the same of you, Misao-dono."
"Because Aoshi-sama is here, obviously," the Seelie creature snorted. "But you, Himura! I heard what the king means you to do - don't tell me you're going along with it?!"
He affectionately cupped a hand around her tiny body, though he was careful not to touch her. "You forsook much for love, Misao-dono. Surely you understand."
"But it's not the same thing!" she protested. He only smiled and moved on. After staring after him for a moment, Misao's eyes narrowed in determination and she hurried to perch on Kenshin's other shoulder, where she and the pixie made faces at each other across his throat. They were the only two who remained; the lutin, at the forbidding sight of the Faerie King on his throne, scampered away in terror. Kenshin came to a halt before the throne, glaring.
"You sure took your sweet time," Enishi commented. Tomoe continued on past Kenshin and made her deliberate way up to the dais, where she seated herself beside her brother. Akira quietly came to stand in attendance. Enishi's eyes moved toward her briefly. "You had some fun with him, Sis?"
"He's no fun at all nowadays," she answered calmly, her face once more closed on her true thoughts. "But I can wait." A ripple of ugly laughter went through the hall and then died down.
"So...Battousai," Enishi said conversationally, though his eyes gleamed. "You ready? Ready to release little Kenji, so that your family can live happily - ever - after?"
"Don't do it, Himura!" Misao whispered urgently.
He ignored her. "Enishi. Where is your sister's heart?"
Enishi went very still. "What does that have to do with anything?" he snarled.
"You promised her freedom once your revenge was complete," Kenshin said quietly. "Where is it, Enishi?"
"That's something you don't need to know-" Enishi suddenly grinned. "For now, at least."
At that moment, a small crowd of fae came rushing excitedly into the hall. "She came! She came!" they cried delightedly. "She's caught in the Fog, the stupid little mortal!"
Kenshin's heart lurched; both Enishi and Tomoe were on their feet. "Who is it?" Kenshin said harshly.
"Guess, guess!" they shouted back gleefully. He pushed through them and, followed by the court, raced for the palace gates.
o.o.o.o.o
She couldn't see anything except the fog, cloudy grayness in every direction. She was afraid to take a step, fearful of going the wrong way, of walking unknowingly into danger... What was this place, anyway? Had she fallen asleep, was it all in her mind? Was it an illusion she was trapped in, while anything she did would be reflected in the real world? "Help me!" she suddenly cried. "Someone help! Kenshin! Kenshin! Kenshin!"
"Stop that." A forbidding figure stepped out of the mist. For a moment, Kaoru was delighted to see Kenshin, but something about him made her shrink back. His eyes were cold and hard, his face frightening in its dangerous misery. His hair was in a ponytail, trailing down almost to his waist.
"Battousai," she whispered.
"You shouldn't be here, Kaoru-hime," he told her.
"I-I know." She swallowed. "Will you...show me the way out?"
Without moving, he seemed to withdraw from her even more. "I don't know the way out."
Kaoru shivered to hear the word ore rather than the now-comforting sessha.
"Such gloomy faces!" Another red-haired figure pranced out of the fog, clothed in a suit of leaves, the fiery locks tangled with twigs and glimmering like a halo around the breathtakingly pretty face. The birthmark was not as livid as Battousai's, but still showed clearly against the fair skin. "Kaoru-chan, Battou-kun, you two look like you're ready for a downpour at any minute!"
"Who are you?" Battousai asked warily.
His fey look-alike grinned and draped his arms around him. "I'm you, of course, silly!"
Kaoru gaped at him - she had never heard Kenshin refer to himself as boku.
"Goodness, this certainly is an odd situation." Kaoru turned helplessly to find a third Kenshin appearing behind her, with huge lovely eyes and a long ponytail like Battousai's, though somewhat thicker. His clothes were patched and frayed, as if he was some sort of wanderer. "Oro? Kaoru-dono, this one thinks you don't look well, that he does not."
"Kenshin!" Kaoru said gratefully, but then a little red fox came bounding up. "Kaoru-dono!" it said anxiously, to her shock. "Are you all right?"
"A talking fox!" she gasped, then winced. She was in Faerie, after all. "Sorry."
"Oro?" The fox glanced back along itself, whipping its tail close to its nose for a better look. "Ah."
"Whee, so many of us!" the fae laughed. "Oi!" he shouted into the fog, "any more coming?"
Somber footsteps approached, and yet another Kenshin became visible through the drifting mists. He looked almost exactly like the other humans, except that his hair was cut short and his eyes were not so wide-open and girlish. "This will make things difficult," he commented as he surveyed his other selves. "Kaoru-dono, this one is afraid you will have to choose between us, that you will."
"Oooh! Pick me, pick me!" the fae insisted, waving a free arm in the air. Battousai frowned and tried to nudge him away, but the fae laughed and only latched on more firmly.
"Kenshin, what's going on?" Kaoru said, turning in confused circles. Five sets of almost identical blue eyes gazed at her, longing for her.
"It seems only one of us is the true - or rather, truest - Himura Kenshin, that it does," mused the easy-going rurouni.
"It's obviously me," the fae asserted.
"No," Battousai said in a low voice, his eyes hidden. "It's me. My true nature...of course it would boil down to this."
"No!" the fox insisted. "This one's true self is not a monster!"
"What do you mean 'this one'?" said the rurouni in confusion. "You're obviously one of the illusions."
"Now, wait a minute," said the serious, short-haired one. "You can't make something out of nothing. Obviously, each of us reflects an aspect of this one's- rather, of Himura Kenshin's true nature."
"But I'm the real one," Battousai insisted, "I know it."
"Each of us feels that he is Himura Kenshin," the fox said slowly, "because, in a way, we are."
"So how is that going to work?' the fae pouted. "Kaoru-chan can't take home five husbands!" He suddenly looked at the fox and snickered.
The creature gave him a cold look. "This one- Kenshin obviously isn't literally an animal."
"Are any of you going to get around to explaining this to me?" Kaoru huffed.
"Kaoru-dono," the rurouni said apologetically, "this place is meant to confuse and entrap. This one- each of us came to be your guide, but we did not anticipate this, that we did not."
"You will have to choose," the fox said gravely.
"But choose carefully," said the short-haired one. "We are all Himura Kenshin, but some more, and some less. If you choose the one from whom all of us were formed, we will merge and become one man again. If you choose one of the copies..."
The fae made a throat-slitting motion and gave her a nervous smile.
"Kaoru-dono," the fox said softly. "If a mistake is made, none of us will be able to escape this place."
Kaoru looked around at them. "Well," she said after a moment, raising her hand to point, "it obviously can't be-"
Quick as a flash, the fae was half behind her and pressing his hands over her mouth. "Careful, love," he whispered in her ear. "You wouldn't want to make the wrong choice, would you? After all, I'm the grandson of the Faerie Queen herself. I spent half my childhood in the Seelie court...it was my only refuge. I once loved a princess of the fae. Who are you to say that I'm just another mortal like you?"
He grinned, even as he heard her breath coming hard. "You've noticed, haven't you? You're not the same as you were when you were seventeen, you're getting older. Still lovely, oh yes, but of course it won't last forever, like it will for me. Surely you've seen that though I am so much older than you, my face is as fresh as ever, my hair as bright? I don't look a day over eighteen, and you know it."
The others could not hear his words, but they understood Kaoru's tears well enough. "Get away from her," the fox snarled, and seemed surprised at the animal sound of his own voice.
"Let her make her own choice," the short-haired one commanded.
"I suppose my life is in your hands, Kaoru-hime," Battousai said darkly.
Kaoru stumbled away from them and covered her face. She cried for a while, feeling those five pairs of sympathetic eyes on her back, and it was a while before Kenshin's name would stop chanting through her head. Finally, she was able to get a hold of herself enough to think. She paced on all fours as she did so, giving the matter consideration. Then she finally turned to them. It was obvious which three to eliminate first, at least.
Her mouth opened to speak, but then the fox said quickly, "Kaoru-dono, wait. You ought to question us, that you should. This one is sure the answers will be telling."
"They certainly will be," murmured the short-haired one.
"Questions," Kaoru said blankly. "...All right. Who are our children?"
"Children?" Battousai said in confusion.
"Ayame-chan and Suzume-chan," the rurouni said easily.
"No," the short-haired one objected, "there is Kenji, of course."
"All three!" the fae announced triumphantly.
The fox looked pained. "Kaoru-dono, please ask another question."
"You didn't answer the first one," Kaoru pointed out, but then it occurred to her that perhaps the question had been too easy. "All right, then." She blushed a little. "How many moles do I have, and where are they?"
Battousai blushed as well and looked away, saying nothing. The rurouni and the short-haired one stumbled uncertainly through a list; the fae gleefully and without hesitation gave a complete catalogue of all the distinguishing marks on Kaoru's body, and their locations. The fox only sighed. Kaoru got the frustrating sense that she was doing something wrong.
"All right," she said slowly, "here's one. What will happen when the last petal falls?"
This time, it was the two humans who looked confused. The fae grinned and said, "Time to show Shishio who's boss."
Battousai sighed heavily. "Either your father will die, or..." His eyes clouded over. "Or he will live, and I will never see you again."
Kaoru paused, her heart going out to him, then turned to the fox.
"When the last petal falls," it said quietly, "we will be free, and the rose will bloom again."
Kaoru caught her breath. Why, of all five of them, had the fox alone given the answer that had been in her heart? She had been sure it was the short-haired Kenshin, with such a calming presence and a strong focus on Kenji. But the fae had answered the other questions most correctly...he couldn't be the one, could he? "Argh!" She paced around some more to think, her thick striped tail flicking from side to side in agitation. She could not get this wrong...
"Kaoru-chan!" the fae called, but was abruptly cut off with a little squeal as Battousai rumbled menacingly, "We've heard enough out of you."
"Let her think," said either the short-haired one or the fox; Kaoru's back was to them and she couldn't see.
She finally came back. "I know you, Kenshin," she said quietly. "For seventeen years, I've ruled beside you, talked to you, made-" she blushed, "-made love with you." She knew she and Kenshin were most likely alone in this place, but seeing five of him made her feel like she was addressing an audience. "We've been through so much together. I know your heart, Kenshin - and your truest self is not a murderer."
Battousai bowed his head and faded into nothing. The others let out sighs of relief. "One down, three to go," the fae observed, tossing back his hair.
"Was that right?" Kaoru said anxiously. "Did I do it right?"
"Perfect," the short-haired one assured her.
"If you guess wrong," explained the fox, "the rest of us will shatter."
"So yes, fading is good, Kaoru-dono," the rurouni said with a nervous smile.
Kaoru smiled back, then started pacing again. After a few minutes, she returned. "Kenshin." They looked back at her tensely. "You...I know what your lineage is. I've seen that look in your eyes sometimes...but..."
"Kaoru-chan, wait," the fae said frantically, but the fox growled, the rurouni wrapped his arms around the fae to restrain him, and the short-haired one put his hand over the protesting mouth.
Kaoru took a deep breath. "I've seen your dedication and loyalty, your honor. It's stronger than whatever eldritch blood you may have. Kenshin...you belong in the human world, with me." The fae struggled, but it was too late, he was already vanishing. Kaoru's relief came out of her in a whoosh of breath; she hadn't been sure of that one. Kenshin's comfort in the Seelie court, his dance with the queen, the way he seemed to come alive in their midst... She shook her head firmly. No, the fae had faded like Battousai, he wasn't the truest Kenshin.
She looked at the remaining three unhappily. The humans looked exactly like her Kenshin, though the Kenshin she knew no longer had long hair. The short-haired one and the fox were so alike, she would not have been able to tell them apart if they weren't in different forms; but only the fox had known her answer.
She studied them for a long time before she finally said, her voice shaking, "Kenshin...I love your 'oro's, and your sense of humor, and I can't resist those eyes of yours when you look at me like that. But...that's...not all you are." She swallowed, as his expression grew frightened and the others edged away from him. "You have suffered too much for this cute face to be your truest one."
"Oro," the rurouni murmured in surprise, his voice fading along with his body. "Not the real one after all..."
"I can't do this!" Kaoru suddenly burst out. "What if I choose wrong, after all this?!"
"Relax, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin instructed. He smiled. "This one trusts you."
The fox also told her to relax. "Don't try too hard, it will cloud your mind. Listen to your instincts as well, that you should."
Kaoru looked from one to the other. "I'm going to ask another question. Okay?" They nodded. Kaoru opened her mouth to ask, closed it to frame the question more carefully, then spoke. "If you had to choose...which would be more important? Rescuing Kenji, or rescuing me?"
They looked warily at each other before they answered. Then they said together, "Rescuing Kenji."
But Kaoru had been watching their faces carefully, and she gasped when she saw that one of them was lying. "It's you!" she cried, running to throw her arms around the fox before she could change her mind. It didn't work, though. She was so shocked at the sight of her own arms that she didn't even notice the short-haired Kenshin fading away. "I'm - furry!" she shrieked.
The fox looked startled. "You didn't know?"
"NO!" Craning her head over her shoulder, she was horrified to find that the dark fur extended over her entire body, and that she had a tail. "I'm a RACCOON!"
"And this one is a fox," Kenshin pointed out, trying not to laugh. "This is a place that likes representative forms, that it is."
"I'm a raccoon," Kaoru wailed again, huddling up miserably. "I'm not even me anymore!"
"Of course you are." Kenshin trotted over and licked the top of her head comfortingly.
She was very surprised at how good it felt, that rough tongue moving across her head and at the bases of her furry ears. "Do that again," she asked, but he panted at her in a fox-smile and carefully shook his head as if not used to the gesture in this form.
"We don't have time, Kaoru-dono. We need to get out of here, that we do."
He was right. Kaoru got up and followed him, stumbling now that she was so aware of her strange, four-legged movements.
He looked back over his shoulder and noticed her difficulty. "Don't think about walking," he advised. "Your brain may be unfamiliar with it, but your legs know the way, that they do."
It was a little easier then, especially when they were talking and she forgot about this new way to walk. "Why did you come, Kaoru-dono?" he asked wearily.
"You left me," she accused.
"You already knew this one was leaving."
"But you didn't even say good-bye!" She had been counting on that so she would know when to go after him. She hadn't expected him to sneak off in the middle of the night.
"That isn't true."
"I was practically asleep! That doesn't count!"
"It was the best this one could do," he said in exasperation. "Leaving was only possible when the queen was off her guard."
"But why didn't you at least wake me?"
He stopped walking for a moment. "Because you would have tried to stop this one, or follow him."
"I followed you anyway," Kaoru pointed out.
Kenshin shook his head. "You make things so much more incredibly difficult than they have to be, Kaoru-dono...itai!" She had bitten him, then waddled off to sulk. "Kaoru-dono!" Kenshin called urgently, pawing at his injured ear. "It's dangerous to go off on your own, that it is!"
"Same goes for you!" she shouted back furiously. Then she unexpectedly came to the boundary, hidden in the fog, and let out a shriek.
"Kaoru-dono!" He bounded after her, but she had already fallen.
To be continued...
Author's Notes: Tomoe did not spend fourteen years trying to "convince Enishi of the truth." Remember how short the time seemed to Sôjirô.
There are several Japanese words for "I." I'm not a native speaker, so this may not be quite accurate, but I get the impression that "ore" is more masculine, "sessha" is an uncommon humble form, and "boku" (which Sôjirô uses) is mostly for young men.
Totally forgot about the Oniwabanshû. Whoops.