The first review that I got was from one of my idols... Aolon *_*
I'm still in shock...
DISCLAIMER: Rurouni Kenshin is not mine. One day I might buy the rights...
Chapter 2: Under the blue sky.
1861
The first time Kenshin saw the blue-eyed priestess, he was barely eleven years old, and she was not yet a priestess, not even an aspirant.
It was at the Fushimi Inari Shrine, and it was New Year.
His teacher Hiko had then decided that, contrary to their customs, they would spend the night in the village to enjoy the rites of the new year. Kenshin supposed that it had more to do with the possible sales that said teacher made from time to time and the access to sake during such a celebration.
It hadn't been long since the opening of Japan. But even before the seclusion, some blood mixing had ocurred between Japanese and immigrants. So it wasn't so incredible to find blue-eyed japanese people. But it was still rare.
"Stay still," Hiko ordered, stopping the boy with the sheer inflection of his voice.
Kenshin had tried to get closer to the podium where the Mikos were about to start one of their dances.
"Aren't we going to the front?" The boy asked. Even after almost three years of training in swordsmanship, his self-control was still weak.
"We're not part of it," the older one declared, and Kenshin understood.
Or pretended he had.
In the distance he could appreciate the delicate movements of the dancing girls, there were three Mikos dancing in the center of them. Kenshin didn't fully believe in religion; as in politics, there were too many currents, and in the last year he had witnessed the persecutions of Christianity. But even he could appreciate the beauty of Shinto rites. Not for the first time, he wished he were part of that mob.
By the end of the rice dance, his teacher had retired in search of sake, and had permitted him to wander the village as long as he found his way to the boardinghouse where they were staying. If Hiko woke up the next day and he wasn't there, he would leave him to his own devices.
"I'd be more worried if I were you, shishou (teacher)" Kenshin stated, alluding to the man's addiction to alcohol.
"Tell me that when you've stopped wetting the bed," the older one declared.
"Shishō!"
Kenshin jumped from his spot on the ground, looking around, hoping no one had heard him; his face was red as a tomato. By the time he looked back, his teacher had already left.
…
He wandered among the stalls, undecided about what to buy or if he should buy anything at all. His teacher's accusation dancing in his mind. The truth was that he had tried, taking refuge in the mastery of the sword; sadly, that had only served to intensify the nightmares that plagued him at night.
He woke up screaming, drowning in tears... and with the bed wet.
He had been six when his parents died of cholera. About seven when the rest of his relatives died too; his last keeper had sold him into slavery to a small caravan of farmers when he had finally turned seven; there was a daimyo (feudal lord) who needed extra hands on his land. Eight when the bandits finished off his new group. Eight, when his master had rescued him, taken away his old name and blessed him with a new one.
One worthy of a samurai.
Ken – Shin (sword heart)
Although he wasn't even sure he wanted to be a warrior, which might explain his nightmares, it felt good to have a purpose and not be alone for a change.
"We don't belong" Hiko had said.
And he was right. The Hiten Misurugi Ryu was not made for men, although it served to balance their lives. Kenshin barely understood. The only thing he was sure of was that, after almost three years of learning that style, he finally felt that he really did not belong to the society of men. So he just looked from afar walking through the stalls, not even daring to buy any sweets. He wasn't particularly sad; maybe it was just that that dance had upset him in some way.
He was not sure.
So lost was he in his thoughts that he didn't notice when he had left the shrine grounds and plunged into the surrounding woods. He turned around back to the sanctuary. The lights danced creating the sensation of an orange landscape. "Surely the fires had already been lit," he thought. Deciding that at least he would like to see people dance even if he was still alone, he walked back.
"Shinta"
And he stood still when he heard that name.
His old name.
"Shinta," the voice said again, louder this time.
Kenshin turned in the direction of the voice. There was a small hill supported by the roots of the oldest trees. The boy narrowed his eyes trying to distinguish the hidden figure; the moonlight, sneaking between the treetops, barely allowed to distinguish anything. Without thinking, the redhead got close enough to be able to see it.
It was a girl.
If the blue bow on her head was a sign of this. She was wearing a rabbit mask, dressed in a purple kimono embroidered with golden butterflies. The daughter of a daimyo without a doubt. Although why was she alone? Outside the sanctuary? Was she looking for someone? Most likely she was, and it was probably a coincidence that the person she was looking for had his old name.
"Red -the girl murmured again, her face raised, looking at the sky -Red... Shinta."
Kenshin's heart skipped a beat.
-Oi! -He call her.
But the girl did not seem to hear him. He tried again.
"Are you ok?" He asked, touching her shoulder. "oh!"
Kenshin gasps.
Blue. The girl's eyes are deep blue. Like sapphires. Like two pieces of heaven.
The child swallows with some effort. The girl's gaze seems to pierce his soul.
"Are you ok?" He asks again, starting to move towards her without really realizing it.
The girl finally blinks. And reacts a second later.
"Ow!"
The next thing that happens is that Kenshin falls to the ground.
"What's wrong with you?!" He growls, raising his voice an octave.
The girl had pushed him hard enough to make him fall. Said girl blinks again. And it seems that she finally sees him. She really sees him.
"I'm sorry!" She rushes to him, helping him up. To his own surprise, Kenshin doesn't complain. There is something in the girl's voice that seems to sing to him. "But it's your fault for scaring me."
That annoys him.
"I called you several times, it was you who didn't answer."
She has the decency to look embarrassed.
"I did it again," she murmurs, face down.
"What?" He asks with genuine curiosity, annoyance almost completely ignored.
When she raises her face again and fixes her intense blue gaze on his, the annoyance is completely gone.
"I'm going to be a priestess's apprentice," she declares with determination; the sparkle contained in her eyes is immense.
The boy rephrases the girl's muttering with his own question and what the girl had answered instead, only to discover that what she says doesn't make sense.
"I know," she replies, embarrassed again. And Kenshin is startled to realize that he had said his previous thought out loud, only to be surprised at how easily she pulls herself together again. "Let me rephrase it again," She asks.
The girl clears her throat and immediately gets rid of the rabbit mask letting it fall to the ground. Kenshin could have sworn that the noise of the mask hitting the ground had been his own heart.
There is nothing extraordinary on the girl's face, except for her blue eyes, she is quite ordinary, but there was something about her smile as if it would transform her into that of Artemis herself. Not even Akane's smile could compete with the girl in front of her.
"I am one of the daughters of the honorable Kamiya family," she introduces herself, "and I have been blessed with the power of vision, which is why I sometimes get lost." She explains, saying the last thing with a laugh embellishing her words.
The boy processes again what she has just told him, and concludes that, if he had been a believer, that crude explanation would have been enough to understand what "she had done again." In her own words, she had had a vision. However, not being a believer, he couldn't help but look at her skeptically.
"Am I to assume you had a vision?" He inquires, and the irritation can be seen on his face. Fortunately, the darkness confuses his expression and she doesn't notice, because she answers quite enthusiastically.
"Yes, that's it! Although I don't always understand what I see."
Kenshin growls to himself. Assuming she's around the same age as him, she's no doubt just playing a game. There's no way a landlord's daughter could be given to the temple at will. And if her gift really were that important, he wouldn't have found her alone.
"Aha, I see."
"You don't believe me," she realized, pouting.
He felt a thorn in his chest, unsure why.
"I am not a believer." He excuses himself, deciding to leave. He had already wasted enough time.
"Then I won't tell you what I saw," she rebuts.
"I can live without it," he replies, turning around and starting to walk back to the sanctuary.
"But it has to do with you." She insists, raising her voice, and with her hands in fists near her chest.
He laughs before answering.
"You can't fool me. I won't believe that it's about me."
"But you're Shinta, aren't you?"
Kenshin stops short.
"You are Shinta," she repeats, though she sounds like she's just found out.
He glances at her over his shoulder, undecided whether to go back or leave. But when his gaze meets hers, with that intensity of light shining in her blue eyes...
It's too much.
"You're wrong" He answers angrily, there's a storm in his chest "My name is-"
"Kaoru dono!"
"Ojousama! (Miss, for the nobility)"
Several voices begin to call the ojousama that Kenshin is in front of, and that choir of voices helps him to return to the present. He doesn't stay to wait, as soon as the search party approaches, Kenshin slips through the trees and away.
"Shinta!" The girl yells again behind her.
And Kenshin can't help but stop.
"Kasumi san, Sakura san and Akane san wish you a blessed happy new year" She says with a loud voice, although without actually shouting.
Kenshin feels cold and warmth hit his body at the same time. He turns, hidden among the trees, to look again at the future priestess apprentice. The girl looks at him with a huge smile.
"They say they're very glad you're alive." She tells him.
Something in his chest creaks, but without breaking. No. It's more like the pieces are starting to fall into place. He knows by the blur of his vision that he is about to burst into tears.
He takes a step towards the girl, willing to continue listening to her...
"So they say you shouldn't worry about wetting the bed. They say it is quite normal."
…And stops instantly after hearing her say that.
The damned has the nerve to keep smiling.
Kenshin is about to unleash a list of complaints and insults when the search party finally finds the girl. He hides again but stays until after the group has left. Once he's sure they won't come back, he steps back out into the small clearing, looking in the direction of the shrine.
'So she wasn't lying,' he thought to himself.
She was certainly one of the few of the Japanese nobility given to the temple. And all for a gift that for him was no different than a child's play, although...
Even if she herself had heard his master say that, how did she know his name and that of his late sisters? The forgotten rabbit mask on the floor seems to share his same doubt.
Kenshin returns to the inn, but not before ringing the sacred bell at the sanctuary and making his prayers. He tells himself that tomorrow he will go back to get his luck.
…
When Seijuro Hiko wakes up the next morning, he is greeted by the face of a rabbit. For a moment he is tempted to strike his idiot apprentice square in the face - and break the stupid mask with it - but then he dismisses the idea.
Something has changed, he realizes.
"What's the deal with the mask?" He but asks.
"I haven't wet the bed," the boy answers instead.
Hiko raises first one and then both eyebrows in genuine surprise. Then his expression returns to its usual annoyed one.
"And what exactly do you expect? That I give you an award for what you should have stopped doing years ago?"
The man notices the anger of his idiot disciple, even with the mask on. The fool still doesn't know how to control his ki. And for the second time, he is surprised to see the boy swallow his anger as he calmly rises from his position on the ground.
"My apologies shishou, it won't happen again."
And true to his word, Kenshin stopped wetting the bed.
"And it only took him to turn eleven," his teacher sneered.
Maybe it wasn't so bad to go out once in a while, he told himself.
A/N: Another one, yei!... And 21 more to go... D:
