Madam Hydra's That Which Lingers
Part Twenty-Two: The Shedding of Masks [A]
This story is set in my own ALTERNATE REALITY Rurouni Kenshin universe, which I've called "The Nightwitch Tales" -- think of it as Rurouni Kenshin mixed with various supernatural and paranormal elements. It takes place after the end of the Kyoto story arc. After that, all bets are off. Other stories in this alternate reality are: "Night Visitor;" "All in the Family;" and "Romancing the Wolf."
WARNING: This story is "semi-dark" -- it has dark elements (violence, profanity, etc.) but it's not a darkfic! Actually, there's quite a bit of romance in it.... ^_-
As always, C&C is greatly appreciated! ^_^
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Disclaimer: All rights and privileges to Rurouni Kenshin belong to Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shuiesha, Sony Music Entertainment, and associated parties. The characters of these series are used WITHOUT permission for the purpose of entertainment only. This work of fiction is not meant for sale or profit. Original portion of the fiction included here is considered to be the sole property and copyrighted to the author.
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Text Conventions:
( ) are character thoughts
/ / and // // represent various sorts of mental dialogue
* ----- * ----- * marks the start/end of dreams or flashbacks
[ ] denote visual or time notes
[ Kyoto, mid-August, 1878 (11th year of the Meiji period) ]
As the Battousai raced through the streets of Kyoto after his quarry, it was almost as if he was travelling back through years gone by. He passed things and places that no longer existed... he saw faces of people dead for many years....
....and he spilled the blood of opponents that he had killed over a decade ago with frightening ease....
Not frightening to him -- he knew his skill -- but rather for the few people still brave enough, desperate enough, or perhaps stupid enough to continue roving the streets of Kyoto.
The Battousai paused near an intersection. Minobe Junichi was toying with him... playing some perverse game of hide-and-seek. In truth, the flash of blind rage that had sent him charging after Minobe had faded in the first few moments of the chase. However, the Battousai knew that the undead spirit possessing Kaoru was leading him on with a definite goal in mind. He didn't know Junichi's exact purpose, but sometimes the only way to deal with a trap was to simply take the bait.
He heard a young woman's taunting laughter behind him and the Battousai's expression became just a little colder. He turned to catch a fleeting glimpse of Kaoru's long black hair disappearing around a corner.
Minobe Junichi ran and the fearsome Hitokiri Battousai followed, deeper into the city of Kyoto and ever deeper into his own bloody past.
It took a good ten minutes for Sano and Yahiko to sort out Omasu's disjointed story. And since Sano and Yahiko kept talking at the same time, it took nearly as long before Omasu could comprehend what had occurred during the Kenshin's most recent confrontation between the possessed Kaoru and Minobe Junichi.
Sano finally muttered, "So you're saying that Aoshi showed up without Misao?"
It took all of Omasu's self-control to keep from bursting into tears as she nodded violently and blurted out, "Yes! I DID notice that he was sounding a little strange, but I had NO idea...!"
"Yeah, yeah. Hey, it's not your fault! You had no reason to think that anything like this would happen."
Despite her usual, excitable nature, Omasu was an experienced ninja. She didn't panic easily. However, the traumatic events of that afternoon were almost too much for her. She wrung her hands and said, "Didn't Kaoru say... I mean, didn't Minobe say something about Aoshi-sama killing... killing the woman he loves? Do you think he was talking about... Misao?"
"Unless Aoshi's been keeping a mistress stashed away somewhere, who else could the bastard be talking about?" Sano snapped tensely.
Omasu was too overwrought to take offense at this comment. She whispered almost to herself, "I... I almost wish that was true. Otherwise, that means that Misao-chan...." Wringing her hands, she gave Sano and Yahiko an anguished look. "You didn't... you didn't see the look in his eyes! Yahiko, do you remember when he came by the Aoiya hunting for Himura-san?"
"Yeah...." the boy muttered.
"Do you remember his eyes... how they looked back then?"
Yahiko nodded slowly.
Omasu gulped, then continued. "When I saw his face this afternoon... it was the same cold emptiness, only a thousand time worse! Like a damned soul...."
She clamped her hand over her mouth and looked away, unable to continue. Sano abruptly reached out and hugged her close. Omasu gratefully rested her head against his shoulder and whispered, "The terrible thing is... it may be too late to save him...."
Yahiko stiffened and said, "What do you mean!? You really think he'd...."
"I know you think Aoshi-sama's cold and unfeeling, but he cares for Misao and very deeply, too. But if he truly LOVES Misao... if she's really dead... and if he was the one to kill her...." Omasu shook her head sadly. "I'm afraid... even if we could free him from the demon's power... I'm afraid that there won't be any way to make him... live...."
Sano could only give her shoulder a gentle squeeze. Omasu could very well be right. If Aoshi could go off the deep end over the deaths of Hannya and the other Oniwabanshuu, the fighter hated to think how Aoshi would react if he was in fact responsible for killing Misao with his own hands.
When Saitoh and Misao arrived at the outskirts of Kyoto, he drawled, "Now can you find your way home?"
She gave him a nervous look, but did her best to reply with her usual cocky tone.
"Of course I can! Just because I got turned around in the forest...."
"Whatever," Saitoh said, apparently bored with the whole matter. With a dismissive flick of his hand, he started to walk away.
"Where are you going?" Misao demanded.
He paused an instant, then turned back toward her and gave Misao a mocking look.
"To do my duty, of course." His lips then curled upward in a bone-chilling smile.
Misao unconsciously backed up a step. It wasn't that Saitoh had said anything unusual -- unusual for him, at least -- but there was something truly scary about the look in his eyes. She knew that he was cruel, dangerous, and all that, but now there was an unnerving intensity and power in the man which hadn't been there before.
"Uh... right. Then I'll be on my way," she muttered.
"To the Aoiya, I presume."
"Yeah...." She nervously shuffled her feet, edging away from him.
Saitoh chuckled softly, then said, "Until later, weasel girl."
Misao was too rattled to notice the insult. Her nerve broke and she bolted. But even as she ran as fast as she could toward the Aoiya, she could still feel Saitoh's eyes upon her.
The red-haired swordsman who prowled the streets of Kyoto was a curious blending of the past and the present. He had all the memories of Himura Kenshin -- memories of a rurouni's wanderings after the Bakamatsu no Douran... memories of Sano, Yahiko, and all the other friends he had come to know... memories of Kaoru. However, the way he interpreted those memories and his mode of thinking were almost entirely that of the Hitokiri Battousai -- cold, precise, and ruthless in a way that was beyond most people's comprehension.
Just as it had been during the Douran, the part of him that was Kenshin was the strategist, setting the goals to be achieved, but it was the Battousai who was the tactician, the one who did whatever was necessary to achieve those goals.
So it had been a decade ago... and so it was now again.
And with the Battousai's preeminence, the overwhelming emotions that had been clouding Kenshin's thinking had been stripped away -- or at least momentarily pushed aside.
No matter how desperate Kenshin wanted to save Kaoru, he also knew that Minobe Junichi had to be stopped before he could destroy Kyoto and perhaps the entire country... no matter what the cost. Junichi might delude himself into thinking all the unnatural events in Kyoto and Tokyo had occurred for his sole benefit, but Kenshin knew better. He could sense it. Junichi was being used by a greater, darker power and the fool didn't even know it.
&nsp;Shishio Mokoto had wanted to dominate the country by blood and fire in order to make it stronger. Kenshin, Saitoh, and Sano had risked their lives to stop the would-be tyrant because his plans would have caused great suffering for the ordinary people and an untold numbers of deaths. But this time was different. The danger was infinitely greater. It was literally a fate worse than death.
Junichi's unseen master -- most likely Kinslayer -- was bent on destroying the fabric of the world itself and reweaving it to suit its own twisted desires.
The cost of failure was too high. There could be no holding back. To save the woman he loved, the city of Kyoto, and possibly the entire country, it might be necessary for Kamiya Kaoru to die.
Kenshin could only hope that Kaoru would understand and forgive him for the decision and if necessary, the act.
In a way, Junichi had done him an unintentional favor... he had taught Himura Kenshin to kill again.
He had killed for an ideal....
He had killed for survival....
He had killed out of anger....
After the Bakamatsu no Douran, he had truly believed that the deliberate taking of life could never be justified.
He had been wrong.
Now he was preparing to kill again... out of love.
And somewhere in the depths of Kenshin's soul, something stirred and began to awaken.
Mighty coils slowly rasped across each other... scales rustled... a great golden eye opened....
....then Kenshin heard a voice that echoed as if from the bottom of a deep well.
/ To yourself be true.... /
Outside the Aoiya restaurant, Yahiko clutched his shinai and snapped, "So what do we do now?"
Letting go of Omasu as she regained her composure, Sano said, "Do you have any idea where Aoshi and Tokio might be?" He could hardly believe what Omasu had said about Saitoh's wife. He had no problems of thinking about Okon, Omasu, and even Misao being ninja, but elegant, placid Tokio? It boggled the mind.
Omasu shook her head and said, "I sent messages out to Okina telling him what happened, but I haven't gotten a response back. The other Oniwabanshuu have been notified to keep a look out for Aoshi-sama. With all the disturbances in the city...." She shrugged helplessly.
"How's Okon?"
"She got knocked into a wall pretty hard. She's still unconscious, but I think she'll be all right. However, I don't want to leave her alone...."
Sano nodded. "Yeah." He slammed his fist into his palm in frustration. "Damn it! With Tokio running off and Aoshi chasing her, the two of them could be anywhere in the city!"
"Sounds just like Kenshin and Kaoru, doesn't it?" Yahiko muttered. "We haven't got a clue where any of them are!" Kicking at a loose cobblestone, he added, "So all we can do is sit on our butts until we get some more information!"
Sano growled, "And who knows where the hell Saitoh might be?"
"And can you imagine what his reaction will be when he finds out that Aoshi tried to hack off his wife's head!?" The young boy threw up his hands. "I don't believe this! Kaoru AND Aoshi are possessed, Kenshin's gone totally Battousai on us, Tokio's running for her life, and who the hell knows what's happened to the Weasel Girl...."
"Don't... call me... that..., butthead...," panted a familiar voice behind them.
They all whirled around and stared at Misao who was leaning heavily against a nearby wall. Covered from head to toe with bruises and scratches, her clothes bloodied and torn, there was no denying that she was a mess. It was also clear that she was so exhausted that she could barely stand.
Sano and Yahiko simply stood there, their mouths gaping, as Omasu said the first thing that came to mind.
"What happened to your hair!?" the female Oniwabanshuu blurted as she stared at Misao's hair which now ended raggedly around the nape of the girl's neck.
After grabbing a few deep breaths, Misao barely managed to wheeze out, "What's... going...?"
"MISAO-CHAN!!!" Omasu lunged forward and hugged the girl tightly. She squeezed Misao so hard that the girl nearly fainted from lack of air.
Sano finally got his jaw back into place and yelled, "You're alive!"
"Hey, let go of her or she'll pass out!" Yahiko protested.
After a few moments to catch her breath, Misao said, "What do you mean 'alive?' What's going on here? And where's Jiya? I have to tell him... something terrible's happened to Aoshi...."
The dead silence that followed made the girl jerk up her head.
Sano gruffly said, "Aoshi's already been here."
"WHAT!?!?"
The fighter looked away and added quietly, "He tried to kill Tokio."
"He tried to kill... WHY!?" Her gaze skittered around the area as if she expected to find Tokio's body lying in the street.
Before anyone could answer, she held up her hand and whispered, "No. I know why.... Junichi, you... you BASTARD!" Misao went pale with rage, then suddenly froze. She turned to Sano and said in a tightly controlled voice, "Aoshi TRIED to kill Tokio? You mean... you mean he didn't succeed? But how...? Did Himura stop him?"
"Uh... no." Sano scratched the back of his head before continuing. "Tokio managed to get away. Aoshi followed her."
Misao blinked in astonishment. "You mean Saitoh's wife managed to escape Aoshi all by herself?" She allowed a faint trace of hope to enter her voice. "Then he couldn't have been really trying...."
Omasu shook her head sharply. "Misao-chan, he was deadly serious. If Tokio-san hadn't known exactly what to do, she would have been killed instantly."
"You're not trying to tell me that Tokio...!?"
The female Oniwabanshuu nodded. "She's a kunoichi and exceptionally skilled."
Misao blinked, then finally said, "So... so where is she now?"
&nbps;"I don't know," muttered Sano.
"So where's Aoshi!?"
"I don't know that either!"
Misao grabbed Sano's jacket and somehow managed to shake the much taller man hard enough to rattle his teeth.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW!?"
Sano managed to yank himself free and shouted back, "Exactly that! I don't know! Omasu said they took off running and they haven't been seen since! And by the way, what the hell happened to you!?"
Misao glared furiously at him. The fear and worry knotting in her guts became too much for her and she took out her frustration on the closest available target.
She yelled, "What happened to me? I'll tell you just what happened to ME! Tokio's grand-aunt Asuko sent Aoshi and me to some old shrine to find information about the Minobe demon. What happened then, you ask? We end up getting separated, Kaoru shows up, and Junichi tries to talk me becoming a mindless slave. And while you were merrily strolling around Kyoto, I get chased all over the forest by pig-dog demons, end up nose-to-nose with this monstrous wolf spirit call the Hunter, nearly get a heart-attack when Hiko Seijuro suddenly decides to pop up, AND I won't even BEGIN to tell you the weirdness going on with that psycho cop Saitoh!!!" By this time, she was shouting at the top of her lungs.
&nbps; After taking a few deep breaths, she folded her arms and added in a grim voice, "And to top it all off, I find out that the particular demon we're facing is one of the most powerful around! So there!"
Yahiko gritted his teeth before shouting furiously, "What the hell do you mean 'merrily strolling around Kyoto'!? We haven't been having a damn walk in the park, you know! WE had to deal with that crazy old Emi Minobe bitch! And if that wasn't enough, Kenshin's sakabatou somehow turns into a REAL sword and he ends up KILLING a bunch of
Shinsengumi...."
Misao waved her hands and yelled, "Whoa! Whoa! What do you mean 'killing?' Kenshin!?"
Yahiko glared up at her and snarled, "You heard me right! Kenshin KILLED those guys!" He pointed at the splatters of blood on Sano's white jacket. "Where do you think THOSE came from!? A damn nosebleed!? Then Junichi shows up in Kaoru's body and tells us that he's somehow taken over Aoshi's mind because Aoshi thinks he's killed YOU! Then Junichi says something that makes Kenshin TOTALLY flip out and off he goes after Kaoru!"
Before the situation could degenerate further, a young man ran up to Omasu and gasped, "I think we found them! Aoshi-sama... and a woman!"
"Where?" shouts Misao, grabbing his shirt.
"About ten blocks away to the south, the street with all the pottery shops!"
Without a word, Sano grabbed Misao by the waist and tucked her under his arm.
"Sano, what the hell do you think you're...?" she yelped.
"Shut up, Weasel! You're too tired to run and you're probably the only person who can get through to Aoshi! Omasu, stay here and let Okina or Kenshin know what happened if they show up!"
With those words, Sano, Misao, and Yahiko headed southward as fast as they could run.
A tall, silent figure stood on a rooftop, his torn and bloodied trenchcoat fluttering weakly in the faint breeze like the wings of a dying bird.
Aoshi's body throbbed from the injuries inflicted by the demons and earlier by Misao, but it meant nothing to him.
The greater pain cancels the lesser pain.
How could puny things like mere flesh wounds and broken ribs matter when one's heart and soul are shredded beyond repair? ,br>
The scene replayed itself over and over again in his mind. However, hopelessly mired by misery and grief, Aoshi failed to notice the subtle changes that began to creep into his memory... changes that steadily fed his own guilt and raised doubts that ate like acid into his soul.
What had once merely been a shadow-obscured round shape suspended from Kaoru's hand by a thick rope that might have been a braid now became clearly visible in his mind's eye. There was now no question of that object being anything EXCEPT Misao's severed head.
He could now recall little details that should have told him that something was not right with the monster he fought... things that should have told him that Misao was there....
Had he heard her voice faintly begging for him to stop? Had the monster's smell been strangely familiar? Had he been so carried away by the monster's apparent dangerousness that he missed all these hints of Misao's presence?
And more and more often, everywhere he turned, he thought he saw
Misao staring at him with wide, accusing eyes... horrified eyes that demanded to know why he had done such a monstrous thing to her.
That same look had haunted his dreams for the past year. It was the same expression she had had when she found him standing over Okina's battered and bleeding body. Back then, he had felt nothing... regretted nothing....
But now, when he desperately wanted to tell her he was so sorry, he knew Misao would never hear him... she never forgive him. Why should she? All he had ever done was cause her misery and suffering throughout her life. Had he ever given her any moments of happiness? Strange, but he couldn't seem to remember any. He couldn't even remember her
smile....
All he could think of was her pain and sorrow -- he could clearly recall Himura telling him that Misao was weeping because of him. It was so easy to picture her tears.
The only another thing he seemed able to remember was her hatred.
With perfect clarity, he could remember the words she had hurled at him as she tried to kill him in those woods outside of Tokyo... how she accused him of being a coward... of never caring about her... of depriving her all the people she had ever cared about. Hannya, Beshimi, Shikijou, Hyottoko.... And what about Okina, whom he had nearly slain? What about the other Oniwabanshuu, whom he probably would have also killed in order to get at Himura Kenshin?
Aoshi had vague memories of Misao talking... how she said something about loving him, but was that recent or long ago? He wanted to tell that he loved her, too, but now it was far too late. Even if her ghost could hear him, why should she believe anything her murderer said?
And Misao's ghost was coming ever closer....
In the streets below, Aoshi's chosen victim carefully slipped from shadow to shadow. Tokio had lost track of Aoshi just a few minutes ago. He was certainly still in the area -- her ability to sense the demon's malignant presence told her that much -- but when dealing with someone as dangerous as Aoshi, a general idea of his location was woefully inadequate. Shinomori Aoshi might be a mortal, but she in no way underestimated the hazards of dealing him in these narrow streets and alleyways. Only a person of Risako's skills could presume to challenge him on this sort of terrain with any degree of impunity. For anyone else, the slightest mistake could easily be fatal.
She had more precise ways of detecting Aoshi's location, but just as she could sense the demon's presence, the demon could sense the use of all but the subtlest use of magical power in the area.
No, she would have to handle this strictly with flesh and steel alone. It was more than a little risky, but weighed against her desire to secure her husband's safety from his ancient adversary, there was no question of what she would do.
Go to Subpart B
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