Flame Of Recca Fan Fiction / Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tales of a Wanderer ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

Tales of a Wanderer

 

Chapter 1

 

First year of the Meiji, 1868

Heavy dark clouds hung low with the threat of impending rain. A lone swordsman stood on the crest of a hill looking out at the long road he had traveled behind him. The young man looked down at the sword at his side in deep thought, his brow furrowing as he frowned. He looked up at the long road ahead of him. `I have gone many places this past year since I walked away from the revolution but still I cannot find peace for my soul. It has been almost three years since the day that I… took her life with my own hands. Even now I cannot think of her name without feeling the pain that consumes my heart at the thought of her.' He sighed. Feeling the heaviness of his emotions he closed his eyes. The wind blew through his long red hair.

 

 

“Excuse me, would you happen to be Himura the Battousai?” someone asked from behind him. He turned to face the speaker. It was a woman who was dressed in strange black clothes. Her eyes were hidden by the deep shadows of the hood. “Perhaps. What is it you want?” He asked with caution in his voice. The woman laughed suddenly startling him. He frowned at her. “Why do you laugh?” he asked confused and a little insulted by her behavior.

 

“Don't worry Kenshin Himura; I will keep your secrets.” She said looking at him with deep dark eyes. Kenshin looked at her silently with his eyes narrowed as he searched the shadows cloaking her face. “You seem to know me but I don't believe I've met you.” He stated cautiously. She shook her head “We have never met. My name is unimportant but I've been looking for you, the legendary swordsman.” she said looking him over silently. “Draw your sword.” She said simply.

 

 

Kenshin placed his hand on his sword hilt. “I decline. I would rather not fight a battle with an unknown reason. If you have come for revenge I will gladly accept your challenge, but I have no intention of risking my life for an unknown reason. So tell me the reason you seek my life first.” she frowned thoughtfully. “You are a very noble man, but do you really think that letting someone kill you for revenge will help you atone for your beloved Tomoe's death?” She asked coolly. She watched his face for any sign that her words had upset him.

 

 

He gripped his sword hilt tightly, his knuckles turning white. The woman smiled mysteriously. “Yes, fight me, Kenshin. I know of your deepest secret after all. Silence me. ” She said drawing a dagger. Kenshin let his hand fall from his sword hilt. “Fighting you won't make her return to life.” He said flatly. she tapped her chin with the dagger. “True, but neither will your death. Make no mistake Kenshin, if you do not fight back, I will kill you.”

 

 

Kenshin looked at her face silently. “Then you give me no choice.” He said flatly. He watched her movements silently as he avoided a quick thrust of her dagger trying to figure out his opponent's mind set. She smiled with a strange knowing look in her shadowed eyes. `How could she know? Is she a family member of one of those I killed seeking revenge? She moves strangly.' He thought. Kenshin dodged her rapid attacks one after another keeping one hand on his sword hilt. She swung out with her leg and caught him in the stomach. He grunted in pain and slid to the side to catch his breath. Without warning she came at him not waiting for him to recover; he drew his weapon to guard from her attack. She jumped away as he stood.

 

 

He glared at her. “Now that I have observed your movements your defeat is inevitable.” He said un worriedly easing in to a fighting stance now that avoiding a duel was impossible as he'd drawn his sword. Without knowing the exact move she would use he waited in a defensive stance with his sword drawn.

 

 

Before he could react to her movement she threw her self on to the point of his drawn blade. Although the sword blade was reversed the point was still as fine as a razor. Kenshin dropped the weapon in horror as it pierced her chest and her blood dripped down the blade. She fell to her knees in pain as she smiled at him with that same strange look in her eyes as before. “Why did you do this? I said I would never kill again and now I have broken my vow.” He said in shock as he fell to his knees beside her his anger melting away to sorrow as he forced himself to look at the injury that his sword had caused that would soon claim her life.

 

 

“This will not kill me.” she said as her smile did not fade and she gripped the blade of the sword and pulled it from her chest. “You have broken no such vow. I am unable to die. Even should I want to depart this life I cannot.” She said softly. Kenshin blinked as he watched the blood vanish from her clothing and the sword wound vanish as well. “What are you?” Kenshin asked his voice trembling slightly from the shock of what he'd just seen. “I am not here to scare you. Don't worry I am human. However I am under a powerful spell that prevents me from dying, Kenshin you have exceeded my expectations I fought you as a test.” She said as she tucked her hair behind her ears.

 

 

Kenshin recovered from his shock and horror. He had been tricked and he looked at her silently his eyes narrowed irritably. “What is it you really want from me then?” He asked shaking her blood from his blade unemotionally and sheathing it. “I was sent here to ask a favor of you and this gift to give you if I may.” she said reaching in to the wide sleeves of her dress as she began speaking.

 

 

Kenshin looked at her his face paled visibly in disgust and disbelief. “You want me to believe such a story?” he demanded quietly after she had finished speaking. she laughed at his expression. “You may believe as you wish, but my story is true. You saw it for yourself, I have been alive for centuries.” She handed him a scroll. “What if I also told you that there was a way to go back in time and change the past? Would you believe me?” she asked slowly. He laughed with a bitter tinge. “You tell me such wild tales and then tell me I can go back in time. I do not know what to believe.” He looked at the iridescent orb embedded on the band encircling the scroll the character engraved on its surface meant “time”. Kenshin frowned thoughtfully. “This is the gift you wish to give me?” he asked skeptically. she nodded. “Only someone with a pure heart should have it; which is why I came to you. Even though you killed countless men with your sword, you still have a pure heart. Which is why you seek to find a way to save lives, correct?” she looked at him hopefully.

 

 

Kenshin shook his head beginning to hand the scroll back to her. “I am the Hitokiri Battousai; I haven't got a pure heart. My hands as you say are stained with blood. You should take this back and find someone else.” He said holding out the scroll. she looked at him for a long time making no move to take the scroll back from him. “There is no one else for this task, Kenshin. Do you remember the thousands of tears you cried from your heart for each of the lives you took? Only a pure heart would weep at every death. Think about it Kenshin; you could go back in time and save your beloved Tomoe from her terrible fate. You could change destiny itself.” Kenshin frowned and looked at the item she had given him. `I feel some kind of power, but I still don't believe her.' he thought looking at the item skeptically.

 

 

She watched him with a satisfied smile. “You are curious aren't you? Perhaps you need a demonstration.” He frowned the sun had long set. “Sleep on it tonight and I will return at dawn.”she said as she walked away. Kenshin mover off to the side of the road and made a simple camp. His eyes closed and instantly he began to dream.

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Suddenly he was standing in the snow the woman stood beside him cloaked in deep shadows and just as silent. Familiar sets of footprints were in front of him. Ahead of him he could see himself already badly injured struggling to take each step as his blood left crimson trails behind him on the pure white snow. He remembered that awful day as though it had been yesterday.

 

 

Taking a deep breath he followed him self silently, unsurprised that he left no footprints in the snow as he walked. The woman walked beside him. Tomoe had to have been close by before she died; so if he could find her maybe he could stop her in time. Kenshin closed his eyes as he watched himself as he took the life of one of the men who ambushed him. He could still remember the feeling of the man's blood as it sprayed his face like a warm bloody rain.

 

 

“I remember this fully, but seeing it ...Watching my self kill so carelessly is sickening, I have to find Tomoe.” He began to run towards the temple where it had all happened, leaving his younger self behind fighting his way once again to the place that was forever burned in his mind. As he neared the abandoned temple he heard a voice inside. It was that voice alone, that he had longed to hear again for three years ever since she died. `Tomoe, she's inside; just beyond this door she's right there.' He felt his heart begin to pound as he touched the wood of the door beneath his cold fingers. All he had to do was push open the door…

 

 

“You fell in love with him didn't you, Tomoe? Even though he was the one who murdered your betrothed in cold blood.” a male voice said tauntingly. “The line between the deepest hate and the truest love is as thin as rice paper. So you have given up your desire for revenge for love. Women are so predictable. But you see, Tomoe by falling in love with him you have only acted according to our plan. While the Battousai is distracted by thoughts of you he will be easy to destroy. You have only your self to blame for his death. Isn't that what you said you wanted? Didn't you tell me that you wanted revenge for Kyosato's murder? Or have you forgotten your first love for another?”

 

 

Kenshin blinked as the words cut deep in his understanding. His hand fell from the door. “I understand now. She was the trap; but she herself didn't understand why. If she'd lived the Shoganate would have used her to get to me again and again until the end; by dying she saved us both.” He touched the cross shaped scar lovingly.

 

 

“Tomoe, my love I understand now. I thought I understood back then why you had done everything you had, but I knew nothing. You could have killed me several times while we lived together in Otsu but you never tried. You knew I took your happiness from you but even so you tried to protect me. I was never strong enough to save you; I still am not strong enough to save you. ”

 

 

He said looking through the opened door where the man had walked passed him. Seeing Tomoe kneel there weeping, for him it was almost too much. He wanted to touch her just once more. “Tomoe, please don't cry.” He whispered.

 

 

She looked up and smiled sadly at the place he was standing. Outside he could hear the fight beginning and he closed his eyes reaching for her; the scent of the white plum perfume she wore was sweet to his nose and he opened his eyes his fingers only inches away from her shoulder. “Forgive me, my love!” She whispered as she stood and ran out the door past him to throw herself between his younger self and his attacker disarming the man as she did.

 

 

Kenshin couldn't look away; if he had seen her between them she would have been spared. But his eyes had been closed as he had attacked the man. Ironically he recalled saying in his heart that he would protect her as he dealt the final blow. He could only watch in gruesome horror as he killed her again and her blood covered his face like rain. He finally closed his eyes as his younger self, pulled the blade from her thinking she was his attacker his eyes still closed and stinging from his own blood dripping in his eyes from the wounds he had received fighting his way here.

 

 

“No! Tomoe! You fool look at what you have done!” His cry was ripped from his throat in a torn sob. His younger self opened his eyes smelling her perfume and hearing her gasp. “Tomoe!” he froze in horror. Vaguely aware of anything else he caught her as she fell into his arms, her crimson blood staining the white snow. “Why did you do this Tomoe? Why?” he asked her as he cradled her dying in his arms.

 

 

Kenshin wept as watched his younger self receive the crossing scar on his left cheek. “My love, forgive me.” She whispered dropping the dagger. One scar for Tomoe who was to become his wife and the other from her fiancée he had murdered unknowingly. A tear coursed down his same cheek following the scar she had left and making the hollow feeling inside his heart more intense and empty as he watched her take her last painful breath. “Enough! No more! I don't want to see any more! I didn't want to watch her die again!” he cried out feeling the pain in his heart tearing at him. The woman walked over beside him. The scenery faded and he opened his eyes.

 

 

 

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Kenshin bowed his head still in shock at the horrible things he'd witnessed and the truths he had learned. “I understand that I could have saved her but then I would have given her more pain, far worse than dying.” Kenshin said taking deep breaths he was soaked in sweat. He was alert to her presence before she spoke but it still surprised him when she did. “I'm sorry you relived that terrible day, Kenshin. Imagine what kind of damage could be done should this power fall in to the wrong hands. Altering the past will result in changing the future. If even one thing is changed the whole course of history could be changed. If you had saved Tomoe, something in the future would be different. Things might have ended differently. The Meiji era may not have come to be, because Tomoe dying gave you the strength to live. Do you understand now?” She asked softly as she watched each tear fall.

 

 

Kenshin nodded as the impact of her words sank in. “But it was a dream.” he argued stubbornly. “Wasn't it?” Kenshin looked at the ground his mind racing `It's true if Tomoe would have lived we might have stayed in Otsu and although, I would have been happy, the Tokagowa Regime might not have been ended. Which would have caused more people to suffer in the end and if not then I would have gone back to Kyoto and slowly would have become nothing more than a monster. Losing all of my humanity in the process it was because of Tomoe's death that I sealed away the sword that kills and instead carry the reversed blade after all.' He thought as he touched the scar on his cheek again. She sighed. “There is one thing I did not tell you but I must tell you now; by using the power of time sealed in the scroll you have altered your own life.”

 

 

Kenshin felt the shock ripple through him. “It was not a dream, Kenshin you will no longer be able to die. You have been cursed with immortality just as I was. It is the gift and curse of time travel. You will remain at this point physically forever.”

Kenshin held up his hand to stop her. A frown etched on his lips his eyebrows furrowed furiously. “Why did you not tell me of the curse on it before? You told me to use the scroll! You have deceived me! Now that I am immortal like you how can I atone for the lives I've taken? How can I live among mortals? If I cannot die how will I even appear human?” He glared at her wiping the tears from his cheek and impatiently waited for an answer.

 

 

She laughed wryly. “Human? You can still feel pain and you can still bleed. So as far as human, the only difference is you cannot die nor age.” she said smiling bitterly. Kenshin stood and brushed off his hakama. “This is the “gift” you wished to give me?! To prolong my suffering?” She shook her head.

 

 

“You may as well complete your mission. What do you want from me?” he asked coldly. The woman stood her voice changing as she spoke. “There may be a way to break the curse, but it is only a legend. Three hundred years ago there was a spiritual item known as the sacred jewel of four souls. It was said that who ever possessed this jewel would have any wish granted. But the sacred jewel was shattered into a thousand pieces. At one time it was rumored that all the pieces were gathered and the jewel was made whole again, but then the sacred jewel vanished from history. No one knows what became of it after that. It was believed according to the legend that the jewel combined with the the spell in the scroll could reverse the curse.” she watched him for a moment from the shadows of her cloak.

 

 

“Tell me Kenshin, what would you be willing to do to regain your humanity? Would you kill for it? Would you loose your soul for it?” she asked looking up into the shadows under the tree.

 

 

Kenshin looked at her again as a thought came to his mind amidst his own confusion and revulsion. “What reason do you have for doing this? What is it you wish me to change?” he asked. She smiled her strange sad smile. “You truly are a legendary man, how very perceptive. My reasons are my own however. I was merely told to give you these, nothing more.” She said looking away.

 

 

Kenshin shook his head with a frown. “Did I cause your pain?” he asked. She shook her head. “You were not the cause but you may be the remedy.” She said hopefully. Kenshin placed a hand on his sword. “I will do what I can.” He said. She looked up from where she sat. A tear fell from her eyes. “If you accomplish the task I was sent to give to you, my reason will correct its self. You have to leave soon. The task I was sent to give you is this: find the sacred jewel and protect her no matter what. Good luck Kenshin. Remember no matter what the cost the scroll of time must not fall in to the wrong hands or the very fabric of time could be torn in two.” Kenshin nodded confidently placing a hand on his sword hilt. “I won't fail.” He said.

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Blanket Disclaimer for this and all other Chapters of `Tales of a Wanderer'. I do not own any of the characters from Rurouni Kenshin that right belongs to Nobuhiro Watsuki. I do not own any of the characters from Inuyasha; that right belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. My thanks, to all of them for such wonderful characters. ^_^

authors note : anything between ~~~~~~~~~ lines is a dream. This ~*~*~*~*~* is the end of the chapter.