Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Koi wa Kurushimi ❯ So how should I presume? ( Chapter 9 )

Koi wa Kurushimi
By Djinn Hashiba-Maxwell

And indeed there will be a time
To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?" --
Time to turn back and descend the stair

- The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
- T.S. Eliot

* * *

"You are making me impatient, Rajura." The girl Seiji had learned was called 'Kayura' said airily.

The white haired man looked up with something like repentance, and made a motion to the other to speak with the young girl. The white haired man's bruised throat prevented him from speaking at the moment.

"The tracks were joined here by several men on foot." Naaza informed her stoically. "There was an army encampment near here last night. Is it possible that they were taken along with the troops?"

"Hmm." Kayura murmured, picking dirt out from under her nails with one of her sai. "I wonder. Where were these troops bound?"

"Back for Takayama." Naaza responded. "But, as we did not see them, I think it is safe to say that they changed their destination, or at least their route."

"Hmm." She sheathed her sai back at the side of her hip. "How very inconvenient. But then again I suppose that we can't expect this to be so easy." She turned behind her, to the blonde that was slumped over the saddle. She smacked his cheek, hard, and elicited confused mumbles. "He seems like he might be coming to again. Have we any more of the opiate?"

Naaza frowned thoughtfully. "I fear that any more might kill him."

Kayura scoffed. "And what a loss to the world it would be." She said sarcastically. "I'm beginning to wonder why I brought him. Do you really think his life will matter to Touma? That was a rhetorical question." She snapped the last bit abruptly when Naaza opened his mouth to reply. "Well, what are we waiting for? We still have their trail, don't we? Let's follow it!" She tugged roughly on the reins of the horse she sat astride, jerking it's head to the side. She set off at a gallop, expecting her associates to keep up. Seiji's head lolled against the back of her shoulder.

And then suddenly there was nothing behind her. Kayura reined in her horse, it skidded to a stop, kicking up dry dirt. She turned quickly, expecting to see the limp form lying beside the trail, where he had fallen. But there was no one there.

"Chik'sho!!" Kayura yelled. "Naaza! Rajura!! Hurry!"

* * *

"How are you feeling, Rowan?" Shuu asked, watching carefully as the younger boy's arm was bandaged, using his alias for the benefit of the soldiers milling around. As far as Shuu's troops were concerned, the boy was none other than their commander's young cousin, and Shuu intended them to continue thinking so.

"Genki genki." Touma grinned up at his friend, but the grin was about half grimace.

"What did you say to the Sister?" Shuu prodded.

Touma scoffed. "Nothing important." And flashed Shuu a glare that clearly said not to press.

Shuu coughed, and then motioned the healer that had finished with Touma's arm to leave the tent. "Rowan ... Touma. There is something I really must ask you." He murmured. "The boy with you ... who is he, really?"

Touma blinked. "Ryo? You can't be serious. He's nobody. A ninja."

"Don't tell me that, Touma." Shuu scoffed. "You don't stay with nobodies. If he's traveling with you, then he must mean something to you."

"Your logic is faulty, Shuu." Touma responded. "Everyone I care about, I've left behind, you know. Even though 'everyone I care about' consists of you and Shizuru."

"I don't buy it, Touma. What is he to you? Your partner? Your lover?"

Touma laughed, circling his left shoulder a bit, even though the doctor had clearly told him to keep it still. "A bit of both, actually. He's a little bit obsessive, a little bit naïve and a little bit impulsive, but he tends to do as I ask."

Shuu noted in the back of his mind that Touma said 'do as I ask', not 'do as I say'. For Touma that was a rather significance admission of faith, if not trust.

"So you're friends." Shuu responded.

"They're not called friends, they're called liabilities. And I don't have any."

At that, Shuu had to smile. "Pardon me for saying so, but it seems to me that, at the moment, you're the liability." He commented dryly. Touma just snorted as he pulled a kimono on to cover his bare torso.

"Anyway, what's the deal with that damned gaijin you have wandering around here? I could hear his squawking from the other side of the camp."

"That's some way to talk." Shuu responded. "You're a gaijin too, you know." Touma's derisive snort let him know what the younger boy thought of that statement. "And as for him, well ... he's British, and you know how the government has been all buddy-buddy with Europe lately. So, they stick him with me so that he can observe our military in action. Doesn't speak a word of Japanese and he's as prissy as they come ... they must breed 'em froofy in London." Touma laughed out loud at that, in the back of his mind realizing that this was the first entirely civil - and entirely platonic - conversation he'd had in a while.

"That translator he has stumbling around with him must have been born in Europe. His accent is a little ... off." Touma observed.

Shuu crinkled his nose. "A little? His grammar may be good but he's about as Japanese as I am Egyptian."

"Is that annoyance I hear from the even-tempered Shuu?" Touma chuckled.

"You'd be annoyed too if you had some inept and utterly valueless gaijin expecting you to follow him around and wipe his ass for him."

Touma considered that. "Are you sure there aren't other things that he wants you to do to his ass - ow!!" He fretfully rubbed the back of his head, where Shuu had just smacked him.

"Get your mind out of the gutter."

"Yeah, and back in the sewer where it belongs." The voice from the doorway was light and casual, and if it wasn't for that Shuu would have probably taken Ryo's head off then and there. He, like most soldiers, did not appreciate being sneaked up on.

"Ryo." Touma greeted. "Where have you been lurking?"

Ryo shrugged without answering, and crossed the room to sit beside Touma. He batted eyelashes at the other boy playfully. "Why? Did you miss me?"

"Most definitely." Touma answered dryly. "Ne, Shuu, where are you headed? I know you came back from Takayama to take me to Shizuru, but I thought you were headed for Kyoto."

Shuu shrugged. "Well, a detour was in order, but I suppose we'll be getting back on track now. What about you - you two?" Shuu amended, raising an eyebrow at Ryo, who had inched fractionally closer to Touma, as if to remind Shuu that the two of them were ... 'involved', although how seriously remained to be seen.

"Hmm." Touma murmured thoughtfully. "It's been a while since I've seen Kyoto, but I think I'll have to pass. No doubt the Akuko has me on their list again after this fiasco."

Ryo blinked at that. "But you killed Anubisu, didn't you?" He asked. Touma rolled his eyes, looking at Shuu in such a way to indicate what he thought of Ryo's intelligence.

"Give Akuko a little more credit than that." He said dryly. "Anubisu probably had a superior he reported to on a very regular basis. That's the way Akuko works, don't you know that, Ryo?"

Ryo blushed slightly, but covered it with a scowl. "Of course I don't! You're the only person who know about the Akuko, besides those who are part of it."

"Hrmph." Was Touma's inarticulate response. "If you two will excuse me, I'm going for some air. It's stuffy in this camp."

* * *

Seiji wiped the blood off the side of his face. He'd managed to get a good couple of yards away from the trail before he'd passed out, the opium they had given him dulling the pain of hitting the ground with the force he had. He'd managed to catch the left side of his face against the ground as he fell, tearing the skin to ribbons, but Seiji thought that the wounds were perhaps superficial and would not scar too badly. The alternative was simply to terrible to face. Date Seiji, scarred for life?

He'd imagined that they - the young girl and her minions - would be looking for him quickly, so he'd pulled himself underneath a bush, shredding his kimono in the process, although he couldn't actually bring himself to care.

Seiji didn't know how long ago that had been; all he knew was that the blood on his face was mostly congealed, and the pleasant numbness of drugs was settling into a dull throbbing sensation extending from his shoulder to brow on the left side. He lay still for a few moments, listening for footsteps, but none came. Placing his ear to the ground, he could hear no hoofbeats either. It seemed that he had been lucky.

He crawled out from under the bush, doing even more damage to his rather sorry looking kimono, and looked up at the sky. The sun was low in the sky, so it was evening. It had been about noon when he had been taken out here ... he had been unconscious for several hours.

"Fuck." Seiji promptly snapped his mouth shut when he heard his own voice. He must have injured his jaw as well - his voice was thick and unintelligible, deep and syrupy. He touched his jaw and winced. Tender, but it did not feel broken or dislocated. Just badly bruised then, hopefully. And as for the rest of him ... Seiji couldn't bring himself to look. He just assumed that he was fairly wretched and left it at that. Holding his kimono closed with one hand, he began to stumble towards what he thought was north.

* * *

Touma was very much a night person.

This might not surprise you since, given his profession, it was required for him to become very friendly with darkness. But the truth was that Touma had always rather been fond of the night.

The best part of night, by far, is dusk. Not the sunset, though that is spectacular, but the time right after it, when the light has flared and died, and for a moment all you can see is a sort of halo, left from the dying light. You know that the light isn't there anymore, but it's impression is scorched into your mind, and you can actually believe it's still there for just a few seconds.

Touma was staring at the horizon, observing this very phenomenon, when he happened to run into a familiar face.

Run into in a very literal sense - the hunched figure that lurched out of the treeline didn't seem very concerned with their surroundings. Touma had his doubts as to whether or not the other was even aware that he was not alone. He was tempted to escape before he found out, but when the other figure lurched, Touma found himself catching him almost without a thought.

"Hey, you all right, buddy?"

Seiji, of course, barely recognized the level tenor tone. 'Rowan's' words to him had all been spoken in a flirtatious contralto or a husky bass. But even so, he knew there was something familiar about the sound, and if it had been brighter, he would have immediately recognized the lithe, blue-haired boy that supported him.

"Da-leh ha?" Seiji slurred, and if he could have seen Touma's face, he might have been rather amused by the look of complete and utter bafflement that this unintelligible question caused.

"You don't sound too good. You'd better come with me, we'll get the doc to look at you, ne?" Touma had no problem whatsoever volunteering Shuu's assistance to someone he believed was a total stranger. "Can you walk?"

An incoherent mumble was his response, and Touma took that as a 'not really'. He slung one unresponsive arm around his shoulders and proceeded to half carry, half drag the other boy back the way he had come.

* * *

Shuu raised an eyebrow at the figure slumped on a blanket in the middle of the tent. "We've been getting awfully busy lately."

Touma looked back. "Do you suggest I leave him to rot?"

Shuu meandered around the unconscious form, watching the doctor expertly clean bark and dirt from the many long scrapes along the blonde's cheek. "So do you know him, Rowan-kun?"

Touma seemed to consider this question carefully, before finally responding with "No."

"Well, best let the doctor do his work." Shuu responded, slapping Touma on the back.

"If you don't mind," this was directed to the doctor, "I'd like to stay until he wakes up. I'm interested to know what happened to him."

"Probably robbers." The doctor replied gruffly. "Robbers and ruffians and all sorts of disreputable types wander around these woods." Shuu couldn't suppress a giggle at that, considering that they had picked up Touma in these same woods.

"Stay if you like, Rowan-kun." Shuu commented. "But," this Shuu said with a smirk, "Are you sure you haven't met him before?"

Touma glared up at him. "Positive."

"Only a fool is positive."

Touma raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure of that?"

It was an old joke. "Positive."

* * *

Djinn: (As per suggestions, I have decided to 'culture my dykes') *in dork glasses* ... and in the line 'get thee to a nunnery' Hamlet symbolically removes Orphelia's life, inasmuch as he removes her ability to create life, therefor it follows that Orphelia must in fact commit suicide, since her life has already been taken from her by the one she loves ...

Kaiya & Nai: *making out in the back*

Djinn: -_-;;; Uhm, sorry I took so long with typing this. Call me lazy I guess ...

Kaiya: You're lazy!

Nai: *grabs Kaiya for more making out*