Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Ashes to Ashes ❯ Morning Glorious ( Chapter 2 )

Ashes to Ashes

Chapter Two: Morning Glorious

Wow! It's been a REALLY long time since I posted the first chapter of this… Thanks SO much to everyone who reviewed or sent C&C to me! I AM going to finish this fic. I have, however, in the past year, managed to lose my notebook with the planning for it TWICE, start school and have a miserable first semester, begin working thirty hours a week while trying to bring my grades up, be forced to move three months early, lose my notebook AGAIN… *sigh* I repeat: I WILL finish this fic if it kills me! *grin* Enjoy! I hope to have the next chapter up in MUCH less time.

DISCLAIMER: Kamatari is not mine (unfortunately) and she/he belongs to his/her rightful owners, Watsuki-sama and co. As do any other characters from Rurouni Kenshin who happen to show up. I'm only borrowing them, and I don't have any money, so it's no use suing me. Jessica, and the entire American and French cast ARE mine, so please don't borrow them without asking. (Although, why you'd want to totally eludes me.)

WARNING: This story takes place AFTER the Kyoto arc. If you do not wish to be spoiled, read no further. ALSO, this story will eventually contain a yaoi pairing. Nothing graphic, but if you don't like yaoi, it's best to nip impending fic addiction in the bud.

NOTE: This chapter has not been beta-ed. If you find a grievous error, or even an not so grievous error, please let me know.

Now that all that is said, ENJOY! All C&C to pawscat_love@yahoo.com.

Despite the tardiness of my bedtime, my warrior's instincts woke me at the first noises in the corridor. Sighing, I rolled over in bed, noting that not even a hint of light showed on my curtains. Candlelight glowed from under my door and I could hear girl's voices whispering. I sat up and slid out of the bed just as the whispered argument seemed to reach its height. I had just taken a step toward the door when it opened a crack and feeble light slipped over the couch by the door. Then the source of the light, an almost spent candle appeared, its minuscule flame almost blinding in the gloomy predawn. Slowly, a tense white knuckled hand attached to frail arm followed the candle around the heavy wooden door. For a moment I debated walking over and making my presence known, but I decided it would be more amusing to simply wait.

Not worth the effort, really.

Finally, a furtive, obviously terrified face peered around the door frame, eyes so dilated that I couldn't tell what color the irises were. My mind supplied an identity to go with the face; it was the mousy servant from dinner.

I can only imagine how I must have looked to her in my thin white yukata, but it must have been something and not something good at that. Her eyes widened an impossible amount more and she let out a frightened squeak before retreating around the door as quickly as she could manage. Unfortunately her arm didn't make it out as fast as she might have wanted, and the candle tumbled to the ground as her tensed wrist hit the door with bruising force.

I watched the faint light glow briefly from the floor before being extinguished by its own melting wax. Sighing, I wound my way through the maze of boxes to the door, picking up the candle and calling myself a hundred kinds of fool for not locking the door before I went to bed. I could hear the serving girls whispering frantically on the other side of the door. I was about to open it and confront them when an unmistakable nasal voice rang out.

"You girls! What do you think that you are doing?! People are trying to sleep!"

I sneered at the hypocrisy of that statement, which was spoken loud enough for the dead to hear. Sidling silently to the still slightly open door, I peered out.

I had to stifle a laugh when I saw the poor girls. They were huddled in a small group in the center of the hallway, staring fearfully at a lace and ruffle clad Johanna Statton Richardson III. A few of them glanced over their shoulders at my door with equal fear, but apparently decided that I was the lesser of the two evils in this case. As one, the girls began a strategic retreat toward my door and, not coincidentally, away from Johanna's accusing visage.

"Well? Answer me!" Her voice cracked like a whip in the silence, making the girls wince. "Are you stupid?!" She asked when it became obvious that no answer was forthcoming. A few of the girls actually nodded, hoping she'd let them go if they agreed.

It worked. With a disgusted glare, Johanna snapped for the girls to go about their work and slammed her door with enough force to rattle the jars on my vanity. I was impressed. I didn't think she had the strength for such a show. I glanced at the dresser and was instantly reminded of my comment during dinner about loaning Johanna my cosmetics. For this reason, when I finally opened the door and alerted the servants to my presence, I had a rather unpleasant smirk on my face.

The girls took one look at me and began inching back toward Johanna's door. Fortunately for them, this caused my smirk to shift slightly from vindictiveness to amusement. Blinking suspiciously, the mousy little one paused. She was cradling her hand against her chest protectively, and when she saw my eye on it, she quickly hid it behind her back. I raised an eyebrow at that, but before I could say anything, a door further down the hall creaked open. I turned in time to see Jessica poke her head out of her room.

She stared rather blearily at the tableau before her for a moment before sliding past her door. In her, I got a glimpse of what the maid must have seen when peering into my room. Her thin white nightgown glowed in the darkness of the as yet unlit hall, and her face was still pale with sleep. I caught myself checking her feet to ensure that she was indeed no ghost. She staggered drunkenly down the hall toward us, more on the bared wood than the carpet that ran down the center. More than once I was sure she was going to ricochet off the wall.

Pausing a few feet away and swaying slightly, she cleared her throat. However, when she opened her mouth to speak, almost no sound came out. With a comic, sleepy frown, she cleared her throat again, more forcefully. This time I caught the words that floated, insubstantial, on the air.

"Is everything alright, Marie?" Jessica swayed a bit too far to the left and had to jerk upright at the last second to prevent herself from crashing to the floor.

The mousy servant, evidently Marie, stepped forward and curtsied. She did this not, I noticed, out of necessity (Jessica probably wouldn't have noticed if they crowned her Empress right then), but out of genuine respect. "Yes, Miss Jessica. Everything is fine." She rose from her curtsy and went back to cradling her hand with a slight wince.

Jessica, even in her current state, noticed this, and her eyes narrowed in concern. She stepped forward firmly, all traces of sleep gone as she surveyed the dark blotch already marring the work-darkened skin of Marie's wrist. "What happened?"

A slight flush stole up the serving girl's neck and into her cheeks, but she made no answer other than a slight shrug and wince as Jessica prodded at the injury. Glancing at the other girls and seeing no answer forthcoming from them either, Jessica turned to me.

I pasted a very solemn look on my face to hide my amusement. "Ghost bite." A half dozen pairs of eyes focused on me in surprise. I nodded sagely and tilted my head back over my shoulder at my room. Jessica blinked at me uncomprehendingly, so I pulled my pale yukata more firmly about me. Her eyes widened in understanding, and a startled giggle escaped her. Maintaining my serious demeanor, I held the now cold candle out to Marie.

She glanced from my face to Jessica's, flushing darker, and took the candle from me with a slight curtsy. Finally allowing my amusement to show, I smirked and bowed to her. "If everything is taken care of now, I suggest we remove ourselves from the hallway before the Dragon Princess returns." I raised an eyebrow at Johanna's door. Marie and the other girls nodded nervously and began hurrying down the hall.

Marie paused to relight the candle and give it to Jessica so that she would be able to find her way back to bed. Wishing us both a good morning, some more sincerely than others, she turned to leave. She had dallied so long with us that the other girls were already long disappeared down the darkened stairs to the foyer. As she started to brush past me, my hand shot out and clamped onto her injured wrist. She let out a startled gasp which Jessica echoed, though she, wisely, made no move to interfere.

"Just why were you in my room in the first place?" I asked her with an almost deadly calm. Her pulse sped up beneath my fingers, and I noted distractedly that my her skin had been made harsh by her years of service. It was nowhere near as soft as my own.

I doubt anyone knows who I am, and I doubt even more that they'd send a mere child after me, but you can never be too careful.

She waved the candle and squeaked something unintelligible. Sighing in exasperation and starting to worry that Johanna might actually be right about the intelligence of the servants, I glanced at Jessica for clarification. She just shrugged and continued to look concerned.

I forced a bit more cheer into my voice in an attempt to calm Jessica. "Why were you in my room, Marie?" I tightened my grip on her arm slightly, stopping just short of grinding the delicate bones of her wrist together. She must have heard the serious, commanding edge to my voice because she lowered her head until all I could see was her white mob cap and a few strands of dull brown hair.

"It was Miss… Miss Johanna… She said you were a… a demon, and if we came in while you were sleepin', we'd see what you r… really looked like." The white cap shivered slightly and then was still.

I almost laughed at the stupidity of that claim, quite prepared to believe Johanna's assertion that the girls' had sub-par intelligence. The weakness that this girl's gullibility revealed made me laugh, and even to my own ears, the sound was cruel and unforgiving. Jessica frowned at me, and Marie shuddered in fear. Her hand jerked slightly in my grasp, and for the first time I noticed how frail the wrist I held was. I realized that for all that work had aged her, Marie couldn't possibly be more than thirteen. Coupled with the fact that she had probably never attended school before, Johanna's tale most likely made perfect sense to her. With all these realizations, I was almost ready to believe her. I would get Johanna later for her part in all this, but first, it was time to teach this girl a lesson in manners.

"And did Miss Johanna," I drawled the name contemptuously, "tell you what would happen if you were caught?" The cap shook as Marie nodded. I could hear her fighting to hold back tears. Good. I've always been terrible with crying women…

"She… Miss Johanna said you'd… kill me… us." A tear dropped onto my hand where it still held her wrist in a harsh grip.

I wonder if Johanna realizes how close she got to the truth… The thought, and its obvious answer, made me smirk. Marie was audibly sobbing now, and I saw Jessica, who had thus far watched in a sort of shocked paralysis, start forward.

Not wanting her to interfere, I suddenly released Marie's arm and forced a joking voice. "Well, then it's a good thing that I'm not a demon." Marie raised her eyes to mine in surprise, and I could see by the look on her face that she had received and understood the message in my words. Despite my cheerful smile, my eyes were cold and hard as ice. I knew that, no matter what the incentive, Marie would never again enter my room to see the demon sleeping.

Bobbing a perfunctory curtsy, Marie scurried off down the hall. When she had gone, I turned to find Jessica staring after her with a disapproving expression. My movement must have caught her attention because she transferred her clouded gaze to my face. Frowning at me silently for a moment, she cleared her throat with slight nervousness. "That wasn't very kind of you, you know."

I raised an eyebrow in surprise at that. In my opinion, I had let the girl off easily… almost too easily. If she had, by some strange twist of fate, managed to sneak into my room and see 'the demon's true form…' My expression darkened at the possibilities.

Jessica, mistaking my glower for anger at her, took a deep breath, but hurried resolutely on. "She's just a child. Yes, it was wrong for her to try and sneak into your room, but it's more Johanna's fault than hers. You shouldn't have taken your anger out on Marie."

Taken my anger out on her? I almost laughed, and my incredulous expression seemed to confuse Jessica, for she rattled to a halt. "Taken my anger out on her?" I repeated, "Jessica, if I had taken my anger out on her, she'd have more to worry about than a bruised wrist, which I had no part in causing." I smirked slightly and allowed myself a brief image of the dozens of Shishio's men who I had gleefully killed for tiny displeasures. Far less than jeopardizing my very life. A slight tightness settled in my chest, which I attributed to not having killed someone who displeased me. It was the first time in a very long time that I had had to exercise such restraint.

Shrugging off the feeling, I dragged my mind firmly back to the present and found Jessica watching me nervously. Casting about quickly for a way to correct my faux pass, I opened my mouth to spill some excuse.

Jessica spoke before I could begin to dig myself in too deeply, though. "You… You wouldn't have brought Miss van Haver into this, would you?"

With a silent prayer to kami-sama for giving Jessica the intuition of a turnip, I grasped eagerly at the excuse she offered. "She is a servant, Jessica. Her employer should be made known of her lapses." I sighed and held up a calming hand as Jessica opened her mouth to argue, "…but since you hold her so highly, I will not pursue such a course of action this time." Smiling in relief, Jessica nodded as if she had known all along that I wouldn't, so I hastily added, "But next time…" Though I knew there would, one way or another, never be a next time.

Jessica looked slightly less cheerful at the threat, misread as it may have been, that lingered in my words. We stood there staring at each other for a few minutes, and I was almost certain that Jessica had fallen asleep standing up again, when the big clock in the front hall began booming out the hour. I glanced down the hall toward the stairs, absently counting the chimes.

1… 2… 3… 4… 5..... Five o'clock in the morning… I had slept a long time. Shishio-sama had always kept us working well into early morning and had us up again before dawn. I had long since learned to get by on two to three hours of sleep, if any.

Turning to Jessica, I caught her in the middle of a rather robust yawn. I smiled and waited patiently for her to finish, ignoring the answering yawn that rose up within me.

When she had finished and stood blinking half-aware at me again, I bowed to her and turned to go back to my room. The light from her candle fell across the now slightly wrinkled school uniforms still heaped on the couch by the door.

"Shimatta." More things to put away...

Jessica paused and glanced back at me, "What does…"

"You don't want to know." I interrupted brusquely. I ran a resigned hand over my face, trying to think of where I could put the dozen uniforms. Jessica just looked at me, concern showing in her sea colored eyes, and suddenly a picture of her small room and worn uniform flashed through my mind. I had to consciously stifle a smirk as I plotted quickly the best way to go about gaining her cooperation.

Deciding on a plan of action, I let a mournful sigh slide past my lips and leveled a blatantly disgusted look at the rumpled heap of garments. Jessica glanced askance at me, and I shifted my gaze to my too full clothespress. Catching my dilemma, she blinked at me for a moment then bit her lip, "I don't have any room for them in my clothespress, either. I'm sorry…"

I sighed again and eyed my clothespress with utter annoyance. I suppose that they would fit… That's not the point, though… With a slight huff, I took the candle from Jessica and padded softly over to see how much room I could make. Really, all the uniforms would fit in the same space as one of those silly French monstrosities.

On the heels of that thought, I heard Yumi's voice calling me fourteen kinds of fool, and a slow grin spread across my face. Providence smiled on me, though, and my back was to Jessica. Thankfully, she didn't see what I could tell was a distinctly evil expression. Clearing my throat, I pasted what I hoped was a suitably surprised look on my face and turned. Think fast, Kamatari.

"Jessica? When we unpacked the g… gowns…" I forced my mouth and mind around the word, "…did I give you the sea foam green one?"

Jessica just blinked at me for a moment, and I was reminded that it was five o'clock in the morning… Too early for a 'normal' lady to be expected to function. Rightly assuming it would be at least a few minutes before Jessica could summon up the steam power to answer me, I continued. "I must have. Silly me. That one I wanted to keep. It's my favorite." This wasn't a lie at all. Of all the dresses, that one was my favorite. I had liked the soft creamy green dress from the moment that I had seen the fabric it was to be made from, for several reasons. The first was that my good friend Admiral Winst had picked it out for me, saying it reminded him of the sea on a cloudy day. Secondly, it was almost the same color as my kimono from the Juppon Gatana, the one Chou always said brought out the highlights in my hair. And the final (and most important) reason was that 'Uncle Robert' had objected to it, saying that the fabric was too heavy (expensive), too pale (expensive), and that trimmings would be hard to find (expensive).

I smiled winningly at Jessica, trying to look sheepish, "You wouldn't mind if I took that one back, would you?"

"No, no. Not at all." She was shaking her head before I even finished my sentence, and I could see in her face that not a word that I had said had penetrated her sleep fogged brain. This was exactly what I had hoped for.

"Good." I allowed my smile to deepen, "Then you can take these," I scooped up the uniforms and pushed them into her lax arms, waiting until the closed around them reflexively, "and later this afternoon, I'll stop by and pick up that dress." I nodded vigorously, and almost laughed when she echoed my movement. Not once, I was sure, did she know why she was nodding.

Still nodding, I hurried her out of my room before she could realize what she had agreed to. Using her candle quickly to light one of my own, I then returned it to her. I smiled at her and gave her a gentle shove toward her room, making sure she would make it down the hall if not awake, then at least not about to do herself any bodily harm. I also wanted to make sure she didn't accidentally set the uniforms on fire with the candle she still carried. She didn't, though, and I closed the door to my room with a gentle click. Leaning back against it, I let out a long sigh.

What a way to start my first full day in America… I made a face, catching sight of myself in the vanity's mirror, and laughing at how ridiculous I looked.

I shook a finger at my errant reflection, "Hair a mess, face still clouded with sleep, and barely a yukata… Shame on you!" I moved away from the door and sat down at the vanity, tugging loose the string that I used to hold my hair when I was asleep. I dug my brush out of a drawer and began to run it soothingly over my hair.

My hair had always been my favorite feature, and since leaving the Juppon Gatana, I had again allowed it to grow. It was almost to my lower back now, and was finally beginning to be the right length for all my favorite styles. One of my more fond memories of my mother was of her brushing my hair, insisting to me in her softly amused voice that my hair was black. I would always squeak back that it was not and cover my ears. She would laugh and ask me what color it was then. The answer was always the same, "Purple…" The word slipped past my lips in a sigh. Kaa-san had always said I was peculiar to say such things, but even she could never deny that my hair was an odd shade of black that did indeed look purple in certain lights.

I winced as a brush snagged on a tangle, and my thoughts turned to the time when I didn't have enough hair to get tangles. The day I 'joined' the Juppon Gatana, Shishio-sama had cut my hair off, saying that it would be his trophy for beating me. I had always kept it short after that.

I worked through the tangles and my thoughts drifted back to kaa-san. She had grown my hair long when I was just a child and disguised me as a girl so that I wouldn't be taken away from her to work in the fields or worse. It cost less to pay the 'bosses' to keep a girl than a by, I supposed.

I finished brushing my hair and twisted it up into a functional bun, sticking two simple hair combs in it to hold it. I then debated for several long minutes with myself about cosmetics. That is, until I remembered my comment to Johanna about them being used to hide ugliness. Needless to say, I decided not to wear any. I did, however, spend a few moments putting a lotion on my face. I had received it as a gift in Paris and had found that, in the drying salt spray of the ship, it prevented damage to my beautiful skin. Since leaving Paris, I had grown a bit dependant upon it.

Once that was completed, I rose and went to the clothespress. Opening it, I eyed the selection of kimono that I had to choose from. I wavered for several long minutes between my second favorite royal blue kimono and a rich emerald one that I had yet to wear. Finally, wanting to be comfortable with my appearance enough to enjoy rubbing Johanna's face in my beauty, I chose the blue. It was the first kimono that I had received after… after the Juppon Gatana ceased to exist. I had had my eye on the fabric from the first day that I had passed the shop in Kyoto that sold it. I had plenty of money, thanks to Shishio-sama, but a beautiful kimono has no place in the life of an assassin. I'd never have been able to wear it for fear of tearing, blood, burning, etc. destroying it.

My money… I allowed myself a smug smile. The government will never find our money… Shishio-sama was truly a genius in that he made sure we (and he, himself) kept our money somewhere where no one would ever find it… Hoji had known where everyone's money was, and, knowing Hoji, he followed his orders to a tee and left the locations in a secret place for one of us to find. Those of us under the eye of the government couldn't risk going after the money of our dead comrades, but if I ever returned to Japan, I had enough to live quite well.

I chose a light gray under-kimono to wear with the kimono and changed clothes, slowed quite a bit by my desire to 'blow that silly little chit out of the water,' to borrow one of the dear Admiral's phrases. I took extra pains to tie the silver obi into the most complex bow that I knew, checking my appearance obsessively in the vanity mirror. When I was finally satisfied with the arrangement, I paused to check my appearance overall.

The watery gray light filtering through the curtains aided the feeble glow from the single candle that I had lit, illuminating enough for me to see my reflection quite clearly. The sleeves of this kimono, like all of my kimono, were long, but not nearly as long as my fighting kimono. Unfettered, these sleeves fell gracefully to my knees, just long enough to show off the beautiful silver cranes embroidered on the fabric. They seemed to glow and float about the royal blue sky as I turned to check my hair and obi one last time. The eight pointed star bow looked perfect, shining softly in the early morning as though I had plucked it from the passing night sky, but my hair bothered me. A plain functional bun was my usual style, and the exact opposite of what I wanted today. I yanked the combs free and caught my hair as it tumbled loose, twisting it up again in a more elaborate style. With my free hand, I dug into one of the drawers in the vanity and pulled out a set of silver and sapphire combs. I placed them carefully in the center of the flowery looking knot I'd created and looked again at the mirror. The rich blue and soft silver made my skin glow like lily petals, and my hair in that moment looked the most purple that I have ever seen it. I nodded firmly, finally satisfied with my appearance.

I turned and sat at my writing desk to begin my daily letter to Shishio-sama just as there was a loud discordant ringing from downstairs. The meal bell, my mind supplied, and I was on my feet and out the door before the echoes had faded. Pausing to lock the door, I took a deep, calming breath.

Time to face the... my... future.