Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Feuding Hearts ❯ The Storm Before the Huricane ( Chapter 4 )

"Mokoto...?" Hawatari began.

"Shishio...?" Duil finished, getting up and brushing himself off. Hawatari looked down and noticed he had on of his feet in front of hers. What was he trying to do, protect her from this bandaged freak?

"You're fathers," he voiced, ingnoring their inquiry, "Are they Hajime Saitou and Sanosuke Sagara?"

"How do you know my father?"

"Does my Dad owe you money?" Duil groaned.

Shishio laughed. So he was right. "Take me to them," he ordered. "There's no use in post-poning their deaths."

"Deaths?!" both teens repeated. Hawatari grasped at her waist and found herself swordless. DAMNIT, why hadn't she grabbed it before she left? Why did Duil have to do that to her?!

"Hawatari, go run back and get your sword," Duil whispered over his shoulder to her. "I'll keep him busy, just run, NOW!"

In a heatbeat the girl was sprinting back to her house. Before she knew it she was leaping through her window before grabbing her katana and dashing out again. She was out of breath when she got back but couldn't find Duil.

Suddenly a pained screamed ripped through the cold, November night's air.

"DUIL!"

She'd barely heard her own scream, for she'd probably be disgusted with herself if she had, but none the less she followed his.

The sound lead her to the end of the cliff where Duil, beaten and crippled, was being suspended like a decoration above the deep canyon. Shishio had his sword against the glove on the hand that held his prey. And then...

"Guren Kaina!"

Shishio couldn't tell what happened first, the explosion or the emptiness in his hand. Either way, the self-sacrificing moron was no longer in front of him. He turned around and still found nothing. It wasn't until a low grunt sounded underneath his feet that he noticed the girl's hand holding on to the cliff as she dangled there. With a sadistic smirk on his face Shishio began rubbing at the fingers with his foot, burning and crushing them at the same time.

What he didn't expect was the see Duil body thrown back on solid ground before a foot collided with his face. It didn't hurt, but it knocked him back enough for the girl to land a good ways away from him. When he looked up his took in the heavy damaged he'd inflicted on the girl's right arm. She'd taken the blast for the boy and held on with the very arm he'd connected with. The girl was a lot like her father, stubborn and determined to the very end.

Hawatari's eyes began to glow as she held her katana in her left hand.

That stance.

The Gatotsu.

Shishio barely blocked the first attack. He hadn't expected her to be this fast at her age, but knowing Saitou's tendacies he probably begin her training at a young age. Her sword skill were superior to his in speed but the lacked in strength. As her blade clashed with his a spark erupted a tornado of fire, knocking her onto her back.

Duil was wavering in and out of conciousness, catching the occasional blurry image as his body began reaction to his blood loss. He registered a few things, like the gash on his right side the was draining his strength. However, he also remember something smelling like...like gunpowder? And Hawatari...?

His eyes snapped open as he tried to push himself up. He found he could barely move his own arms, let alone his whole body. But...but...Hawatari had protected him. She was still fighting for him now.

He was battling his body's screams to succum to the pain and bloodloss and just fall into oblivian but a shocked scream pierced his ears before he could.

Hawatari fell face-down next to him, hair messily draped over her cheeks as her breathing slowed to being almost non-existant. Her hands were wraped around her stomach, covered in the blood flowing from her wound. With his last bit of forced strength Duil reached out one hand to touch hers before both finally faded to black.

***

"I can't bring myself to do it," Hoshiko whispered as she slid into bed with her husband. "It's too hard for me." (You perverts, keep reading.)

"You worry too much, but if you feel that way," was his only response before rolling so he was facing her back. He reached his hand out and placed it atop her head before running his fingers through her hair and letting it drop to her waist to pull her closer.

She slipped off to sleep herself, thinking over how to tell her daughter the truth. And then there was the things she hid from her own husband as well. The secret she shared with her friends alone...

"HOSHIKO!" Shizuka was screaming hysterically as she pounded on the door. Hajime began stirring next to her, extremely confused by the late time and the hysterical voice. He shook his wife awake and ran to open the door, a tired, worried Hoshiko in tow.

"Shizuka? What's wrong?" she called out, pulling her yukata tighter. She opened the door all the way and her friend fell into the doorway.

"Shishio..." she huffed out. It was obvious she'd been running and crying.

"But Shishio's dead," Saitou reminded them from behind his wife. "And how do you know about him in the first place?"

"He's not human anymore," she explained, her voice cracked and hoarse. "The flames of Hades really DO course through his veins now!"

"That's not possible in this world," Hoshiko argued. "Where are Sukiko and Kitai? Where are your husband and daughter?!"

"I don't know," Shizuka muttered softly to herself. "I was the only one able to avoid an attack."

Defense.

"You still haven't told me how you know who Shishio is," Saitou reminded them, throwing on his jacket.

"It's a long story Hajime, and we don't have time. Take me to were you last saw him," Hoshiko requested. Shizuka looked at her with a look that warned her not to think what she was thinking.

"He said he's coming here and then going to finish off Kenshin."

Hoshiko's eyes went wide in fear and shock. No...he couldn't. Kenji and Tasuka were supposed to carry on his legacy. What would Hanaru do without him? Koaru would die of a broken heart without Kenshin by her side. And then the scariest thought. What if Shishio didn't spare them...?

"What's going on? What haven't you been telling me?" Saitou was beginning to wonder.

"Hajime...I..."

"Hajime Saitou," the hated voice of Mokoto Shishio laughed. "The last on my list to get married and have a daughter, let alone one I caught making out with the son of Sanosuke Sagara."

"What did you do with my daughter, Shishio?" Saitou demanded in a low, threatening tone, reaching for his katana the same way his daughter always did.

"She's right here," he answered, holding his right hand up to about shoulder level. Shizuka and Hoshiko looked around but Saitou seemed to know exactly what the man meant. With a snap of his fingers 13 balls of fire burst out in mid-air. Inside were the shadows of the people floating within them.

"Hajime...please don't," Hoshiko begged, clutching to her husband's arm.

"And what else can I do?" he asked, shrugging her off him. "Stand here and be beaten like a dog?"

"It's okay," Shizuka, comforted, her hand on her friend's shoulder as she pulled her back. "Have faith."

"So you do you want a repeat of our last fight, I can even stab you in the same shoulder if you'd like. Or maybe I should cut your heat out of you while it's still beating. I think you're wife there would appricate that."

Shizuka caught Hoshiko as she collasped to her knees, clutching at her heart. 'Supress it Hoshiko. If you let it out now we lose everything!'

"I don't know how you've come back or why," Saitou began, getting into his stance. "But you've obviously given in to pure evil. Before you were a swordsman with some sense of honor and pride in your blade. You know the motto..."

"Sin, Swift, Slay," Hoshiko quietly stated with him, though he'd never spoken it to her before.

"You really will spout that drivel even into your death," Shishio laughed, crossing his arms in front of him as if he were bored. "How can you even speak of defeating me when you couldn't handle my human form?!"

The orbs of fire became raging infernos in the air about him as Shishio laughed manically at his own power. Saitou didn't even flinch. He knew the fire wasn't scourching his daughter, only trapping her. What he didn't know was her current state.

The bandaged demon didn't even bother to draw his sword when he saw Saitou coming. Shizuka draw her friend to her chest, refusing to let her see what she knew was about to happen.

Saitou was charging to his death.

"Gatotsu Zerotsuki!"

"Do Ryuu Sen!"

Shishio hadn't expected an attack from behind, so when left with which to block he missed the obviousness of dodging and letting them cancel each other out. The blade reached him first, piercing through his right shoulder before the Do Ryuu Sen sent him into the air. He crashed onto the ground, wounded and still shocked.

At the moment the attacks connected the floatig firestorms disappeared, allowing everyone's beaten bodies to fall to the ground as well.

"Himura," Saitou stated, slightly amused.

"Saitou, is everyone ok?" Kenshin asked, resheathing his sword and walking toward him.

"Hawatari!"

"Evangelina! Aoshi!"

Both women rushed to the battlefield and held their wounded family in their arms. Aoshi and Evangelina seemed fine and returned to consiousness with only minor burns and multiple bruises or flesh wounds.

"Hajime, Hawatari's bleeding! Hawatari? HAWATARI!"

"Du..." the girl began before coughing up a large amount of blood. "Du..."

"DUIL!" Kitia screeched, seemingly unharmed. "Sweetheart...what...did Shishio?"

"Yozakura?" Sukiko whispered, pushing her daughter's bangs out of her eyes.

"Mommy...?" the girl responded, returning to conciousness.

"Hawatari and Duil need to get to Megumi and Katsu quickly!" Kenshin announced. "Is anyone else wounded?"

"I don't think so," Aoshi answered, forcing himself to sit up.

"I felt this coming," Soujirou stated, turning his head to face Sukiko from his position on his back. "And I have a feeling it isn't over."

It began as quiet chuckling but grew into full-fledged cackling. Shishio effortlessly get to his feet again, completely and totally unharmed.