Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Heavenly Lost ❯ The City of the Lost Souls ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter IV

The City of the Lost Souls

The city was cold and the wounds covering his body were hurting a lot. The torches were illuminating the streets and he walked slowly and firmly, without looking down. Suddenly he felt a lot of kis close to him. All of them evil, all of them disturbed and in pain.

"So I can still feel other presences"

One of them was closely following him. Kenshin didn't even turn, it wasn't necessary, but he did stopped and asked.

"What do you want?"

The man stopped abruptly. He knew who the read headed man was and what he was capable of, but he didn't expected him to noticed him that fast.

"So the famous Battousai has finally come to hell"

"Kenshin turned slowly and looked at the man with his violet eyes. He recognized him. He looked exactly as he did so many years ago when he killed him in Kyoto.

"I don't know your name, but I do remember your face"

"Is that supposed to mean something to me?" Asked the man in an angry voice as he took out his sword. "YOU KILLED ME! You put me in this place and now you have to pay"

"I know" Answered Kenshin without moving. "That's why I'm here, to pay for my sins…" Suddenly Kenshin's eyes narrowed as he continued "But I ca assure you that I didn't put you here, I just made it happen faster."

The man stood still. "Is this really the Battousai?" The man's expression changed from defiant to curious as he remembered something.

"We are not allowed to go outside the city" The man explained to Kenshin, "But I did saw what happened, I so the four brothers welcoming you… you didn't resisted? Why? Everybody resists."

"If I resisted them…"Kenshin said without changing his expression. "I would have won, and that would have altered the normal flow of things"

"What?" Asked the man in disbelief.

"That would have serve no propose… I'm here to pay for my sins"

"So you let them beat you?"

Kenshin nodded and then turned away. The man just stared at him.

"Is the Battousai resigned to his fate? He won't fight to try to stop the pain and punishments that are store for him in hell?"

The man's assumptions were wrong. When Kenshin died and felt the strong wind and terrible cold, he knew immediately where he was. Since the age of fourth teen, since he killed his first man, he knew he was destined to be in hell for an eternity. He accepted his fate while he was living on earth. He decided that to build a new era and help protecting the people that were suffering around him, he will even doom his soul. During the Bakumatsu he killed a lot of people and he constantly thought that he would pay for all of it in hell. And then she came. She appeared to him like a flower that fell in a disturbed river. Tomoe, she changed his mentality, she made him see that it wasn't enough to wait for hell. She told him that he could start paying for his crimes on earth by protecting people without killing again. Then he took a vow and he wandered around all of Japan keeping his promise but he never allowed himself to be happy, he never stayed for long in one place. He knew that even if he could pay for some of his sins in earth he wasn't allowed to be happy.

Then another woman crossed his path. One with her hair in a high pony tale and blue sapphire eyes. She gave him something he thought he wasn't allowed to have, a home, a family and love. She showed him that he didn't needed to be miserable, she loved him despised and because his past. She fell in love with the man he was and she gave him her unconditional support. She gave him hope and a few moments of happiness but he knew that that didn't mean that he was pardoned. When the end was close everything was so confusing, but then everything cleared with one look into her eyes. In that moment he found himself again and gave her one last goodbye look because he knew as he took his last breath that that would be the last time he'll see her. That was his true hell. He didn't care about the coldness, the beating, the pain on his body or whatever that was to come, the deepest sorrow he could ever feel was to be apart from her. "Kaoru"

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Kenshin quickly found out that the city was a very big place. It was made as a labyrinth and it was supposed to be impossible to find the way back to any place. The souls were doomed to spend the eternity lost in the city, wandering forever without knowing what will happen next. Returning was only a dream. That's why some souls preferred to stay in the entrance of the city, holding on to a false hope that some day the may get out. Kenshin knew that wasn't possible. An invisible and unbreakable wall circulated the city. No soul could walk out but every soul could come in. It was impossible to cut it, yet every object was able to trespass it.

Looking at himself and at some others, Kenshin realized that every warrior that came to hell had a residual image of himself. That was the form his body took. His clothes and even his weapons were with them too. `The four brothers' as they were called, always let the souls walk into the city with their weapons. They will need them. But hell wasn't only composed by warriors. Many evil people were doomed to that place. Some of them only hold a weapon a few times and others never had one in their hands. They only thought and put on practice evil plans that killed and hurt lots of people but never even came close to a weapon themselves. They commanded humans to kill for them but all the same they ended up in hell and there was no salvation.

Kenshin deepened into the city determined to face whatever that was about to come. As he walked through the streets he saw Kaoru in his mind. He'll never give up. He knew he had to pay but her memory made him strong and willing to fight to protect himself. He wasn't going to let go, not yet. He was inside the city now, so he could act freely, there was no chance he might disturb the normal flow of things. The city was anything but normal. He was shivering, by then he knew that the cold would stay with him forever. He stopped as he saw that the street divided into two paths. They were both dark and mysterious. Kenshin stood for a moment looking forward.

"Right or left? I'm sure that there's nothing pleasant in any way, it's just a question of what kind of torments lay ahead"

He didn't know why but he chose the left. He walked for a few minutes in silence. Not a sound was heard and he couldn't feel any presences, he was alone. Then he could distinguish something in the distance. It appeared to be a seal door. He was confused but he kept walking anyway. He reached the door and was about to touch it when suddenly something fell down from the gray and dark sky. It was another door, so tall that he couldn't see were it ended. He was trapped. He putted his hand in the hilt of his sword but his hand was soon caught in a chain. He couldn't even saw where it had come from. Before he could even try to move another chain jammed his other hand tiding them both together. His feet were quickly bonded to each other by another chain that let them separate just enough for him to give one small step. Finally a shackle was place around his neck connecting all chains to it. He fell to the floor as the gates disappeared and the way was cleared. Kenshin got up slowly. The chains were so tight that his wrist and ankles cried in pain. He tried to reach his sword but the chains wouldn't let him. When he moved his hand he hurt his neck in the process. He took a quick gasp for air before he tried to move forward. The chains were very heavy so it was very difficult for him to walk. He decided to ignore the deep pain each of his steps inflicted to his neck. He was about to think of a way to reach for his sakabato when he heard the sound of sword that was coming to him. Been dead meant Kenshin's body reacted as it did when he committed his crimes. That also meant that he could use Hitten Mitserugi again. With his god-like speed and the strength of his youthful days he manages to avoid the stroke. Kenshin landed a few feet away from the attacker. He was a tall man with a long katana and beside him stood another man with the same weapon. Kenshin looked at them. It was one thing letting himself get beaten by the four brothers but he was not going to allowed those men inflict him a slash wound that would never heal and would hurt forever. Yes he was chained and unable to reach his sword but he smiled. The first man looked at him with anger in his eyes.

"What are you smiling for? You are defenseless a me and my friend are going to make you suffer so much you'll wish you could die again"

With that the two swordsmen attacked him. Kenshin moved really swiftly and really fast for a man tied up. He watched as the first sword was stroke to his chest. He waited until the movement was complete before moving just one centimeter. He sensed how his hands were free. He went for his sword and with a fast battoujitsu he parted the second man sword in two. Then he jumped out of the way and landed safely behind them. The attackers turned around in shock just as Kenshin used his sakabato to cut the chains in his feet and the shackle from his neck. This shocked them even more. What kind of man will put willingly a sword to his neck, even if he was trying to free himself?

"That's why I was smiling. You gently helped me out of my chains. Domo arigato."

The men looked at him one more time but they weren't bright so they decided to attack Kenshin again. A few seconds later Kenshin jumped the two men that laid motionless on the ground but that were still in deep pain. He sheathed his sword and continued his way.

He wasn't alone anymore. Now he could feel a lot of kis. He was hungry. He knew the lack of food would do nothing to him or his strength but he could feel the deep hole in his stomach and the pain of its emptiness. He was tired. He decided that he would continue his journey through the city but in now he wanted to rest. He had all eternity to wander.

He walked to one of the buildings and tried to open the door. When he touched it he was immediately knock down. A powerful force hit him and made his whole body shiver. As for his hand, it was burned. He felt the pain if the burning but that didn't compensated for the continuing coldness. He lied there in the ground, he didn't know if he would have the strength to get up again and then… He felt her. He didn't know how but he felt a connection with her. It lasted only a few seconds but it was like their souls touched for only a moment. He opened his eyes and got up. Kaoru had died, he knew it. And he managed to put a smile on his face when he realized she was going to heaven.

Kenshin found out that it wasn't possible to sleep in hell. Souls got tired but they weren't allowed to rest. He didn't care anyway. He just sat with his sword on his side and he closed his eyes and thought of her. He saw her beautiful hair, her tender lips and he got lost in her deep blue eyes. He saw her smiling at him and he smiled too. "Kaoru"

He allowed himself a few minutes of peace every now and then. He was the Hitokiri Battousai and he was in hell. There were a lot of souls that wanted to fight him. Most of them got there by his sword. He always won. He tried to inflict the least pain possible to them, but by doing so he sometimes let them hurt him and those wounds didn't heal and ached eternally.

"Get up Battousai"

Kenshin opened his eyes and lost Kaoru's image and replace it with the man standing in front of him. Kenshin got up, he knew he couldn't avoid the fight but he tried anyway.

"I don't want to cause you more pain"

The man didn't listen and charged to Kenshin with a dagger in his hand. Kenshin defeated him quickly. The weapon was away from the man's hand and his arm was bruised. Kenshin didn't even take his sword out of the sheath.

"How can I pay for my sins if I'm inflicting more pain… maybe I should just…"

But his thoughts were cut by a cry of pain. He recognized the voice and he froze in the spot. He closed his eyes and saw a vision.

"No, that can't be true, that is an illusion…" What he was seeing was true; he could feel it in his heart. "The four brothers…get away from her, stop!" His fist tightened at each one of her screams and then she called his name. He collapsed to the ground as he saw her entering the city.

"KAORU!!!!"

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A/N: So what do you think? You finally got to see Kenshin in this chapter. I wanted to give his point of view too. I explained some things here but there is more to come.