Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Red Poppies ❯ Of God ( Chapter 3 )

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In short, review, but no flames. I'd love to hear your opinions, but I do not want to be unnecessarily insulted. If you don't like it, please leave.

Much Love,

S-girl

~ Red Poppies ~

"The world was different decades ago, or at least that's what the old people mumble, but who really listens to them?"

~

"In a world falling into moral and mental decay, the Outside found itself burdened under a population of individuals deemed unsuited for daily interaction between others considered 'normal'. Jails, asylums and other such institutions found themselves unable to handle the overflow of unsavory societal elements. In response to this growing problem a group of wealthy investors, known simply as the Board, proposed a plan.

"Instead of a multitude of institutions scattered across landmasses, with very little communication between, the Board introduced two fully autonomous city states. The State would be a criminal correction facility that also functioned as a work camp. The City would be an asylum for the mentally ill and persons that posed no physical threat but were unwanted just the same.

"The State occupies a two mile radius of dry land in the [~~~] desert. Currently it employs fifteen hundred police and medical personnel. The inmates, all of who have been tagged with electronic chips attached to the spinal cord, are not permitted within fifty feet of the surrounding perimeter. If any inmate passes the mark then an a single is automatically sent to the chip, which, in turn, sends and electric shock through the spinal column and into the brain. Most often this leads to partial or whole paralysis, and sometimes death. No prisoners have ever escaped.

"The City~~~[File transfer interrupted]

* * *

Kamiya Kaoru picked at the armrest of the unsettling new couch. She could feel the man's unnatural eyes on her. He was too patient, too still. She didn't like that. He made her nervous. And he smoked. The smell hung in thick ropes. It leeched into her clothing, hair and skin. She could feel its acrid taint creeping down her throat and singing her lungs.

"Do you mind?" she hissed waving away the malodorous scent. He stared at her with the barest trace of cold amusement.

"No." Blue eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Well, I do." He inhaled deeply and exhaled with deliberate audacity. "Jerk." Sniffing in outrage she pointedly turned away from him and stared out the window. She wouldn't let him pick away at her nerves. She wouldn't let him get under her skin.

"How old are you?" She cut him a glare over one haughty shoulder.

"That's none of your business."

"Actually, it is," he replied with a dark laugh. "I am in charge of security of this facility, after all."

"So? Is that supposed to impress me or something?"

"Perhaps it is a warning." His rough baritone pressed into her ears and sent off a thrill of warnings in her mind. Slowly, like one facing a dangerous animal, she turned. He hadn't moved, though the cigarette was almost a smoking stub. "Minors are to be secured inside the juvenile facilities in the north side of the City. Those who are eighteen or older, if deemed mentally stable enough, are permitted to reside in apartments or neighborhoods monitored by the City. Minors here do not have guardians, save the staff at the juvenile center. Adults who need guardians remain at the Core Center.

"Either you've managed to circumvent the security protocols of the juvenile center during your somnolent wanderings. Or…?" He trailed off and looked at her with arrogant, in her opinion, patience. She knew the type of man he was. He was the kind who expected answers and got them.

"I'm eighteen, as if that's any of your damn business!"

"I believe you've stated that opinion several times," he remarked laconically. "In any case, if you are eighteen, as you claim, why do you have a 'guardian'?"

"I just do. Is that so incomprehensible that you must badger me to death about it? I have a guardian and I'm eighteen. So what?"

"I simply wasn't aware that such proceedings were allowed." He ground the cigarette in an ashtray.

"I guess I'm an exception, then," she said with an indignant shrug. His gaze turned thoughtful as he extracted another cancer-stick from a gold case. She wrinkled her nose in disgust and restrained several choice comments on his vulgarity.

"But why?"

"Maybe I'm special. Maybe there's some huge conspiracy out there and me having a guardian is just the beginning of some larger, whole-scale invasion by evil entities from outer space. Maybe it's God's way of making up for all the crap in my life!" A deep flush suffused her pale cheeks as she came to the end of her short tirade. Releasing a shaky breath she tried to force the tension from her straining body. She had the most irrational desire to punch the man in the face and watch all his dry humor evanesce.

"Do you believe in God?" His question derailed her fury with such ruthless efficiency that she was left scrabbling for comprehension.

"What?"

"Do you believe in God?" he repeated with pointed enunciation. She bristled with renewed wrath.

"What kind of stupid question is that?" He shrugged and lit the offensive cigarette. She watched the orange light flicker about the odd angles of his face. He looked predatory.

"You seem disinclined to be civil," the man observed as he took a deep breath from his cigarette. "If you don't act more mature, you'll be confused for a child."

"Who cares? I'm legally insane. What's one more thing?"

"Legally?"

"It's why I'm still here."

"Don't you mean clinically." She snorted derisively.

"The only way to keep us here is to be deemed legally insane. That means they can keeps us till we're not crazy anymore. If a person isn't able to represent him- or herself legally, then the person is considered legally insane. It basically has the power of attorney over us."

"I see."

"Didn't you know that, mister Head of Police?" He afforded her a mild, disapproving glare before his cynical countenance resumed.

"Apparently I am not as well informed as I would like."

"Isn't that n-" A brisk knocking at the door cut off Kaoru's caustic response. Eagerly she bounced up from the couch and dashed towards the door. "Kenshin!"

* * *

Ten years rushed by with the force of fate's wrecking ball. Scattered images of blood, betrayal and simmering distrust crackled through the air between two immovable monoliths. And through it all, the old wounds and scars poignantly pierces, a grudging respect hummed.

"Himura."

"Saitou." The taller man puffed contemplatively on his cigarette as a wellspring of memories, some filled with blood rage and some relaxed, spewed forth behind his eyes.

"Who would have thought, hmm?" Saitou grinned slowly, predatorily. "You're this girl's 'guardian'?" The redhead cut a quick glance between the ecstatic girl and the other man.

"I am." He could see the questions burning in the shorter man's violet eyes. What had he been up to? He toyed with the idea of playing with the self-righteous bastard, but declined in favor of relieving himself of the girl as soon as possible.

"I found her sleep walking down the street. She's broken curfew."

"I'll handle this," Himura Kenshin grated out. Saitou nodded sagely.

"I'm sure you will."

"Let's go, Kenshin," the girl, he still hadn't asked her name, whined pulling at the redhead's sweatshirt.

"Alright," he murmured as he bestowed a tiredly affectionate smile upon her. Saitou noticed how a pleased flush would spread across her pale cheeks every time he addressed her. She was addicted to Himura. Obviously she had formed an unhealthy attachment to the man. Saitou didn't particularly care, but he noted it out of an ingrained habit.

The observation of a single person, no matter how insignificant he or she seemed at the time, had always proved to be his greatest asset. One never knew when an overlooked individual would prove to be the keystone in a case. Small gestures, facial ticks, intonations, the very evidence of the mind's workings in the physical were invaluable. What he did went beyond reading people and their actions. Through his careful scrutiny he had developed a sort of prescience when it came to the human animal. One could learn more from watching a criminal lie through his or her teeth, then by all the tortures ever invented. The ingenious part about it was that the person being watched had no idea.

"Perhaps we'll talk later. Catch up on old times and all that," Saitou suggested with deceptive mildness as the other man turned away with the intention of forgoing the civil act of saying goodbye.

"Perhaps." The simmering rage in Himura's voice almost caused Saitou to issue a mocking chuckle. However, the lupine-faced man could mask all emotions under a mask crafted for the moment. Himura had no such talent. His emotions pushed forth in bold strokes across his effeminate face. He was an open book waiting to be read, unless the thrall of fury overtook his easy-going complacency.

Saitou had only been privy to one such event, and he craved a second encounter. The predator in him sensed the presence of a rival that had to be bested. Unfortunately, that rival was locked deeply within a cage of self-loathing and surprisingly rigid control. Unable to enjoy the full wrath of the redhead, Saitou had to content himself with poking the beast pacing inside the man with an occasional, well-directed verbal barb.

~

Night fully enveloped the City and brushed feathered wings against the resisting streetlights. The glowing, ruby tip of Saitou's cigarette glared defiantly in the face of darkness. The reddish shadows cut deeply into the angles of his face. He was alone again. He was in silence again.

Tokio wouldn't approve of his smoking indoors. It was unhealthy for the children, she had said. If he wanted to kill himself slowly, then he could very well do it alone.

Funny, that girl had complained about his habit too.

He inhaled deeply, letting the smoke fill his lungs and seep out between the seal of his lips. So Himura and he were in the same place. Was it coincidence? Perhaps, but then he had never put much faith in the random chaos of the universe. Whatever it was, it wasn't fate and it wasn't chance. Wherever chance existed, humans always played the hand. Someone powerful was playing a game of chess with his life. The thought disturbed him, angered him.

He was no one's unwitting pawn. He might play the tamed hound, but he was a wolf. He followed only as long as his ends coincided with those of his 'masters'. He had no qualms about biting the hand that fed him.

* * *

Click

"I heard an interesting rumor the other day."

"Okay…"

"It seems that you had quite the adventure. I heard you sleepwalked again."

"Yes."

"You haven't done that for some time. Do you know what brought it about?"

"No."

"Are you feeling well? Is everything alright at home?"

"Yes. Why wouldn't it be?"

"I don't know. Why don't you tell me why you think I would think that?"

"I'm perfectly fine. I don't know why I…I thought I was better. I thought…"

"Yes?"

"I thought I was almost normal."

"Normal?"

"You know, not crazy? I wanted-want-to be sane. I don't want to sleepwalk, or have nightmares or be crazy. I want to be normal…I want to be loved…"

"What was that last part? You trailed off and I couldn't hear you."

"Loved. I want someone to love me."

"Do you feel unloved?"

"I don't know. Sometimes I just feel so alone. It's like I'm living in an empty castle. All the halls echo, but its only my footsteps."

"Do you think love is the opposite of loneliness?"

"It has to be, doesn't it?"

"You tell me."

"It just has to be. When you're loved, you can't possibly be alone. It must be nice."

"Why don't you want to be alone?"

"I am alone. I don't like it."

Click

~

Click

"What about this person you are attractive to?"

"What about him?"

"You said he doesn't lo-"

"He does."

"Oh?"

"But like a…a…little kid, a sister or something. That's not what I want. I want the real thing. I want love between two consensual adults. Sparks, explosions, love!"

"So you feel that 'love' will free you from the loneliness you say you feel?"

"I told you this last time. Weren't you listening? You sure took a lot of notes."

"Indulge me."

"Yes, okay? I do. I don't care if that's stupid sounding or whatever. I believe in it."

"I never said it sounded stupid."

"You didn't have to."

"Let's change the subject. Any more thoughts on what caused you to sleepwalk the other night?"

"I don't know. One minute I was in my bed, the next I was…not in my bed."

"Did you have any dreams?"

"No…"

"Well?"

"Fine! It was that same damned dream from before."

"The one with the flowers."

"Poppies. Yeah, it was that one. Except…"

"Except?"

"Can I have some water or something?"

"Certainly…"

Click

~

Click

"I can't stand it!"

"What can't you stand?"

"Her. She's always there. I can feel her every time he looks at me. I just want him to see me and not her. Did you know that he keeps her picture in his room? She watches over him while he sleeps…"

"You went into his room?"

"I'm not stalking him! We live…"

"Yes?"

"Nothing. Nothing."

"Could I bring your attention back to the dream you mentioned. You said there was something different about it?"

"Yes."

"Would you like to talk with me about it?"

"What does it matter?"

"I'm trying to help you. You said that you didn't want to sleepwalk or have nightmares anymore."

"Then why aren't I better already? I lived here for three years. I want to go Outside."

"That's what we all want. I'll prescribe a powerful sedative. They should prevent any midnight rambles. Plus you'll wake up feeling refreshed."

"Drugs?"

"Some find them helpful. We want to explore all our options so that you can leave, right?"

"I guess."

"Good. I'll write a prescription and you can get it filled at the pharmacy around the corner."

"Thanks."

"You are very welcome. I'll see you next week."

* * * *

The glory of an update! Is it enough incentive for a review or two? La, anyway, I expect this to be quite a long series. Please have patience with my fumbling and whatnot. And thank you all who have read and who have reviewed. I am in your debt.

So please review and save your flames for my email at SylverSylph@aol.com