Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Strength & Weakness ❯ A searching warrior following ( Chapter 2 )

Strength & Weakness

By Lucifer's Dark Angel

Chapter 2

It was hot outside. It was well past noon, and the sun was making the weather outside unbearable. Inside the base on Hiei Mountain, Shishio paced back and forth in his room, a grimace upon his face. Yumi still hadn't returned. Shishio was worried. It was already almost two. The trip from Kyoto to the base took four hours by foot. If Yumi was to be back before dark, she would have to be at the halfway point by now! But the sentry that he has posted there hadn't seen her at all and he could see for two miles in both directions (towards the base and towards the city). Yumi had never been this late before. Shishio was beginning to get extremely worried about her. Despite the act that he put on in front of his men and followers, Shishio truly cared deeply about Yumi. He would have gone with her, but seeing a bandaged man with a sword in Kyoto wasn't a common occurrence. So, since Soujirou was out doing his duties and he plainly didn't trust anyone else, he had reluctantly let her go alone. She had gone shopping to Kyoto before by herself and nothing had happened. He had no reason to suspect yesterday would be any different.

When the rain had hit, he had surmised she'd remained in town, but he was beginning to doubt his assumption. Shishio sighed and sat down. After pacing for almost three hours, he was kind of tired. He felt like taking a nap, but thoughts of Yumi kept him awake. He couldn't help but be concerned about her. That why he had ordered a few men to do a intense search of the path Yumi took and the entire city a few hours ago for anyone in the organization. He didn't want it publicly known he was just looking for Yumi. So by saying the entire organization, he knew Yumi would be included in the search. Shishio sighed and started to think about Yumi. The way she walked, the sound of her voice, her smile, her laugh, and all other small trivial things he'd never really taken mind of before flooded his head. A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.

"Yeah, what is it?" he barked at whomever it was on the other side of the door.

"Shishio-Sama, the troops have completed the search you ordered." The soldier on the other side of the door replied, sounding rather nervous.

"And?" Shishio stated monotonously, although inside he was anxious to hear.

"We find no traces of anyone from our organization, other than the sentry you appointed on the trail and the soldiers in our search party, anywhere in Kyoto or on any of the main trails leading this way, Shishio-Sama." The soldier said.

"Dismissed."

Shishio waited for the soldier the leave before he slammed his fist down harshly on the night table, making a rather large hole. His heart had sunk at the announcement. Yumi wasn't anywhere on the main trails or in Kyoto! Was it possible that she hadn't taken shelter in the rain and instead headed back and during the trip had gotten lost? Was she stranded somewhere in the forest?! Or lost?! Or maybe a thief or bandit had kidnapped her?! Or did she fall victim to an attack or fall off a cliff and was now somewhere among the trees wounded or worse dead?! Could it be that a wild animal had found her and she was right now at this very moment trying to fend it off?! Or did she take the wrong path and get swept down a raging river to who knows where?! Shishio's mind raced with the possibilities of what could have happened to Yumi.

He would have been crying is he could have. His condition prevented that. His condition prevented almost all aspects of a normal existence. Back about 10 years ago when he had first gained this new appearance, everyone had been frightened of him. They should have been; after all he was a Hitokiri. All women had seen him as grotesque, well, all except for one. Except for her…except for Yumi… Yumi had seen him for what he was inside, not outside. She never minded his hideous appearance. She had been gentle and kind to him when others were not. Perhaps it was because they were the same. The eternal sadness and anger that he held had been well hidden, but her sorrow had shown through at night, when her eyes held an ethereal glint and intentions of suicide. He now wanted her with him, they were two people who led different lives but had suffered the same thing. She was his and he was hers. That was all there was to it. But then, back then, she wasn't really his at all. Yumi's life had prevented that from being possible.

She had been a Geisha, then an Oiran. Her life had been mainly simple. She had everything her heart desired, except for freedom. She belonged to someone, almost like a slave. It had been fancy clothes, heavy makeup, and tons of jewels during the day and tears once her 'companion' for the night had fallen asleep. He had seen that deep pain in her eyes. He knew she was strong, and he had encouraged her. He was the first person, the only person, she had ever trusted, even to this day. When her life had fallen apart and everything, even her dignity, was stripped from her, almost everyone who had ever known her had turned their backs on her. She wandered around alone and depressed and had tried to end everything with the small knife she always carried, but he had stopped her. Shishio had caught her before she'd fallen off that cliff. He hadn't betrayed her, and he never would. Whether at the time she understood just why he had stopped her, swept her off her feet, and taken her home with him that day he would never know, but he knew she understood his intentions now. For the first time in her life, she truly belonged to only one person, him.

She was always pleasant and happy around him and did everything from drawing his bath to changing his bandages. And in return he showered her with jewelry, fine clothes, and gifts. Although either rarely said it, the feeling of love between them was mutual. She would do anything for him to see him happy, just as he would do anything to keep her safe. Every motion, every word, every expression, and every act she did said 'I love you' to him. Her heart conveyed the message all too clearly to him. She was the only person he had every truly fallen in love with. His heart ached when she was sad, hurt, or in pain. Her smile brightened his day and her laughter brought everlasting joy. His day began with her and ended with her. He loved her unconditionally. Perhaps it was one of the reasons why he was so protective of her and why he brought her almost everywhere with him. He adored her, and everything about her. There was nothing about Yumi he hated. He loved her body, her mind, her soul, and her heart. And inside he knew that she felt the same as he did. She didn't care about his limitations, she loved him the same as if he was a normal person. It was something that he had never expected of her. Truly, if her statement and convincing actions did anything at all, it only made him love her even more.

However, these memories only made Shishio even more upset. After all, Yumi as out there in the forest somewhere, all alone with no one to protect her and most likely no way to get back to the base. Shishio stood and walked to the door, opened it, and the continued down the hallway, making sure that the door slammed closed behind him, a clear symbol of his anger.

'She's not in the city or on the trails. That means she's in the wood somewhere. She's had a full day to try and come back. If she hasn't come back, that means she can't get back for one reason or another. I'll have to go and find her. Please Yumi, don't get yourself hurt or worse killed!'

He strode through the hallways with an unreadable look upon his face. No one bothered him. Everyone in the hallway moved to the side. His aura projected that he was pissed as hell very clearly and everyone there knew that getting in Shishio-Sama's way now or annoying him would mostly likely end with their head and body on the floor in thousands of pieces.

The door closest to the outside path was slammed open so hard that most of the door shattered upon impact and whatever was left looked as if it had been through a hurricane. Shishio paid it no mind as he briskly walked down the main path to the main fork, the place he estimated Yumi would have reached before the rain had started. She was a smart woman, he'd give her that but sometimes she could be rather stupid. The path leading to the base was long, full of curves, and would take a while to hike up. However, if a person walked due North from the main fork, they would meet the trail a little over halfway up and cut about one and a half hours of walking out of their journey. Shishio knew Yumi carried a compass for that reason. If she had been at the main fork when the rain had hit, of which he was almost positive of, she might have decided to just hike North through the woods in an effort to get back earlier. Then that would explain how she'd gotten lost in the first place.

As Shishio mused to himself his plan, he continued south towards the main fork, taking the shortcut that she would have walked. As he walked over the bride, a few miles north of the main fork, a glimmer of something silver in the water caught his attention. Shishio stopped and tried to decipher just what the object was from the bride. However, the shining object was twenty feet down river and at his current position; Shishio couldn't tell anything about it except for the fact that it was round and made of silver metal.

Sighing, Shishio jumped from the small bridge onto the narrow bank below. Careful not to fall into the water (the last thing he needed now was to get soaked and then have to trek back to the base to change) Shishio made his way along the shore until he reached the area across from the object. It was lodged in-between two rocks a little way from shore. Being extremely careful, Shishio jumped across the rocks until the object was in front of him. Removing the round metal object from the rocks, Shishio quickly raced back to shore, anxious to get off the slippery rocks. Once on shore, Shishio twirled the object around in his hands, already knowing just what it was: Yumi's compass.

One of his fears confirmed, Shishio pocketed the item and started to dash down the riverbanks, looking for any signs that a person had been past. Stopping, Shishio noticed some unique hoof prints in the sand. They looked as if they'd been made by the horse that the patrolman used. Shishio had had him examine a few things near the river early yesterday morning. If the hoof prints from the horse were still here from 7 AM yesterday, then any footprints of Yumi from last night would still be here.

Continuing to run along the riverbank, Shishio searched for traces of Yumi with semi-high hopes, since now he at least knew he could find some footprints. But as the hours dragged on and the sun set on his second day without Yumi, his hopes fell. No traces of her at all since the compass. He'd been searching since a little after two and it was now eight. Six hours and the only thing he found was a compass. For all he knew, the river could have washed her a hundred miles from here! He had no way of knowing just how close he was to her. Spotting a rather large rock on the banks, Shishio sat down and contemplated on what to do next.

A searching warrior following the trail of a river in the faint hopes of finding his maiden in an endless forest.