Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ The Evil Within ❯ Trapped Souls - Eyes of Treachery (7a) ( Chapter 8 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

The Evil Within




The
Evil Within
Chapter
7A-Eyes of Treachery
Misao
sighed in irritation as she skirted across the thorny bushes that filled the
narrow path that Aoshi was walking briskly on, desperately trying to keep up
with his brisk pace as several thoughts that had been haunting her flitting
through her mind.


What
had happened back then in his fight with Himura? What made him change so
abruptly from being hell-bent on killing us all to living quietly in the Kamiya
dojo, helping with the chores, and praying regularly in the temple? How
could he change so suddenly? The thoughts racing across her mind confused
her so profusely-just like they had for the past months-that her yearning to
find out about these questions increased even further.


What better way to find out
than to ask?
Summoning all her courage, she
cleared her throat timidly. "Aoshi-sama?"
Aoshi stopped walking and glanced
back at her, prompting her to continue.
"When you were fighting against
Himura a long time ago, I couldn't distinguish what technique you were using
to fight…I don't remember you using it back then." She faltered. Back
when you were still the Aoshi-sama that I knew, back when you were still our
respected Okashira, back to the time when you hadn't betrayed us all yet.
Aoshi regarded her with chilly
azure eyes. "You didn't see me for eight years, Misao." He narrowed his
eyes in what seemed to her as annoyance. "Quite enough time to attain a new
fighting style."
His stinging words caused Misao to
snap her mouth shut. He had reminded her of how little she really knew about
him, and how much he had changed since then. How much everything had
changed.
"Oh." Misao really had no idea
what to say. "But-what…it…Aoshi-sama…I hope you don't mind my asking,
but what made you change?" She saw his back stiffen at this, and he stopped
walking.


"There are things about me,
Misao," he began in a voice lethally quiet, "that you don't know about,
Things that would make your blood curl…things you never need to know about."


The finality in his voice made
Misao's fingers clench tightly in the soft cloth of her ninja outfit.
They continued walking in total
silence, and only the soft crackling of the gentle breeze as it rustled the
crisp leaves of the trees overhead could be heard.
"Misao," Aoshi suddenly said
in his usual soft voice, "we should rest for the night."
"Hai!" she forced out a
bright, cheerful smile in hopes of not revealing how offended she really was,
gesturing at an open space up ahead. "We could stay in the clearing
ahead…"
"Aa." Aoshi nodded and began
striding towards the small clearing.
Misao dutifully tagged along
behind him, slinging the tiny bag she carried back over her shoulder.
"Aoshi-sama, when we get to
Kyoto, are you going to stay in the Aoiya?" she blurted out hastily,
shattering the semi-calm silence that had descended over them. "I mean, you
said at Himura's that you would go there, but are you going to stay?"

Aoshi turned to her, his
eyebrows lifting scornfully. "I don't know," He said brusquely, his azure
eyes hollow as he spoke, "probably."
"Oh." She repeated, once again
at a loss for what to say, their stony silence resuming right up until they
reached the clearing.
"We sleep here." Aoshi told
her as he bent down, and took two sticks into his hands. "I'll start the
fire."
Misao nodded and dropped her bag.
Aoshi looked up at her from his
seated position. "Maybe you should dress up for sleep already." The sentence
sounded more like a command than the suggestion he had wanted it to be, and he
tried to hold back a wince. "We've got a long walk ahead of us tomorrow."
"Hai. You should get some sleep
too, Aoshi-sama." Misao's voice softened as she looked at his barely scarred
arms. How did he escape his fight with Himura so easily? Himura has about a
thousand scars from their fight. She was so lost in her thoughts that she
didn't even know that Aoshi had already sensed her inquisitive cerulean eyes
on him. He looked up from the fire he was starting and met her gaze. "What is
it?" he asked icily.
"N-nan demo nai…" she muttered, looking away. She
grabbed her yukata from her small pack of clothes, and walked into the shrubs to
change, unable to take the tension heavy upon both of them.

Mitsuko's looking even better
than when I last saw her. Rofocale told
Aoshi quietly as his eyes followed Misao's figure.
Who? Aoshi asked, unable to
keep the exasperation out of his question. The name Mitsuko sounded somewhat
familiar, like a name he had heard a long time ago, but he couldn't place
where.
Nothing, Rofocale replied
hastily, the frustration in his own voice matching Aoshi's, just a slight
error on my behalf. Her name is Misao, ne?
Aa. Aoshi answered, his
mind all too tired to form a long answer. Besides, it was all Rofocale was
looking for.
I want to talk to her.
What?
Just shut up and let me take
control for a moment. Rofocale answered, his voice taking on an edge of
hunger.
No. Aoshi thought back
firmly, bracing his chin upon his knees. I don't trust you to be alone with
Misao.
Chikuso, just let me…Rofocale
abruptly stopped talking to him.


Similar to the one when he had
killed that boy in the alley so long ago, the same one when he had fought Okina,
the exact same one when he had fought-and won-against Kenshin.
Damn you, no! He thought
angrily, struggling against Rofocale's attempts to control him.
Aoshi felt as if he was outside a
silken cage, struggling to keep it shut while Rofocale was trapped inside,
trying pushing the door of the cage open, the silken cage threatening to break
open under the force of the two of them against the other.
His eyes snapped shut in a silent
struggle to control Rofocale, but it was no use. When he opened his eyes, they
were a startling crimson-gold.
You'll never win against me,
Shinomori. Rofocale thought, a smirk growing on his face as he willed his
eyes to revert to Aoshi's normal azure. He glanced up just as Misao was
walking out in her off-white yukata. Not when you're my slave.



Misao smiled somewhat uneasily at
Aoshi, the tension that was there a while ago still lingering, and he nodded at
her in his normal manner. She bent down opposite of him to place her ninja
outfit back with her other clothes, and felt the hairs on her neck prickle as
she felt his intense gaze burning into her back.
When she turned around to face
him, he had already stood up and was walking towards her in an almost leisurely
pace.

There was something different
about his eyes…Misao couldn't quite place what, but it scared her.

The color of his eyes is still the same, the color of the snow that I had seen
before…but the burning in them is like the smoldering flames behind him.
Misao stepped backwards to place some distance between them as fear welled up
within her heart. His eyes aren't like that. They've always been glazed
over with ice.



"Misao." Aoshi said softly,
reaching out for her.
Misao stepped away from his touch.
"What is it, Aoshi-sama?" her voice trembled only slightly as she spoke.
Suddenly his hands pressed roughly
against her shoulders, pushing her to the tree behind her, the jagged ridges of
the bark scratching her skin as they tore through the thin material of the
yukata she wore. She recoiled from the pain that had exploded in her head as it
made painful contact with the hard trunk.
She didn't have much time to
recover, though, as Aoshi's mouth crushed hers in a fierce kiss. She gasped in
surprise, and Aoshi took advantage of this and invaded her mouth with his
tongue, his hands slowly wandering from her shoulder to the side of her body,
lingering on her soft curves, and then resting on her hips.
Misao twisted her head away from
him in revolt. Yes, she had dreamt of this moment for so long, but…not like
this. She had never thought-never imagined that Aoshi-sama would be so rough
with her.
"What is it?" Aoshi whispered,
voice low and raspy, his fingers dancing over her left thigh.
"I-I…Aoshi-sama…don't…"
she looked up and met his gaze, and screamed. His eyes flashed a deadly scarlet,
the color of fresh blood.
"Who are you?" she whispered,
shrinking back against the tree in a pathetic attempt to distance her from the
man, ignoring the agony that shot up from her back as the wood deepened her
wounds. He looks like Aoshi-sama, but his eyes betrayed him. They gave him
away.
The man did not answer. He simply
smirked, and leaned forward to place a brutal kiss on her lips again. Terrified
beyond reason, Misao was only able to rely on her instinct. She bit his lip,
flinching slightly, tasting his blood as it slowly fell from his lip and down
her chin.


The man pulled away abruptly, and
she watched in horror as the wound that she had inflicted slowly closed, the
blood that had stained his chin and the side of his mouth entering the quickly
vanishing wound.
"You little bitch!" He brought
his arm back and hit her soundly on the side of her face. His other hand had
cuffed both her arms behind her and her struggles to free herself from him were
futile.
"Get away from me!" she
yelled, jerking both her arms in attempt to escape his grasp.
"Always been a tough one, ne,
Mitsuko? You've never listened." the man smirked and leaned close again.
"I'll fix that."

Mitsuko? That was-
And Misao felt his lips against
hers again, interrupting her thoughts. In an instant, she felt some kind of
liquid enter her mouth from his own. The thick, metallic-tasting fluid sloshed
against her tongue for a moment before burning down her throat. Soon after her
stomach contracted painfully, her mind began to spin, and she felt like she was
going to be sick.
Poison! She thought dizzily
as her head throbbed. He poisoned me!


He threw her to the ground, his
strong hands savagely tearing her yukata open as she fell. Her limbs and head
were now so heavy that all she could only moan in protest as she felt him kneel
atop her, scattering hot kisses all over her.
"D-dame…" she managed to
choke out, her eyes closing as her vision blurred, her mind eventually blocking
out the rustling of cloth as he took off her undergarments and his own clothes,
the feel of his hands over her skin as he forced her legs open.
And then he pushed into her,
savagely taking away her innocence amidst her pleading whispers, hot tears
blazing down her cheeks as she felt his hips thrust against hers repeatedly,
until the poison that had been slowly consuming her mind finally took over and
she allowed the darkness to surround her. One, final thought echoing in her
mind.

You're not Aoshi-sama…

Author's Notes: >_< Okay,
I'm being a little too cruel with Misao, gomen…I have to do this…it's
essential to the story. You'll see in the next part why. And most of you have
probably already figured out who Mitsuko is, but…you'll see if you were
right soon enough. *shrugs* Comments, please?!


A
major thanks goes out to Desi for prereading this chapter and really
improving it!
<<<Chapter
6
Chapter 7b>>>
Evil
Within
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