Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ The Evil Within ❯ Renaissance (10) ( Chapter 14 )

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

Renaissance - TEW 10




The
Evil Within


Chapter
10 - Renaissance


The
insanity continues…





Tenkage allowed her hands to fall lifelessly on either side of
her as the vibrant white light slowly vanished from her fingertips. For the
space of a heartbeat, she slumped weakly, her breath rattling in her lungs. Then
she looked up and regarded everyone that was gathered around her with tired
golden-blue eyes that gleamed with what bore a faint semblance to relief.


"The worst is over," she
murmured, gently picking Misao up and cradling the younger girl against her
breast, "I've restored most of her organs…most. Megumi-san."


Megumi, taking several deep breaths
in a valiant attempt to calm herself, swept her eyes over Tenkage's wings,
spread out in all its almost unholy splendor, before being able to speak.
"H-hai?" she whispered in a trembling voice, one apparently borne of
fascinated awe.


"Please take Mi-chan inside. I
haven't fully healed her yet, and I haven't healed her enough either to
leave her in your care. Not yet. Just…do everything you can to lessen her
bleeding. I'll follow you all inside. I must collect my strength."


For several seconds, all of them
stood frozen in place as shock continued to take its effect upon them.


"We don't have time!" Tenkage
snapped, her harsh tone pulling them back into reality. "Misao is going to die
if we don't move fast!"


"Hai, de gozaru yo," Kenshin
was the first to hurry forward and tenderly take Misao's unmoving figure from
Tenkage. "Will you be all right?"


"Daijoubue," Tenkage waved them
all away, her other hand still upon her chest as the strength continued draining
from her at a rapid pace. "I'll be fine. Now go!"


"Right," with a swift nod,
Kenshin hurried inside at Megumi's command.


Soon everyone in the Kamiya dojo
was moving, with the exception of Shinomori Aoshi and Kourinno Tenkage herself.


Aoshi knelt down beside the
angel-or whatever she was-and placed a hand upon her arm. "You…what are
you?"


Tenkage regarded the ex-okashira
with eyes that glittered with pity. "I know what's happening to you,
Aoshi," she whispered, watching with only slight dread as she noticed his eyes
flash a brief crimson. "You don't…you're never alone, are you?"


"Nani?" Aoshi narrowed his
eyes, stiffening as he heard Rofocale's furious yells as the demon began to
wage his war for dominance again.


Dammit, Shinomori! Don't talk to
that bitch! The worthless little-


Aoshi shook his head and blocked
all the angered cries from his mind.


"I know that you're never
alone, Aoshi-san." Tenkage voice was hushed, her breathing was still heavy as
she slowly took off one of the many necklaces that adorned her slender throat.
"I know that there is something in your mind, in your very soul, slowly eating
away at you, at your very essence of being, corrupting everything…"


Aoshi jerked his hand away from
her. "How did you-what are you…"



"Trust
me," she whispered, reaching for one blood-coated hand and pressing the
necklace into it, "wear this."
Aoshi looked down upon the pendant.
It was a small, light one, and it hung from a thin chain as it the tarnished
metal shone a pale silver-gold in the sunlight. Symbols that were unfamiliar to
him were entrenched unto it. "What is this?"


Tenkage shook her head as she began
to get up, staggering and wincing only slightly as her wide wings slowly folded
themselves back into her shoulder blades. "You wouldn't understand," she
hissed, "but wear it. For the time being, it will trap the soul reaper within
your body and he won't be able to control you. But it won't take him that
long a time before he finds a way to escape the spell cast upon it and you are
left alone to fight him again."


Aoshi nodded, slowly slipping the
amulet around his neck. He immediately felt the warmth that emanated from it,
the sensation reminding him of being cradled in someone's arms. With a soft
sigh, he got up as well. He continued to look at Tenkage with blue eyes that
were almost awed.


Tenkage stared back at him blankly,
the hollowness in them a sharp contrast to the anxiety that contorted her
otherworldly features. "Let's go. Misao needs us. I'll explain everything
later, all right?"



Aoshi
nodded again, wordlessly following her into the dojo where they had brought
Misao, lost in his own thoughts.
What secrets do
you keep, Tenkage-san? What haven't you told us?


And which ones will you reveal?





Tenkage entered the room swiftly
and silently. "Minna-san," she whispered, making her presence known, "how
is she?"


"She's awake…but she's
delirious," Megumi answered quietly, the strain in her voice painfully
obvious.


Tenkage nodded as her gaze strayed
to the young, wounded ninja. Misao was lying down upon a soft futon,
perspiration lining her pale forehead, her indigo eyes open but unseeing, her
cries agonized but unintelligible. She clung to Megumi, who sat next to her,
desperation that was both haunting and poignant twisting the younger girl's
features.


Sanosuke narrowed his eyes as he
turned to her. "What happened out there?" he asked in a low, almost
threatening voice.


"I will tell you later,"
Tenkage answered sharply, shaking her head. "For now…all of you please
leave."


"Doushite?" Yahiko interrupted
in a tone that was almost identical to Sano's, crossing his arms across his
chest.


"I cannot do this with so much
energy and tension around me!" she hissed, eyes flashing in apparent
irritation, any semblance of calm she had been clinging to escaping her grasp as
she spoke. "Megumi-san, Arigatou for taking good care of her. I can take it
from here."


Megumi nodded somewhat nervously.
"Her wound is opening up again. I can't stitch it together if some of her
vital organs haven't been mended yet."


"I know," Tenkage responded as
she knelt down beside Misao. She looked up at Kenshin with pleading eyes.
"Please, please leave now. I can feel Misao slowly dying."


Kenshin, with one arm still around
Kaoru, slowly nodded and walked out. He gestured for Sano to follow him, which,
with a bitter expression twisting the street fighter's features, did so.


"Please call Aoshi-san on your
way out," the angel called after them as she gently wiped the sweat off the
young ninja's forehead before she quietly added, "she'll be needing
him."


"Aa," Kenshin answered, voice
almost imperceptible as he closed the shoji after Yahiko walked out.


Tenkage shivered in the silence of
the room. She detested being in total silence. It reminded her too much of the
times-times long gone-when she would be left alone in her own home, wondering if
anyone in her family would ever come back alive.


She looked up as the shoji was
pulled open again, a hint of relief gracing her demure features as she did so,
grateful for the interruption of her thoughts.


"Aoshi-san," she whispered, a
smile that was gentle and cynical at the same time pulling on her trembling
lips.


"Himura said you needed me
here," he answered, voice and expression totally impassive as he sat down
beside Misao, who was now pressing her fingers against her gash as waves of pain
surged through her in great arcs. Blank, placid expression never wavering, he
tenderly plucked her hand away from the wound and held it in his larger one.
"Doushite?"


Tenkage's gaze was upon Aoshi's
fingers gently winding around Misao's slender hand. "The only way for her to
live - through my healing - will be excruciatingly painful for her. I have
no other choice but to inflict agony that is worse that what she's feeling
right now upon her. And I know that you'll somehow help ease the torture
she'll be going through."


Aoshi narrowed his azure eyes, the
calm look upon his face finally dissipating as Tenkage's words sunk in. She
doesn't deserve to go through this, he told himself, shaking his head, it's
your fault she's like this in the first place.


"Matte," he murmured quietly,
his fingers tightening around her frail hand as she trembled violently.


"What is it?" the angel asked
in a voice just as soft as she slowly collected all the strength her soul held.


"Can't I…can't I take the
pain for her?" he posed the question almost apprehensively as he looked down
upon Misao with eyes that slowly grew warmer with each passing moment.
"Isn't there a way you can…somehow take the pain away from her and put it
all into me?"


Tenkage smiled compassionately at
him and reached out and fondly patted his arm. "Aoshi, you-"


"I can take it," he interrupted
coldly, shifting away from her touch. But I don't know if she can, he
added silently as he felt Misao's delicate, unusually chilly hand tremble in
his.


"I know you can," the angel
answered, slowly drawing in a shuddering breath as her wings slowly emerged from
her back and then broadened till it was spread as far as their span could
possibly go, each tip almost touching either end of the small room, "but there
isn't anything we can do about it."


Aoshi didn't bother to respond as
he continued to regard Misao with cerulean eyes that now faintly glittered with
concern that had never been there before.


After several seconds of silence,
the ex-okashira looked up. Icy blue met with gentle golden-azure as their gazes
locked. "What do I have to do?"


"Nothing," Tenkage answered,
"just stay there beside her - she knows you're there, Aoshi," the angel
shrugged slightly, an almost bitter, if not envious, smile growing upon her
lips, "and that in itself would already greatly ease her pain."


Aoshi slowly nodded. "Maybe you
should already begin," he murmured, looking down upon Misao, his voice tinged
with a certain warmth that was possibly emanating from a partiality that could
have been either brotherly…or something more, Tenkage couldn't tell. Aoshi
gently pressed an already blood-soaked cloth against the onmitsu's injury,
lips pulled into a grim line as he watched her writhe in what seemed to be pain
beneath his touch. "She's quickly weakening."


Tenkage nodded and closed her eyes
in preparation. "Hai."


Aoshi watched in awe, unable to
restrain himself, as the angel placed her slender hands inches over Misao's
torso. It took at least a few seconds for the pale light to slowly begin to glow
at her fingertips, and this gave the ex-okashira some time to openly inspect her
without fear of being caught or of being interrupted.


Tenkage was most certainly
striking…but not the kind that attracted him. She had the kind of features
that made you feel compelled to continue to gaze at her, the kind of splendor
that made you want to drink her in, to forever engrave her very image upon your
mind. The angel's beauty was otherworldly, almost unholy.


He glanced at Misao, at her pale,
gaunt cheeks, her closed eyes, her almost bloodless lips and he remembered how
she had been before-animated, youthful, energetic…she seemed to have had an
innate, natural cheerfulness in her that, to the older onmitsu, made her
seem beautiful. He shook his head and returned his gaze to Tenkage.


With a deep breath, the night-angel
slowly opened her mouth and murmured words of magic, words that asked for
blessing and sanction from gods, words that pleaded for Misao's protection
against the contagion that slowly ate at her body.


The radiance at Tenkage's
fingertips grew, spreading until it cloaked Aoshi in a warmth more comforting
and soothing than even the amulet that he wore around his neck. He narrowed his
eyes against the blinding brilliance that was now blanketing the whole room.


Then, in the seemingly hushed
silence, a cry that tore through his heart pierced the heated air, and the hand
that was limp in Aoshi's own tightened with a crushing strength that could
have only been borne of great, almost unbearable pain.


The ex-okashira forced his eyes
open, and he saw Misao, sapphire eyes wide open, her pale lips opening in a
silent cry of pain. Her back arched off the futon as burning tears began to make
their way down her ashen face.


Unable to take the expression that
haunted the younger ninja's face, Aoshi averted his gaze and watched, with
some twisted fascination, as the blood that he himself had spilled was quickly
tricking back in her wound. He winced as he saw her already pale,
delicate skin slowly stretch to close over the wide cut. He felt, though did not
see, the younger girl desperately kicking her legs and flailing one arm around
in hopes of lessening the pain that flooded her.


Aoshi tightened his grasp around
her hand, his thumb moving around her palm in calming, hypnotic circles as he
whispered her name over and over again in a comforting litany.


Then, as the last of the crimson
fluid entered the almost-closed gash, Misao threw her head back, tears still
snaking down her gaunt face, and screamed.


The pitiful cry was almost more
than Aoshi could take. In it, he heard torment that seemed to be everlasting,
pain that never seemed to end, and sorrow that would never cease.


For the length of a single
heartbeat, all that came to exist in his world was that ghastly, soul-wrenching
wail that came from her lips. To him, all it meant was that he was the
source of her everlasting torment, endless pain, and ceaseless sorrow.


He reached out with his other hand
and gently wiped the cold sweat that lined the girl's forehead, a bitter smile
upon his lips as he whispered words that he was never aware of saying. "Gomen
nasai, Misao."


Then the light was swallowed up in
the bleak shadows of the room, and both Aoshi and Tenkage immediately felt the
austere mood settle down upon them. At that exact same moment, Misao's body
fell limp again, her eyes closed, her fingers unclenched, but the tears
continued their path down her cheeks.


The angel was now weak; she
trembled violently, her slender body was wracked with spasmodic coughs, and she
leaned feebly upon her forearms as she did so.


"Daijoubou?" Aoshi asked, his
soft voice cutting through the darkness.


"I'll be fine," Tenkage was
able to murmur before she fell victim to another paroxysm of coughs.


The angel staggered only slightly
as she got up, one arm coiled around her midsection as she walked over to the
shoji, slowly pulling it open, allowing the sunlight's radiance to briefly
spill over the room. She cast one glance at Misao, now cradled in Aoshi's
strong arms, before closing it behind her, shutting them back in the darkness of
the room. The ex-okashira, through the haze that had settled upon his mind,
vaguely heard her saying something about "talking to everyone."


"Misao," he whispered,
anxiously holding his breath as he waited for some kind of evidence that she
would be fine…kami, she still looked so weak…"wake up."


After several seconds of silence
and an alarming lack of response, Aoshi repeated her name, his grip around her
thin shoulders unconsciously tightening.


Then, without warning, the young
ninja's eyes opened. Ice locked with emptiness as Aoshi looked into her
still-hollow eyes.


"Aoshi-sama," she murmured, one
hand upon her heart as she tried to steady her labored breathing. In that one
word, Aoshi heard something he hadn't heard in her voice in a long time-trust,
warmth and compassion. He watched as the void in her eyes was filled with a
beautiful gleam that he hadn't seen in an even longer time. Without another
whisper escaping her lips-she found it too hard to do through the coughs that
wracked her weakened body-she curled into Aoshi's comforting arms, closed her
eyes, and allowed the sweet sleep to engulf her.


Despite himself, the ex-okashira
felt a smile begin at the corners of his lips.


"Mi-chan! Daijoubou?"


Kaoru.
The voice was already echoing from the halls outside as heavy footsteps
reverberated from the same direction.


True to his thought, the shoji was
suddenly yanked open with unusual aggression, and several people stood at the
doorway, each one wearing identical expressions of frightened anxiety and
brimming hope.


"She's going to be fine,"
Aoshi told them in a quiet voice, though he was quite sure no one heard him, for
they all at once began to talk.


He watched as Sanosuke, without so
much as a glance at him, plucked Misao's seemingly lifeless form from his
arms. Aoshi didn't even try to protest against this, no matter how much he
wanted to; what right did he have left to her anyway?


Though he noticed, with bitter
regret and self-loathing guilt, as he watched them all surround Misao, as
Sanosuke carried her out at Megumi's command, that the blood that had stained
her abdomen was gone, and so was the blood that had spilled all over the cloth
of her outfit. Even the crimson liquid that had trickled from her pale lips was
gone, probably back into her bloodstream, he guessed.


But, as the ex-okashira looked down
upon his hands with a combination of both abhorrence and hatred, he saw that the
scarlet fluid that tainted his hands was still there.





Author's Notes: Another chapter
done, woohoo! *does the happy dance* Now I only have seven more chapters to go.
Yay!


Oh, and in case you didn't
notice, the last line was some kind of freaky symbolism at work. Blood that
tainted his hands-stained his hands-guilt-his fault-never mind, you're now
confused, hooha.


Well, this was a fun chapter to write, I'll be
waiting for some comments…flames…that stuff.

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9b
Chapter
11a>>>
The
Evil Within
Hooha,
comments go here!