Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ The Getaway ❯ Break out ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter five: Break out

[Tokyo]

"So then I had to go to the bursar's," Okon was saying as she speared a steamed-pork dumpling between her chopsticks. "And by this time I'm, like, freaking out. So I waited in another huge line there-and would you believe, they sent me to financial aid?"

Sayo dipped her dumpling in duck sauce and popped it into her mouth, waiting for sympathetic noises. She and Megumi, sitting on the couch, bent over their takeout cartons, were quiet.

"So get this," Okon went on when she'd swallowed. "By the time I got to the financial-aid office, there were closed! Can you believe it? And after all that, I still have to go back tomorrow to register!"

Glowering, Megumi stabbed at a dumpling. Sayo swirled her chopsticks around in her carton of noodles; her mouth set in a tight line. Sometimes, Okon could really be too loquacious than anyone could be.

"I'm leaning towards declaring art history," Okon went on, not until someone stormed inside their dorm room keeping the sable haired Okon in `shut-up' mode.

Everyone concentrated their eyes upon Lana who just stood near the doorjamb. "Has anyone of you seen Arcia?" she asked, her expression was twisted from being tense and goosey.

"No." the three chorused an answer.

"Is there something wrong?" Sayo asked. It wasn't normal for her to hear Lana calling Arcy by her real name.

"Kiwazaki-sensei told me that she quit school." Lana had this tinge of concern in her voice.

"What?" Megumi gasped. "Since when?"

"Yesterday. Some men came to our suite and took all of her things. I thought she would be here, hanging with you guys."

Sayo shook her head sadly, "No. We haven't seen her anywhere. Did Kiwazaki-sensei told you why she quitted school?"

`That's what I'm afraid of. Did she left because of me?' she asked her self. She could still remember how mean she was when Clark broke up with her. "No… I have no idea." She shook her head, totally devastated with her thoughts. Was it possible that she left the university because of her?

-=0=-

The scene was horrible; no one could bear to see such foul play within one's eyes. A pond of blood veneer the granite ground and two dead bodies lying defunct on the cold parterre. A sight of a small girl crying on her hands and knees within a room soaked from ceiling to floor of human blood, mumbling words out from her small mouth, "Mama… papa…"

And there came the fires of hell trickling down on her toes.

She was screaming and sobbing hard from the distress

and ache the fires were creating.

Everything was burning, scorching and so as the body of her parents,

Searing on pyre as their bodies became dusts out from the cold breeze

She wanted to escape

she desired to breakout from the unrestrained inferno

wishing to find something that could make the fire disappear

Her feet lead her towards outside once she decided to raised up from her position

Screaming until she had finally seen a streak of light coming from the outside.

She kept on running, running until… until

"Ugh!" Arcia jolted awake from her dream, all chilled and wet. She then realized that someone had thrown a pail of frostbitten water while she was unconscious. She brought both of her hands to her face and started to wipe her cheeks and blows out the water that had entered her nose. After coughing for her dear life, her slender fingers came to smooth down her saturated tresses, extracting it away from her neck.

"At last! The princess finally wake up…" the man who tossed the water on her face made a stale laugh and placed the vessel back down to the floor.

Arcia tried to observe the whole area she's currently in. It looks like she was in to some kind of an old laboratory or something since there were lots of medical equipment hanged around the walls. `Where am I?' as far as she could remember, she was framed to some mission where SCO appears and constraints her for the sins she had done. She fought although she failed… after that, Enishi directly pace his way and shot her with his pistol.

Automatically, she looked down to see any gunshot on her stomach. Unusually, she had seen nothing. Her black coat was removed away from her leaving the scarlet cat suit covering her body. Her twin blades were also taken away, replaced by heavy handcuffs making both of her wrists sore. She had noticed the small hole upon her belly, but still it was no sign of any gunshot as what she was expecting to have. She's supposedly to be dead by now… in stead feeling afflictive and dizzy, which only means that, `He shot me with a tranquilizer.' There was no other explanation for this kind of matter. What currently signifies right now was why she was here and how on earth could she escaping these blasted SCO agents?

"Tie her." the bald guy in a white set of clothes ordered as the two other men came to seize down her arms. She wanted to struggle so badly but her body won't let her to. Seems like Enishi placed a lot of drugs inside her body as well.

After the painful strap tied both of her arms and feet, the bald guy verge closer with a large injection and a huge needle at the tip grasped upon his hands. "This is going to hurt a little bit." He said while trying to examine the antacid inside.

Arcia's eyes widened out in terror and fear of feeling that sharp instrument probe down on her skin. "You're not really gonna use that on me, do you?" and then her vast blue eyes caught a sight of the small sprinkle coming out from the injection, "… or maybe you would…" she took a huge amount of swig when the psychotic doctor walking closer to where she lay.

"I'll put heroin inside you to slow you down. After that, you'll tell us everything you knew about the CIA and who's the other double-crossers lurking around the department." She knew he would say that. What else could be the reason why their all putting these various kinds of narcotics inside her body anyway?

Arcia tried to pull her arms off also swaying her feet but was left hopeless since she was lashed so tight. She wanted to get out and fleet away, but her tanked brain and impotent body won't let her perform such actions.

The man was so close with a freakish grin on his face, in such a way that he was delighted with this current operation. "But before that-" he made a cue and the same couple of men advanced their way to her carrying wires that sparks in high voltage.

That's when she realized the very motive why they tried to drench her… not only for the reason to let her gain consciousness, but also to electroplate her to death. Both brought the circuit and pervaded her bare skin. Arcia screamed in pain as the electricity came to galvanize her whole-dampened body. Her eyes threw wide open, shaking in terrible shock of electricity. There came the first zap, followed by the second… after million times of torturing her anesthetized being, Arcia was left numb back to the chair, completely weak from fatigue and worn out.

That's when the capricious doctor came and took the benefit of her being paralyzed. This was a perfect time to struck the needle to her flesh and insert the drug since the woman who wouldn't have the strength to affray. He took one of Arcia's arm and directed the injection languidly. This small task would be full-fledged, when suddenly he heard cries of death clinging around his ears.

Not until… "What the??" the bald guy turned around and found him self staring at a pair of blue narrowing eyes staring down to his stunned ones. He noticed the two men drop dead on his feet, both guillotined with a puddle of blood bathing their skins.

"Fuck off." Aoshi glared at him so intense, the man trembled down to his knees, slowly raising him self away from Aoshi's sight. But the attempt of escaping failed when Aoshi drew out his kodachi and slashed the man behind his back. He fell off and joined the other corpses on the floor.

Arcia unclearly witnessed the bloodshed and haven't really noticed who was the intruder who killed everyone else inside the room. She was dead tired and couldn't help but to groan out in pain.

He didn't wasted neither a single minute and briskly approached the bushed girl, releasing her out from the tight rawhide bridling her on the chair. "Are you alright?" he asked while getting pissed off by the stupid strap cleaving on her right hand.

"Aoshi?" then she frowned with his dense question. "Do I look alright?" Arcia weakly replied. Once she was unrestrained, Aoshi took her off from the death stool and aided her to her feet.

"What are you doing here?" she was not really anticipating someone to save her ass out from this mess. Neither did she know that CIA knows something about this deceitful task.

"No time to explain. I'll get you out of here." He took her left arm and placed it around his neck with his other hand circled around her waist. Luckily, Arcia could still walk despite of the deep bruises marked on her body. He had retrieved both of her twin blades and she placed them back to her arms.

No one was guarding the whole hallway and all she could see was surfeited men lying on the ground. `Was he responsible for all of this?' terribly SCO wouldn't let a man like him to escape especially knowing that he had killed almost a dozen of Splinter Agents.

After passing three corridors without being caught, Aoshi was forced to halt their movements somewhere the corner staircases of the old building.

He placed her down to the second step of the fire escape, hearing a sigh of fulfillment out from her mouth. He stared down at her and couldn't help but to feel empathy and vicarious emotions. How could anyone do such harsh tortures to a woman like her? He knew she wasn't that all dainty and simple as any other fem could be, but she was still a woman and women are not made to be treated like this. Her long black hair was dampened, eyes were heavy-lidded, her whole body was listless, deep bruises marked her pure porcelain skin and her clothes were torn with a small hole appearing on her stomach. Arcia Rinslet, the most well-famed agent of Splinter Cell, the virago of the female society, the most stubborn and arrogant damsel he had ever known appears like a broken goddess at this kind of predicaments. She emerges the semblance of the Goddess of the Moon, Diana who had fallen down from the blue orb of the dark heavens right here in front of him.

Arcia stirred when she felt his gaze penetrated her skin. "You haven't answered my question yet," she tried her best to lift her head up to face her knight in shining armor, "Why are you here? Why did you save me?"

It took some moment before her question registered upon his mind. He turned his head away, avoiding seeing her shattered sapphire eyes. "CIA sent me here. Schneider came to the agency and told us about the SCO's current plans to… exterminate you." He has no idea how to put the word to it, but it did came out just as what he was expecting.

Her brows came to furrow out in baffle, "H-how?" she wanted to release an intelligent question, but she was just too weak to speak more.

"Someone stole your files. His name is Jineh, Shishio sent him to pilfer through CIA's filing system."

"CIA promised… to seal… my cooperation…" she hissed angrily. How could they betray her like this? She almost died because of that blasted organization that was made to broke their promises to imperiled agents like her.

Aoshi glanced away. He couldn't get the persuasion of meeting her eyes. He, him self was ashamed about CIA's foolishness. Aoshi glanced away. He couldn't get the persuasion of meeting her eyes. He, him self was ashamed about CIA's foolishness. Now, there's nothing left for her but to escape and keep her self out from SCO's hands. "The agency knew it was their fault. I'm here to take the duty of taking you away."

"Where are we going? Splinter Cell will do anything to hunt me down even if we escape this asylum. And now you came here to join this bloody plights…"

Before Aoshi could even open his mouth to answer, bustling sounds came down the hallway. Both snap their heads and turned attentively to where the mass of Splinter wards came. He took her wrist and pulled her out from the area.

Arcia groaned in pain while in the act of running away. He had leaded her to the most unfamiliar corners of the building just to trick those bastards that had persistently following their trail. He felt her grip upon his hand when Arcia finally snapped out from the throbbing agony that her body had been producing.

Seeing one of the further veers, he hauled her there and allowed her to pant and ease down her exhausted condition. "Can you still run?" he had seen her detriment and might as well decide to carry her with his own way of escaping. Using his ninjutsu may be needed on purpose.

Slowly by raising her head, he took one whole draught and nodded. "I think I could," she used the cold bulwark as a leverage and elevated her self at a leisurely pace. "Just stand up and-" sapphire and teal pools snap open in the sudden impact. The woman cringe in the procrastinating affliction that she was starting to feel. She was shot directly on her torso, even hit her bones by the piece of ammunition.

Aoshi furiously turned to his attention to where the bullet came from and saw a form of a man holding a pistol on his hand while standing from the shadows not so far away from their location. "Who's there?" he yelled as he reached for his own weapon.

"I never expected you'd even try to escape." said by the pair of blazing verdant eyes beneath the thick shades. This unsettled things a lot worse than he had expected.

Arcia groaned in ache and quickly took her hand to cover the irrevocable blood flowing out from her. She threw an agonizing face as she takes off her dirty cloak, revealing her slender body inside her formal red suit with two blades hanging from each of her legs. Aoshi watched this as she straps of the heavy metal on both wrist, raising a slanted blade, more like a shape of a crescent moon if merely strike on by light. In spite of the blood dripping on her body, she still managed to stance to a fighting pose with both kotetsu joined together by her hands. "Are you here to kill me, Enishi?"

`Enishi? Arcia's SCO partner...' Aoshi thought as the figure walked off from the shadows, exposing a man with pure ivory hair and tiger like eyes that luster against the lamppost next to him. Aoshi returned his attention to the heavy breathing Arcia who was currently stagnant behind him. She was in pain, he could see that. And to think that the bullet had not only cleaved her tissues, there was a sight of violet liquid flowing with her blood. `It could be poison I suppose.'

"You betrayed SCO. You have to pay your life for that." No matter how hard he tried to put upon the sturdy look on his face, Arcia could still see the tinge of reluctance and anger by shooting her with his own hand. "And you even dared to bring a new protector. Who's he? Someone from CIA?"

"Stop it!" Arcia grumbles as she hisses on her throbbing torso.

"You betrayed the state, Arcia. How could you do this to us… to me??"

"I never betrayed anyone… SCO's the enemy of the state, Enishi! You're working underneath the bad guys!"

"Bullshit Arcy! Stop this nonsense!"

"This is no nonsense Enishi! SCO kept on stealing weapons and selling them to any triads or mafia's who had been using it against the law. They had never been serving anyone. They wanted the state dead, don't you get it?"

Enishi glared at his ex-partner, "How could you not tell this to me? I even tried protecting your dignity against that bastard Shishio! How could you lie to me?" even though he preferably wanted to believe any of the words Arcia had said, he couldn't find the courage to do so since he's currently standing upon SCO grounds.

"I'm… I'm sorry… I just-I was just afraid losing you. They'll get you killed once you were informed about any of my affairs."

"It's no excuse. I was told to do this…"

Arcia breathed heavily in pain. She had no idea whether she'll be able to survive the damage if she just stand here and not healing it, "Does this make you happy? By taking me to my death bed?" the injury was starting to open her guts wider than expected. It seems the venom was starting to eat her flesh up.

Enishi couldn't even look straight into her eyes, "If I had to… I would."

Arcia's anger rises to its peak; "You're insane! You can't do this to me!" her feet automatically hasten its self to speed over and confront the maddening eyes of the tiger when suddenly, Aoshi caught her by her waist, pulling her away from the target. "Aoshi, Let go of me! Let go!" her cries didn't worked eventually when Aoshi tightened his grip, although getting a little gentle as possible to avoid from touching her wound.

By any chance, Aoshi took it and instantly used his ninjutsu technique of disappearing with Arcia on his grip. Enishi's eyes widened and even speculated what exactly had just happened. "Shit!" both were no where to be found. "Fuck!"

-=0=-

The realm was in turmoil that he decided to take the path leading to the forest. Arcia was in his arms, leaning against him as he locate each every trail he could follow just to escape the area. When he was assured of stepping almost at the center of the forest, he walked to the nearest elm and placed the injured woman on it.

Her eyes were shut tightly because of the twinge of pang right on her torso. Her face was paler so as her lips that were turning ashen in every passing minute. Of course he instantly thought of not letting her die at once, she needed to live for some unknown reasons. This current curiosity instantly prod him down, the fact that she was betrayed by one of her comrades quite stun him. How on earth did Enishi know where to find her presence? And if he did intended to kill Arcia, why did he shot her once and never repeated the same procedure? Enishi came there all by him self and certainly he did not sense any of SCO official's propinquity around the sector.

Aoshi shook the doubts away, resolving to contemplate it once when everything's all right. He briskly torn the cloth covering her wound and found the ensanguined flesh getting immense, "Hold on, alright?" he took off his shawl and quickly covered her torso tightly. This was all he could do for now until they'll be able to find safety away from Shishio's wardens.

Arcia moaned as the pain starts to affect her again. One of her eyes slightly open only to watch what the adhesive ninja was doing. Many questions had started to fill her mind. She had no idea why Aoshi had even dared helping her considering that he could have just left her behind. If he stays a path together with her, both of them will be facing much rugged discommodes against Splinter Cell. But right now, she'd rather not to think about it… not until she's fully recovered.

When he strained the knot, she cried out in total distress. And the next thing she knew, she was being hauled again by somebody else, felt like she was being carried in air as her savior dashes its way deeper to the timberlands.

The lids of her eyes were heavy and tediously flowing her to slumber. She aimlessly lax her weight against the ninja's chest, letting a small sigh when her head found the juncture of his jaw and neck. She nuzzled there almost breathing his particular scent, drifting to drowse when everything felt cushy.

He felt scarcely bizarre when she morally loose her strength and inclined closer to him. Looks like she'll be able to survive the night for the time being right before he could find shelter to heal her.

-=0=-

The scene was horrible; no one could bear to see such foul play within one's eyes. A pond of blood veneer the granite ground and two dead bodies lying defunct on the cold parterre. A sight of a small girl crying on her hands and knees within a room soaked from ceiling to floor of human blood, mumbling a words out from her small mouth, "Mama… papa…"

Jolt awake, sapphire eyes became naked against the small illumination coming out somewhere from the window of the room. It felt strange when she noticed that this wasn't her room and quickly rouses from the bed, inducing the throe of her injury to afflict her once more. She wrench in pain and saw her self being covered with bandages from the top of her breast to the closure of her waist.

"Don't move too much or the wound will be cloven painfully."

Arcia glance at the person who just spoken. Who else would own such gloomy voice no other than the guy who was sitting at a chair near the bed where she was laying. "You." A gruff mutter came from her mouth as her eyes bear to vision a sight of the same man who had helped her escape the sanctuary. "Did you-" she was more like pin pointing out her almost half-naked appearance and Aoshi did immediately understood what she meant.

He shook his head earnestly; "The doctor did that. She's in the next room, preparing something for your wound." He can't sway the feeling of pity towards the ailing woman half-sited on the bed. She looks so fragile, so weak that he was so afraid to touch her. All her physical appearance turn paler than usual, still handicapped as she emerges from that mattress despite of the medicine the elder had given to her.

"Where are we?" her frail voice asked as her eyes starts to scan the shabby hut they were in.

"In the forest. I found this little hut and met a couple of old people. They helped us and treated you. You've been asleep for almost a couple of days from now."

"I'm sleeping for two days?" she can't assume she had been omitted to the outside world for such a long time. It felt like the incident from SCO's hospice just had happened yesterday.

"The young man is right, dear. Did you slept well?" both quickly glanced to the direction of the voice and saw the couple entering the room with the old woman carrying a small vessel on her hands.

Arcia nodded and watch the form of the old woman sitting next to her on the bed. "Drink this. It will ease the pain." She handed her the cup although Arcia had her hesitations run her down. She stared at the lime colored liquid, sensing its nauseating relish and the possibilities of what would it do to her. Unconsciously, she turned to Aoshi as if she's seeking an admonition whether she would take it or not. He made a cue by a muted answer of yes, urging her to go on. She turned her head to look at the old woman and she also drives her to imbibe the elixir.

With a sigh, Arcia took the remedy and drank it straightly. As what she had expected, the liquid taste repulsive, cursing in her thoughts for drinking it in a hasten manner. Her eyes fluttered to shut tightly with both of her hands handling the cup back to the old woman's grasp as she clutches at the sheet of the bed, trying to swallow down the terrible medicament.

Peculiarly, he found it amusing and whimsical just watching her endure the bitter zest to gulp it all down to her stomach. A small smile was creeping down on his lips until she opened her eyes and breathed heavily.

"It's… awful…" her voice was soft, more like her girl side was appearing as her voice turns more like in a shrieking custom. This time, the grin broke from his lips strangely while the old woman pats her back for comfort. He'll be able to survive this kind of company, just always crease it into his mind that he's determined of not letting anyone execute her. The curiosity keeps on increasing day by day and he'll never leave her trail least if everything's settled.

TBC