Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ The Strongest Will Always Feed off the Weak ❯ A Favor ( Chapter 2 )

The Strongest Will Always Feed off the Weak

Chapter 2: A Favor

By TMarauder

"Shishio? How could that boy do this to you?" Yumi cried out madly as she cradled Shishio's limp form on her lap. She was lying in a pool of his blood, staining her elegant kimono. "You told me you had every thing under control! How could that Soujiro do this?"

She lifted herself off the slick floor. "I must hide you," she said to herself. She looked around the room for a place to do it. Then remembered that there was a trap door underneath the bed that only she knew about. The other person that knew is now dead! She thought bitterly.

She walked over to the foreign designed bed and knelt down beside it. She reached under it near the foot of the bed. She felt the string that would lead her to it. Pulling on it lead her to the middle of the floor under the king sized bed. There was a foot between the bed's bottom and the floor, that's where she lay. Groping the floor Yumi found the outlines of the trap door. She dug her nails into the crack. She pulled at it with all of her strength. As it lifted she changed hr grip on it, her hands sweating from the heaviness. Finally, it was lifted up to the highest it could be under that bed and shoved it off to the side.

She slid out from the bed, grabbed a linen off it and ran to Shishio. She wrapped his body up in the clean linen from the bed. Then she towed him under the bed with great difficulty. The linen got soaked from the blood and when she dragged it over to the bed it smeared blood all over the floor.

Underneath the bed Yumi crawled into the trap hole. She slowly pulled Shishio into it. She had half of his body inside of it when the rest came toppling in after her.

Yumi lay on the cold ground exhausted. Shishio's body weighed more than she could carry. She would need help. But who? Then, realization dawned on her. Any one she got to help her had to be devoted to Shishio as much as she was.

Yumi left his body there as she crawled out of it. She slid the cover back on and ran to the door. Peeking out of it she saw that there was no one around. She ran into the hallway and to her room. She got to it quickly with no one spotting her and with her spotting no one. She would be asked unwanted questions if anyone saw her.

Inside she ran over to the adjacent bathroom, threw off her clothes and started scrubbing at herself with the water in the water basin. When finished she ran to her closet and chose out one of her less elegant kimonos. She didn't have time to have some one come over and help her put it on. After hastily throwing it on she got out her perfumes. She chose the one that could cover up smells the most and put it on thickly. She did her hair up in a simple bun and threw some jewelry on. Then she hastily drew on her make up.

She hid her bloodstained kimono and left her room. She walked slowly to Houji's study. When she arrived at his study she knocked three times on the door.

"Come in," Houji yelled through the thick doors.

Yumi opened one of the huge doors and stepped in quietly. "Hello Houji."

He lifted his head up from his work to observe her walking around his room fingering everything in it from the paintings on the walls to the guns he had as trophies.

He returned to his eyes work but his focus was still on Yumi. "What did you come here for?"

"I can't come visit you?" She asked. It wasn't in her not to toy with Houji. She let out s soft laugh.

"I'm busy Yumi. What can I do for you?"

"Your no fun," she said pouting. "Has Kamatari arrived yet?"

Houji looks briefly her way, "yes. Kamatari arrived about thirty minutes ago. He's in the lounge."

"Thank you Houji," she whispered leaving the room.

He hiked up her kimono, revealing her legs and began running to Kamatari. She was tired and out of breath by the time she reached the doors to Kamatari. She let go o her kimono and smoothed out the wrinkles that had formed from hr tight grip on it. She steadied her breathing. The door opened easily enough, now for the difficult part.

Inside the room there was only one person. Kamatari. That would help a lot. He was sitting in an armchair next to the fireplace drinking tea. He looked her way as she walked to a couch on the opposite side of the room and sat down leisurely. Kamatari went back to drinking his tea, he picked up a book that was on a table next to him and stated reading. On the table lay a shinny scythe with a chain on it. Kamatari continued to read the book, seemingly oblivious to Yumi watching him.

The clock on the mantel above Kamatari on the mantelshelf chimed as one hour passed and another became.

"What are you doing her Yumi?" Kamatari inquired gently closing the book and laying it back on the table.

Yumi starred at openly at Kamatari, surprised that he had been the one to speak first. "Talking to me are we? I thought you were mad? And not ever again speaking to me?" She said speaking of their last meeting. She and Kamatari and gotten into a little fight and blew up in each other's face.

Kamatari sat unfazed by what was spoken. "Oh come on now, Yumi. Don't play games with me." His lean body stood up from sit seat. He lifted his scythe from its resting place and placed it over his shoulders. The chain dangled over the end. He walked over to Yumi. She masked her shock under a blank gaze.

"No more games? Kamatari, you should come with me. I have something very important to tell you-"

"If you have-"

"I'm sorry that I said that before!" Yumi interrupted. "We need to go to a place where we can be alone and talk." She said lowering her voice dramatically but not enough that Kamatari would have to lean closer to hear. Or, enough for some one to take notice. "Follow me please." A wide-eyed Kamatari followed Yumi out of the lounge.

The sun was setting behind the hills that surrounded them as Yumi and Kamatari set out to find a place of solitude. The walls echoed their footsteps down the corridor that was desolate of any furnishings. Every now and then there were two doors on either side of the corridor. They reached an intersection; only one of the corridors was bright enough to see in. The other two's candles lay unused in their light fixtures. The corridor on their left without any light had a cold draft coming from it. They had been walking for nearly an hour now and showed no signs of stopping any time soon.

Kamatari stopped where he was, "Yumi! Where are you taking me? If you have anything to say then say it to me now!"

"I guess this is far enough," Yumi said turning to look at him. "We'll just go to the first room that's on our right then. It where we need to go any way."

They walked as far as that. Then entered the room that surprisingly had its candles lit. There were two armchairs facing each other set near the back of the room. Yumi walked over to them, sat down and motioned for Kamatari to do the same. He sat down slowly resting his scythe that he had dragged along with them across his knees. He sat patiently for Yumi to explain herself.