Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ This Is Forever: Last Chance ❯ Questions With No Answers ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin in any way. All characters are sole property to Watsuki-sama. All hail the awesome manga-ka!

Genre: Action, Romance, Angst, and some Drama

Summary: Seventeen years after the Great War, all seems peaceful and calm. Yet, that calm is about to expire, and between it all is Kenji, who does not even know who his parents are, or his place in the chaos.

Rated: R for violence, language, and sexually.

OOOOOOOO

This Is Forever: Last Chance

Chapter 1: "Questions With No Answers”

From the time he was a young child, Kenji always knew he was different. He knew he was rather unusual, not just in appearance, but in everything else. Besides his brilliant red hair and unusual eye colors, Kenji was an incredible fast learner. If he just watched any sword technique, he knew it and could perform it without any training. Kenji also knew that the couple who raised him was not his real parents, and the little girl they had was not his sister.

However, there was something that Kenji did not know: Who are, or were, his parents? That question rang in his mind from the time he knew he was different. He would often ask Misao, or the woman who was like a mother to him, that one question. Before, it was a load of questions, but finally, he decided on asking just that one question.

The husband, Aoshi, would only shrug his shoulders when Kenji asked the question, and Misao would only say, "I'll tell you when you're older."

Yet, as Kenji got older, it was the same answer, and so he stopped asking all the questions running through his mind. He buried them so deep inside himself that he often forgot they were still there, waiting to arise again.

And the time for all those questions to arise was now.

OOOOOOO

"Are you sure you wanna go to this woman, Chizuru?" Kenji asked, a great annoyance arising in him that he just could not explain.

"Of course, Kenji-kun!" Chizuru exclaimed excitedly, practically skipping around her companion. "I need to ask the priestess a very important question."

"Can't you just ask the question to some fortune teller?" Kenji continued to argue. "The answer would be the same with just as much of a dramatic ending."

"No," Chizuru replied with an aspirated sigh. "Fortune tellers are not as accurate as I would like."

Kenji rolled his eyes and silently admitted defeat. When Chizuru's mind was made up, there was no stopping, or convincing her otherwise. Chizuru was so much like her mother, Misao, right down to the same hair style her mother had as a teenager. The daughter shares her mother's same giddy personality with a streak of immaturity. The only features Chizuru shares with her father, Aoshi, are her ice-blue eyes and seriousness, for the very rare times she becomes serious.

It was late evening, but Chizuru insisted on going to the shrine directly after school without going home to change clothes. Not that Kenji really minded; the school uniform for the girls was incredibly short, which gave him ample time to look at the girls’ creamy legs, particularly Chizuru’s legs.

They were not long, but still creamy and smooth. Many times, Kenji would imagine running his hand along those well-toned athletic legs all the way up to... Kenji let that thought drop since those contemplations were only meant for night time.

"Not much further, Kenji-kun," Chizuru said, pointing her finger up to the top of a shrine. "Just up there!"

The corner of Kenji's right eye started to twitch. The shrine was located on the top of what seemed like a large mountain, and how to get up there was a row of many countless steps.

"Can't I just wait here for you?" Kenji asked, trying to keep himself from glaring at Chizuru.

"What?" Chizuru exclaimed, her eyes grew wide, and tears started to form in them. "What if I fall? What if there's some pervert up there who wants to capture me and do horrible things to me?"

Kenji knew that Chizuru was being dramatic, and her tears were fake; but each time he saw he with tears in her eyes, he melts and whatever she wants from him, he would give it to her. Kenji did not even want to admit it, but if Chizuru asked him to spray himself down with gasoline and walk through fire, he would do it.

"I never liked shrines dedicated to the gods." Kenji muttered as they climbed the steps.

Kenji never did like shrines to the gods. Whenever possible he avoided them, and would have succeeded if Chizuru had not put on the crying act just to get him to go. Being in a shine to any god or goddess made Kenji very uneasy in a way that he just could not explain; but it felt as if he was not welcomed, as if some invisible force was pushing him out.

The only shrine that Kenji could feel comfortable in was the shrine to the goddess, Kaoru. There he felt welcomed, even loved, in a way he never had felt from anyone.

When they got to the top of the steps, Kenji glared at Chizuru’s backside, although she looked just as ragged and tired as he did.

At the top was the shrine, one dedicated to the deity, Kaoru. Kanji could tell because many people no longer worshiped the once very popular immortal. Her shrines were unkempt, cracked, and many falling apart. No longer did the Princess of the Heavens have any priest and priestesses.

There was only one person at the shrine. Her back was to the visitors, but they could see she was dressed in priestess clothes, white gi, red hakama, and her jet-black hair was pulled back into a high ponytail. She continued her sweeping as if she did not notice she had visitors.

“Excuse me,” Chizuru greeted as she walked towards the priestess. “I was wondering if you could help me.”

The priestess turned around to see her two visitors. When Kenji and the priestess saw each other, their eyes widened as if they knew each other, and they have not seen each other in a long while. For Kenji, the woman looked so familiar that it annoyed him of the fact he could not place where he saw her before.

“What would you like me to help you with?” the woman asked, turning her crystal-blue eyes away from Kenji and to Chizuru.

“Um, can I ask inside?” Chizuru asked, and proceeded to go inside the shrine, but then turned to her companion and ordered, “Stay there, Kenji-kun!”

“What was the point of coming, then?” Kenji muttered, shaking his head.

Minutes passed and Kenji adjusted the weight of his backpack so it was more comfortable until, finally, Chizuru and the priestess came out of the shrine, the girl with a huge smile on her face.

“We can go now, Kenji-kun!” Chizuru exclaimed in excitement.

The priestess picked up the broom that was leaning against the shrine wall, and continued sweeping. Kenji held up a hand to tell Chizuru to wait and then he walked up to the woman.

“Have I seen you somewhere before?” Kenji asked as the woman continued to sweep. “Your face looks so very familiar to me.”

“I’m sure I just have that common face.” the woman replied with a smile.

“No, it’s like I should know who you are.” Kenji retorted.

“A lot of people mistake me for someone else.”

“And a lot of people come up here?” Kenji asked with an eyebrow raised.

The priestess stopped sweeping and stared at Kenji blankly.

“You sure are stubborn,” she said and went back to her sweeping. “You must get that from your father.”

The woman murmured the last part of her sentence, but Kenji heard it just the same and he jumped slightly, staring at the priestess.

“How do you know my father?”

“I don’t; most men are stubborn, so it’s only natural to assume you get it from your father.”

Kenji looked skeptical, but decided to drop it. How would a priestess know his father, anyway?

“You have unusual eyes.” the priestess suddenly said. “One blue, one gold; interesting.”

“I’ve always had these eyes, and yes, they’re natural.”

“Kenji-kun is always asked if his eye colors are natural.” Chizuru informed with a laugh.

Most people, who looked at Kenji and saw his left eye gold, and his right eye blue, would naturally assume it was caused by color contacts. Only some people who could look closely could tell it was Kenji’s natural eye colors.

“It’s also what makes Kenji-kun popular in school.” Chizuru continued to inform. “Oh! We gotta get home, Kenji-kun! It’s getting dark!”

“You have no reason to fear the dark any longer.” the priestess said. “No one fears it anymore.”

“I know,” Chizuru said, tugging on Kenji’s uniform sleeve. “My mom is the one I fear if we’re late.”

“Okay,” Kenji said, then nodded towards the woman, turned and left with Chizuru.

OOOOO

The two teenagers completed their homework and ate dinner with Misao and Aoshi. The Aoiya was just the four of them, although it used to be more. However, Okina died a few years ago from old age and after that, the rest of the Oniwaban went their separate ways to continue their own lives. The times were currently peaceful, and had been for the passed seventeen years, with a few mishaps every now and then.

“So, how was everyone’s day?” Misao asked with a smile.

“Oh, it was great!” Chizuru was the first to speak, of course. “I passed my tests, talked with my friends, and after school, Kenji-kun and I went up to Kaoru-sama’s shrine!”

“Kaoru-sama’s shrine, huh?” Misao said and then took a sip of her tea. “What were you doing there?”

“I actually wanted to go, but Kenji-kun didn’t, so I forced him.”

Kenji rolled his eyes upward as he sipped his tea. He did not know whether he wanted to love Chizuru or hate her. She was beautiful and perfect, yet she was annoying and spunky. Forced him to the shrine, huh? This reminded him...

“Was my father stubborn?”

The question came so suddenly from someone who usually did not speak unless he had to, that Misao jumped, spilling some of her tea on the table.

“What makes you ask that?” Misao asked as she used her napkin to wipe up the spilled liquid.

“Heh,” Chizuru began with a nervous laugh. “The priestess at the shrine said that his father was stubborn.”

“It would have to be assumed.” Misao replied with a shrug as Aoshi carefully watched the young man.

“Then what was he like?” Kenji asked.

“Stubborn.” Misao simply replied.

Kenji rolled his eyes and sighed, staring into his tea. There was just no way to get answers from these people! He let the subject drop, but the questions started to arise once again, and that had not happened since he was a child.

After dinner, Chizuru helped her mother clean up and Kenji tried to relax in his room. The priestess, whose face he could not place, nor could he forget her, ran through his mind over and over.

When he was not relaxing, Kenji decided a warm bath would help. He got up, walked to the bathroom, opened the door and closed it behind him.

“Oh!”

Kenji jumped and turned to see Chizuru, naked, covered in the front with only a small towel, but the young man could see the young woman’s perfectly rounded rump in the mirror behind her.

Kenji stared at her with hunger in his eyes, and he suddenly had the strongest urge to jump her, force her, make her bleed, and break her.

Sickness came over him, and he quickly left the warmth of the bathroom, breathing rapidly to will away such vile thoughts. How could he even think those things about Chizuru? What was wrong with him?

Most importantly, who could he tell? Not Misao, and certainly not Aoshi unless he wants his head on the wall for even wanting daddy’s little girl!

Kenji sighed in half despair, knowing no one was going to give him the answers he needed to control himself. After all, if one does not know who he or she is, how would they know what to expect?

OOOOO

The next morning started off the same; Kenji and Chizuru ate breakfast, got ready for school, and left together at the same time.

It was a perfect day with the sun shinning, a cool breeze passed, and everyone seemed to be in high spirits. As Kenji and Chizuru walked to school, they passed by Kyoto park. Kenji did a double take before he finally stopped, which was noticed by his companion.

There, in the park, was the priestess at the shine they went to yesterday. She wore the same type of clothes, only her jet-black hair was down, and it flowed softly around her as she looked sadly down at the only barren spot on the ground.

“You again?” Kenji said after he and Chizuru walked up to the priestess. “What’re you doing here?”

The priestess looked at the duo with slight surprise.

“Why do we keep running into each other?” the woman asked. “And I come here every morning.”

“Naze?” Kenji asked, lifting up the bag on his back more. “Isn’t it a long walk?”

“I lost someone I love here.” the priestess replied, looking at the ground again.

“When?” Chizuru asked in whispered reverence.

“Oh, a long time ago.”

“But you look no more than twenty-five.” Kenji informed. “How can it be ‘a long time ago’?”

The priestess released an exaggerated sigh.

“You’re just too smart for your own good.”

“Well, no one gives me any answers!” Kenji suddenly grabbed the priestess by her upper arm, and ordered over his shoulder, “Stay there, Chizuru!”

After the young man practically dragged the priestess quite a distance from the young woman, he finally stopped, released the woman, and said, “Maybe you can give me some answers, priestess.”

“Like what?”

“Like, why do I want my girl companion so badly?” Kenji asked to start.

“Sounds like you’re in love with her. It’s that simple.”

“No, it not!” Kenji suddenly yelled in frustration. What is it about him that makes people hide answers about him?! “I love her, yes, but half of me wants to...break her, use her, rape her, take your pick.”

The priestess grew very serious as the young man progressed in his explanation.

“You won’t hurt her, though, right?” she asked cautiously.

“Of course not; but it’s such a strong urge, sometimes I wonder if I will actually give into it.”

“Hm.” the priestess said with nods of her head in understanding. “What else?”

“I’ve noticed for a long time now, I can almost read what other people feel. Love, lust, hate, the list goes on. I wonder, am I possessed?”

“No,” the priestess replied with a small laugh. “Just try to control your lusting towards the girl. Reading emotions from other people, now that’s a tricky one.”

Kenji agreed with nodding.

“I don’t know who I am, who my parents were, anything. I just feel empty not knowing these things, and at the same time, I feel like I’m being pulled one way and another. It’s more complicating not knowing what I can expect next from myself. I can’t go on living like this.”

The priestess was silent for a while after Kenji finished his thoughts, as the young man did not know why he just poured out his thoughts to a complete stranger, but he felt he could trust her.

“I’ll think about what you said,” the priestess said. “But I think you better go to school.”

No matter how quickly Kenji and Chizuru rushed to school, they still ended up late and had to stand outside the hallways with water buckets.

Chizuru threw a glare at Kenji and asked hotly, “So, what was so important that you had to talk to her for so long, huh?”

“I just had to vent some thoughts that I’ve been thinking for a while.” Kenji replied calmly.

“Well it made us late! And what could you’ve possibly been telling her that you couldn’t have told me?”

“Some thoughts should not be known to others.”

“I thought I was your friend, Kenji! Besides, you’ve seen me naked enough times for you to open up and be personal!”

Chizuru was referring to the many times they took baths together when they were children, but since they got older they, obviously, did not do that any more.

At that moment, Chizuru realized the teacher opened up the door and everyone could hear what she had just said. Her cheeks burned as they were allowed back in the classroom, and her fellow students snickered at her blurted out statement.

Kenji and Chizuru took their seats at the back of the class, which still left them sitting next to each other. The teacher continued the lesson as if he did not hear what was said. The only one who did not find humor in Chizuru’s comment was Saitou Tsutomu.

Saitou Tsutomu was the eldest of three sons of Saitou Hajime, chief of police. Tsutomu was the exact replica of his father, even up the same hair and eye color, albeit younger looking.

Tsutomu listened to the lessons and took notes in his notebook right up until lunch. When lunch came, the classmates took out their food; some went to the cafeteria, but everyone brought their food back, as was a custom in Japan to eat in the classroom.

The students buzzed in conversations, eating utensils clattered with plates or plastic containers as Kenji and Chizuru went over what few notes they had from when they were invited back into class.

“I don’t think we have enough notes for this lesson.” Chizuru stated as she looked over a few lines of notes, her head supported by her hand.

“We didn’t get that much of the lesson to have enough notes.”

“Hey, Tsutomu!” Chizuru turned to her left where her classmate was. The young woman sat between Kenji and Tsutomu in class. “Can I please copy off of your notes?”

Tsutomu nodded once and handed many papers to Chizuru. She looked them over page by page until she gave up and said, “Heh, I, um, can’t quite read your handwriting. Can you please come closer to help me?”

Tsutomu stared at Chizuru for a few seconds before he scooted over quite closely to his classmate. Kenji’s right eye twitched as he watched the duo look over notes, compare, and copied. It was no big secret that Tsutomu also had a thing for Chizuru, as many other classmates did, but they did not dare ask her out for fear of Aoshi.

“Hey, Kenji!” a few male classmates greeted as they came close to Kenji’s desk.

“Hey.” Kenji greeted, not liking the guys, but did not want to be rude.

“It must be great living in the same house as Chizuru!” one of them started.

“Yea!” agreed another with a perverted smile on his face. “You must be able to bang her every night!”

“I don’t bang her.” Kenji said dangerously, glaring at his classmate. “We’re not even in that kind of relationship.”

“Oh, come on!” said the first guy. “You can’t tell me that you haven’t dipped into such a sweet piece of ass!”

“Nope.”

The three guys stared at Kenji in disbelief until the second guy said, “Oh, that’s why Chizuru let’s you see her naked.” A vicious smile came over his face. “You won’t get off on it, so she’s safe. I think you’re pure fagot!”

“I’m not gay.” Kenji replied in a dangerously calm way, but the three idiots did not catch on.

“Maybe Chizuru is a whore.” the third guy assumed.

Rage pumped though Kenji’s veins in a hot wave and he was on his feet in the blink of an eye. At the same rate, he jumped over his desk, punched the guy in the face, and kicked his back. There were several sickening cracks and the guy lay on the floor, unmoving.

The other two were about to fight when Chizuru shouted, “Kenji-kun! No!”

The other classmates watched in horror at the scene. To their mortal eyes, they could hardly see Kenji move; he was that fast!

“Oh, gods!” one classmate cried, looking over at the other fallen classmate. “Someone call an ambulance!”

“Kenji-kun!” Chizuru cried.

“What?” Kenji asked in a dangerous whisper and he turned around to see her.

Chizuru froze, her mouth agape and her eyes impossibly wide. His eyes...!

“Kenji...kun...y-your eyes...”

“What?”

“Both your eyes are gold!” Chizuru blurted out, reached in her bag, pulled out a compact mirror, and gave it to her companion.

Kenji looked in the mirror and reflected back in it was exactly what Chizuru told him; both his irises were gold in color.

Kenji stared into the mirror before he looked at Chizuru and, knowing he was not going to be answered, asked, “What the hell is this?!”

To Be Continued...

OOOOO

AN: Hey! It’s good to be back! I hope you readers enjoyed the first chapter to the story. I know that the original Chizuru looked like Kaoru, and not Misao, but I gave a OC that name because Kenji is a couple with a girl named Chizuru; and these two character are supposed to be a couple. Please review!