Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Voix ❯ Believer ( Chapter 1 )

Prologue

He tumbled through the sky, wings flailing as they failed to catch on the breezes. A sudden updraft of air caught his pinions, pushing him back into stability. Two large forms hit the smaller man, dragging him down and out of his fledgling safety.

"No!" He cried in agony, as they ripped at his feathers. His powerful wings beat at them, trying rid him of their rough treatment, black feathers raining down from the sky. A long knife slid down his cheek once, making it slick with his blood.

He screamed again, fighting them with his fists now. They had taken his sword, and now they were removing his wings piece by piece. His heart pounded the adrenaline into his system, as he cried out again and again. The knife cut into his cheek again, making a cross of two scars. The one with the knife flung him away into the other one, who seized him by his hair.

"You should have known, you fool." He hissed, flinging him down with a cruel finality.

He plunged to the ground, only half conscious of his situation. The sky passed him quickly, and he did not even know when the sky stopped and the horizon began. He saw the mountain coming near, but did not acknowledge its rapid approach.

He fell through the sea of trees, hitting the ground faster than he had expected, knocking what little wind he had left in him out. He slammed against the trunk of a tree, but continued sliding and rolling down the mountain, his blood staining the leaves as his wings broke again and again. As he hit one final tree, he felt his body stop at its base, bleeding onto its roots.

He stared through the distant treetops up to the sky, a moan escaping from his lips. There was a soft cry from nearby, catching his attention. He slid his eyes shut, accepting his death with opened arms.

He felt the vibrations in the earth as something approached him. He almost flinched, but found he could not move at all for all the broken parts of his body. He felt the heavy sound of something being set onto the ground next to him, and then gentle hands on his face.

He cried out in pain, letting his weakness show in his final moment of life. But the hands were too soft to be those of a killer, unless it was an illusion cast upon him.

"Just... kill me..." He whispered, but the hands trailed to his bleeding cheek, then on to his forehead.

"Why would I kill you?" The voice that must have belonged to those hands was kind and... a dream.

He let his golden eyes open slowly. The world was still blurry, but her face was clear. It was moonlight skin and twilight eyes, framed by midnight hair.

"You... must be the Night Goddess..." He whispered, trying desperately to hold onto his consciousness.

It was obvious that she would have smiled if not for his miserable condition. "Kamiya Kaoru... I am no goddess..." She told him, eyes tracing his body in search for any wounds she had not seen. His wings and eyes baffled her, but she ignored her curiosity in concern. "Who are you?" She asked, smoothing his hair back in order to comfort the strange man.

He closed his eyes, letting unconsciousness claim him slowly after quietly whispering to the breeze that blew over them. "Just...Kenshin..."

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Chapter One- Believer

"Kenshin!"

The red-haired man turned, smiling. He had never, in three years of living with the Kamiyas, tired of hearing their daughter's voice. It had been the first he'd heard after his fall, and he didn't think he would ever forget the sound of her sweet voice breaking through his pain.

"Yes, Kaoru-dono?" The smile extended to his eyes, which shed their unnatural gold hue when he lost his wings. The color had frightened Kaoru as much as his wings fascinated her, so he kept both hidden away.

The girl appeared from the side of the dojo, wearing a bright kimono. Her parasol was in one hand, while the other clutched a small bag.

He cursed, pinning up the last bit of laundry. "A moment, please." He murmured politely, unbinding the sleeves on his gi. "This one apologizes for forgetting about your trip to town today."

She shook her head, smiling brilliantly. "Don't worry about it, Kenshin."

He took the bag and tucked into his sleeve, then reached out for the parasol. He opened it and held it over her head.

"You don't have to do that..." She murmured, cheeks turning a light pink.

"Why don't we go?" He said, not losing his smile once.

She nodded and took a step, letting him know the pace for their biweekly trip.

After they were a fair distance from the dojo, Kaoru turned her head to Kenshin. "Kenshin...?"

He turned his head to face her. "Yes?" Another ritual.

"Will you ever tell me about what happened to you?"

He smiled at her. "No, Kaoru-dono... If so, not for a very long time."

"It has been a long time!" She pouted.

He felt a rush in his blood, and he reached out, brushing her cheek with a single roughened finger as he stopped. "Not long enough for me, Kaoru- dono."

She stood next to him and opened her mouth to protest again, only to find his finger pressed to her lips. "Sh... You're not old enough to understand."

"I'm eighteen, Kenshin!"

"There are people of your kind, who you name elders, who still are not old enough to understand."

She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted more.

"Oh, Kaoru-dono... don't do this..." He touched her cheek again. "You know it's not possible. You wouldn't understand anyway."

"Kenshin... I'm about to turn nineteen... When will I understand? You tell me more than anyone else here knows, so when am I going to be able to understand?"

He sighed, hanging his arms at his sides. "You do know more... more than this one would like you to... but it's very complicated. More so than anything we've ever discussed before."

She sighed and took his arm. "Let's keep walking."

He pulled his arm away gently and held the parasol directly over her again. It frustrated the disgraced angel that he was too demure to try to let the human girl that she meant everything to him. Humans liked to call it love, but he thought of it as a fierce loyalty to her; a lifebond. She had saved his life, and he owed her everything he had. For three years he washed laundry, cleaned floors, and warmed baths for the girl, trying to let her know that he truly was bound to her for her deed.

Once they were in the market, she flitted from stand to stand, almost glowing with joy. "Kenshin! Oh, Kenshin! Look at these!" He smiled and followed her obediently, standing to the side quietly observing the area for any sign of a threat.

A sudden shock ran through his arm as Kaoru seized it to show him a delicate necklace. She was beaming at him, but all he could see was the charm at the end of the slight chain. He seized it, turning it over in his hands. The brilliant red of the eyes of a bird with tail feathers so very long... wings spread...

Impossible... He thought. This isn't human-made... He heard her voice cut through the rush of sound in his mind.

"Kenshin... what's wrong?"

Her voice... He shook off the moment of shock. "Nothing..." He whispered to her, handing her the necklace back. "It's a beautiful necklace..."

She placed the newly purchased necklace back into his hand. "Would you help me put it on?" She turned around and lifted her hair.

As he leaned over to place it around her neck, she murmured quietly to him. "What's wrong, Kenshin?"

"Nothing, Kaoru-dono." He whispered back to her.

She shook her head slightly. "You're a terrible liar. And your eyes give you away." As he finished the clasp, she turned around and stared up into his eyes. "You should be careful."

He cursed, not for the first, or even the second time, that day in front of her. He hadn't even recognized the beginnings of change, which would begin with gold specks, which slowly took over to dominate the soft lavender of his `human' eyes. "This one apologizes, Kaoru-dono."

She scowled. "Mou! Cut it out with that, Kenshin!"

He smiled at her. "This one is unworthy to address you any other way."

"No, you're not... Why do you do this anyway?"

His heart gave a twist. She was so close... he didn't want to lie to her... Why was it that he wanted her to know about his lifebond to her, but couldn't bring himself to tell her?

"Or is this another one of those things where you can't tell me?" She stalked off through the market. They had had similar conversations, but she seemed different now. More bothered by his refusal to let her further into what his existence was like.

"Kaoru-dono..." He sighed when he caught up to her. "Kaoru-do-"

She turned on him, eyes blazing with an emotion he'd never seen in her eyes. "What? What is it, Kenshin?" Her eyes were shining with tears.

He raised a hand, guilt washing over him. "Don't cry... Please don't cry..."

"I just want to know who you are! There's nothing wrong with that, is there? Is there something wrong with wanting to know you?"

He sighed and wiped her eyes gently. "Let's get out of town..." He whispered.

When they stood on a hill a long enough way from the town, Kenshin turned back to her.

"Kaoru... It's not against the rules... I just don't want to make things difficult."

She sighed and sat down on the grass. "You seemed pretty freaked out about my necklace." She told him quietly.

He sat down next to her, gazing up at the horizon, where the sky and horizon line seemed to intermingle to where he could hardly tell them apart. Mist lay in the small valleys between the mountains in the distance. He was sure that the day looked similar the day he fell from the sky. He sighed. "Kaoru... you always seem to ask the hardest questions..." He told her, looking over to her.

Even after three years, she still bore a strong resemblance to his Night Goddess with her pale skin, dark hair, and deep eyes. Even so, Kenshin had watched her bloom from her late youth into womanhood, where she had grown even more beautiful than that late summer afternoon when she found him bleeding to death, lying like a grotesque offering to the tree he was nearly dead on.

She glanced at her angel, the one she had saved. He had barely aged a day since she had found him. His eyes no longer gold, his wings, after healing, went into hiding with his eyes. She had personally nursed his broken body back to health before bringing him home to her parents under the guise of a wanderer. He had burrowed his way into each of their hearts, though he never seemed to let on what he was truly feeling.

"Why is it so hard?"

He hated hearing her voice so quiet and restrained, having memorized the sound of her happiness, her joy... everything. "Because it..." He sighed, and closed his eyes. "A moment, please... you won't see it if I stay like this..." He pulled his gi off to avoid another suspicious pair of rips in the back.

The rush of fire over his body as his black wings unfurled, bringing with them the ocher color of his eyes... He opened his eyes again, and she recoiled slightly.

"I hate that..." She whispered. He knew why, since she had once told him that his eyes reminded her of a demon.

He offered the most pitying look he could manage, folding his wings. "Look on my back... between the wings..."

He arched slightly as she kneeled behind him, fingers tracing the tattoo on his back.

"It... it's the same... why is it the same?" She whispered to him. "And why haven't I ever seen it before?"

He kept his gaze on the grass. "Because I didn't want you to. It's one thing I have control over when I'm on Earth."

"What does it mean?" She was so quick...

"It means that I belong- belonged- to the... you could call it government. I told you I was a soldier. That just lets everyone know that I'm... property."

"A brand." Her voice was almost disgusted as she continued tracing it. "I don't ever want to see it... never." She made to take off the necklace, but he turned and stopped her.

"It's only something revolting when it's worn forcefully. It's a blessing to wear it and be able to remove it, no matter where you are. It shows power."

"I don't want power!" She cried, fighting against his grip.

"Kaoru..." She stopped struggling and stared at him sadly.

"But Kenshin... I don't want power..."

He smiled and let her go. "I know you don't... but you have it anyway." He let the icy wash of human guise flow over him, and then smiled at her again. "You have great power."

She fingered the necklace. "I'll wear it... but only for you... I'm nobody's master..."

As he pulled his gi back on, he picked up the basket and the parasol. "Come on now, Kaoru-dono..." He whispered quietly, taking a few steps.

She ran to catch up with him, taking his hand. "Don't call me that..."

He turned to stare at her, the electric feeling in his hand that time. The angel felt the feeling of foreboding in his chest, warning him that there was trouble to come, but he ignored it and smiled to his young mistress. "Hai, Kaoru-dono."