Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Where Are You Now? ❯ Chapter 14: Death ( Chapter 15 )

AN: …… …. PEPSI!!!!!!! MUST HAVE! GIVE ME!

Disclaimer: "pepsi"…. Don't own ….."pepsi" ….RK …. "Pepppppsssssiiiiiiii …."

Where Are You Now?

Chapter 14: Death

"A longing pain deep within

Hope lost forever

A silent sin

He buried his face in her arm

And red liquid so very thin

Tears rolled down her eyes

From being the fool she has been

And from deep within the child's mind

Was not a tear, nor a lie

It was a flash of hope

That made her reply

I'm sorry this happened

Please don't die . . ."

~ione

Early Morning

June 13, 1879

The woman held her arms around his neck, a small hint of happiness showed on her pale face. Resting her head on his shoulder and smiling to herself, 'He did come for me I knew he would.'

"Nagakura-san, there's only one thing I don't understand." Said the puzzled Okita, leaning forward to hold Aiko on his back. "Why did you capture Aiko if you already knew it was her?"

Nagakura gave a crocked grin to his old companion, "Well, when there's a cute former Chief's daughter to captured who wouldn't do such a thing?" Nagakura laughed at his dry comment, the once evil but cheerful voice diminishing ever so slightly. The small man sighed, and rose his hands behind his head.

"Actually, since it was Aiko that was needed to be captured we were kinda wondering why that man wanted to deal with Aiko. He wanted us to kill the Okashira Phoenix so badly."

Okita's eyes darted over to the two men walking beside him with a rather shocked expression.

"It's so funny though, the rumors over in China say that the Okashira Phoenix is so strong that it has to be a man. I guess they were wrong." The two men became to laugh hysterically but Okita couldn't help but look back at the time when he actually saw her. Something about her seemed too familiar, almost as if he'd seen her before. He began to ponder on all the possible things on how he could recognize her. Aiko slightly opened her eyes to see the two friendly men at her and Okita's side and behind them, walls of trees with branches sloping downward.

Okita stopped rather suddenly making everyone confused, all of them now turned their eyes to the stunned man.

"Aiko, may I ask you something?"

"Ah common Souji! Not now that stuff comes much later!" Said the deep voiced Harada.

"What is it Souji?"

"What ever happened to Takara?"

Aiko lowered her eyes to see the soft blue gi under her, "She escaped to China, why?"

"Souji! Let's talk about this when we get some food . . ."

Nagakura looked up at his friend with a glare, "And whom do you expect to pay for that meal Sano?"

Harada gave a big cheesy grin, "Why you of course!"

"SANO! WE DIDN'T GET THE MONEY REMEMBER!"

"WE DIDN'T!? Why that cheapskate! It's not fair!"

"Guess we won't be eating for a while."

"NOOOOO!!!! MUST HAVE FOOD! Why Kami-sama why? Don't be cruel to me now, I'll die if I don't have food in my . . . my . . . hey Shinpach-san?"

Nagakura took a step forward and looked back at his groveling friend, "Nani?"

"Where is it that the food goes?"

*ANIME DROP*

Aiko busted up laughing, covering her mouth quickly to prevent it from being too loud. She couldn't help by being sarcastic to the poor guy, "It's the s-t-o-m-a-c-h Harada-san!"

With that said everyone laughed, yes, it was going to be a rather nice day . . . as long as Tokio didn't mind having two more men in the house.

~*~

Soft chirping sounds from the birds grew slightly louder as she opened the shoji. Letting in all of the early morning's rays onto here face. Outside it seemed to be calm but inside this cage of hers, she only paced the floor hoping for both of their safety. Raising her hand and resting it on the wall the old woman sighed.

"Do you think their alright?" her voice just a tone lower then usual as she looked back to her husband.

There was no reply, Tokio forgot about the question and looked back to the courtyard. It had been only a night that they had been gone, but something inside her was telling her that something had happened. Wouldn't they have already been back if everything were all right?

That last thought made her shut her mind completely, slowly closing the shoji in front of her making the room which was at one time full of light become dark once more. She glanced once more back to the space behind her and to her husband's mess of papers. Maybe he could live through the greatest events but could a man that had a disease and desperately wanted to save his love no matter what.

Okita was truly an honorable man . . .

Then the strange sound of the gate door rang in her ears, and the thought of them walking through it made her open the shoji once again. Running down their engawa to get to the front part of their home, but her steps came to a slow pace when she did see the front gate with no one in it. Tokio swung her head to the front door, and quickly walked to it, noticing it was open to. And she could her soft voices from beyond. Tokio stepped inside the living room to see four people inside it, two sitting and two standing.

Okita was there sitting by a sleeping Aiko and the other two she didn't know who they were but as of this moment she didn't care.

"Okita-san."

The man's head turned slightly toward her, "Tokio-san?"

Tokio smiled and stepped closer to the two and looked at Okita's hands, but in them were the last remaining part of bandages.

"Okita-san?"

But Okita had returned her smile, "It's alright Tokio-san there is only a few cuts."

"Hn, so you made it back after all."

Everyone's face turned to the door to see Saitou standing against the wall and looking down at him with a crocked smile, but that was strange, it was the kind he would show his enemy's.

'Oh kami-sama, I'm in trouble.'

Not knowing what to say Okita grinned at Saitou, except his grin was much different, it was what he would give his men back in the days of the Shinsengumi. The 'Don't fuck with me or you'll regret it.' Saitou's grin increased, saving Aiko must've taught him a valuable concept that he forgot.

"SAITOU-SAN!" Both men said with enthusiasm, "wow, you're alive to!"

Both Harada and Nagakura began walking closer to him until Saitou said in a deep voice, "Don't come near me!"

Pale faced with blue lines running down from their forehead both men backed away with cheesy grins on. Tokio now had made her spot right by Aiko's side and had grabbed the bandage away from Okita.

Raising a cigarette up to his mouth slowly he prepared to inhale the smoke.

"So, was it the Okashira Phoenix?"

Okita smiled and closed his eyes, "No, just some person that wanted her dead."

Before the cigarette reached to his mouth it had stopped and slightly was lowered.

"Her?"

Laughing Okita nodded, "Hai, hai!"

Glancing to Nagakura and to Harada he pointed his thumb to them, "And what about these two morons?"

The comment didn't affect Harada that much, shrugging it off like the old days but Nagakura, well, became an inferno.

"HEY! Who are you calling a moron!?"

Saitou stayed quiet and puffed at his cigarette, Tokio had to resist the urge to tell him to go outside for just this one time.

"Oi, Saitou-san we're extremely sorry that we did what we did so please forgive us."

Saitou quirked an eyebrow and looked down at Nagakura who looked completely shocked.

"You need to be more like him."

"NANI!? Why I outta!"

But before he was actually able to get his hands at the grinning evilly man, he was stopped quickly by Okita. Springing from his seat by Aiko and grabbing the elder man's gi from the back he pulled him back to the floor.

"Nagakura-san, I think there's been enough fighting for one day ne?"

Glaring up at the slightly smiling face of Okita he turned his head away, "Hmpf!"

~*~

Takara leaped into the air once more, feeling more dread every time she did so. Clearing the walls of trees she saw a smoldering tree village. Unable to land on one of the homes for fear she would get burned and fall through she jumped from a nearby branch and headed for the training corridor. When she landed she quickly ran inside the hall that was not full of smoke and hoped for the best.

Then she smelt it, the smell of a coppery substance mixed with sweat. She could see the door but when she made it there, she almost wished she hadn't even decided to come. Suddenly she could breath because of the sight.

Blood was everywhere, on the walls and on the bodies of her men. Their bodies torn and slashed, some head slightly coming off and some were already. A floor no longer the color of gray but of red, with large splatters covering the walls and the corpses soaked in theirs and others blood. She stepped forward into the mess, hearing the sickening splattering sound as she stepped into the blood. Walking over the corpses and well as she could, hoping to see a survivor or two. The air now becoming so thick it was even hard to move.

Her foot moved upward over another body but soon became caught in that body's belt as she could feel herself fall onto her hands but even her arms felt weak. Takara fell into the blood bath, covering the front side of her, soaking herself in the blood that she swore she would protect. Shaking she pushed herself off the floor and moved her knees under her. Everyone was gone, they were all gone, no longer among the living to believe in their leader, to see their families once again.

Takara choked on what it seemed to be tears that she could also not overthrow as her blood covered hands went into fists and went up to her eyes. She didn't cry when Long's father died, when she assassinated those people, or when she killed Long, so why was she now crying?

'Get control of yourself! They were just men, nothing more nothing less.'

She shook her head and pushed her hands harder into her face.

Then, a silent shuffle came from just beyond her and her hands quickly dropped to her knees to push her to a standing position. Quickly stepped over the torn men she saw the one thing that caused her to stopped immediately. A man's head sliced off, and under him the small form of a small boy.

"Mareo!" Takara yelled out into the room, which echoed eerily. She grabbed the man's shoulder and shoved him off the child and stared sadly at the child's body that seemed to be stabbed through his stomach. Her hands went to him and slowly under him to raise him into her shaking bloody arms. Blood coming from his mouth and nose, scratch marks all over his face.

"Mareo, hey come on now open you . . . your eyes."

Nothing happened once so ever.

"Mareo, open your eyes . . . that's . . . that's an order!"

Then she swore she could hear the child swallow and saw him open his mouth slightly.

"Mareo say something."

"Leader." Came a voice so inaudible that she had to strain to hear it, "I'm glad you came back leader."

Her hands tightened on the child's body, a tear escaping and falling onto his face and gradually making its way down his cheek. The last thing that she wanted was his death, and the death of her men, her followers. She raised the lifeless body up to her shoulder and held him.

'Something inside me that pulls beneath the surface

Consuming, confusing . . .'

"Hey, I'm surprised we let one live, now had did that happen?" said a deep and sarcastic voice from behind her.

"Four men, two with strong ki's." Takara laid Mareo down onto the blood red floor under them and cautiously stood.

'This lack of self control I fear it's never ending

Controlling, I can't seem . . .'

One of the men stepped forward onto a body, and began to crunch it under his weight. Laughing as he did so.

'I can't find myself again

My walls are closing in . . .'

They watch the woman turn her head around but what they saw was something they weren't quite ready for, a woman with a bloodthirsty look in her eye.

"What the hell!?"

'I've felt this way before

So insecure . . .'

"Never mind that, kill her!"

They all rushed toward Takara with a cruel pace and she watched them step all over the bodies of the dead. Truly, she would make them regret even the most petty of things they have done in their life.

'Crawling in my skin

These wounds they will not heal . . .'

The ninja quickly grabbed for her iron fans and jumped into the air. 'They'll regret killing Mareo!'

'Fear is how I Fall

Confusing what is real . . .'

Takara kicked off the wall and spun herself into a circle, the distance between the men becoming smaller each second.

'Discomfort, endlessly has pulled itself upon me

Distracting, reacting . . .'

Before the men had any time to react to her attack, they could feel a sharp object rip through them like rice paper. Feeling it go through them more then once, and seeing the world around them from a different angle.

'Against my will I stand beside my own reflection

It's haunting how I can't seem . . .'

Blood once again gushing everywhere behind her back, her arms to both sides of her body and her face speckled with the warm red liquid that came from her prey. All of them fell without a fight, and their blood disgracing the men that fought for her.

'To find myself again

My walls are closing in . . .'

She looked back at them and also turned her body toward them, stepping forward for another blow to their already dying bodies.

"I've felt this way before

So insecure!'

Grabbing her dagger she stomped on the first man's chest, breaking his ribs and making him cough up blood. She walked on him to get to the next person who was on his back wheezing. She kicked him forcefully into his side, jamming the broken ribs into his lungs. The next person beyond him was nearly almost dead, just his breathing remained. Standing beside him, she brought her foot over the top of his neck and used all the anger to push down onto him. And without notice, the man's neck broke under her weight and he could feel nothing any longer. After him was a man that was already dead but she didn't care, walking up to him in rage she kneeled beside him and pointed her dagger over his heart. Nothing stopped her now as raised her other hand onto the top of her dagger and jabbed it into the heart of the man and left it there.

She stood up and walked toward the boy that she had left laying on the floor and picked him up into her arms. Takara turned around and walked past all of the men that she had previously killed and walked out into the open to bury the child's corpse.

…

Shoving the piece of wood into the cold earth Takara stood back and stared at it. Burying him up by a cliff seemed like the place that he would want to be buried.

"You know, if I hadn't kidnapped you, if I hadn't taken you away from your family then you wouldn't be dead." She smiled, "I can kill, I can hate, and I can train but there is only one major flaw in me and that was to protect my clan."

Takara took another step backward and bowed, "My love for the martial arts and my power on doing what ever I want I abused. I am sorry Mareo Ninji."

With that said she turned back into the forest that she had came from and disappeared into the darkness once more.

'Crawling in my skin

These wounds they will not heal

Fear is how I fall

Confusing what is real . . .'

…

Next chapter

. . . do I have to say?

Reviews

JadeGoddess: "Laughs" Bwahahahahaha! I RULE, I think you're the only one I've REALLY confused in a long time. Kay listen: When I was watching Samurai X and RK and watched what the hit men did I soon kind of realized that when they take the job they can't back out of it. Plus when they found out they had to capture Aiko they wondered why the man wanted to capture her. So they stuck with it but if you noticed they took care of her unlike Long where he hurt her. So there you go, I hope that cleared things up.

Inca_dove: OH OH OH! You liked that chapter I hoped you liked this one even more cause it only took me TWO days. Mwahahahaha! Love this chapter so far and I really love writing about this story again. Writers block broke FINALLY! YAY! LOL! Well with me being alone all day I'm probably going to write on the next chapter now so- TOODLES . . . toodles… TODOU'S LOL!

AN: I do not own the song in this chapter, it belongs to Linkin Park. Thank you!

Fanfic by ione