Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Luck of the Draw ❯ Chapter 1

Chapter 1
~A long, sleepless night whispers my feelings for you,
That is indeed what love means.
The wavering pulse that speaks to me endlessly
Turns into a sigh with a slight fever.

Gimme smile and shine day...
With your smile.
It's good I can overcome,
The cold nights that would freeze me...~
-"1/3 Pure-hearted Emotions", Rurouni Kenshin

He was warm, and sleepy. What had happened?

Oh, yeah. That crazy wacko, and the messed up spell. Then the endless floating in nothingness, and then- then-

He woke up.

He woke up very suddenly.

Yohji's head hurt. When had he hit his head? He couldn't remember. The steady, melodic chirping of birds from behind the sliding wooden door was kind of nice, though. Soothing, too.

Waitaminute- sliding door? Since when had they rented apartments with sliding doors?

Since never, his still-fuzzy mind supplied helpfully.

Yohji blinked and glanced around warily. Had they been caught? If so, this wasn't much of a holding cell. It would be easy to escape form here. Too easy.

And why would they bother to dress him in these weird, rough clothes? He glanced down. A loose, red-pink shirt with white undershirt, tucked into billowing robes for pants. Who the hell wore such things? He shifted, and something part metal and part wood moved at his side, hitting the wooden floor with a hard clunk. A sword.

He gawked at that. Who in their right mind would give him a sword? This must be some sort of joke by the others. That, or he was dreaming. Yeah, that must be it. He was dreaming, pretty soon he'd wake up, with Aya hovering over him, admonishing him for being knocked out by that last bit of weirdness before, and Omi trying to make sure he was all right, and he'd smile and joke about it, like he usually did.

A lock of red hair fell into his eyes when he shifted again, and he brushed it away, irritated. Sometimes his hair could be very annoying...

Pause.

... Red?

He did not have red hair.

Heart speeding up, he reached upwards, catching hold of one hunk of bang and pulling it straight, long enough so that he could see it. Yep, it was red, all right. And longer than it was supposed to be, he noticed dully, brain suddenly computing the odd weight against his back as a loose ponytail. Red hair and a sword. What, was someone mistaking him for Aya, or something? Of course not; even Aya- the "I'll-Do-Anything-For-Money", "Don't-Touch-Me-I'll-Hurt-You. Badly" Aya he knew- had the good fashion sense not to wear something even remotely like what he was currently dressed in.

He was handling this situation quite well, he thought vaguely after a moment of intense-though-confusing thought process. Very well, indeed. Why, there was nothing to worry about, he just had red hair. And a sword. And the hard floor was digging rather painfully into his butt-

The door slid open.

"Kenshin- Oh, you're awake!"

"AAAAAGGGGHHHH!!"

So much for handling it well.

-----

Ken tentatively opened his eyes, assessing the damage to his body. He remembered being seriously injured by that last attack, and then falling into a kind of half-faint, where he was floating in nothingness. Had they made it? Was the mission finished?

His hand was bandaged, he could tell that much, and there were also bandages around his ribs, though neither place on his body hurt at the moment. Probably the work of Omi. The kid was like that; always the worrier. That meant that they were somewhere safe, right?

His clothes weren't right; they were white instead of the usual dark tones he preferred, and there was some sort of cloth strip wrapped around his head, but not in the manner of a bandage. There was something odd about all this. It was unnerving.

"Feeling any better?" came a light, high voice; a girl's voice. The heart-shaped face of said female popped into his line of vision suddenly, smile bright and long braid trailing behind her almost to the floor, though her eyes were a bit worried. "Kaoru-san and myself were a bit worried when you three collapsed like that, but everything appears to be fine with you." She waved a hand in front of his face, the leaned closer until their noses were almost touching, examining his eyes.

Who was this girl? He knew her, somehow...

"Weasel girl...?" that slipped out before he could even think about it, and the dark-haired girl's face darkened the tiniest bit as she backed up.

"My name is Misao, you idiot!" she admonished, though the attempt was only half-hearted.

"'Misao'?" there was something wrong with his voice, though he couldn't tell exactly what. It was almost-... deeper? Was that it?

"Yes, Makimachi Misao, you've known me long enough, you should be able to remember something so simple, Sanosuke!"

"Sanosuke...?"

She gave him an odd look, then. "Are you sure you're all right? What exactly happened back there? You, Yahiko AND Himura just collapsed on the road. It was a lot of hard work for me and Kaoru-san to drag you guys all the way back to the Dojo. You're just lucky it wasn't too far." She gave him a warning glance that held no real contempt, then smiled again and stood up. "Well, I better go check on Yahiko now. Kaoru-san is putting up with Himura, so you'll be alone for awhile. Unless you'd rather I sent Megumi-san in?" she practically leered at him, but all he could do was stare blankly at this girl who was making no sense at all.

"Um... Megumi? No, I'll be fine." He didn't know who this 'Megumi' person was, but he didn't like the look this Misao girl was giving him at the mention of that name. Better to chance it, especially considering it would give him more time to figure just what the hell was going on without making anyone he didn't know, but who curiously seemed to know him, suspicious.

"Ok, then, I'll just-" the braided girl was suddenly and completely cut off by a loud, high-pitched yell that sounded vaguely familiar to Ken, though he hadn't ever heard the voice before in his life. He was instantly, instinctively on his feet, barely noticing how tall he suddenly was, running after the shorter girl with hurried footsteps, down twisted hallways that all looked the same. Ken had no idea how he was going to get back to the room he'd started in, but right now it was the least of his immediate worries.

Misao finally stopped short at another door, in front of which stood a shocked-looking woman with longish dark hair and a tray full of medicinal supplies in her hands. She was staring rather blankly at something apparently inside of the room.

"Himura?" Misao demanded tentatively, peeking in through the open door just as another person joined them, running up to him, breath coming in quick pants of air. Ken turned to see a rather short boy with wild, spiky black hair, who was clutching a wooden sword protectively in his hands. There was something familiar about this boy; not in the way he looked, but in his stance, and something in the idea of him, like a transparent image. Something teasing at the back of his awareness...

Then it clicked, and Ken's eyes widened.

"Omi?!" he demanded incredulously, and the boy looked up at him strangely, dark eyes puzzled.

"Do I know-... Ken-kun?!" the shorter boy smiled when Ken nodded, looking relieved. "Thank god! I was afraid I was the only one stuck in this place."

"Yeah, me too." He grinned a lazy grin at the shorter boy, then a thought seemed to jump out at him. "Hey, you aren't yourself, though. And I suspect, neither am I, though I haven't gotten a chance to get a good look."

Omi grinned. "Yeah, here they call me Yahiko, and you'd probably be Sanosuke, right?" the taller youth nodded. "But what's happening? What was that loud yell I heard?" Omi's eyes darted towards the door.

"I'm not sure, but it might be someone Misao called 'Himura'."

"Himura Kenshin." Omi nodded. "Megumi was talking about him. Apparently he's a very good swordsman."

They exchanged glances, trying to decide if the other was thinking what they were thinking.

"Aya?"

-----

"Himura! You're awake!" a hyper looking girl burst into the room, smiling at Yohji, who was crouching in the corner, hand nervously positioned over the hilt of the sword at his waist. He didn't like this. He didn't like this at all.

"Hai de gozaru yo." He replied warily, not noticing the odd little slip of the tongue. "Where am I, may I ask?"

The girl blinked at him, face falling just a bit. "Why, you're acting as silly as Sano, Himura! You're back in the Kamiya Dojo, don't you recognize it? Or did you really hit your head that hard?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Yohji spotted the head of a young boy peek through the open doorway, where that girl with the tray from before still stood, motionless.

"Aya-kun? Is that you? Do you perhaps know where Yohji-kun is?"

"I AM Yohji." He stated sullenly, recognizing the lilt in that voice for Omi. The boy's eyes widened, and his mouth fell slightly open.

"Wait a minute! What's going on here?" the girl with the braid demanded, glancing between him and Omi. "Who is 'Yohji'."

"I am Yohji."

"No, you're Himura."

"No, I'm Yohji."

"Himura."

"Yohji."

"Himura."

"Yohji, in Himura's body de gozaru yo!" he blinked, frowning at that last part. Why was he talking like that all of a sudden?

The girl blinked at him, silent for a moment, then she turned to the other woman. "Kaoru-san? Do you know what is going on?"

"Um... I may have a theory about it." Omi/Yahiko piped up, and the braided girl- Ken had said her name was Misao- looked at him.

"Yahiko? Or are you not him, either?" she glanced at Ken, "And Sano? You didn't seem like yourself."

Omi nodded. "It seems, somehow, that when Yohji-kun destroyed part of the spell that our target was enacting, it created something totally different, sending us- or, in this case, our souls- to this place, and into these particular bodies."

"Target?" the dark-haired woman, Kaoru, demanded, sending a furtive glance Yohji's way, some strange emotion in her dark eyes.

"Yes. We four are what you would call assassins, in our own lives, anyway. Usually, we would not let anyone know about that particular aspect of our lives, but it seems you two have the right to know, since we have yet to determine how long we will be here, and I doubt it will affect us in our normal lives."

It was very odd, having Yahiko speak like that, so respectfully. The boy glanced at Misao. "There are three of us here. Perhaps you have an idea where the fourth of our group may be?"

The braided girl shook her head slowly, thoughtfully. "No. There are no more guys around here."

Omi looked vexed. "But Aya-kun-"

"I'm right here."

"Aoshi-sama!" Misao cried gleefully when her eyes alighted upon the figure that had just entered the room from the other door. The figure with the sword clutched tightly in his hands. Yohji swallowed roughly, not liking the look in this 'Aoshi's' eyes; the intense, murderous look- directed at him.

"A-Aya?"

"This is your fault, Kudou."

That was all the warning he got.

-----

"So, we're stuck here for the moment?" Ken asked Omi, absently watching Aya chase Yohji around the room, the redheaded swordsman (not Aya, the other one) running as if his life depended on it. And with an angry Aya, it just might have.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to de gozaru!"

"Aoshi-sama, what are you doing?!"

"It seems so. That spell was the one that put us here, and, until we can find another spell, or a way out, there's no way we can leave. From what I've gathered, we are now in about the late 17th century or so. But it doesn't exactly mean that we are in our own world."

"So, what are you saying? That we're either in the past, or another dimension entirely?" Ken demanded, a bit put off. Omi swept a gaze towards Aya and Yohji, then turned and looked at him, face set.

"Yes. It's definitely one of those choices."

*****

Nozomi