The Unexpected Arrival
In a dirty alleyway in 19th century Tokyo, a strange light appeared, spat
out two young people, and disappeared again. They were a boy and agirl
who looked to be in their early 20’s, and they held each otherin a
tight embrace. The girl had long, golden-blonde hair, and theboy shoulder-length
feathered ash blond, and both of them were wearing clotheswhich would not
become popular for over a century.
After a minute or two, the girl groaned and rolled over. “I know
it’s totally cliché, but did anyone get the number of that mack
truck?” she asked as she sat up and gingerly checked herself for injuries.
When she had assured herself that nothing was broken, she looked over ather
still-unconscious companion.
“Orcas, you idiot, what did you think you were doing?” she asked
in a half-exasperated, half-affectionate (which was only half-affectionate
since she knew he couldn’t hear her) tone. “I would have
been alright by myself, you didn’t need to get yourself mixed up in
whatever is going on too.” She laughed a little wryly. “If
I know you, you probably did it to have an excuse to hold me.”
Blue-green eyes blinked open, and a smile broke across Orcas’ face.
“Ah, but my lovely Zinnia, I was earnestly attempting to save you.”
“Enough with the flowery talk Orcas.” Zinnia said coldly, “And
how DARE you pretend to be passed out!”
He reached up to touch her face and she turned away. “How else
am I to ascertain your true feelings toward me?”
“By believing me when I tell you that you annoy me no end, now getup
and help me figure out where we are.”
Zinnia got to her feet and reluctantly reached down to help Orcas rise.
Once he was standing, however, he didn’t let go of her hand, and privately
Zinnia had to admit it was comforting. The more she saw of this place,
the stranger it looked, and she didn’t want to loose the one familiar
thing there, even if it was annoying old Orcas who was always so pushy.
“We’re obviously not in the 20th century.” She observed.
All of a sudden they heard footsteps coming down the alley toward them.
Orcas swiftly drew Zinnia behind him, and whirled to face the unsavoury group
of men who approached them. Zinnia tried to pull free of his grip and
protest, but Orcas glared at her so sternly that she was shocked into silence.
When the men, who were obviously criminals of some sort, caught sight ofthe
two, they chuckled nastily and pulled out wicked-looking knives.
“Awfully pretty looking woman you’ve got there Gaijin, can we
share?” the seeming leader leered at Orcas.
“No, you can not.” Orcas glared coldly at the ruffians.
“So rude, little Gaijin…and we even offered to let you in.
Now we’ll just take her for ourselves.”
They began to spread out in a semicircle as best they could in the tightalley,
grinning. Zinnia counted at least ten of them.
“Orcas, dammit, back down!” she hissed, “They have knives!”
“And what do you think they’ll do to you if I back down?”
He turned for a brief second to cup her cheek in his palm.
“I can fight too Orcas, I’m not helpless…”
The first man rushed Orcas, and he batted him back with a stout cudgel of
wood he’d swiftly picked up in the garbage-strewn alley.
“Orcas, you’ll get hurt!” Zinnia protested.
“It is both my…” he slammed the cudgel into another ruffian’s
gut, “honour and my pleasure…” he pushed her back as he
ducked to avoid a wild knife swing, “to fight for you. I shall
hold them off, you…RUN!” he turned just enough to catch hereye
with a commanding glare and shoved her away from himself.
Not knowing quite why she was obeying him, Zinnia ran down the alley as fast
as her legs would carry her. It didn’t take her long, therefore,
to realize that she’d hit a dead end. Thinking she had seen another
entrance or exit or something as she ran, she backtracked. Quietlybut
quickly she made her way back to the turnoff she had seen. Beforeshe
reached it, however, a couple of the street toughs reached her. They
had slipped away while Orcas was busy with the rest, and come afterher.
“Oh shit.” Zinnia muttered under her breath, slowly backing up
and feeling with her feet for something with which to hold them off.
“Plucky little man you’ve got yourself there, Gaijin-onna, agood
bit’o fun for me’n my mates, but you’re the real prize.
Ain’t she?” he turned to the man next to him.
“Oh, she is indeed. I’ll bet she’s thinkin’
that plucky little man’s gonna come save her, i’n’t she?”
“I’ll just bet she is, and ain’t it a shame.”
“Yer man was lookin’ a little poorly when we left, Gaijin-onna…bleedin’
an such…doubt he’ll be able ta save ya.”
Zinnia’s eyes went wide. Orcas hurt and bleeding? It was
not to be tolerated. Her eyes narrowed in fury as she glared at the
two men.
“I don’t need his help to get rid of you two vermin…just
consider this payback!”
She rushed at them, dipping and weaving to avoid their knives as she went
after them with a broken roofing tile she had found. Strong thoughshe
was, however, Zinnia was no trained fighter, and these men had been trained.
Furthermore, each of them alone had fifty or sixty pounds on her. The
roofing tile shattered on one man’s head, and the other backhandedher
into the wall. “Orcas!” she screamed as the one shooktile
dust out of his hair and the other stalked toward her. Her headhad
hit the wall behind her hard enough that she was somewhat dazed, andshe shook
it weakly, trying to clear her vision as a blur of reddish colourssuddenly
appeared in front of her.
Himura Kenshin and Sagara Sanosuke were on their way to the market when they
heard a woman’s scream. Sano turned to Kenshin. Since his
true nature had been revealed some months ago, he’d slowly been accustoming
himself to the new perceptions he had inherited from both his parents, and
in a situation like this, he would know if someone actually needed help.
Kenshin’s gaze abstracted for a second, then he was off and running
in the direction of the alley.