WARNING: Spoilers from Kenshin's past, and the Revenge storyline. No spoiler about the 'Jinchu' though. This is pretty dark and angsty I think... proceed with care. :)
This is one of my more sadistic speculations as to how the Revenge chapter might end. We still don't know what 'Jinchu' consists of as yet (except that it must be something really terrible), and though I've some ideas about it, I left it out altogether in this fic. What happens here is that everyone has arrived at the scene, including Aoshi and Misao who's just arrived moments before 'Jinchu' is carried out successfully.
Thanks to Rurouni for the title. Mail all comments to liantze@hotmail.com.
...And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.
- Edgar Allan Poe, The Masque of the Red Death.
Silence shrouded Kamiya Dojo like Death itself. Though morning had broken after the night's fight, the rising sun glowed an impossible bloody red, as if the sky was full of rusty volcanic dust from a recent eruption.
Red... it was red everywhere... the sky, the earth, the shamble of woods of what's left of Kamiya Dojo, the trees felled in halves... the memory of what had come to pass just so shortly before, yet it all seemed to have lasted for an eternity of suffering... All was covered in the blood red of Death.
The group of people scattered around were motionless, too shocked beyond any actions or words. Kaoru and Megumi both had their hands over their mouths, tears streaming down their cheeks without them even realising it, heartbroken, shattered at what they were witnessing. Yahiko felt as if he was in a dreadful nightmare imposed by Enma Daiou himself, and he can't get himself to wake up no matter how hard he tried. He tried to call out to Sano, tried to get Sano to laugh crookedly at him and tell him that it's all just a lousy dream, what a little kid he was to have such impossible nightmares, and whack him on the head to wake him up unceremoniously. All he managed, though, was a curious strangled sound in his throat.
Sano himself was too paralysed to even think. He was sweating profusely, yet he felt so cold... as though he's standing in the middle of a fierce snowstorm... all he could see was the fragile body all huddled up on the ground in front of him. Even Saitou was apprehensive at how pale Sano looked. Saitou prided himself on having faced so many terrifying experiences undauntingly in the past and, but nothing - NOTHING - had ever prepared him for what happened a few minutes ago. For the first time in his life, he felt a slight tinge of uneasiness, for even a wolf, however proud and haughty it might be, must bow before the Devil himself.
And Kenshin... Kenshin... the shriek he emitted was so inhuman, so terrible and grotesque...
The injuries he suffered from the previous fights were nothing compared to the wounds his soul received. He clutched at himself in a death grip, his arms crossed and grasping at his shoulders so tightly that blood trickled forth from his shoulders where his fingers dug into the flesh. The blade of the sakabatou shone dully in the blood-like rays of the sun as it lay nearby, discarded and useless, as if mourning alongside its master. The master who had wielded it so skillfully throughout their journey together was kneeling on the ground and hunched over, shaking uncontrollably, rocking slightly back and forth, as one who had completely cut himself off from the world. Now and then little gasps escaped from the wounded lion, the usually magnificent fiery mane now in tangles and matted, obscuring its face from the view of others. Kenshin was crying... crying for his lost love, for the sins, the deaths, the sufferings that Himura Battousai had brought into the world. Every sob w! renched his friends' hearts.
If only we could help him to shoulder the sufferings... Kaoru thought through her sobs. She would had rushed over to Kenshin's side, had not Megumi, who managed to keep with her some wits and sense, kept a firm hand on her shoulder. O Buddhas and Boddhisatvas, I pray to you... don't let the obstinate girl rush to her death as well... Ken-san would have nothing to return to if I let her go... If he returns...
The hour of Jinchu had come and passed, just as Enishi had promised.
The silver-haired youth stared down at Kenshin at his feet, and Aoshi just couldn't help being reminded of a judge looking down in despise at a criminal whom he had just condemned to the gallows. Misao was already crying her heart out bitterly, burying herself into Aoshi's strong arms, resting her forehead against his chest, her young heart unable to take in the traumatic scene. Aoshi's right hand was awkwardly placed on her hair, trying to console the girl, her tears slowly soaking a corner of the diary - their mission - which he kept in the folds of his clothes.
If we were here a few moments earlier...
Saitou frowned slightly. Enishi was still staring at Kenshin, the slightly insane smile still lingering on his lips. But... something's different... something... The police officer couldn't quite put his finger on it, it's just a feeling he had... Enishi's eyes... yes, that's it, the look in his eyes... Saitou realised with a start that those weren't the eyes of a man who had claimed a long sought after victory. There was hesitation in them. Doubt. Of what?
Enishi looked at the enemy whom he hated more than anyone, anything, cowering at his feet, a total wreck. This was his moment - finally, FINALLY, he wrecked the bastard who killed his sister!! Finally - He did it! It's no longer something he yearned to do, no longer some figment of a dream. It's reality - HE DID IT! Victory was HIS!
Why then? Why the empty feeling? Why did he feel no joy? He had always waited for this moment in anticipation, had wanted to laugh gleefully and to gloat over the damned bastard, and when he was eventually too numb to feel his own pain anymore, to torture his counterparts one by one in front of him, and at the very last moment, kill Battousai as a sacrifice to his sister.
But why wasn't he feeling anything of the sort now? Enishi had expected ecstasy and exhilaration, but all he felt now was a profound feeling of... emptiness. There's no other word to describe it. Beads of sweat started forming on his forehead... It shouldn't be in this way... He shouldn't be feeling this way... as if he's standing alone at the very end of a high creek with the ocean churning down below in the abyss on a dark night... and the most frightening fact was that he felt so alone... so deeply alone...
His wild eyes slowly turned uncertain, his voice softening to one of a teenager's instead of that of a crazed avenger. "...No.... This can't be. I've succeeded! The Jinchu's succeeded!! I've avenged sis!!! Then why... why don't I feel any joy, any ecstasy? I should be jubilant, I should be gloating over you, Battousai!!"
"So you're not as weathered as you make yourself out to be, eh."
Enishi snapped his head around to stare at the mocking speaker. Saitou.
"Revenge is never sweet... it brings some joy, some consolation, some compensation perhaps, but at the very end, all that remains is the deep, deep feeling of emptiness and loneliness... To have revenge on someone else... is more like opening your own wound even wider... little by little, until the moment when the 'revenge' is completed, it is opened even wider than before..."
Right on target, Aoshi thought as he saw Enishi gave an abrupt start. Saitou was good at reading people's mind, and at stabbing at where it hurts the most.
"What do you know..." Enishi started to snarl when something caught his eye. Looking up into the sky, he saw a shimmering illusion of....
...TOMOE! But to his chagrin, she wasn't smiling this time, but crying in that quiet way of hers, the glistening pearls of teardrops on her cheeks....
"Sis...?"
The crease between Saitou's eyebrows grew deeper. Was the guy going mad? Megumi noticed the wild look in Enishi's eyes, and knew that the young man's emotion was becoming unstable. Very much so. Sano was somehow reminded of Soujirou, as Enishi tried to plead with the phantom which he alone could see, walking past the half-unconscious Kenshin to come closer with his beloved sister.
"Sis, why're you crying? I... wanted to make you happy...! Why're you crying? Shouldn't you be happy that I've made Battousai suffer for you? Don't you always have a smile for me? Aren't I your little brother? Sis?"
Finding his voice at last, Sano roared, furious that Kenshin was made to suffer unnecessarily for the young man's immature folly.
"It is because you're her little brother that she doesn't wish for you to suffer anymore! Don't you see yet you baka? By bending on Kenshin's revenge all this years, you've reduced yourself to nothing but a miserable soul! Nothing!"
The word "Nothing!" echoed over and over again in Enishi's mind. His breathing became faster, coarser, as Tomoe wept on against the background of scarlet blood.
"You're still trapped in that moment when the tragedy happened, all of you six! I know, 'cos I've been there. Like the miserable ruffian I once was, you just can't see the world surrounding you, except the wrongs it's done you, can you?! Grow up, Enishi! What does Tomoe really wish of you? To kill other people, when she has such a good heart? To drag yourself down into an abyss of self-pity and hatred? Is that where your sister, any sister in the world, would like to see her little brother in?"
Enishi just stared ahead of him as if he didn't heard a word, the distressed, glassy eyes trying to focus on the infinity.
Sis...? Please? Don't cry...!
As if moved by his pleadings, the phantom-like Tomoe hovered closer to him and embraced him gently in her wispy arms.
Enishi... it's all right... I love you both... my brother, and my husband... I love you both... please find something worthwhile in the world for which you may live for...
Kaoru noticed through her tears that Kenshin's shaking had reduced. He was still shaking and in agony, but less so.
Kenshin... you're so vulnerable... I can't let any harm come to you... I love you...
It was Enishi who was shaking now. Gein called out to him softly, to offer some mental support. In vain, though, for the call landed on deaf ears.
"Oh sis... what have I done all these years? You smile at me... because I wanted you to smile at me? When you're really saddened by me?! Oh sis... WHAT HAVE I DONE!! YE GODS IN HEAVEN, WHAT HAVE I DONE!!!"
A cruel angel must be presiding that day, for the sun seemed to glow an even more ghastly shade of scarlet at Enishi's despaired screams. The group of people were silent once more, paralysed, some of them clutching at each other for support, struggling to keep their last strand of sanity lest they succumbed to the desire of screaming, screaming, screaming in madness... The cold morning air was full of scents of despair, insanity and death...
THE END.