Rurouni Kenshin
Chapter #3: The Smiling Swordsman
A young man stands alone in a isolated forest, his kimono stained crimson
and his sword drentched in blood. The snow floated to the ground, the first
fall of winter. An hour had passed since the snow began to fall upon him,
the ground was now white, his fingers were chilled, weakening his grip
on his sword. A moment ago he was attacked out of the forest by an unknown
opponent. Seta Soujiro had never faught this hard in his life except for
the time he battled Kenshin at Shishio’s Lair, a full year had passed since
then. Soujirou, the Heavenly Sword, left on a journey to find himself after
the defeat and death of Shishio Makoto. He stands alone now, paving his
own life, but that might all come to an end at this moment, surrounded
by opponents hiding in the dark. Soujirou stands alone. “Hitenmitsurugi-ryu...”
it’s hoarse voice spoke to him, it’s meaning unknown. His normally smiling
face had been changed into a stern frown, both his hands gripped the hilt
of his sword. “I can’t die yet...” he thought. He heard russtling of leaves
behind him, he spun around with his sword ready to strike. Without waiting
for the attack he lunged forward at te darkness, his blade hit something
and dug in, blood sprayed onto his face. A body fell forward and fell to
the ground, it didn’t belong to a human. Soujirou bent forward to examine
the coprse, it looked like a normal young human male with a kimono on,
but he had a pair of golden horns erecting from his forehead and two gleaming
crimson eyes. “An Oni...” he shivered.
Soujiro had wandered quite a bit since he began his journey, currently
he found himself in the northern regoin of Honshyuu, but he couldn’t pin
point his exact location, all he knew is that he had to go south and meet
Himura.
The young man had fixed his face to his normal smiling expression again,
people were less scared of him that way. He had long changed his clothing,
he disposed of the bloodied ones. He also took time to clean his blade,
he didn’t want anyone thinking that he’s a runaway murderer. Within a full
week he reached the outskirts of Kyoto, his kimono had become dirty and
well, smelly from all of his travel. The first place he decided to go to
was to an inn. And the first inn he spotted was Shin-Aoiya. “Gomenkudasai!”
Sojirou yelled out as he slid the door of Shin-Aoiya open. Soujirou stepped
inside, surprised tht no one was there to greet him, a customer. “Helllllllllooooo???”
he asked outloud. Footsteps could be heard as someone came runnign down
the hallway leading to the entrance. “Terribly sorry, what would you like
sir?” a young girl was there to answer Soujirou’s call. She was wearing
a petite kimono to fit her body, and her long black hair was braided. “Well,
I would like a room for the night and a bath would be nice.” He answered
smiling. The girl quickly chekced through a book that was placed on a counter.
“We have a room open on the second floor where you can sleep, and a bath
will be ready momentarily, just go ahead and head to the bathtub and it
will be prepared.” “Thanks.” He gave her an extra bright smiled and walked
down the hallway to the bathroom.
Soujirou had spent at least a hour in the tub until he finally came
out in the new kimono provided to him by the inn. Soon after he was lead
to the dining where he ate a warm meal, which he hadn’t had for months
now. He felt strange coming to this inn tho, because long ago he had it
attakced, but that’s all in the past. “You shouldn’t have gone to town
alone Misao.” A voice spoke outloud from behind Soujiro. He turned to see
who else was in the rom, he saw that girl who greeted him and a tall man.
Soujirou adjusted his view to see who the man was, and when he did he almost
fell out of his chair. “Aoshi!” he thought. “What’s he doing here? Oh yeah,
he lives here doesn’t he? What was I thinking.” Soujirou and Aoshi had
once met long ago when Souirou worked under Shishio, Soujirou had coaxed
Aoshi to ally with Shishio to defeat Himura. There was no friendship or
hatred between the two but Aoshi couldn’t be too fond of him. “Oh boy,
this could get interesting.”