Rurouni Kenshin
Chapter #7: Secrets Revealed
The sun was already on the edge of the horison lighting the sky red when the crew of the cargo ship came out of hiding and returned to their posts. All that was left of the scuffle was a few stained boards, the corpses were thrown over board by the stranger. He promptly explained the situation, he claimed that ‘pirates’ had attacked them and Sanosuke took care of them, being a good Samaritan. Also the stranger quickly put his cloak back on, apparantly he didn’t want anyone seeing his face.
After that event four hours passed and Sanosuke, Kaoru, and Yahiko safely arrived at the dock of Kyoto, ignoring Enishi’s warning. The trio began their walk to the Shin-Aoiya where they knew Kenshin would be staying.
Sano had carefullt re-wraped his right hand with bandages, trying not to inflict too much pain to himself. His wounds had re-opened during the previous fight, disabling his right fist for now.
As they walked down the busy afternoon street of Kyoto Yahiko was the first to notice that the stranger from the boat was following. He spun around and pointed derectly at the cloaked stranger. “Why are you following us!?!?”
“Hm?” the stranger stopped and looked at Yahiko, sounding a bit confused. “What do you mean? I just happen to be goign in the same direction as you, it happens you know?” He smiled.
“Well I dont’ believe you!?” Yahiko was going crazy as usually, he was almost going to make a real scene until Kaoru held him down.
“I’m terribley sorry about Yahiko here, he’s just a little rambunctions you see.” She gave him her best smile. “Um, I didn’t get a chance to thank you for saving Sanosuke back on the boat.” Sheturned to motion Sanosuke to thank him too, but he was already in the doorway of the inn. “Um, I’m sure he appriciates it too.”
“No need, it was my job.” He smiled and began to walk on.
“Um, where do you plan on staying?” she asked coutiously.
“I’m not sure, I was planning on just staying out under the stars... why?”
“Well I know some people who run an inn so I’m sure they’ll let you stay there.”
“Oh really? Well I suppose it’ll be nice to sleep in doors for once.” He smiled again. “I’ll take you up on your offer.”
Kaoru let Yahiko loose and began to walk ahead of the stranger to lead him to Aoiya. “Oh, I forgot to ask for your name?”
“My name?.... " The stranger paused for a moment then spoke "I go by Mitsurugi.”
“That’s a ncie name.” She said, the word Mitsurugi repeated in her mind for a little bit, she knew she’s heard it somewhere before.
In less than a minute Kaoru caught up to Sanosuke who was waiting at the gate. The stranger followed and in the end was the grumbling, untrusting Yahiko.
“So what’s the deal with that guy?” Sano asked.
“Well I told him that he could stay here with us.” Kaoru replied.
“Alright, well I’m gonna go find Kenshin, you guys get us a room alright?” he said then walked off inside of the building.
Shortly after Kaoru left to rent a room leaving Yahiko and Mitsurugi alone in the doorway.
“You know, I reeeeeeally don’t trust you.” Yahiko grumbled.
“Oh?” Mitsurugi asked while removing his cloak. “And why’s that?” he finished as he hung the cloak from his arm. Now that Yahiko got a closer look at this man he noticed some strange details, for one the visible part of his arms were covered with small scars that were extremely hard to see because they were thin and blended in with his light skin.
“Because you keep that stupid cloak on during the day, you carry a sword around, and you got scars. Put all those together and you got one dangerous character.”
“Hm? You think so eh?” he bent down to look at Yahiko straight in the face. “What about your beloved Kenshin? I’ve heard that he used to be quite dangerous himself, being a ‘hitokiri’ and all.” He said the word ‘hitokiri’ with a twisted accent and grinned.
“How’d you.....!?” Yahiko stepped back, being confused and a little scared, not many knew of Kenshin’s past besides them. Yahiko slowly reached for his wooden sword he always straps to his back.
At that moment Misao walked in wearing a slightly revealing sky blue kimono for her position as the host for guests. She came in completely unaware of what just took place. “I have your room ready sir, also we have a bath ready if you would like to take it.” She said with a smile.
Mitsurugi turned away from Yahiko to face her. “A bath wouldn’t be bad.” He replied with an equally friendly smile.
“Alright, come this way.” She turned and began to lead the way to the bathroom. Mitsurugi followed her, he took a single look of Yahiko before he dissappeared around the corner, just to see his menacing glare.
“Oh, Kaoru-dono!” Kenshin exclaimed as Kaoru walked into his room. He was sitting around in his room with Sanosuke. Sanosuke was just informing him of the events that took place on the boats. He shined his friendly rurouni-smile at her. “I’m so glad that you weren’t hurt by those demons!”
Kaoru stood there happily, because Kenshin wasn’t hurt and because she had made it here to see him again. Although he had left her a letter she feared that he would not be here, that he might be off fighting somewhere unknown to her. “Don’t ever do that to me again!” she tried to say like she was upset but she couldn’t stop smiling. Then she sat down right next to him.
Sanosuke broke the silence. “Heh, she’s too happy to be mad.” He slowly got up onto his feet. “Well I’m going to take a hot bath and go to sleep. See you in the morning.” He began heading towards the door then stopped in the doorway. “Don’t you two be staying up too late.”
“Sano!” Kaoru excalimed.
Sano just grinned and then disappeared around the corner.
“He was just kidding Kaoru-dono.” Kenshin tried to convince her.
“Yeah I know, but it’s been a long day.” She let out a sigh.
“You should get to sleep, you need it.” Kenshin suggested.
“I guess.” She got up. “I’ll see you in the morning.” She began to walk out of the room, then stopped. “Oh yeah, did Sano tell you about Mitsurugi-san?”
“Who?”
“The stranger from the ship.” She pointed out.
“Oh, Sano told me about him.”
“Well, okay then, goodnight.” She gave him a little wave and disappeared.
Kenshin sat there thinking for a few minutes. “Mitsurugi eh?” he said to himself. “I’ll go talk with him.”
With in a hour Kaoru, Sanosuke, and Yahiko were deep in their sleep. The others were still awake doing their thing. Saitou was out having a smoke before going to bed, Aoshi was going to stay up to keep an eye on things, Soujirou said he’d join him. Kenshin was busy looking around for Mitsurugi.
Kenshin had looked in every room in the Aoiya, just as he was about to give up he heard a footsteps outside. He headed to the main doorway and peeked out. “Hello?” he said.
No anwer.
Kenshin stepped outside to take a look around. Down the street he noticed two figures walkign together. One was noticabley taller than the other. Kenshin took a silent jog to get close enough to see who they were.
The taller one was a man wrapped in a cloak, the shorter one was Akemi. Just as Kenshin was about to call to the they stopped and turned to him.
The cloaked man spoke. “Himura.... you have grown up well.” He said sizing up Kenshin.
Kenshin hesitated for a moment. “Um... who...”
Akemi interupted. “This is Mitsurugi, my teacher.” She explained proudly.
“Well nice to meet you.” Kenshin said with a smile.
“Himura.” Mitsurugi spoke in a cold tone. “There is a reason we are out here right now. I knew you would come out here eventually.”
He paused.
“There are things you must know about.... what I am about to tell you is of grave importance, it is the truth of Hitenmitsurugi.”
“What do you mean?” Kenshin asked conused. “What else is there to know? It exists to protect the people who cannot defend themselves.”
“Well that is a fragment of it.” Mitsurugi took a glance around to make sure no one was around. No one was clearly visible but he could see a human shadow around the corner, it belonged to Saitou. “Let us go somewhere more private. Akemi, go back to the inn, it is important for me to talk to him alone. Himura, follow me.”
As Akemi began to walk back without question Mitsurugi took off in a mad dash. Within seconds he was out of sight. Kenshin followed as quickly as possible. First aroudn the, corner then straight down a dark street, then another turn and this continued for a while. Then finally Kenshin reached the outskirts of Kyoto he could see Mitsurugi standing underneath a giant tree. Behind him he could hear Akemi’s footsteps and heavy breathing.
“Now we are alone. I think we lost that police-man.” Mitsurugi mention coolly. Although his hood had slipped off his head while running Kenshin noticed that Mitsurugi showed no signs of sweat and was breathing quite normally. He himself had sweat on his brow and a little shortage of breath.
“Police?“ Kenshin asked. He thought for a minute and came up with only one policeman that would trail them, that could trail them. “You mean Saitou?”
“Names arn’t important.” He began to walk towards Kenshin. “There is much for you to know. Do you Himura have any idea why you were chosen to learn Hitenmitsurugi?”
“Well shishyo told me because I had no where else to go when he saved me when I was a child.”
“Then I better begin from the start.” Mitsurugi stopped and sat down on the grass. “Sit, this will take a while.
Keshin quickly obliged.
“Many years ago, so long that even I cannot recall, the Oni Clan lived along side humans. The two clans helped each other when in need for many years, but one foul day a sect of the Oni Clan believed that they were so much mor ebetter than the humans. This sect began to slaughter the humans city by city. The rest of the clan could not allow this to happen, the onis faught for almost a full year until the sect had surrendered. Then as a punishment the sect were sealed away into the nether world. The Oni thought the evil ones would realize there mistake in there and repent their crimes, but while in there all they could think about was vengence.”
Kenshin interupted the story. “Why do you tell me this? You meant to tell me about Hitenmitsurugi correct?”
“Patience Himura, just wait.” Mitsurugi began again. “The Oni Clan realized their mistake much too late. In the nether world they could not die but survive til one day when they are released. Also, because the evil ones had slayed so many humans the Human Clan began calling the remaining Oni Clan ‘demons’ and treated them as such. After that began the Oni Clan hid away from the Human Clan living amongst themselves leaving the umans alone. But as time passed the Oni Clan’s number declined to a few handful, and a few of the Oni had to live among the humans in disguise to survive. And now as the Oni Clan is needed the most there are only a few human-oni hibrids and even fewer true onis.”
“Hm...” Kenshin smirked. “If you had told me this a week ago I would have called your crazy... but now that I’ve seen them for myself... I must....”
“Now, you wonder what this has to do with you.... you were chosen to learn the Hitenmitsurugi Sword Style because of your bloodline, the blood of the oni flows within you.”
“You mean I.....”
Mitsuruginodded. “Hitenmitsurugi is a fighting style developed by the Oni Clan for any and all weapons. We the remaining Oni Clan swore to keep this fighting style alive, for when the evil ones return only warriors of Hitenmitsugi can stop them.”
As Kenshin absobred all this information a question came to mind. “Why do you know all this?”
“Because... I am the creator of Hitenmitsurugi, I am the only remaining true Oni.” As Misurugi looked at Kenshin his eyes flashed a slight red and returned to their normal grey. “I have been alive since the day of the ancient Oni Clan, I swore to keep the Hitenmitsurugi alive until this day. I was chosen to be the guardian of Hitenmitsurugi.”
Kenshin looked him straight in the eyes. “Why should I believe you?” he inquired. “How do I know what you are saying is the truth? How do I....”
Mitsurugi stopped him in mid-sentence. “It is yoru choice to believe or not, my job is only to provide you with the truth.” Then he got up. “I shall be going now, it’s been a long day.”
Kenshin got up as well. “Wai...”
Before he could complete his words a high scream pierced their ears. The two searched for the source of the scream and it lead to the Aoiya.
NEXT
