The Final Mark
a Rurouni Kenshin fanfiction
written by: Hiko Seijuro(CronusZ@bellsouth.net)
All of the characters in this story are the property of
Nobuhiro Watsuki. Except for people I made up.
Beware! This fic has many spoilers from just about everywhere.
Go away if you don't like spoilers! ^_^
< > denotes thought
* * denotes flashback
I
Kenshin stifled his 10th yawn of the early morning.
Kenshin thought,
as he waited for the water to boil at the stove.
Mornings in the Kamiya Dojo were Kenshin's favorite time to think,
primarily due to the lack of noise, but also it was his little time that
he could think alone without interruption.
In went the rice.
He took a moment to pour a cup of tea, and to sit outside of the
kitchen. He sighed and examined the familiar area. For over 3 years, this
dojo had been his home, his haven, his sanctuary from wandering. Walking
into Tokyo 3 years ago, he would have never suspected his life would have
turned out this way.
*Stop right there, Hitokiri Battousai!* the young woman had said.
That's how it all had started. Little did she know she was
addressing the true Battousai, and he had come through in her rescue the
very next day. And from there, he had protected her, Yahiko, and all
she deemed friends. He had found a family who respected him, turned to
him for advice everyday, and didn't care who he had once been, only that
he was there now, completing the mold that made them who they were.
*So THIS is your woman, is it?* Jin-e had said.
Even though he had denied it, or made excuses, it was clear that
had fooled no one. Jin-e had seen it immediately, as did his master, Hiko
Seijurou. He shook his head.
he thought.
When he had returned to Tokyo from the Kyoto battle with Shishio
and his Ten Swords, he had been shocked to find out how she had acted when
he had left and told her goodbye. He had confronted her soon after to find
out what had made her do such things.
*You don't get it, do you, Kenshin?* Kaoru had said through barely
controllable sobs. *I always said I didn't want to be alone anymore. And
that is true. But when you left for Kyoto...it was like the biggest part
of my life was being torn from me. Like my father and mother dying all over
again! Can't you see I just want to be with you forever?! I love you!!*
she had croaked, and then fell into his shocked arms, crying.
*What have I done...?* Kenshin asked himself, feeling total guilt
for what she had been through.
Once she had admitted her love for him, he soon followed. After
that, everything seemed like it was on a high for the both of them. They
were engaged and then married very soon afterwards. Kaoru, the young girl
who had threatened his life on his first day in Tokyo, was now his wife.
Kenshin mused, and headed inside
to make the rice balls.
Kaoru awoke suddenly, her stomach aching. She moaned in her state
of pseudo-sleep, and looked on the other side of the futon, finding Kenshin
had already made his side of the bed, and she could smell cooking down
below. She sighed. she thought,
but quickly perished the idea. She'd thought of that many times throughout
their relationship, and didn't want to ever again.
A kick in her body woke her from her little reverie. She soon was
realizing a famished stomach and someone else were trying to tell her
something.
"Hai, Hai! You eat a lot more than Sanosuke ever did! Mou!" she
laughed, and got a kick at her belly for a response.
"Is that any way to treat your mother?! You'll be punished when
you come out of there!" Kaoru said, grinning. She just couldn't be any
happier. Every movement in her belly signified a young child growing, the
product of Kenshin and Kaoru's love(and her beauty, she added). Slowly,
she headed downstairs to feed the beast that lived within.
"Ohayo, Kaoru. Sleep well?" Kenshin asked, setting some
small bowls on the table.
"Yes, but the troublemaker here woke me up several times. He's
gonna regret that!" she said with a smile.
They glowed at each other, and Kenshin knelt beside her and placed
his head on her stomach, a sharp kick being the reward.
"Oro?!" he stammered.
"What did I tell you, Kenshin? He's going to have your stamina!"
"And your strength! Ha ha ha ha!" Kenshin laughed.
Kaoru's evil eye reared its ugly head, but was cancelled by a
kiss from Kenshin. She melted when she was near him, yet was frozen at the
same time. The kiss broke, and Kenshin smiled.
"Ready for some breakfast, little one?" he asked.
"Feed him already! Well, the both of us anyway..." Kaoru replied.
Kenshin skipped his rice when he served them, and Kaoru made no
move to give him his own share, as she was too busy devouring it.
Kenshin could only grin. But he couldn't help thinking that there
was something missing from this whole scenario.
"What's for breakfast?" Yahiko yawned, as he walked into the main
dojo hall, mechanically seating himself at his spot at the table.
Kenshin thought.
"Rice and some vegetables...or nothing if you don't hurry!" Kenshin
said to Yahiko, smiling as Yahiko hoarded all the food he could for himself,
which of course, led to an argument between the master of Kamiya Kasshin
Ryu and its successor. They wrestled over each others food, each trying to
overwhelm the other with Kasshin Ryu Jujutsu techniques.
A sweatdrop appeared on Kenshin's head.
***
"OUCH! What're you trying to do, kill me?" Sano yelped.
Megumi looked up from her work, rather irritated.
"If you keep moving and screaming that every 10 seconds, then yes,
I WILL kill you, Sanosuke." she said tartly.
"Hmph." was his only reply.
"Honestly, you have to be the most scatterbrained idiot in Tokyo!
How do you ever expect this hand of yours to heal if you keep using it to
beat the crap out of people?! Lay off it for a couple of months, and THEN
beat someone up!" Megumi said.
"Hey, that guy asked for it! He kept calling me a cheap, no good
lazy scumbag..."
"The truth can hurt sometimes." she laughed.
"..and...hey! Now watch what you're doing! That's a delicate
hand there. Itai! Ooogh! Are you finished yet?" he complained.
"Yes, thank God. Now get along, I've got others to attend to.
If you smash that thing up again, you don't get to cut ahead, got it,
Sanosuke?" Megumi said, deadly serious.
"Yeah, yeah! Hey no problem, doc! Thanks again. By the way,
got any food? You can put it on my tab..." he grinned.
Megumi looked up, very slowly.
A glare of death with Sano's name on it.
Sano took the hint, and fled.
Megumi sighed and smiled to herself.
"Works every time."
***
"I think I found him, sir." the skinny man said.
A man in a black shirt, with a bright mark of two crossed swords
embroidered on it, turned his chair to face the man. The skinny young man
was in his late 20's, with long, frazzled black hair, which probably had
seen better days, and he wore a yellow bandanna, which was now covered in
sweat and grease from his daily work.
"Red hair?" the man in the black shirt asked.
"Yes sir." the skinny man replied.
"Crossed scar on his left cheek?"
"Yes sir."
"Did you notice his eyes, perchance?" he leaned forward, and put
his chin on top of his crossed fingers.
"As far as I could tell, sir, he had a bluish-violet eye color,
sir." the man replied, beginning to look uneasy.
"Are you sure?"
"Were you expecting something else, sir?"
The man leaned back in his chair.
"I was hoping yellow, but I guess Battousai is sleeping inside of
his Rurouni form. But we found him, nonetheless. Thank you, Junichi.
Your work is done." he said, as the man suddenly clutched his stomach in
raging pain, and soon his chest and shoulders began to bleed as well.
He slumped to the ground, silent. Another man entered from the shadows,
and tended to the removal of the body. He returned moments later.
"Pardon me for asking, Ibuki-san, but why do you want the Battousai?
He's not even Battousai anymore, so why now, of all times? Shouldn't you
have gotten rid of him years ago?" the man asked.
The man called Ibuki smiled.
"Ever had a family, Santo? A wife, children, brothers, sisters?"
he asked Santo calmly.
"A long time ago..I had a sister. My parents died six years ago."
Santo replied, quietly.
"Were any of them murdered, Santo?"
"No sir. My parents died of age." Santo replied.
A fraction of a second later, Santo was being held two feet off the
ground, his neck being crushed, his windpipe collapsing under the
blistering pressure of Ibuki Goro's hand. He desperately tried to breathe,
but Ibuki only tightened his grip with each contraction of Santo's neck.
"Ibuki...san..why..gulp...do..this?" he managed to say.
"My family was murdered about thirteen years ago for resisting the
Ishin Shishi. We had once been with it, but later we ended up betraying
them, since they were going back on their contract with my father. A few
weeks after they found this out, a young man came to visit us. He said he
had some business with father. He promptly murdered all of them. My whole
family was murdered within minutes. I had been outside tending to the dojo
cleaning, when I heard screams, and the contact of blades onto human flesh.
I made my way to where the screams were, and saw all of their faces in a
twisted mangle of hatred, fear, and death. I looked up, and glimpsed at
the killer as he left. He missed me, but I saw him."
Santo was starting to see the connection.
"Red hair, and an cross-shaped scar on his left cheek." said Ibuki
venomously.
Santo felt his body seem to numb.
"The Hitokiri Battousai. The harbinger of my family's death and
my neverending quest for revenge against him." he said, silently, and
dropped Santo to the ground.
Santo gasped, gagged, and breathed in deeply, quickly to restore
oxygen to his body. He had never felt so terrified in his life before.
Ibuki Goro wasn't even that large. Perhaps it was just his hatred that had
taken him to that level of strength, but somehow, Santo doubted it.
Ibuki sat back down, and stretched out, the tension and rage from
past remembrances subsiding.
"I had hoped that Saitoh, or Shishio would take care of him. But I
knew they wouldn't. Saitoh's too full of himself, and Shishio was too
obsessed. They never could fully focus on Himura, just themselves. This
is something I've waited for for a long time. But I don't want to fight
the Rurouni, Himura Kenshin." he said.
Santo noticed a smile begin to play on his face.
"I want to fight the Hitokiri Battousai." he said, grinning evilly.
"But how?" Santo asked. "He's not a killer anymore, he has that
sakabatou he uses now, made by Shatku Arai. You can't kill anything with
that."
"I think Himura has been supressing his violent nature ever since
the end of the dynasty. And I think I know how to bring the dark side of
him back to the surface." Ibuki said, drumming his fingers on the armrest.
Santo looked at him questioningly.
Ibuki smiled.
"You'll see soon enough." he said. "We'll meet him in the market-
place. I'm no killer, and I don't want anyone's blood on my hands but his.
Do you have my special darts ready?"
"Yes, sir. Kento finished the formula yesterday and coated them with
it. By the way, is that some sort of lethal poison? That'd be kinda cheap
to kill him like that..." Santo asked, handing him a sack.
"Hardly. But for Himura, it could be disastrous in other ways..."
he said.
"Do you think he'll seek you out when you're finished?" Santo asked,
very serious.
"I'm counting on it." Ibuki said, and headed outside, in the
direction of the marketplace.
***
"Hey, Kenshin, Is jou-chan gonna burst, or what? She's huge!" Sano
said, and stretched his hands as to emphasize the point.
"Are you calling me fat?! Why you..!" Kaoru threatened, and Sano
simply laughed harder. Kenshin quickly came between them.
"Whoa, whoa. Kaoru, you need to cool down, okay? They're
complimenting you, not making fun of you! Okay?" Kenshin said, in his
nicest voice.
"I tell you, he's pushing it, Kenshin. He always teases me, you know
that! It gets really old." Kaoru huffed.
Kenshin turned to Sano. "Sano, we really should be a little more
considerate to a pregnant lady, don't you agree?" he said, a little
sarcasm surfacing.
Sano snorted, but kept quiet.
The marketplace was always a busy time for Tokyo, especially in the
morning, where everyone in Tokyo came to buy, sell or trade goods for what
they needed for the rest of the day. Some peddled jewelry, and all kinds
of other merchandise, but the majority, as could be expected, demanded
food for the day. The Himura's had become very recognized people in the
recent year, especially since their marriage. Kenshin hadn't changed much,
as he always scratched his head and laughed when people asked how every-
thing was. But Kaoru seemed to be the spokesperson, informing everyone
everything about the child, and she always tried to promote the dojo
whenever she could, because she knew in the future, they would need the
money to support the child.
Sano and Yahiko headed off to see some of the merchandise, basking
in the awe of items they probably would never get their hands on.
Kenshin and Kaoru went along, picking up their daily supplies,
socializing with just about everyone along the way.
"We got the tofu, rice, hmm, perhaps we could use some of this..."
Kaoru said, in deep thought. Kenshin simply took everything in, feeling
the life all around him. It felt serene.
"Kenshin? You awake?" Kaoru asked, breaking his reverie.
"Just looking around. We have everything?" Kenshin asked.
"Hai. Let's find Sano and Yahiko." Kaoru said, and she headed
toward the merchandising areas.
***
Ibuki opened his hand, and in it fell a small note, from one of his
informants.
Battousai heading to merchandising area.
-Santo
he thought, and headed towards his target.
***
Something caught Kenshin's eye.
"Behold these beautiful masterpieces of Nihontou craftsmanship!
All of these swords are from the end of the dynasty, wielded by legendary
warriors and shoguns! A great decoration for any home! And here..." the
fat merchant continued blathering, all of the people aweing and the
beautiful weapons.
Kenshin, curious, decided to take a look.
"Where are you going, Kenshin?" Kaoru turned.
"I just want to look at these. I'll just be right over there.
You can get Yahiko and Sano, i'll be fine." he said.
"Okay, be back in a second." she smiled at him, and headed to
the booth where Sano and Yahiko stood.
Kenshin could recognize the swordwork easily. Some were authentic
ones, but most weren't. One of the swords was an early Satsujin-ken that
he recognized.
he thought.
That's when he heard the scream.
End of Chapter I.
This is essentially a rough draft.
Anyone with C&C, I'd like to hear from you, and also any spelling,
grammar, and/or inconsistencies or whatever, I'd also like to know.
I'm a damn good speller, but I am human ^_^
Send mail to cronusz@bellsouth.net
(
geocities.com/tokyo/shrine) (
geocities.com/tokyo)