Konbanwa,

Tae gave her okay on the prologue, so I thought i'd send it before I
headed off to the Star Wars sneak peek. ;) Chapter 1 shouldn't take too
long. ^_^;;

- Meimi-san
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   You're just jealous because the voices are
         talking to me and not you. ^_~
This is the draft to the prologue of that horror I've been talking
about but haven't written much about. ^_^ My muse is back though,
maybe she'll stay long enough for me to finish this. 

*smacks Sakura, the Kenshin muse* "NO MORE VACATION!!!!"

Disclaimer: All rights and privileges to Rurouni Kenshin belong to
Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shuiesha, Sony Music Entertainment, and whoever
else owns it. It's used without permission for entertainment value.
Any original concepts and characters are copyright to the author.
Anything else probably belongs to someone else (like the beginning of
this disclaimer *hides from MadamHydra*). 

Warning: There's going to be alot of blood. I'm going to TRY to keep
the horror part. Alot of weirdness, but hopefully you'll be able to
follow along.


[ ] - Indicates thought
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  - Indicates flashback

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Curse in Amber
Prologue - A Chance Comment (draft)
A Rurouni Kenshin Fanfiction
written by Robin Kloster aka Meimi

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The sight of so much blood sickened him. Splattered across the walls,
pooling on the wooden floor, dripping from the corpses of the women
and young children of the household. The tiny house looked like some
macabre tale brought to life. The mournful sound of the wind the only
counterpoint to the soft drip-drip of fresh blood. 

She had been here.

As much as he wanted to deny it, reality spoke otherwise. Once, not
long ago, this might have been his handiwork. Instead its cause was
the beautiful, kind-hearted young woman who had stolen his heart. It
was inconceivable. Yet the truth clawed rents out of his heart,
leaving a sickening hollow that swallowed up his soul. 

[ My fault. ]

It must be, though he couldn't think of the how or why. If only he'd
kept his silence, anything to prevent this.

The barely audible sound of leaves crackling interrupted his self
guilt. He turned to look out into the pitch black of night, willing
himself to see what lurked out in the trees not far distant. 

[ You're out there aren't you? ]

	"Koishii..."
	
He closed his eyes against the pain in his heart. He felt the
sibilant whisper more than he heard it, yet it sent a shudder of
dread through his body. 

She was waiting for him. Waiting for him to come find her. Waiting
for him to see more of what she had done. And waiting for something
else. That, above all else, was what actually scared him. Oh yes, it
scared him. Far more than anything else that he had experienced
before.

And try as he might. He couldn't hide it. He couldn't hide his
emotions as he had once be able to. They battered at his sanity, just
as they clawed at his heart. 

He would *never* hurt her.

But he wasn't sure about anyone else anymore. 

He now understood Himura-san far more than he had wanted to. The Ten
Ken was waiting, just below the surface. Waiting to kill again.

Waiting for him to give in. 

Just like the Battousai and Himura-san.

And she was waiting for it. Waiting for either of their hot blood to
flow across the ground. Though she'd probably prefer it to be his.

	"Soujirou-koishii..."

His feet moved of their own accord. Out into the dark, out into the
forest. They followed the path she had left for his benefit, a path
of blood that glimmered wetly in the wan moonlight. 

As his footsteps took him farther and farther into the trees, his
mind wandered back. Back into a living nightmare that had begun only
the day before.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The day had dawned, the light banishing the darkness of night and
revealing the first minutes of what would truly be a beautiful day.
As the day before, and the day before that, he had risen from his
futon, gotten dressed and gone to fix breakfast. No matter how much
she complained that she was as good a cook as he, he insisted. It was
only right for him to do the menial chores. It was by her good grace
he had a roof over his head. No matter how much she argued his
staying wasn't a hardship. 

She had come to breakfast, radiant as ever, calling him 'anata' as
she had been want to do of late. He didn't think she meant much by it
at the time. It was terribly lonely here on the outskirts of the
little unnamed village. She must just be lonely for companionship.
Any excuse to delude himself from thinking she truly cared for him.

She had grown unusually quiet as he cleaned the dishes, watching him
from the doorway. Her long black-hair glittering blue, like her eyes,
in the sunlight from the window. 

She wanted to ask him something, something about his past. He hoped
she wouldn't, but knew he couldn't deny her what she wanted to know.

"Soujirou-san," she began hesitantly, wary of some kind of rejection.
Her fingers curled nervously around a stray lock of liquid black, her
expressive eyes downcast, prepared for whatever might come. "You
never speak of it and I've never asked... for anything. I would like
to know something... anything," her eyes rose slowly to meet his as
she fished around for a safe subject to begin with, "This...
Himura-san? You said he helped you? Tell me about him, at least. I'd
like to know about someone who you think so highly of..." 

( And perhaps later, we could move on to you. ) Her eyes pleaded with
him. Wanting to know about him, yet afraid she might drive him away
with her curiousity.

After she had asked her seemingly innocent question, he had let out
the breath he hadn't remembered holding. Himura-san was a safe topic,
at least he thought it was. He smiled his familiar smile at her, it
worked just as well at times even if it couldn't hide his stronger
emotions anymore. 

"Himura-san, well I'm not sure where to start," he began as she came
to stand beside him. She gazed out the window and played with a lock
of her hair as she listened, "He was a swordsman in the war, still is
to an extent. He gave up killing, yet still uses a sword. I couldn't
understand him... then. The sword's edges are reversed, but it still
is a sword, at least it was in my eyes. I fought against him, for my
master. Somehow he knew I didn't like what I was doing, I'm not sure
how, and he defeated me. He could have killed me, yet he didn't. By
his words, his actions, he sent me on the path that brought me here.
I'm very grateful to him for that."

"A swordsman, then?"

"Hai, a master of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu," he wasn't sure why he had
offered that little bit of information. It wouldn't mean anything to
her.

"Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu..." her eyes grew cloudy at the name. She was
probably just curious with it. "Sounds difficult," she whispered to
herself, as if she actually knew.

She finally looked over at him, her eyes clear, "A hitokiri then? And
he hated killing, how dreadful. It must have been a horrible
experience."

"Hai..." Something about the conversation had disturbed him. But he
wasn't sure whether he was imagining things or not, and so he had let
it drop into the back of his mind to be mulled over at a later date.
She had smiled at him then, said something of no consequence and gone
off to do something. 'Something important' she had said.

It was much later when he finally found out just what she had been up
to. He had finished the dishes in silence, gone out and washed the
laundry and finally fixed lunch for the two of them. She had been
absent the entire time, doing something in the storage building
behind the house. He had finally gone searching for her, to call her
to lunch. In afterthought, he should have gone to look after her much
sooner. 

The storage building had been unnaturally quiet, and much darker than
normal. But it was the chill in the still air that had warned him of
trouble. Too cold for the middle of summer, far too cold. Back by the
far wall she stood silently, her back to him, her attention riveted
by something before her. 

"It was my mother's, you know. Found hidden in my grandfather's
things after his student had killed him. She could never forgive my
father for that, even though she did understand. It was how things
were. How things always were. They forgot what the technique brings
and just how vicious it can be," She had turned her head to the side,
amber glittering in her eyes. "The new master hasn't taken the name
yet, I should remind him of his obligation to those of us left cursed
by it. He, of all of them, should understand best. After all, who has
forgotten the amber-eyed hitokiri that terrorized the streets of
Kyoto? I haven't. And I haven't even met him yet." 

A blade glittered in her hands as she turned to face him, an
unearthly smile on her lips. "Koishii..." she whispered, "You
understand. I can see the blood in your eyes, it consumes your past
and your future. You're just as cursed as me. I should relieve you of
that weight."

"Yuri-san..."

"Hiko, onegai. It is my name, of a sorts. It's my curse. Edo's curse.
I should remind them of it, all of them." 

She smiled warmly at him over her amber-colored eyes, "Sayonara,
Soujirou-koishii."

"Ryuu Tsui Sen!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

His almost forgotten speed had saved him from what would have been a
fatal blow. Unfortunately, she had flashed out the door and into the
forest in the blink of an eye. Out of practice, he couldn't catch up
with her. And now he followed the trail of death she left in her
wake. To Tokyo...

Where the amber-eyed demon's prey would be found. 

[ Himura-san... ] 

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Next part: More weirdness. ^_~ But maybe I'll start making sense by
then.