Subject: [kenshinfanfics] Tattered Angel, part XII Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998 20:31:19 -0700 From: Mihoshi Reply-To: kenshinfanfics@makelist.com To: kenshinfanfics@makelist.com Okey. Pleae tell me what you think, I KNOW some partz could be improved on, so tell, tell! ^_^ The Fall of The Kurokagei Ninjas It was hard to breath. The air had been taken over by some thick murky presence that clung to Kaoru's lungs. A man had been killed. She placed Saitoh's hand on his chest and silently got up, her body quivering as she lifted her face to look in to the eyes of the murderer. Battousai stood there, examining his sword with insane wonder. He licked the blood off the blade and grinned pure madness. Kaoru watched him with blurry eyes. Sanosuke was taking out his sorrows on a group of Ninjas who had risen for the third time. Cussing his lungs out, he engaged himself in battle again. Yahiko close behind him. Megumi was busy taking the wounded off the battle field, her eyes glazed over with fear and sadness. Kaoru inhaled a shaky breath. Kenshin.... The madness was going to stop. Now. She silently walked down the long pier, making her way to the last dock. Shinji shifted in the branches of the tree. Beside him, the four elders sat cackling at the villagers. None of them would be killed, the elders did not want them dead. Just wounded enough to wish they were dead. Shinji watched his angel kneel down before a bleeding man. His heart wrenched at the empty expression that veiled her beautiful blue eyes. Her group of friends had gathered around the dying man. Kaoru-san. He turned to the elders. "Haven't you had enough with this village? We should be moving on to central Tokyo." One of them chuckled. "Dear boy, it can't be all work and no play. Once Battousai finishes his friends then we will move on to the heart of Tokyo. There is no rush, and personally I find this quite entertaining." Shinji narrowed his eyes. "Are you saying that Battousai will kill his friends?' They all laughed. "Of course." his great grandmother spoke up. "That was our intention from the beginning." Another burst of crazy laughter. Something clicked in Shinji's head as he heard the laughter of the four old women echo in his mind. It was as if something began to make sense for the first time. His life was driven by the revenge his elders wanted so badly, controlled would be a better word. Raised to kill people that were pretty much innocent. What had they done to him? And now his elders were planing on killing his one love. Shinji turned to face his great-grandmother, his jade eyes softening. "Obasan, I'm asking you this one favour. Please spare the lives of Battousai's friends." Surprised, the old woman turned to look at her great grandson. She stared at him for a few seconds before bursting in to laughter. "Shinji, what am I going to do with you? Spare our enemies lives? You must be kidding." His jade eyes glazed over. "Why are they our enemies? What have they done to us." The laughter halted. Her face became a deep shade of red as the blood rushed to her face. "Listen to me, boy." she spat. "They are evil. They are people that wiped out our clan more than a hundred years ago. I am NOT going to have any mercy on any of them." "But these people had nothing to do with the past, their just ordinary people!" A loud slap echoed in the tree tops. "How dare you...I thought I raised you better." Her icy voice cut across him like a sharp blade. He held his cheek as he felt tears brimming his eyes. "They are descendants of our enemies, and I am going to make sure that their ancestors will be crying from hell once we kill every single one of them. You've become soft, Shinji. The reason you were born was to avenge your mother's death, not to feel love." Words that were worse than any slap. Shinji lowered his head. "Great grandma, do you love me?" She sighed exasperated. "Not now! You can be so selfish sometimes!!" Throbbing pain ripped across his chest as his great grandmother turned away. The truth always hurt. "Great grandma." She looked at him with annoyance. "What?!" A single tear slid down his red cheek. "Good-bye." He leapt out of the tree, hearing nothing but the faint thump of his broken heart. Kaoru saw a black figure fall from the sky. Hand on sword, she jumped back and readied herself for combat. She was shocked to see Shinji, face flushed, eyes pouring with fresh tears. Kaoru dropped the sword to her side, her eyes wide. His expression reminded her of a lost little boy.... "Shinji?" she whispered. "Kaoru-san." his puffy eyes addressed her with pure misery. "Have you ever felt love?" Deep emptiness flowed through his words. Kaoru didn't hear it, she felt it. She relaxed her face in to a more softer expression. "Of course I have, everyone has." Shinji smiled, dreary and distant. "Kaoru-san." "Yes?" Suddenly his face was clenched in pain and sorrow as the tears fell from his eyes like rain from the heavens. "Tell me you love me." Shinji sobbed. "Please...tell me you love me. Please say you need me, I..I..." Shinji glanced at her with deep eyes. "...I..love you..." Kaoru stared at him in pure shock before smiling, she put her hands around his waist. "I love you so much. You've been such a good friend to me." For a minute he just stood there holding her close. Then he pulled away. Shinji smiled, this time a genuine smile. "Thank you Kaoru-san." He pulled a sharp boomerang from his belt. "I don't want you and your friends to suffer anymore. It's over." Shinji hurled the boomerang in to the trees and loud cracking screams were heard. Four hunched bodies and their heads fell from the tree. Blood circling the area. Shinji grabbed the boomerang as it came back and turned to face the battle field. "When will these boot licking motha fucking big shits drop dead?!" Sanosuke was tiring fast, his breaths were now loud and strained. Him and Yahiko were handling a group together, always knocking them down but to no avail. "Fuck, man. I said DROP DEAD!" A clatter went through the group of Ninjas. Sanosuke blinked. "Huh?" The Ninjas crumbled to the ground in a pile of black. Yahiko and Sanosuke eyed each other, shocked. "Woah Sanosuke...you should've done that earlier." Sanosuke scratched his head. "If I had known....." Megumi ran up to them, her brown eyes wide with surprise. "Did you see that? All the Ninjas just dropped like flies." Sansouke nodded. "The big man upstairs is finally shining down on us." The villagers dropped their weapons and shouted in joy. "How did you do that??" Kaoru was watching the heaps of black on the ground with wide blue eyes. Shinji walked over to a mass of black clothing and picked at the black linen. Kaoru gasped. Bones. A full human skeleton. The bones were dislodged and scattered among the black linen. These were the Ninjas.... 'Why...how?" Kaoru looked in to Shinji's face. Shinji pulled the black cloth over the bones. "These are my ancestors." "What!?" Kaoru looked again at the field of black piles. Shinji sighed. "All of the Ninjas you have been fighting are actually deceased Kurokagei members. The elders called upon the Blood Bind to make them rise from their graves and used . When.." his voice began to falter, but he cleared his throat. "...when I killed the elders, it released them from the Blood Bind." Kaoru felt her heart leap. "Then that means Kenshin.." she turned to look at the far dock. Battousai was licking his arm, tasting the blood with pleasure. His eyes the same glowing red. Kaoru felt like she was going to cry. "Why?...." Shinji shook his head. "It's different with him. Since the others were dead, the Blood Bind could not grow on them. So the source had to come from someone else. The elders were controlling them through their own negative energy, so when I killed them the Ninjas couldn't collect anymore energy.......But Battousai is alive and he makes his own negative energy. The Blood Bind has been feeding off his jakuna kokoro." Shinji's eyes dimmed. "He has sold his soul......" Kaoru's heart stopped. "To what?" Shinji wasn't listening, instead he was looking at the pool of blood that had collected under the tree. His eyes glazed over as he looked at the four bodies that scattered the grass. "I need some time alone...." Shinji walked over to the tree and knelt. He picked up his great-grandmother's head and cradled it in his arms. Kaoru watched him as he cried. Shinji......... "Jo-chan!" Kaoru turned around to see Yahiko, Sanosuke and Megumi running up to her. She smiled wearily. "Well, the Ninjas are out of the way..." Sanosuke patted her head and smiled. He looked at Shinji's hunched form. "That guy broke the spell, didn't he?" Kaoru nodded. "Yes, he did." Sanosuke stepped past Kaoru and was now staring at Battousai. Kenshin...Battousai... ...Saitoh Megumi looked up at Sanosuke with worried eyes. Sanosuke looked back at the others, his expression grim. "Let's go save Kenshin." The group headed down the deck. The biggest obstacle was yet to come. Alright, the next two chapters are going to be the last and then the fic is OVER! I'm making a web site and I need the mistakes pointed out so I don't look like a complete moron. ^_^ Thanx, Mihoshi "Cognito erguem. I think therefore, I am." Very famous quote. ---- Read this list on the Web at http://www.makelist.com/list/kenshinfanfics/ To unsubscribe, email to kenshinfanfics-unsubscribe@makelist.com To subscribe, email to kenshinfanfics-subscribe@makelist.com -- Start a FREE E-Mail List at http://www.makelist.com !