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A Rurouni Kenshin Fanfic written by Nadejda Neklioudova. Special thanks to my very good friend ‘Seijyuroh’ for ideas for this story.
All existing Rurouni Kenshin characters (such as Hiko Seijuro) copyright Watsuki Nobuhiro. I’m only borrowing the characters, don’t sue me please... the character Yuri created by me, Nadejda Neklioudova.Note: the name "Yuri" means "Lily" in Japanese.
Another Note: my writing style is usually for one-scene 'feeling' fics, I'm not used to writing stories with real plots...besides the basic idea wasn't even mine, it was Seijyuroh's, I'm just writing what he suggested, and putting my own little spin on it. So if this sounds really weird...email me and tell me so. :P And yes I am aware that I am constantly switching tenses from present to past...Timeframe: 25 years before the RurouniKenshin storyline now. (Hiko Seijuro is eighteen at the moment, has just finished his HitenMitsurugiRyu training, of course killing his master in the process)
Part 1 – Welcome to my Nightmare
written December 1, 1998.
Threads of moonlight sift through the web spun by interweaving tree branches onto the damp grass of the forest floor. Most birds have retreated into their nests for the night, and only the singing nightingale (Author’s Note: I don’t know if there are nightingales in Japan..let’s just say there are :P) and the occasional prowling fox disturbs the still silence of the sleeping summer forest.
However, soon light footsteps are heard on the forest grass. The curious fox quietly retreats into the protective bushes, but the tiny nightingale, who has stopped his singing for a moment and cocked his head to the side to get a better view, sees from his tree a person running on the seldom-walked-on night path. Loose long hair streaming behind the stranger reflects the moonlight, but it also obscures the rest of the person from the bird’s eye view. The nightingale sees this as no immediate threat, loses interest, and resumes singing his night serenade to the stars.
The curious fox, however, sees from his bush hideout a much clearer picture. A young girl, around sixteen, with long dark hair falling onto her face and streaming past her shoulders, breathes heavily as she runs as fast as her tired feet can carry her through the forest. Her kimono is torn and blood-stained in places and she has no shoes, but she pays no attention. She wipes the tears and sweat off her face and continues on.
The fox wonders why a pretty girl like her would be running through the forest in the middle of the night. The answer comes soon enough, and the fox quickly runs away from the scene.
A cry of "There she is!" is heard in the noisy group of cloaked people armed with swords, that come running and yelling close behind the girl. The girl’s quiet cry of pain is heard as she falls onto the ground again, and ends up in a thorny bush. Her pursuers pick up speed, and soon surround her.
The girl rips the sleeve of her already torn kimono off as she tries to free herself from the prickly bush, steps back and finds herself mere inches away from the sharp sword blade of one of the assassins. She gasps, tries to stand still and control her fear.
"So here you are, Yuri." The man behind her hisses. He is wrapped in a black cloak, not even moonlight falls on his covered face. "You’re a fast runner, girl. You gave us a hell of a time chasing you all the way from Kyoto into the middle of nowhere!" the man forcefully grabs her neck, and the girl named Yuri chokes back a sob, as a few of the other men surrounding her laugh.
"Who...who are you? Who sent you?" Yuri finally whispers, trying to keep her voice cold as steel. She stands still as a statue.
"Oh, I think you know the one who sent me very well..." the cloaked man says as he walks around to face her.
Yuri shivers in realization. But then again, she knew it all along. "Father..."
"Smart girl," the assassin hisses again, letting go of her neck, but still keeping his sword mere hairs away from it. He begins walking around her slowly, like a cruel hunter that taunts a captured, frightened animal before making the kill. He knows his prey will not escape this time. "Your father was right when he said you were as pretty as a lily in a rainstorm." He runs his coarse hand through a lock of her hair. Yuri jerks away, glaring at him. "And just as fragile, it seems."
"Why did my father send you after me?" Yuri glares at the man, her voice faltering.
"You were a mistake, an obstacle for his plans. He has gone insane, you know." The assassin smirks. "But one’s trash is another’s treasure...I don’t mind working for him as long as I can take advantage of his assignments." The man grinned self-confidently, turning his katana so its cold blade touches Yuri’s neck. He did not mind telling her all this information because he was confident in his skills to kill – and weak, unarmed prey such as this girl was especially easy to dispose of. And fun to torture.
Yuri felt like the assassin was slowly frying her on a cold fire, or sticking spears of ice into her soul, searching for the weakest spot. She had been hated, chased and threatened before, but this man had such a strong aura of pure, hateful evil that Yuri had never before encountered. The group of thugs he brought with him were ordinary, a moderately skilled swordsperson could easily dispose of them. But this man was different. He probed her soul under his hateful gaze, searching for a good spot to strike the killing blow, all the while tying her spirit down with chains of evil, waiting for it to wilt and surrender. And he was doing a very good job at it. Yuri shut her eyes and clenched her teeth.
-----
Seijuro Hiko woke up again from a bloody nightmare, finding his head resting on a very uncomfortable stump in the forest and a wild fox licking his face.
"Get away from me..." he said. "I said go!"
But the fox set its paw on Seijuro’s head and whimpered.
Seijuro, annoyed, threw his katana in its sheath at the fox. Its hilt hit the animal, the fox turned and ran away into the night forest, looking back at the young man like an offended child. The katana slipped out of the sheath, revealing a blade covered in dry blood.
Seijuro groaned, got up, picked up the sword and shoved it back into its sheath with a clang. He sat back on the stump, ignoring the world.
Until he heard a girl’s scream.
-----
Yuri could not hold back a cry as the assassin’s sword purposefully grazed into her arm and was pulled back again. She was backed into a tree, the assassin hovered in front of her like a vulture, and his group of thungs was closing in. She still kept her eyes closed as she felt her warm blood slowly trickle down her arm.
-----
The young man raised his head and looked around. Somehow a scream like that was painfully familiar. Nothing changed in the forest surrounding him, still the moon shone down sadly, as if pitying him.
Chasing away a ten-year-old memory, he got up again, katana in hand, but out of his view. There was nothing else to do but follow the direction of the scream. After all, he said to himself, he couldn’t just ignore it. Not again.
Seijuro stepped cautiously through the forest, until he saw the fox again. It looked at him, as if saying ‘finally, you’re helping me!", and trotted away into the forest. After a moment of thought, Seijuro decided to follow.
He soon came upon a clearing, and it took a minute for him to realize that those figures in black he saw were men and not shadows or stumps. Well, they were certainly still enough to be the latter, he thought. They surrounded a big tree, and pressed against the tree trunk was a girl. A pretty girl, a bit younger than he, with dark hair, in a torn white kimono, bloodstained. She held back another scream as one of the men struck something at her, but she moved to just barely avoid it. Seijuro saw the man closest to the girl pull that something out of the tree trunk, and the moonlight helped see that it was a sword. In fact, all of the men surrounding the girl had swords gleaming in the moonlight.
Seijuro drew his own katana, momentarily wincing at the sight of the blood on it, and approached the group of men clothed in black. His master did not teach him sword skills so he could waste them moping around, he thought. The last thing the surprised thugs saw was a warrior slicing their life away with one skillful strike of his sword.
The lead assassin turned, surprised, and Yuri dared to finally open her eyes. She saw a tall, handsome, dark-haired young man in a white manto, wielding a katana, and before him lay the bodies of the thugs. The only assassin left turned from her and headed toward the young man, sword in hand.
"Who are you?" the assassin demanded.
"Dead men need not hear my name," Seijuro said.
"Dead?" the assassin laughed. "We’ll see, boy." He put his katana back into its sheath, evidently preparing for a battou-jutsu attack. Seijuro mirrored his movements.
Yuri dared not move and watched silently as the two swordsmen stood still, swords ready, each waiting for the other to attack first. The assassin took this as a joke, thinking the young man could not possibly be skilled enough to defeat him. However Seijuro was dead-serious.
It seemed eternity to Yuri until they finally moved. Both katanas were drawn simultaneously, and met with a metallic ringing. Half of one sword broke off, flying high in the air, and hitting Seijuro in the shoulder. He didn’t even flinch or notice. Yuri watched as the assassin panicked and tried to run off, but was swiftly cut down.
Seijuro stood above the bodies of the assassins, staring blankly into nowhere. Not bad for a first fight without his master, he thought.
Yuri sighed in relief. Then finally the tiredness and the shock of the whole situation she just endured relatively calmly overcame her, and she collapsed onto the ground.
Seijuro noticed her. He wiped his katana on the grass and sheathed it – ‘no good disgracing my master’s blood with that of these thugs’, he thought. He walked over, picked the girl up, pausing momentarily to admire her beauty, and began walking back to the little house in the woods of Kyoto, wondering just how he got himself into this, and who this girl was.
From the folds of the clothes of the assassin, a small black-winged reptile crawled out. A smallpiece of parchment was tied to one of its legs. It spread its skinny wings and flew off unnoticed in the direction of Kyoto.
On to Part 2