Starlight, Hellfire by MiaViolet

Sorry if the people here seem to be a little out of character. I'm watching Samurai X (and have only watched up to the Super Horse episode *snicker*... though I know what's going to happen until about episode 81. I love spoilers!) and the characters have been... changed a little bit (Kenshin became Kenchi, Kaoru became Cori, Yahiko became Yoshi...). It's not nice, but Kenshin is just as cute, even though he's been dubbed (It's not bad dubbing actually, but still!) Anyways,Samurai X is being shown weekly, and I watch it since I can't understand Japanese. So let it be known here and now that it's Samurai X's fault that I'm inflicting my fics on you...

Okay. I'm supposed to post first part of my fic...please, please don't flame me or publicly

humiliate me. I'm feeling inferior enough as is. Anyways... here's the fic.

 

Disclaimer: This fanfic is purely forentertainment purposes and not for profit. Rurouni Kenshin is not mine, it’s the property of NobuhiroWatsuki, Sony Entertainment, Jump Comics, and everybody else who I can’t give credit to becauseI don’t know them... Hoshi Miyumi is mine, though.  Her name was thought up by a friend who speaks Japanese (I don’t, so forgive me if this is kinda awkward.). I think Hoshi means star in Japanese, and Miyumi is something like beautiful. Beautiful Star. ^~_~^

This is the result of a kinda-crossover with fantasy, my favorite field. This isn’t that good... it’s my first RK fic, and I don’t know any Japanese aside from a few (very few!) words, so please be patient with me (and be kind in your comments!^~_~^). This is just a draft, so if you have any comments or things that are reeeallly wrong and should be changed, please contact me parentheses replace italics (since I'm not that sure whether this accepts html tags)

Part 1: What Brings the Wind

The sun was setting.

        Kenshin stood contemplating its fiery beauty for a time as he stood by a gnarled tree near the dojo grounds. His violet eyes, shaded by red hair, took on an amber hue as he gazed out into the sunset.

        A breeze whispered past, and there was no sound save its passing.

        The silence was rent by a shrill scream coming from the river a half-mile to his left. Kenshin turned towards the sound with his hand on his sakabatou’s hilt, violet eyes troubled.

        Seconds later he was gone from the old tree’s side.

 

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        A young woman ran along the riverbank, her long dark hair flying behind her. Despite her kimono, she ran quickly, urged on by the thought of capture by her pursuer. Her breath rasped in her throat as she staggered on, desperately trying to flee from an unseen evil.

        A shadow dropped in front of her, and she stopped, her face filled with fear and

bewilderment as the black-shrouded figure extended a hand toward her. The cold steel of a katana was grasped in its hand, and in the sudden stillness the girl could hear its quiet, dusty laugh.

        She struggled to form the words. "Who are you?"

        "The bringer of your death." The katana’s blade caught the dying sun’s rays, making it look like it was covered with blood. The girl shivered despite herself. It was an almost imperceptible movement, made even more so because there was strength behind her apparent frailty. However, the assassin noted it, and smiled cruelly.

        The girl’s eyes narrowed as the assassin approached her. Then she dipped a hand into her obi and brought out a small dagger. She faced the assassin with the dagger as her only weapon, yet her body was tense with determination.

        The young woman could not, however, refrain from screaming once as the lightning-quick assassin blurred towards her, katana grasped in his hand with its unforgiving steel that thirsted for her blood.

 

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        Kenshin arrived by the river several moments later. Some distance from him, he saw a beautiful young woman trying to defend herself against a black-robed assassin. The girl fell to

the ground and the assassin raised his katana in a move that was sure to kill the girl within a few seconds. (I have to help her... but they’re too far away... I can’t get there in time!) Kenshin thought frantically. (I have to get there in time...)

        Surprisingly, he did not need to.

        Just as the katana’s blade was about to slit the young woman’s throat and as Kenshin was runnning towards her with all of his speed, the young woman rolled away and came to her feet in one swift, graceful movement.

        (She’s good), Kenshin thought, slowing his pace to conceal his approach.

        The girl faced the assassin again and dodged his next attack, wounding him with a small

dagger as she did so.

        (Very good.)

        As chance would have it, the young woman heard the almost undetectable sound of Kenshin’s approach and she looked away from her attacker andin his direction. A gleam of recognition - and terror - flickered in her lavender eyes even as the color drained from her face, and she froze momentarily. That slight hesitation gave the assassin time to recover and cut her across the back. The young woman cried out in pain and crumpled to the ground, the back of her blue kimono soaked with blood. All this happened in the space of a few seconds, and Himura Kenshin, the Hitokiri Battousai, felt unable to move. Glued to the spot, not able to help, as the girl fell to the ground in front of him.

        (Move! What's wrong with you?)

        And until that moment the young woman's eyes... her terrified eyes... were still fixed on

him, their lavender gaze accusing yet at the same time mesmerizing. (Your fault, your fault!)

        Kenshin paled noticeably, feeling faint,  as if he would fall down. For a moment he was transfixed, simply staring at the girl. He struggled to regain his balance. (W-what...)

        The assassin, not seeing Kenshin, placed one foot on the girl’s bleeding back and raised his sword, preparing to plunge it between her shoulder blades. Kenshin could hear his dry, evil laugh.

        (One... last... burst of speed!)

        The katana’s blade met only grassy turf. Kenshin, breathing heavily and with the young woman in his arms, heard the cry of bitter despair that escaped the assassin’s lips when the katana missed its target.

        He looked back a split-second later. The assassin was gone.

        Kenshin frowned, thinking back to several years ago, when he had first saved Kaoru from Gohei. In some ways, it was like his first meeting with Kaoru, this strange encounter, yet now the girl had not escaped relatively unscathed - Kaoru's was only a small wound - and the assassin had disappeared.

        Disappeared soundlessly, leaving no trace but blood...

        And there was that look of fear in the young woman’s eyes. Before, when he had been the Battousai, it was a familiar look. It was the expression of the dove as it regarded the eagle, the aspect of the prey as it saw its death in its predator’s jaws.

        A decade or so ago, it would not have been unexpected, but now...?

        The rurouni dismissed those thoughts with a flick of his red hair and started towards Dr.

Takani Megumi’s clinic, carrying the unconscious girl.

 

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Megumi frowned as she probed her patient's wound.

        "Is there something wrong, Megumi-dono?" Kenshin's voice was concerned.

        Megumi looked up from her examination of the young woman, clearly baffled. "Nothing much, Ken-san... it's just that the wound won't clot easily. It's a good thing you brought her to me, or she'd be dead by now." Then she turned back to her patient, whose lavender eyes were alive with pain yet who did not make a sound. "This might

hurt a little," Megumi warned the girl.

        "It's all right." She did, however, close her eyes briefly at the pain. Perhaps for reassurance, she touched her right hand to the diamond four-pointed star that clasped her night-dark hair in a half ponytail. "Thank you, Megumi-dono."

        "Just call me Megumi. Nobody "-dono"s around here except for Ken-san."

        The girl's laughter was a silvery cascade.

        Megumi, finishing the bandage, took a moment to survey her patient. She was clearly a high-born lady, her manner graceful and refined. The diamond clasp in her hair and the blue embroidered silk of her kimono spoke of her nobility and wealth louder than words. Also... she was beautiful, much more than Megumi was. Her evening-dark hair was fine as silk, her pale skin delicate and smooth, and her strange lavender eyes lustrous.(She doesn't look like the type who would make enemies easily... Why would someone want to kill her?)

        (But then again, I never thought someone would come after me... Still, it is strange.)

        To clear her mind, Megumi spoke to the girl. "I didn't quite catch your name."

        The girl blushed slightly, as if ashamed of not thinking of it sooner. "... Hoshi Miyumi."

 

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        Kenshin, who had been looking out the window and listening at the same time, shivered

imperceptibly upon hearing the girl's name. (Hoshi?... where have I heard that before?)

        (I didn't know her... But it's like I... always have...)

        He left the clinic with trouble in his violet eyes.

 

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        "Where IS Kenshin?" Kaoru demanded of no one in particular. It was already early evening,

and stars glimmered in the darkening sky. Kenshin had disappeared hours ago without a trace, leaving no sign of where he went. She had alternated between irritability and teary worry since then, a strange combination of sharp words and "what-ifs", angry glares and eyes welling up with tears.

        Yahiko and Sanosuke had also been making a point to stay out of Kaoru's way since then.

        Maybe he had gone again... without telling her...

        (But he promised!) she almost wailed. (He wouldn't!)

        Or would he?

        Or perhaps he had met with trouble...

        (Who knows what might have happened to him?) Then, near tears, she heard the sound of familiar footsteps.

        (Ken...shin?)

        Kaoru turned at the sound and saw Kenshin trudging towards the dojo, his face weary and his gi stained with blood. Kaoru found herself running towards him, forgetting all thoughts of reprimand, the harsh words fading from her lips as she saw

the weariness and trouble on his face. Weariness and trouble which melted away when he saw her.

        "Kenshin?" There was a world of questions in her lovely blue eyes.

        Violet eyes now filled with calm, tired mouth curving into a faint smile. "Kaoru-dono..."

        "...Where have you been?" She tried to keep the overwhelming concern from her voice, and could not. "You should have said where you were going! I... was worried."

        (Worried! If you only KNEW, you oaf!) The corners of her eyes crinkled slightly.

        "I'm sorry for worrying you, Kaoru-dono. You shouldn't have worried, though. I'm sorry for causing you any trouble."

        (Always so apologetic...) Kaoru smiled. (It's all right... always all right... as long as you come back...) "It's okay, Kenshin. Come on inside, and you can tell me about it."

         "Hai."

        They walked the few steps to the dojo in silence. The cool air was perfumed with the sweet scent of cherry blossoms, and the stars hung low in the velvet sky. Stars, like diamonds against the velvet throat of night. Soft, almost tangible darkness. Silence, beautiful in its perfection.

        For a moment, a brief, enchanted second, Kenshin let go his past, happy, content, in

Kaoru's presence.

        For a moment, he forgot.

        (Forget the past...)

        He could not, however, forget the look on Miyumi's face nor the accusation in her strangely beautiful lavender eyes.

        Then it was over, and as he stepped inside the dojo, he heard the wind whisper in his ear, calling back bitter, hate-filled memories, bringing with it the chilling feeling that he was being watched.

        (Battousai...)

 

Welllll... that's it. Hope it wasn't TOO terrible.

^~_~^ Mia

Starlight, Hellifire - Part 2

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