Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu [By: Tenken86]
Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin and its characters do not belong to me, so please do not sue me!! ^_^
Rating : PG (language, violence) Depends if u actually listen to the rating things.*
This story doesn't exactly follow the RK plot, (well, actually the main bits did..)and I changed a few details here and there :p, and got a "few" facts wrong, but this is the power of a pen! You can make up stuff!! I used some lines directly from maigo-chan's translations also, and used them as a base for the story (at least the prologue so far..)'s conversation, because they're really good translation. so if maigo-chan ends up reading this.. and u recognize it sounds like what you wrote.. GOMEN NASAI!!!
Prologue "A Smile and a Great Man"
Seta Soujiro gasped as he put another rice barrel down in the warehouse. he thought to himself, stepping outside and closing the door in one motion. The eight year old went over to the well, hauled up a bucket of water, and wet a rag in the cold liquid.
Soujiro winced as the cut on his forehead stung him. He stood, remembering the pain of the sake bottle's contact on his head, and the smile that never left his face, even when the cut bled and dripped down. Soujiro frowned slightly, holding the rag to his head.
"What the hell are you grinning about! You're not setting foot in this house till you finish the job! You're sleeping outside tonight!"
"Then dad's mistress leaves this brat on our hands."
"That kid . .. He's always got that creepy little grin on his face. We had to adopt him for the sake of appearances, but he's not all there."
"He'll work for us all his life and we'll never have to give him a thing."
He jumped as he heard a man's harsh scream. he thought, dropping the cloth and running towards the sound. Without knowing why, Soujiro ran faster towards the sounds as two more screams screeched across the night sky. He peeked around the corner to see a policeman confronting a lanky man in bandages.
The policeman shouted and raised his sword above his head with both hands, then screamed as both were cut off, eyes bulging as he was cut in half. The man in bandages panted and lowered his sword as the two halves fell to the ground. Soujiro started to back off.
he thought to himself. A small twig lay on the ground, inches from the boy's foot, when a booted foot stepped up to Soujiro and stopped his retreat with a firm hand.
"Wha..?" Soujiro started to say, but another hand covered his mouth. He looked up with wide eyes into the face of a huge man. The man wore a long white coat with a red trim. He had long greenish hair and a scary looking frown.
The man pulled Soujiro away from the man in bandages and then released him when they were a distance away. Soujiro dampened his shock about seeing the slaughter of the policemen with a smile.
"Who are you sir?" Soujiro asked. The tall, muscled man smirked.
"Hiko Seijuurou." Soujiro waited politely until Hiko asked for his name.
"Seta Soujiro." Soujiro replied, smiling. "Do you know who that man was? The one in bandages?" Hiko frowned.
"I haven't seen him before." Hiko said, shrugging. "But if he heard you, he would've killed you without a second thought."
"Me?" Soujiro asked, confused. "But I haven't done anything to him." Hiko ignored the child's question.
"What were you doing out here so late at night? Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Hiko asked. "Does your father know you're out here kid?" Soujiro blinked, then smiled widely.
"I usually sleep outside, but I was still awake when I heard the screams." Soujiro replied, looking down and smiling. Hiko blinked in surprise, then shrugged.
"Do you have a place where I could stay kid?"
*~*~*
Hiko leaned against a barrel of rice that Soujiro had painstakingly carried there. "So kid, what's this about you sleeping outside?" Hiko asked, taking out a small sake bottle out from under his coat. Uncorking it, he drank from the bottle. "You did something bad?"
"I was told to move a hundred barrels of rice." Soujiro murmured. "But after I finished, I heard the screams and went to see what happened." Hiko spluttered into his sake, then composed himself.
"One hundred barrels of rice? Do they think you're their slave or something?"
"I don't belong to the family." Soujiro murmured again. "That's why they treat me that way.Sometimes. I don't feel like this is worth it. I mean, if I'm gonna spend my whole life working for them, sometimes.." Soujiro looked up at Hiko, smiling. "I don't feel its worth me staying alive."
Hiko blinked then stood up and walked over to the child. "Don't say that." Hiko growled. "Whatever the circumstance, you should never give up so easily." Hiko kneeled down so he was at eye level with Soujiro. "Kid, nothing is stronger than the will to live!!"
Soujiro blinked and a shocked expression appeared on his face. Hiko stood up and exited the rice barn. Soujiro jumped up and ran after him. "Hiko- san?" Soujiro asked, when the man walked up to a sturdy tree on his foster family's estate. "What..?"
Soujiro's eyes widened as Hiko's sword left its sheath in a flash and a thick branch seemingly popped off of the tree. Soujiro flinched as the branch hit the ground, then his eyes trailed to the sword.
"I haven't seen a sword like that before. Well, I've seen my brother's.but this one seems different." Hiko smirked and held up the sword.
"This was made by a master swords- maker Arai Shakkuu." Soujiro nodded absentmindedly and picked up the piece of wood.
"Why'd you cut this down, Hiko-san?" Soujiro asked, hefting the wood. "Try swinging that around a few times kid." Hiko said, cutting down another branch then sheathing his sword.
*~*~*
Soujiro fell back against the rice barrels panting. His hands hurt from gripping the branch, and he hurt from blows that Hiko delivered with seemingly lightening speed.
"Take a break boy." Hiko said, squatting down with the branch against his knees. Hiko took out a cloth from his coat and unwrapped some food. "Eat something." Soujiro nodded and took the food, a rice ball.
Munching on it, he took hold of the branch with his other hand and looked at it. Around two and a half feet long, an inch and a half in diameter, it was a sturdy weapon, though Soujiro had never realized it while fighting.
Finishing off the rice ball, Soujiro held the branch in the two handed grip that Hiko told him about. "Hiko-san." Soujiro said. "Thanks.I'm gonna go sleep now." Hiko nodded while drinking some sake. Soujiro walked outside and put the branch underneath the house, and fell asleep against the stairs.
*~*~*
"Soujiro!! Soujiro!!" the father bellowed. "Where the hell is that boy when you want him?!?" The two sons stood behind him.
"Give him a chance, he probably can't run fast because of the beating you gave him yesterday." The younger one said, with a smile. Soujiro ran up to the pair awkwardly with another rice barrel on his back, dropping it onto the ground.
"Hai?" Soujiro asked, slowing to a stop in front of his foster family. "Ufff!!!" He grunted as his father's fist hit him in the stomach, sending him flying.
"Stupid brat." The father grunted. "Took so long coming.." He walked off with a bottle of sake in his hand, taking swigs of it. Soujiro's brothers walked down to him.
"Did you hear any noises last night Soujiro?" the younger one asked him, looking down at the boy sprawled in the dust. Soujiro looked up and smiled, trying to ignore the pain in his stomach. The older brother reached down, grabbed his kimono, and lifted him off his feet.
"There's a murderer running about, that's what the police say. You sure you didn't hear anything?? Cause if I catch that murdering bastard, I'll . . ." the older brother smirked, then threw Soujiro down onto the floor and drew his sword. "I'll kill him!!"
The rice barrel was slashed in two and its contents rained out onto the dirt and dust. "Great, that's a rice barrel wasted." The younger one said. "You make a lot of trouble..." He cleared his voice and spoke louder.
"Oh no, Soujiro, it looks like you've broken another barrel with your clumsiness!!" Their father burst out of the house.
"What??" He shouted, sake running down his chin. "How many of those do you think we have brat?? You can't do something this simple right?? I'm not letting you get away with it this time!!"
The older brother walked back into the house, ignoring the sounds of flesh on flesh, knowing that his father was beating Soujiro. When he opened the door of his room, he winced.
'Damn. I need to get some bandages. That bastard Ebisu . . . anyway, I taught him, he's hurt ten times this..' Holding his side, he walked into his mother's room. "Mom, oh, she's not in. I'll just get them and tell her later. . ."
He went into her medicine drawer and took out the whole stock of bandages.
'In case if I need more, if those bastards want to have another fight..' he thought, closing the drawer and forgetting about telling his mother about the bandages.
*~*~*
"Even if you're not in their family, they can't treat you like this." Hiko said, taking a drink of sake. "Getting beaten because a spoiled rice barrel..And still you smile, kid." Soujiro looked up, smiling.
"I started to smile because it confused them. It made them stop hurting me." he said. "I used to cry and yell at them to stop.but that just made them hit me harder.. Smiling surprised them, I think."
Hiko shrugged. "Anyway kid, you're to tired to do anything today.. Now get out of here and let me rest." Hiko said, waving him away with a grin. "Get some sleep."
Soujiro nodded, stepping outside and closing the door in one motion.
*~*~*
"Has anyone taken the bandages from my medicine drawer?" Soujiro's mother asked, coming into the room where the family was sitting. Each shrugged in turn.
"I bet Soujiro took them, the little thief." The aunt said.
"Well, he probably needs them, dad beat him up a lot today." The younger brother said, lifting his pipe. The older brother nodded absentmindedly, forgetting the rolls of bandage in his room.
"Five rolls? Nobody could use so much." The mom replied. The older brother blinked suddenly.
"Wasn't, wasn't that murderer, the rebel, didn't he have burns that covered his whole body?" he said. "And he was covered in bandages.."
Soujiro's father looked up, dropping his sake bottle on the floor. The sake dripped slowly out of the bottle's neck onto the tatami mat, staining it with wetness. "Yeah, he does! Soujiro! That bastard!!"
"Nothing is stronger than the will to live.." Soujiro said to himself, sitting on the stairs with the branch resting on his legs.
"I guess it does sound kind of stupid to give up so easily. And he's so good at fighting, maybe that's cause he has a strong will to live.." Soujiro yawned widely, got off the stair and put the branch away. "Oh well, just go to sleep and."
"SOUJIRO!!!"
"!" Soujiro looked up in surprise. 'What would they want this late?' Soujiro shook his head and ran towards the voice. He stopped when he saw his family all waiting for him. His father had a shovel and his oldest brother, his sword. "Wha..?"
His father whipped the shovel around, at Soujiro's head. Eyes widening, Soujiro tried to dodge it like Hiko would have, but it still hit him on his shoulder, sending him spinning and crashing onto the floor. "Aggg."
He clutched his shoulder, which throbbed with pain. The shovel hit him again. "You think you could trick me??" Soujiro's father shouted. "Where's the rebel?? What're you trying to do to my business?!?"
The older brother joined in with his sheathed sword.
".." Soujiro clenched his teeth so hard he thought they would break. His hands were balled up in tight fists and he flinched as each blow went home.
"If we tell the police about the rebel, maybe we'll get a reward." Soujiro's aunt said.
"This is how the brat repays us." the mother said angrily, her baby in her arms. "We brought him up ourselves."
"Damn it. I'm sick of this." The older brother said, unsheathing his sword. "Let's just kill him." Soujiro's eyes start to un-focus from the lack of air. I he thought painstakingly.
'Nothing is stronger than the will to live..They'll kill me!!' Soujiro stumbled to his feet and started running.
"He's running away!!!" The older brother shouted.
*~*~*
'Hiko-san!! I want to live! I don't want to die!!' Soujiro shouted in his head. "Hiko-san!! I don't want to die!!!" Without realizing it, Soujiro ran to where his branch was hidden. 'What am I doing? How can I protect myself with this??'
Ignoring that thought, he scrambled underneath the house, holding the branch with a white knuckled grip. Breathing hard, Soujiro realized he was holding the branch in a two handed grip.
'Just like Hiko showed me.'
"I was right, this is where you are." The younger brother said, from his crouching position on the ground near Soujiro. "What're you doing with that stick? Quit playing around brat and come with me." He reached out to grab the stick.
'The branch that Hiko-san gave me. Its my only weapon, I. Nothing is stronger than the will to live.'
"Aggh!!"
"What was that?" the aunt asked, looking around.
"It must be Soujiro." the mother said, looking around also. A body tumbled out from underneath the house a little ways away from the family. "There's the brat now.."
Lightening cracked revealing the younger brother, unconscious on the floor.
"What?" the father shouted. "What happened..??" Soujiro climbed out from underneath the house, with the thick branch in his right hand. The boy looked up, a smile on his face.
"Hiko-san was right." He said, looking at the branch. "There's nothing stronger than the will to live."
'I want to live. I don't want to kill them, but I don't want to die.'
"You brat!!" The father and the brother ran towards Soujiro, shovel and sword raised. Soujiro dodged the sword and smashed the branch against his father's neck, who went down in a heap.
"Bastard!!!" Soujiro's older brother shouted, bringing the sword down towards Soujiro's head. The boy rolled to dodge it and stood up again, to discover Hiko standing in front of him.
"Hiko-san." Soujiro murmured. Hiko looked back with a sour face.
"Baka. You think that you can do so much yourself." Hiko grunted. "Baka deshi. Damn.. great.. I've got two of them now."
"Huh?" Soujiro asked, the branch in a two handed grip again.
"Get outta my way, this is family business!" the brother shouted. Hiko ignored him. "Fine, I'll kill you also!!!" Soujiro's oldest brother lunged at Hiko, who's sword whipped out of its sheath with lightening speed.
Soujiro blinked at the half of a sword that plunged into the ground, and with only minimal interest, at his brother crashing onto the floor.
"Hiko-san." Soujiro said, when Hiko sheathed his sword and started to walk off. "Are you leaving?" Hiko looked back, stomped over to Soujiro, and whacked him upside the head.
"What are you doing baka deshi?" He growled. "Unless if you want to be here when they wake up.??" Soujiro blinked and shook his head rapidly, smiling. Hiko nodded and strode off again, Soujiro jogging to keep up with him.
He didn't look back, and only noticed the man next to him and the branch in his hand.
*~*~*
"Husband! Husband!! Please wake up!! Soujiro and that man left.. Husband!!" His eyes creaked open, and saw his wife hovering over him. They snapped the rest of the way open.
"What? That brat's gone??" he growled. ". . . Well, we'll have no trouble from him at least.. Even though I would've enjoyed getting rid of him. Now, if we could get that rebel, we could get a nice reward."
He was cut off from a scream from his sister.
"What is it? !!!!" A man walked out of their house, two swords at his side. A man covered in new bandages.
'That feels better, new bandages makes it hurt less..' the bandaged man thought. 'hmm?'
"The, the rebel!!" the oldest son shouted, holding the hilt of his broken sword. The younger one stood behind him, holding his neck where he was hit by the branch. The family inched together as the man saw them and started walking towards them.
"You saw me," the bandaged man said. "You did. you all have to die, I don't want anyone telling tales." The younger brother started to quiver.
"The rebel." he murmured. "The murderer. Shishio Makoto."
A grin appeared on Shishio's face as he unsheathed his sword.
*~*~*
"Anou.. Hiko-san?"
"What?"
"About the baka deshi thing. Does that mean you'll train me? You're my sensei?" Soujiro asked, looking at the man next to him. Hiko nodded.
"You seem to have some skill kid." Hiko said, taking out his sake bottle and drinking from it. "You can replace my baka deshi, doesn't seem like he's going to be coming back soon anyway." Soujiro smiled.
"Hai sensei!"
End
Aggg. It took me so long to get outta my writer's block. I had like, one page done for like a month.then just now I felt like writin.and ended up finishing the prologue.. This is gonna be a damn long fanfic!!! (probably gonna be so boring that nobody'd wanna read it. oh well.. this is the first serious fanfic I've written..like, I've done some that was more like fanfics cause I was bored..but yeah. can I get some opinions?? Thanks!
Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin and its characters do not belong to me, so please do not sue me!! ^_^
Rating : PG (language, violence) Depends if u actually listen to the rating things.*
This story doesn't exactly follow the RK plot, (well, actually the main bits did..)and I changed a few details here and there :p, and got a "few" facts wrong, but this is the power of a pen! You can make up stuff!! I used some lines directly from maigo-chan's translations also, and used them as a base for the story (at least the prologue so far..)'s conversation, because they're really good translation. so if maigo-chan ends up reading this.. and u recognize it sounds like what you wrote.. GOMEN NASAI!!!
Prologue "A Smile and a Great Man"
Seta Soujiro gasped as he put another rice barrel down in the warehouse. he thought to himself, stepping outside and closing the door in one motion. The eight year old went over to the well, hauled up a bucket of water, and wet a rag in the cold liquid.
Soujiro winced as the cut on his forehead stung him. He stood, remembering the pain of the sake bottle's contact on his head, and the smile that never left his face, even when the cut bled and dripped down. Soujiro frowned slightly, holding the rag to his head.
"What the hell are you grinning about! You're not setting foot in this house till you finish the job! You're sleeping outside tonight!"
"Then dad's mistress leaves this brat on our hands."
"That kid . .. He's always got that creepy little grin on his face. We had to adopt him for the sake of appearances, but he's not all there."
"He'll work for us all his life and we'll never have to give him a thing."
He jumped as he heard a man's harsh scream. he thought, dropping the cloth and running towards the sound. Without knowing why, Soujiro ran faster towards the sounds as two more screams screeched across the night sky. He peeked around the corner to see a policeman confronting a lanky man in bandages.
The policeman shouted and raised his sword above his head with both hands, then screamed as both were cut off, eyes bulging as he was cut in half. The man in bandages panted and lowered his sword as the two halves fell to the ground. Soujiro started to back off.
he thought to himself. A small twig lay on the ground, inches from the boy's foot, when a booted foot stepped up to Soujiro and stopped his retreat with a firm hand.
"Wha..?" Soujiro started to say, but another hand covered his mouth. He looked up with wide eyes into the face of a huge man. The man wore a long white coat with a red trim. He had long greenish hair and a scary looking frown.
The man pulled Soujiro away from the man in bandages and then released him when they were a distance away. Soujiro dampened his shock about seeing the slaughter of the policemen with a smile.
"Who are you sir?" Soujiro asked. The tall, muscled man smirked.
"Hiko Seijuurou." Soujiro waited politely until Hiko asked for his name.
"Seta Soujiro." Soujiro replied, smiling. "Do you know who that man was? The one in bandages?" Hiko frowned.
"I haven't seen him before." Hiko said, shrugging. "But if he heard you, he would've killed you without a second thought."
"Me?" Soujiro asked, confused. "But I haven't done anything to him." Hiko ignored the child's question.
"What were you doing out here so late at night? Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Hiko asked. "Does your father know you're out here kid?" Soujiro blinked, then smiled widely.
"I usually sleep outside, but I was still awake when I heard the screams." Soujiro replied, looking down and smiling. Hiko blinked in surprise, then shrugged.
"Do you have a place where I could stay kid?"
*~*~*
Hiko leaned against a barrel of rice that Soujiro had painstakingly carried there. "So kid, what's this about you sleeping outside?" Hiko asked, taking out a small sake bottle out from under his coat. Uncorking it, he drank from the bottle. "You did something bad?"
"I was told to move a hundred barrels of rice." Soujiro murmured. "But after I finished, I heard the screams and went to see what happened." Hiko spluttered into his sake, then composed himself.
"One hundred barrels of rice? Do they think you're their slave or something?"
"I don't belong to the family." Soujiro murmured again. "That's why they treat me that way.Sometimes. I don't feel like this is worth it. I mean, if I'm gonna spend my whole life working for them, sometimes.." Soujiro looked up at Hiko, smiling. "I don't feel its worth me staying alive."
Hiko blinked then stood up and walked over to the child. "Don't say that." Hiko growled. "Whatever the circumstance, you should never give up so easily." Hiko kneeled down so he was at eye level with Soujiro. "Kid, nothing is stronger than the will to live!!"
Soujiro blinked and a shocked expression appeared on his face. Hiko stood up and exited the rice barn. Soujiro jumped up and ran after him. "Hiko- san?" Soujiro asked, when the man walked up to a sturdy tree on his foster family's estate. "What..?"
Soujiro's eyes widened as Hiko's sword left its sheath in a flash and a thick branch seemingly popped off of the tree. Soujiro flinched as the branch hit the ground, then his eyes trailed to the sword.
"I haven't seen a sword like that before. Well, I've seen my brother's.but this one seems different." Hiko smirked and held up the sword.
"This was made by a master swords- maker Arai Shakkuu." Soujiro nodded absentmindedly and picked up the piece of wood.
"Why'd you cut this down, Hiko-san?" Soujiro asked, hefting the wood. "Try swinging that around a few times kid." Hiko said, cutting down another branch then sheathing his sword.
*~*~*
Soujiro fell back against the rice barrels panting. His hands hurt from gripping the branch, and he hurt from blows that Hiko delivered with seemingly lightening speed.
"Take a break boy." Hiko said, squatting down with the branch against his knees. Hiko took out a cloth from his coat and unwrapped some food. "Eat something." Soujiro nodded and took the food, a rice ball.
Munching on it, he took hold of the branch with his other hand and looked at it. Around two and a half feet long, an inch and a half in diameter, it was a sturdy weapon, though Soujiro had never realized it while fighting.
Finishing off the rice ball, Soujiro held the branch in the two handed grip that Hiko told him about. "Hiko-san." Soujiro said. "Thanks.I'm gonna go sleep now." Hiko nodded while drinking some sake. Soujiro walked outside and put the branch underneath the house, and fell asleep against the stairs.
*~*~*
"Soujiro!! Soujiro!!" the father bellowed. "Where the hell is that boy when you want him?!?" The two sons stood behind him.
"Give him a chance, he probably can't run fast because of the beating you gave him yesterday." The younger one said, with a smile. Soujiro ran up to the pair awkwardly with another rice barrel on his back, dropping it onto the ground.
"Hai?" Soujiro asked, slowing to a stop in front of his foster family. "Ufff!!!" He grunted as his father's fist hit him in the stomach, sending him flying.
"Stupid brat." The father grunted. "Took so long coming.." He walked off with a bottle of sake in his hand, taking swigs of it. Soujiro's brothers walked down to him.
"Did you hear any noises last night Soujiro?" the younger one asked him, looking down at the boy sprawled in the dust. Soujiro looked up and smiled, trying to ignore the pain in his stomach. The older brother reached down, grabbed his kimono, and lifted him off his feet.
"There's a murderer running about, that's what the police say. You sure you didn't hear anything?? Cause if I catch that murdering bastard, I'll . . ." the older brother smirked, then threw Soujiro down onto the floor and drew his sword. "I'll kill him!!"
The rice barrel was slashed in two and its contents rained out onto the dirt and dust. "Great, that's a rice barrel wasted." The younger one said. "You make a lot of trouble..." He cleared his voice and spoke louder.
"Oh no, Soujiro, it looks like you've broken another barrel with your clumsiness!!" Their father burst out of the house.
"What??" He shouted, sake running down his chin. "How many of those do you think we have brat?? You can't do something this simple right?? I'm not letting you get away with it this time!!"
The older brother walked back into the house, ignoring the sounds of flesh on flesh, knowing that his father was beating Soujiro. When he opened the door of his room, he winced.
'Damn. I need to get some bandages. That bastard Ebisu . . . anyway, I taught him, he's hurt ten times this..' Holding his side, he walked into his mother's room. "Mom, oh, she's not in. I'll just get them and tell her later. . ."
He went into her medicine drawer and took out the whole stock of bandages.
'In case if I need more, if those bastards want to have another fight..' he thought, closing the drawer and forgetting about telling his mother about the bandages.
*~*~*
"Even if you're not in their family, they can't treat you like this." Hiko said, taking a drink of sake. "Getting beaten because a spoiled rice barrel..And still you smile, kid." Soujiro looked up, smiling.
"I started to smile because it confused them. It made them stop hurting me." he said. "I used to cry and yell at them to stop.but that just made them hit me harder.. Smiling surprised them, I think."
Hiko shrugged. "Anyway kid, you're to tired to do anything today.. Now get out of here and let me rest." Hiko said, waving him away with a grin. "Get some sleep."
Soujiro nodded, stepping outside and closing the door in one motion.
*~*~*
"Has anyone taken the bandages from my medicine drawer?" Soujiro's mother asked, coming into the room where the family was sitting. Each shrugged in turn.
"I bet Soujiro took them, the little thief." The aunt said.
"Well, he probably needs them, dad beat him up a lot today." The younger brother said, lifting his pipe. The older brother nodded absentmindedly, forgetting the rolls of bandage in his room.
"Five rolls? Nobody could use so much." The mom replied. The older brother blinked suddenly.
"Wasn't, wasn't that murderer, the rebel, didn't he have burns that covered his whole body?" he said. "And he was covered in bandages.."
Soujiro's father looked up, dropping his sake bottle on the floor. The sake dripped slowly out of the bottle's neck onto the tatami mat, staining it with wetness. "Yeah, he does! Soujiro! That bastard!!"
"Nothing is stronger than the will to live.." Soujiro said to himself, sitting on the stairs with the branch resting on his legs.
"I guess it does sound kind of stupid to give up so easily. And he's so good at fighting, maybe that's cause he has a strong will to live.." Soujiro yawned widely, got off the stair and put the branch away. "Oh well, just go to sleep and."
"SOUJIRO!!!"
"!" Soujiro looked up in surprise. 'What would they want this late?' Soujiro shook his head and ran towards the voice. He stopped when he saw his family all waiting for him. His father had a shovel and his oldest brother, his sword. "Wha..?"
His father whipped the shovel around, at Soujiro's head. Eyes widening, Soujiro tried to dodge it like Hiko would have, but it still hit him on his shoulder, sending him spinning and crashing onto the floor. "Aggg."
He clutched his shoulder, which throbbed with pain. The shovel hit him again. "You think you could trick me??" Soujiro's father shouted. "Where's the rebel?? What're you trying to do to my business?!?"
The older brother joined in with his sheathed sword.
".." Soujiro clenched his teeth so hard he thought they would break. His hands were balled up in tight fists and he flinched as each blow went home.
"If we tell the police about the rebel, maybe we'll get a reward." Soujiro's aunt said.
"This is how the brat repays us." the mother said angrily, her baby in her arms. "We brought him up ourselves."
"Damn it. I'm sick of this." The older brother said, unsheathing his sword. "Let's just kill him." Soujiro's eyes start to un-focus from the lack of air. I he thought painstakingly.
'Nothing is stronger than the will to live..They'll kill me!!' Soujiro stumbled to his feet and started running.
"He's running away!!!" The older brother shouted.
*~*~*
'Hiko-san!! I want to live! I don't want to die!!' Soujiro shouted in his head. "Hiko-san!! I don't want to die!!!" Without realizing it, Soujiro ran to where his branch was hidden. 'What am I doing? How can I protect myself with this??'
Ignoring that thought, he scrambled underneath the house, holding the branch with a white knuckled grip. Breathing hard, Soujiro realized he was holding the branch in a two handed grip.
'Just like Hiko showed me.'
"I was right, this is where you are." The younger brother said, from his crouching position on the ground near Soujiro. "What're you doing with that stick? Quit playing around brat and come with me." He reached out to grab the stick.
'The branch that Hiko-san gave me. Its my only weapon, I. Nothing is stronger than the will to live.'
"Aggh!!"
"What was that?" the aunt asked, looking around.
"It must be Soujiro." the mother said, looking around also. A body tumbled out from underneath the house a little ways away from the family. "There's the brat now.."
Lightening cracked revealing the younger brother, unconscious on the floor.
"What?" the father shouted. "What happened..??" Soujiro climbed out from underneath the house, with the thick branch in his right hand. The boy looked up, a smile on his face.
"Hiko-san was right." He said, looking at the branch. "There's nothing stronger than the will to live."
'I want to live. I don't want to kill them, but I don't want to die.'
"You brat!!" The father and the brother ran towards Soujiro, shovel and sword raised. Soujiro dodged the sword and smashed the branch against his father's neck, who went down in a heap.
"Bastard!!!" Soujiro's older brother shouted, bringing the sword down towards Soujiro's head. The boy rolled to dodge it and stood up again, to discover Hiko standing in front of him.
"Hiko-san." Soujiro murmured. Hiko looked back with a sour face.
"Baka. You think that you can do so much yourself." Hiko grunted. "Baka deshi. Damn.. great.. I've got two of them now."
"Huh?" Soujiro asked, the branch in a two handed grip again.
"Get outta my way, this is family business!" the brother shouted. Hiko ignored him. "Fine, I'll kill you also!!!" Soujiro's oldest brother lunged at Hiko, who's sword whipped out of its sheath with lightening speed.
Soujiro blinked at the half of a sword that plunged into the ground, and with only minimal interest, at his brother crashing onto the floor.
"Hiko-san." Soujiro said, when Hiko sheathed his sword and started to walk off. "Are you leaving?" Hiko looked back, stomped over to Soujiro, and whacked him upside the head.
"What are you doing baka deshi?" He growled. "Unless if you want to be here when they wake up.??" Soujiro blinked and shook his head rapidly, smiling. Hiko nodded and strode off again, Soujiro jogging to keep up with him.
He didn't look back, and only noticed the man next to him and the branch in his hand.
*~*~*
"Husband! Husband!! Please wake up!! Soujiro and that man left.. Husband!!" His eyes creaked open, and saw his wife hovering over him. They snapped the rest of the way open.
"What? That brat's gone??" he growled. ". . . Well, we'll have no trouble from him at least.. Even though I would've enjoyed getting rid of him. Now, if we could get that rebel, we could get a nice reward."
He was cut off from a scream from his sister.
"What is it? !!!!" A man walked out of their house, two swords at his side. A man covered in new bandages.
'That feels better, new bandages makes it hurt less..' the bandaged man thought. 'hmm?'
"The, the rebel!!" the oldest son shouted, holding the hilt of his broken sword. The younger one stood behind him, holding his neck where he was hit by the branch. The family inched together as the man saw them and started walking towards them.
"You saw me," the bandaged man said. "You did. you all have to die, I don't want anyone telling tales." The younger brother started to quiver.
"The rebel." he murmured. "The murderer. Shishio Makoto."
A grin appeared on Shishio's face as he unsheathed his sword.
*~*~*
"Anou.. Hiko-san?"
"What?"
"About the baka deshi thing. Does that mean you'll train me? You're my sensei?" Soujiro asked, looking at the man next to him. Hiko nodded.
"You seem to have some skill kid." Hiko said, taking out his sake bottle and drinking from it. "You can replace my baka deshi, doesn't seem like he's going to be coming back soon anyway." Soujiro smiled.
"Hai sensei!"
End
Aggg. It took me so long to get outta my writer's block. I had like, one page done for like a month.then just now I felt like writin.and ended up finishing the prologue.. This is gonna be a damn long fanfic!!! (probably gonna be so boring that nobody'd wanna read it. oh well.. this is the first serious fanfic I've written..like, I've done some that was more like fanfics cause I was bored..but yeah. can I get some opinions?? Thanks!