Alternate Reality Challenge Part 3- [Rurouni Kenshin PG]
For those just tuning in, this is part of my challenge to pimp crossovers/alternate realities. Give me any two fandoms and I will write a crossover (see here) or see the alternate reality challenge here.
For Numisma
Fandom: Rurouni Kenshin
Title: The Unbearable Lightness of Fleeing
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama. Character Study. Misao.
Word Count: ~1300
Summary: Kenshin's good at every kind of running. Misao's good at being Misao. Poor Kenshin.
Notes for numisma: I do love Misao. By all rights, this should be a much longer story, but consider it a series of vignettes to sketch what became a very long and fully realized plot in my head. Damn you.
Author's Notes: Kaoru was killed during the encounter with Enishi. With Kaoru truly dead, how would Kenshin ever recover? Who would be stubborn enough to deal with that much brooding? And when will Naphy stop making terrible puns in her titles?
The Unbearable Lightness of Fleeing
From this world I think/ That there is nowhere to escape.
- Fujiwara no Toshinari
She finds him in Rakuminmura.
"You're an idiot. You're coming home. Now."
He discovers that he has no choice in the matter.
She's a lot stronger than she looks.
-***-
He comes with her to Kyoto because Tokyo now has even worse memories than the Bakumatsu, than his betrayal of Tomoe.
He really needs to stop leaving behind ghosts in the towns he passes through. He's running out of places to brood.
That doesn't mean he can't fold back into his shell and continue his self-flagellation.
Unfortunately, well… Misao.
"I know she practiced Kamiya Kasshin, but Kaoru-chan would kill you, then bring you back and kill you again if she saw you like this."
He tries to pretend that she's just another voice in his head (rurounivictimbattousaivictimkaorukaorutomoe).
Unfortunately, she's far too annoying.
And persistent.
"You're pathetic. Not because of your past or because you were unable to save Kaoru-chan, but because you've got all this life you could use and you're content to just waste it so that you can feel sorry for yourself."
She pauses at the edge of the screen. "They may have thought you were this selfless martyr, but we know better, don't we? You're the most selfish person I've ever met. Not once since I pulled you out of the land of bums have you asked about anyone else. Yahiko-kun, Sagara-san… You know what's the lowest form of trash? The kind who turns his back on his family."
-***-
She's quietly pouring tea when he kneels across from her on the tatami. Her expression doesn't alter and her concentration doesn't flicker, but he finds himself with a cup in his hands. There is a strange silence before he can muster his voice, rusty from long disuse. "Please… what happened?"
Misao doesn't look at him, her eyes focused on her cup. "We were going to come get you, Yahiko-kun and I. Kaoru-chan had sent for this diary before… Anyways, we had a plan, but Aoshi-sama and us, we met the white-haired freak come to gloat over your pain at Kaoru-chan's death. So we went through the plan a lot earlier, drove the white-haired freak even more nuts than he already was and… Well, he regrets killing Kaoru-chan. Will regret killing Kaoru-chan for a very, very long time. But seeing him, listening to him… Aoshi-sama was affected…"
Vaguely, in the part of his mind that is slowly returning to alertness, he realizes that he hasn't heard from Aoshi yet. "Where is Shinomori-san?"
Her ever-present smile falters so briefly that he will later wonder if it had been a trick of light. "Aoshi-sama is… discovering his place."
She smiles even more brightly. "But anyways, Yahiko-kun and Sagara-san are doing as well as can be expected. Sagara-san is actually working as a guard at one of the teahouses and Tae-san took Yahiko-kun in at the Akabeko- he actually got offered a place at one of the other dojos because of his abilities. They'd like to see you, but they're willing to wait until it won't cause you too much pain. But not forever."
He finds himself nodding over his tea. "Not forever."
-***-
"Sessha will happily help prepare the meal."
She gives him one of those frightening 'innocent' grins, eyes as hard as flint. "Kaoru-chan may have put up with 'this unworthy one', but I have already spent far too many years dealing with 'this Aoshi-sama'. If 'this unworthy one' doesn't address himself normally, than 'this Misao' will adjust him so that he really is unworthy."
The motion and direction of her kunai leave little doubt as to her intent.
Oro!
He learns very quickly to use a less obsequious address.
-***-
One morning she doesn't come drag him out of his room, loudly pulling him away to get a cup of tea.
He is surprised to find himself worried.
He knows that she's Okashira and a busy woman… Actually it hadn't occurred to him before how much time out of her own life she must be taking to help him.
It still wouldn't hurt to make sure that she's not in trouble.
He finds her in front of what he assumes is the family shrine.
Not understanding his reasoning, he remains in the shadows, watching her as she kneels and talks to the air.
"We found the diary, you know. All of Himura's late wife's feelings, just like you said. I'd really liked to have just brought you that bastard's head, but you were so stubborn about Kamiya Kasshin that I had to use my amazing brain to think of something else. Well, use my amazing brain to follow your idea anyways. Which we did, you know? We showed that white-haired freak and he didn't want to believe us, but I think we had help there. You should have seen him! I've never seen anything more pathetic than him babbling at your grave- kept mixing you up with 'Tomoe', but it was still very satisfying. You would have laughed-"
He is amazed to see the sudden wetness on her cheeks, the way she suddenly, painfully, closes her eyes mid-sentence.
"You said I should come visit. You said you'd be waiting… Kaoru."
Somehow, in his haze of guilt and self-loathing, Kenshin had forgotten that he isn't the only one who mourns.
He watches her place the jasmine at the base, waits until long after she has left before sinking to his knees. For the first time, he allows his own grief to leak from his eyes. It is more painful than he could ever have imagined, but somehow the poison of the wound is lanced and released by the horrible, shuddering sobs.
-***-
He finds himself practicing katas again. A way to settle his mind. A way to pass some of his endless time.
A way to get the very busy Makimachi Misao to watch him.
Not that that would be a motivation-
The woman is poisoning his mind with her-her constant insane cheerfulness! He plans on a quiet market day getting fish and tofu and somehow they wind up running from the last Yakuza boss she's been getting information on.
The crazy woman needs to learn some of his extra reconnaissance and defense techniques so she doesn't end up short a head, and him with her. He practically has to teach her in self-defense!
And he's not enjoying it.
At all.
If he were still in Tokyo, they would have all laughed to see him acting like… like Yahiko. Kaoru-dono would have-
He is forced to stop mid-kata, his sword slipping from his fingers, as he takes deep breaths to recover. It's been months, but he can't be feeling this much better, mustn't be feeling this much better.
The world was not meant to give him more chances.
He needs to-
"She loved you. A lot. Do you think she would have been happy that you decided to stop living?"
He closes his eyes as she walks away, because if he doesn't have to see the truth, he may hold it off a little longer.
-***-
Misao's fever has finally broken.
When he found her in the market, so ill she collapsed in his arms, he had felt…
Well, regardless, the relief now is…
He watches her, sprawled carelessly on her futon.
She is nothing like Kaoru, nothing like Tomoe.
She is manic, manipulative, frighteningly cheerful and thinks 'compromise' is a foreign word.
She is everything he's never wanted.
Everything that manages to irritate every aspect of his nature (even the rurouni).
Everything that could ever make him whole.
He is on the road out of Kyoto within the hour.
-***-
She finds him in Osaka.
"You're an idiot. You're coming home. Now."
Of course he has no choice in the matter.
After all, she's a lot stronger than she looks.
-the beginning-
Final Notes: Osaka is close to Kyoto, both by modern and historical standards. It's also the 'Gateway to China' with heavy, heavy shipping traffic leaving regularly from Japan. So either Misao's fast or Kenshin was stalling.
For Numisma
Fandom: Rurouni Kenshin
Title: The Unbearable Lightness of Fleeing
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama. Character Study. Misao.
Word Count: ~1300
Summary: Kenshin's good at every kind of running. Misao's good at being Misao. Poor Kenshin.
Notes for numisma: I do love Misao. By all rights, this should be a much longer story, but consider it a series of vignettes to sketch what became a very long and fully realized plot in my head. Damn you.
Author's Notes: Kaoru was killed during the encounter with Enishi. With Kaoru truly dead, how would Kenshin ever recover? Who would be stubborn enough to deal with that much brooding? And when will Naphy stop making terrible puns in her titles?
The Unbearable Lightness of Fleeing
From this world I think/ That there is nowhere to escape.
- Fujiwara no Toshinari
She finds him in Rakuminmura.
"You're an idiot. You're coming home. Now."
He discovers that he has no choice in the matter.
She's a lot stronger than she looks.
-***-
He comes with her to Kyoto because Tokyo now has even worse memories than the Bakumatsu, than his betrayal of Tomoe.
He really needs to stop leaving behind ghosts in the towns he passes through. He's running out of places to brood.
That doesn't mean he can't fold back into his shell and continue his self-flagellation.
Unfortunately, well… Misao.
"I know she practiced Kamiya Kasshin, but Kaoru-chan would kill you, then bring you back and kill you again if she saw you like this."
He tries to pretend that she's just another voice in his head (rurounivictimbattousaivictimkaorukaorutomoe).
Unfortunately, she's far too annoying.
And persistent.
"You're pathetic. Not because of your past or because you were unable to save Kaoru-chan, but because you've got all this life you could use and you're content to just waste it so that you can feel sorry for yourself."
She pauses at the edge of the screen. "They may have thought you were this selfless martyr, but we know better, don't we? You're the most selfish person I've ever met. Not once since I pulled you out of the land of bums have you asked about anyone else. Yahiko-kun, Sagara-san… You know what's the lowest form of trash? The kind who turns his back on his family."
-***-
She's quietly pouring tea when he kneels across from her on the tatami. Her expression doesn't alter and her concentration doesn't flicker, but he finds himself with a cup in his hands. There is a strange silence before he can muster his voice, rusty from long disuse. "Please… what happened?"
Misao doesn't look at him, her eyes focused on her cup. "We were going to come get you, Yahiko-kun and I. Kaoru-chan had sent for this diary before… Anyways, we had a plan, but Aoshi-sama and us, we met the white-haired freak come to gloat over your pain at Kaoru-chan's death. So we went through the plan a lot earlier, drove the white-haired freak even more nuts than he already was and… Well, he regrets killing Kaoru-chan. Will regret killing Kaoru-chan for a very, very long time. But seeing him, listening to him… Aoshi-sama was affected…"
Vaguely, in the part of his mind that is slowly returning to alertness, he realizes that he hasn't heard from Aoshi yet. "Where is Shinomori-san?"
Her ever-present smile falters so briefly that he will later wonder if it had been a trick of light. "Aoshi-sama is… discovering his place."
She smiles even more brightly. "But anyways, Yahiko-kun and Sagara-san are doing as well as can be expected. Sagara-san is actually working as a guard at one of the teahouses and Tae-san took Yahiko-kun in at the Akabeko- he actually got offered a place at one of the other dojos because of his abilities. They'd like to see you, but they're willing to wait until it won't cause you too much pain. But not forever."
He finds himself nodding over his tea. "Not forever."
-***-
"Sessha will happily help prepare the meal."
She gives him one of those frightening 'innocent' grins, eyes as hard as flint. "Kaoru-chan may have put up with 'this unworthy one', but I have already spent far too many years dealing with 'this Aoshi-sama'. If 'this unworthy one' doesn't address himself normally, than 'this Misao' will adjust him so that he really is unworthy."
The motion and direction of her kunai leave little doubt as to her intent.
Oro!
He learns very quickly to use a less obsequious address.
-***-
One morning she doesn't come drag him out of his room, loudly pulling him away to get a cup of tea.
He is surprised to find himself worried.
He knows that she's Okashira and a busy woman… Actually it hadn't occurred to him before how much time out of her own life she must be taking to help him.
It still wouldn't hurt to make sure that she's not in trouble.
He finds her in front of what he assumes is the family shrine.
Not understanding his reasoning, he remains in the shadows, watching her as she kneels and talks to the air.
"We found the diary, you know. All of Himura's late wife's feelings, just like you said. I'd really liked to have just brought you that bastard's head, but you were so stubborn about Kamiya Kasshin that I had to use my amazing brain to think of something else. Well, use my amazing brain to follow your idea anyways. Which we did, you know? We showed that white-haired freak and he didn't want to believe us, but I think we had help there. You should have seen him! I've never seen anything more pathetic than him babbling at your grave- kept mixing you up with 'Tomoe', but it was still very satisfying. You would have laughed-"
He is amazed to see the sudden wetness on her cheeks, the way she suddenly, painfully, closes her eyes mid-sentence.
"You said I should come visit. You said you'd be waiting… Kaoru."
Somehow, in his haze of guilt and self-loathing, Kenshin had forgotten that he isn't the only one who mourns.
He watches her place the jasmine at the base, waits until long after she has left before sinking to his knees. For the first time, he allows his own grief to leak from his eyes. It is more painful than he could ever have imagined, but somehow the poison of the wound is lanced and released by the horrible, shuddering sobs.
-***-
He finds himself practicing katas again. A way to settle his mind. A way to pass some of his endless time.
A way to get the very busy Makimachi Misao to watch him.
Not that that would be a motivation-
The woman is poisoning his mind with her-her constant insane cheerfulness! He plans on a quiet market day getting fish and tofu and somehow they wind up running from the last Yakuza boss she's been getting information on.
The crazy woman needs to learn some of his extra reconnaissance and defense techniques so she doesn't end up short a head, and him with her. He practically has to teach her in self-defense!
And he's not enjoying it.
At all.
If he were still in Tokyo, they would have all laughed to see him acting like… like Yahiko. Kaoru-dono would have-
He is forced to stop mid-kata, his sword slipping from his fingers, as he takes deep breaths to recover. It's been months, but he can't be feeling this much better, mustn't be feeling this much better.
The world was not meant to give him more chances.
He needs to-
"She loved you. A lot. Do you think she would have been happy that you decided to stop living?"
He closes his eyes as she walks away, because if he doesn't have to see the truth, he may hold it off a little longer.
-***-
Misao's fever has finally broken.
When he found her in the market, so ill she collapsed in his arms, he had felt…
Well, regardless, the relief now is…
He watches her, sprawled carelessly on her futon.
She is nothing like Kaoru, nothing like Tomoe.
She is manic, manipulative, frighteningly cheerful and thinks 'compromise' is a foreign word.
She is everything he's never wanted.
Everything that manages to irritate every aspect of his nature (even the rurouni).
Everything that could ever make him whole.
He is on the road out of Kyoto within the hour.
-***-
She finds him in Osaka.
"You're an idiot. You're coming home. Now."
Of course he has no choice in the matter.
After all, she's a lot stronger than she looks.
-the beginning-
Final Notes: Osaka is close to Kyoto, both by modern and historical standards. It's also the 'Gateway to China' with heavy, heavy shipping traffic leaving regularly from Japan. So either Misao's fast or Kenshin was stalling.