Fall to Madness [Closed to those responding to SOS]

[willing_sheath]

Characters: Himura Tomoe, Himura Kenshin, Kamiya Kaoru, potentially other people???

Location: Northeast edge of the city on the outskirts of the park

Rating: PG-13

Time: Dec 21st, early evening

Description: Tomoe encounters a section of the city where the madness wavelength has filtered in, as well as a kishin egg. After making an SOS post, Kenshin

Comments

I'm assuming Kaoru will follow him?

[maashiro]

Being on alert for S.O.S. calls was a standard requirement of an off-patrol Watch member-or for a rurouni who'd made it his life goal to protect people wherever he could. Many calls over the network were mistakes (like his own had been) or bumps and stumbles; however, the recent situation with Gamzee had put him on edge, and Kenshin was quick to take up his device the moment it received the alert.

...And then he was quick to throw it away from him, snatch up his sakabatou from the floor next to him, and rush for the door.

His face was white, he probably wasn't breathing, and his heart was hammering against his ribcage. Perhaps he'd been horrible in his dealings with Tomoe since she'd arrived with as lost as he'd felt; Sano and Kaoru had helped in their own ways, but he still had things with which he needed to come to terms. That he knew. But those problems didn't matter when he could see her in danger and had promised to protect her and this time keep that promise. She in that moment was the most important as he slammed his door open and exited into the hall.

Yes ma'am!

[givingsword]

And stumbling out into the hallway not soon after was a shihandai with a paling face, her hands holding a shinai. Her wide blue eyes searched the hall before focusing on Kenshin, and without preamble, she proceeded to walk towards him, her face set in a determined stare. "I'm coming with you. " Her tone brooked no argument.

Kenshin's wife was in danger. It didn't matter about waiting or standing by, now was the time to lend her support. They didn't know what they were up against, but she couldn't just let him face it alone!

[maashiro]

Kenshin whirled at the sound of her voice, giving her a fleeting look that said Don't do this. He was already worried about letting anything happen to Tomoe; he didn't want to have Kaoru's safety on his mind, either. But time was ticking where they stood, and Tomoe was on the edge of the city, so he had no time to try to convince Kaoru to stay. He only had time for the look.

So instead Kenshin turned away and continued running. He could try to outrun and lose her, like he'd attempted once with Misao, but even if the city hadn't taken away his godspeed and ability to jump as high as he usually could Tomoe had still given away her location. Kaoru would only arrive later. She was stubborn. Having her insist on joining him gave Kenshin a feeling similar to the one he'd felt when he'd seen her in Kyoto: one of simultaneous relief and anger.

But it didn't matter. Kaoru was coming, he knew she was coming. And Tomoe was in trouble, afraid, and letting herself show it. Whatever was happening, Kenshin would stop it.

[givingsword]

Kaoru's steady blue eyes were on his, her mouth pressed into a firm line, as she wordlessly shook her head. No. She'd be there. Who knew where Sanosuke was, and at this rate, she'd be stupid to let even Kenshin fight something like that. He wasn't a god, no matter how skilled he was. He needed someone to back him up. Was she a shihandai or not?

As she followed behind quietly, thoughts raced in her mind. What was that thing? How badly was Tomoe hurt? What was Kenshin feeling? If only her legs could move faster..

[willing_sheath]

As soon as the kishin had moved, she had moved-but she wasn’t a fighter by any standards, she wasn’t trained in anything athletic, and even if she was quick to draw that pathetic knife and to turn to run she wasn’t nearly fast enough, especially not with her legs constricted by kimono. The only thing she could truly hope for was that someone was close enough to respond to the S.O.S. before the thing tore her throat out.

Tomoe wasn’t sure how many steps she actually managed before it was on top of her. The one blessing in wearing her kimono was that the actual location of her arm was mildly disguised. She twisted just enough as it rammed her to let its teeth only rip into the sleeve with a sickening. She faltered on her feet, adrenaline pumping through her system and her mind too set on survival to acknowledge the horror of the situation, trying to maintain her balance even as she was being dragged along by something three times her weight.

When it released its grip on the fabric, lunging again for better purchase it was a natural reaction to throw her arm back in front of her to block. It was odd, feeling the flesh rip right along with the fabric and knowing that it should have hurt-but for the moment all she could feel was the pressure on the limb and the overarching will to survive clouding all other thoughts. If she was screaming or yelling or making any other kind of noise she wasn’t even aware, concentrating on keeping on her feet even as she was being mauled and bringing that knife up in her right hand and viciously stabbing at the kishin’s face.

They were glancing blows with the way the thing was shaking her-until one landed perfectly, gouging its left eye. It let out a shrill yelp, releasing her arm in shock. The sudden release sent her reeling backward. She stumbled, catching herself on a tree trunk before setting out at a dead run, one geta lost somewhere in the scuffle, her left arm a tattered, bleeding mess. The escape was short lived, however-because before the kishin had been biding its time playing with her. This time, it was pissed.

She barely realized it as she was knocked off her feet this time, letting out a scream before throwing her arms up automatically to protect her head and neck as best she could and praying someone would get there in time because on the ground, she was already dead.

[maashiro]

Kenshin didn't think, he only ran. He was familiar with the city through his Watch patrols and own habit of acquainting himself with an area; it was only a matter of one foot in front of the other as fast as he could do it. Not for the first time, he cursed the loss of his godspeed. This Kenshin still didn't understand; he'd known, after the fight with Shishio, that Hiten Mitsurugi would begin to take a toll on his body until it was unusable, but he didn't think it could possibly act so fast.

But then he could hear. First a yelp, then a scream, and Kenshin knew whose scream that was. Not thinking about whether Kaoru was still behind him, hardly paying any attention to his surrounding, he pushed himself to move faster until he could see the thing, Tomoe on the ground and blood on her kimono and then there was only red.

His sword was drawn, and he'd slammed it into the kishin egg's body with as much force as he'd ever hit anything in his life. Even though his weapon was a normal one, the beast squealed again, howling in rage when Kenshin's sword swung again: Kuzu Ryuu Sen.

He would have kept going, beating the monster in that blind fury until it collapsed, had his inanimate sakabatou not been insufficient. Instead the kishin simply turned and ran, leaving Kenshin breathing hard with his sword still in his hand-and an odd haze still in his vision.

[givingsword]

Kaoru let out a sharp cry of his name as he sped ahead, fruitlessly trying to keep up, but when he ran, even without that godlike speed he had at home, how could she?! She arrived a little bit afterwards, panting as she stared at the scene, Tomoe on the ground, and Kenshin panting, something clearly off. She didn't know how but--

"Tomoe-san!" Her injury was on her arm, it looked like. Anger at the thought of a monster doing this to Kenshin's important person made her grit her teeth as she quickly knelt at her side, peering down at her with a concerned expression. "It's alright now, it ran away. Are you alright?"

She turned over her shoulder to stare at Kenshin. "Kenshin, let's get her to the hospital. We need to patch this up. "

[willing_sheath]

It seemed like it was already too late, the blunt force as the kishin's weight landed on her back forcing her air right out of her lungs, feeling the heat of the monster's breath begin to close over her neck and everything cover it--

--and then the pressure was instantly gone, replaced by another shrill howl. She gulped a breath, trying not to cough as she pushed herself up enough to turn see a flurry of red as Kenshin beat the thing back.

"Kenshin," she managed to croak as the kishin retreated. There was relief, certainly, considering just how close she had just come to dying again--but something was wrong. Something was really wrong, but she didn't know what it was.

Tomoe jerked toward the sound of Kaoru's voice as she made her way onto the scene, pushing herself up further, bringing her left arm close to her chest, her right coming up and finally letting the bloodied knife that had remained clutched in her fingers go in order to haphazardly begin wrapping the tatters of her sleeve around her mangled forearm, adrenaline still hiding the pain from her system. "Yes," she answered shakily as Kaoru knelt beside her, "but..." Tomoe looked back to Kenshin as well.

Something was not right. Even if the kishin had retreated, something was still not right. That strange presence in the air was still there and he was... "Kenshin--"

[maashiro]

The Amakakeru Ryuu no Hirameki, far more than granting Kenshin his most powerful attack, had allowed him to close off the Battousai within him-to grow angry, to fight, as hard as he needed without ever reverting to the hitokiri that lived in him. But standing there with Tomoe bloodied behind him, even with the kishin egg run off, Kenshin was seized with a huge, wild desire to kill something.

There was enough sanity left in him still to realise that for some reason Battousai was fighting to come out again. It was all to easy, as it always was around Tomoe now, to remember another time in which he'd rushed to her rescue and that time had ruined everything of his own accord. Those memories were coming back more and more clearly now, and when he turned at the sound of his name to look at Tomoe, lying on the ground and covered in blood, that was the final pushing point to snap him back to that bloody day when he was only fifteen years old and killing ruthlessly to get to her.

He lifted his sword, raising it straight in front of his face-then with one sharp flick of his wrist twisted it so the sharp end faced outwards.

"Stay there." His voice was harsh, rougher, like it always was when he couldn't keep back the Battousai that took over the rurouni. "I'm going to find that thing and I'm going to kill it."

[givingsword]

Kaoru opened her mouth to speak, to protest again that once more they needed to go find help for Tomoe's arm. It wasn't too serious but it looked painful, and she had suffered enough, holding up to this point. But she froze at the look on his face along with the tone of his voice; her eyes widening concerned and huge in her face.
No..that look on his face--his eyes--

But he had sealed his old self. He told her that night on the roof, that he had found a way, so why--why was she looking at a face not too far from the one she saw in her Dojo on that fateful night?

Why..? Kenshin has been under so much stress, I realize but--he's always been in such good control...why is the Battousai here? Kenshin..

She swallowed, sliding her arm gently around Tomoe to help steady her, her voice a bit shaky, but firm. "Kenshin..what are you doing? W..we have to get her to the hospital, remember? You came here to help Tomoe-san, didn't you? Let's..let's go. "

Her eyes grew dark, pleading. "Flip your sword back. That isn't the right side.."

[willing_sheath]

Under different circumstances Tomoe would have had little qualms over someone exterminating a mad dog--by all means it would make sense and be the responsible thing to do considering how easily the damn thing could kill someone--but not like this. Kenshin's look, his tone, his mannerisms, everything was screaming that something was wrong.

"Leave it," she said sternly even as she pulled the tatters of her kimono sleeve around the arm as tightly as she could, trying ignore the alarming rate at which the fabric was bleeding through and the pain that was finally beginning to filter through. She tried her best to keep her expression schooled, but the worry was in her eyes despite it all. "You kept your promise--leave it at that."

[maashiro]

In Kenshin's fight with Saitou, Sano had told Kaoru that her voice could not pull him back from the battlefield. But this went beyond that. That time he'd hardly given others an acknowledgement, so focused on the fight with his opponent; this time he turned a glare on both women.

"I said I'd protect you," he said, voice just as sharp as before, "and I will kill anyone who tries to hurt you again, be it beast or man." He lowered the sword but clenched his fist around the hilt so tightly his knuckles turned white.

He was in the forest of barriers again, causing a rain of blood, still in a haze of rage and muddled senses. The feeling of blade ripping through flesh-he wanted it.

[givingsword]

Kaoru realized with a sort of sickening clarity that she had no part in this. This--she wasn't in this at all. This was a man, a husband, talking fiercely to his wife, promising her protection. Security. She--there was no Kaoru in this. This was Kenshin at fifteen, half-crazed and still as passionate as before. But it wasn't right. Instead of aiming his passion towards a way, a path that was right--this..this didn't even seem as much about Tomoe as it was about killing something.

The air felt heavy, thick almost, as she realized she had sucked in a breath of air. Her lungs felt full--and the dizziness--it hadn't been like that before!
This is the 'madness' of Hitokiri Battousai. This is who Kenshin made himself become..Madness---wait--madness...!

In the chilling silence that followed his words, Kaoru realized she hadn't stopped staring at him intensely, trying to look for traces of her rurouni. No, it went beyond hitokiri or rurouni. She was looking for Kenshin.

She firmly shifted her gaze to Kenshin. "You are not acting like yourself. Stop this, Kenshin. You made a promise, didn't you? Your sword is meant to protect life not take any more lives. I know you're upset--..but you can't talk like this. " Her voice wavered a bit at the end. Of course she was scared. For him, the chilling way he spoke his words, the very wrongness of it! She couldn't allow it!

Kaoru swallowed, once again feeling a bizarre sense of overwhelming pressure bear down on her shoulders, a hitched breath escaping, sucking in air. Her emotions were racing behind her set expression---faster, faster and faster--her heart shouldn't be racing this bad---and her vision was swimming. This is..
"...Tomoe-san." She spoke again, looking at her from the corner of her eyes. "..I think that Kishin did something..--Can you feel it? "

[willing_sheath]

She knew this look. She knew this look far better than she would have liked, even if she had only been on the receiving end of it for a few split seconds. Her eyes widened, that recognition feeling like someone had thrown cold water on her. "Listen to yourself..." she kept the edge to her voice, hiding any hesitation and uncertainty before straightening where she was on the ground, her voice rising, "You swore you would find a way to protect without killing--what part of this factors into that promise!?"

Tomoe's attention was briefly pulled to Kaoru at her side, turning enough to catch the other girl's eyes as she spoke, and some strange realization seemed to settle over her. "It was here before that thing made its appearance... it's in the air..."

She straightened more, her eyes turning back to Kenshin again before widening further.

This--this was the madness wavelength, wasn't it?

[maashiro]

Kenshin was still for a moment, though his eyes only narrowed when Kaoru spoke to him. Still, barely perceptibly, his grip on his sword lightened-just enough to ease the extreme tension in his hand. His face didn't relax, but the lack of movement could only be a good thing. Or at least he managed to stay still until Tomoe spoke.

It wasn't that he wasn't aware of Kaoru. That wasn't true at all; she had managed to light the barest, slightest spark of awareness that at least stilled him for that brief moment. But he was back in the forest with Tomoe on that snowy day. It was her face that jumped at him and her raised voice that brought a shuddering gasp to his lips and caused him to double over as though he'd been punched in the stomach.

"No!" There it was again, this time a more obvious moment of clarity, but this time when it vanished his face was even more crazed than before. "What good am I-what good is Kenshin-if I can't even protect the people most precious to me? The only way to stop them is to stop their hearts. Then how could there even be any danger?!"

He was fifteen, blind and deaf and striking through flesh. He was twenty-eight, staring over Jin-E's prone body as Kaoru choked for breath only yards away. If he'd killed them before they'd even had a chance to act he'd have never even been in those situations. If Shishio hadn't burst into flames he would have lived to continue killing and conquering unless Kenshin had killed him. Killing was the only was to stop it, the only way to ensure he didn't feel any more pain and loss.

Just kill.

[givingsword]

"That's right, Kenshin. You can't forget, right..?" She had been encouraged by that slight stillness, her racing heart stopped for the fraction of a second. It was only when Tomoe spoke that she saw the way his eyes seemed to widen, to an almost crazed expression. It was horrifying. She didn't want to see that look on his face, not ever.

She opened her mouth to speak again, but she found that there was a palpable air coming from Kenshin's proximity, she instead coughed, a bead of sweat trickling down her cheek. At this rate---this is the Madness Wavelength. It makes sense..I can't watch this anymore. I can't watch Kenshin struggle like this! Not in front of me, I can't--...that would be too much!

"...Tomoe-san..it's the Madness Wavelength..-- " She coughed, her eyes lidding slightly. It felt like her back was being pushed on by some invisible weight.

"..I think I'm getting affected too--..but you--you aren't. This has to mean something!" She suddenly sat up straighter, determination bolstering her back to a temporary balance.

"---At this rate--we'll lose Kenshin! We can't! I can't.. " She reached for her other hand, her eyes burning, another bead of sweat trickling down her cheek. Thoughts of a man's gentle smile and voice kept her from sinking under that heavy, heady cloak of air,a force that seemed to be strangling the very person in front of them. Each second was a second wasted. Each moment was a risk of that smile disappearing..

"Please..--I don't know what we can do, but we have to do something! " Her voice shook a little, as she gripped those hands in hers, her eyes blazing, her face desperate, but fierce.
"I don't know what we can do..but if we can destroy kishin, why can't we destroy the wavelengths they cause? We've got to find out! We've got to try! " She bowed her head, holding her hands in hers, her own shaking as she looked up, blinking back tears.
"Please..please. Lend me your strength, Tomoe-san! For Kenshin.. "