Everything ends, Chapter 2/??
Title: Everything ends
Chapters: 2/??
Author: fffriction1984 (tbsupervillains )
Genre: historical, action, romance (actually I have no idea how to label this, sorry)
Warnings: slight violence, AU, un-betaed, English is not my first language, Wikipedia helped me a lot but I’m not sure how accurate this is (I suck when it comes to historical things XD), character death
Rating: PG-13 for now
Pairings: No pairings yet
Characters: All gazemen, Yoshiki, Tora [Alice Nine], Suzuka [OC], Tomiko (Hiko) [danger*gang], Sakito [Nightmare], mention of Waka [danger*gang], more characters to come, this will be an jrock-all-star-cast XD
Synopsis: Everything he lived for was gone
Disclaimer: Don't own anyone not yet, but I'm still in negotiations, but the idea is mine, BWA HAHAHAHA HAAAA!
“Where the hell is Uruha?” Reita demanded to know just as the leader of the Hayashi clan and his guard left to cool down the boiled up emotions and to have something for their belated breakfast.
“I don’t know, he left without telling anyone where he’d be going. I’m sorry.” Kai answered his leaders question and bowed.
Ruki barged in and huffed out his annoyance. Before actually speaking up he bowed, he always remembered to be polite with his leader, no matter how angry he was. “Reita-sama, may I-”
“No, you may not! Go and find Uruha!”
“He could be everywhere by now!”
“Exactly! And that’s why I want you to find him! Immediately!” Reita seemed to be more than just annoyed about Uruha’s absence, yet it was understandably. There were quite a few twists in the usual happenings, new plans had to be made.
“I’ll help you looking for him.” Aoi grumbled the next moment and pulled Ruki with him. “I still have a bone to pick with him…”
“Hello? Please, can anyone help me? Please!” she yelled out in panic. “Mister, help me!” An elderly man just walked past her without even paying attention, as well as everyone else did. “Please, someone help me!” She kneeled down beside the man that had just slumped down to the floor like a boneless pile. She lightly slapped his cheeks, trying to get him back to consciousness but it seemed to be to no avail. “Gods, what’s happening to you…” she whispered. For a short moment his eyelids fluttered open, his eyeballs were rolling back and forth and he was obviously in pain.
She was more than just slightly panicked.
After a while she slapped his cheek once more, a little harder this time. And it showed some effect. He reached up to grasp her hand, though he was still rather unconscious before he practically curled around her hand, groaning in pain.
“Please, tell me how to help you…” she hushed and stroke his cheek with her free hand.
No reaction at all.
“What the hell… Hey, what did you do to him?!”
She was startled even more as she saw two men approaching her, glaring ice-cold daggers at her.
“I didn’t do anything! I swear! I tried to help him!” she cried out in fear and backed away from the man lying on the floor.
“Uruha, hey, can you hear me?”
“Lady, back off, let the man breathe!” the shorter man muttered and almost kicked her while she was still kneeling on the ground.
She rose to her feet and clutched her cloth pouch to her chest while inching away from the man who had blacked out and the raven haired guy grabbing him by the shoulders, lightly shaking him. Without any more words the man with the jet black hair pulled him up, threw him over his shoulder and carried him away, the shorter man following him close behind.
“Who are you…? Uruha…?” she whispered and watched them walking away.
Reita called for a doctor the moment he saw Aoi carrying an unconscious Uruha through the gates. He certainly wanted to know what happened to him, just as much as the others did.
After a doctor had examined Uruha the confusion grew even bigger.
“Exhaustion? How can you say this is because of exhaustion?!” Aoi snapped and pointed his hand towards Uruha. “Have you even looked at him?!”
“Aoi-san, if I were you I would think about his mental status some more. I think you know how much the mental can affect the body.” the medic explained while putting away his utensils. “He hasn’t been sleeping for days.”
“Sure…” Aoi nodded.
Ruki went to report to Reita. “He’ll be alright, he just needs to rest a little more…”
“He can’t rest now! We have to go to Tokyo, the faster the better.” Reita groaned in discomfort and shook his head. “Things are getting rough there…”
“Well, I… I know that the Hayashi clan is our only ally, but… do we even need to have allies anymore?” the shorter man queried. “Seriously… Reita-sama, war is over, we don’t have to fight anyone now. We should enjoy this… this peace as long as we can…”
“They are plotting against me, Ruki. We might only have this one ally, but the Hayashi clan has allies everywhere in Japan. And they want to see me going down. You haven’t heard what I’ve been talking about with Hayashi-sama…”
“Yes, I haven’t heard it, but why can’t you just leave Uruha out of this? Believe me, I’m not questioning your authority or anything, I would never do something like this, but you should really leave Uruha out of this. He can’t take it anymore.”
Kai entered the room as well now and nodded in agreement, he had been listening in from the door. “If he has to fight once more I’m not even sure if he’ll be able to do it. Else than that, I think he doesn’t even want to fight anymore.”
“I know, I know…” Their leader let out a heavy sigh and shook his head. “But I still need him. And I need to know if he’s still loyal to the clan…”
“Reita-sama, he dedicated his life to the clan.”
"For now we should let him rest." Ruki said and left his leader and Kai alone.
As Hayashi and his guard Tora returned to the premises not much later they were quite surprised to see everyone seeming to be collected and calm, unlike earlier in the day.
"Did the legendary Uruha return yet?" Tora wanted to know, directing his question towards Aoi.
"Why don't you just go and do your job? You should better protect Hayashi-sama like you're told to." the raven haired samurai replied coldly and blocked the door toward their bedrooms as Tora wanted to just walk past him.
"And why don't YOU let the man speak for himself?" Tora shot back as he saw how Uruha stumbled towards the door at the same moment.
Aoi turned around and stared at his friend with wide eyes. "Uruha, you're not supposed to be up..."
"I'm fine!" the blonde replied and made a repellent gesture with his right hand, he held his sword in his left hand. "What do you want from me, Tora-san?"
"I want to test you."
"Test me?"
"Yes. In sparring. Just you and me."
"Fine with me."
"Tomorrow, at sunrise." With having that said Tora headed off towards the guesthouse on the property.
"Uruha, have you gone mad?!" Aoi asked and shot his friend an angry glance.
"Maybe..."
"You can't possibly fight him like that, even if it's just for sparring!"
Uruha just shook his head. “Don’t tell me what I can do and what I can’t. I’m not that weak…”
“If only we could get rid of Uruha… Things would be easier then…” Yoshiki mumbled as if to himself.
“Is that so?” Tora asked and cocked his head to the side.
“It is. I have seen him fight when he was younger, as he still was in training. He’s one of the best swordsmen I have ever seen…”
“Even so. Have you seen him now, Yoshiki-sama? That guy is nothing more than a wreck by now, he’s weak. I already conquered him for tomorrow morning.”
“He might be weak, but he’s still more skilled than you are, Tora.”
Tora bowed deeply to his master. “I humbly beg your pardon, Yoshiki-sama. If you request so I’ll not fight him.”
“No, just do it. And try to get him fight against you with his Katana, not a bamboo Shinai… If you’re as good as you think you are, we might be short one problem by tomorrow morning.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Where have you been? Your father has been worried sick about you, Tomiko-san.”
“I’m sorry, Sakito-kun.” she replied and bowed a little to the servant.
“And what happened to your kimono?”
“Ah, I stumbled and fell down, is all.” she lied. “Is dinner ready yet?”
The servant, Sakito, bowed and nodded, then led her into the dining room.
Her father was already eating, looking at her with a rather troubled expression. “Tomiko-chan, what did I tell you about staying away all day long? All alone?”
“I’m sorry, father.” she said and bowed. “But I was just taking a walk.”
“I know, but Kyoto is dangerous these days! Don’t you ever notice the former Samurai strutting through the streets, looking for young and wealthy girls like you?!”
Takahara Akio, her father, had been a member of the Shogunate’s party, he had supported the Shinsengumi, yet he didn’t bear any grudges for the way things turned out. He tried to see the positive sides to the new movement. He wanted things to change, although most people didn’t really approve of his way of thinking.
“Tomiko, I just want you to be a bit more careful… You’re my only child. And your mother’s spirit would haunt me in my sleep if anything happened to you. Not to think of your fiancée in Tokyo. I would lose face if anything happened to you before you’re getting married.”
By hearing him mentioning his fiancée she had to bite the inside of her lower lip. She had never met that man, yet she was betrothed to him. “I’ll be careful, I promise.”
“Don’t make me send Sakito after you wherever you go again.”
“Hai…”
She didn’t really like to think of that time. As the Boshin War had started she was hardly allowed to leave the house at all, and if she did, Sakito was with her as her guard. But she was able to understand her father’s concerns. People were killed in the streets every day before the war had come to an end.
After finishing dinner she retreated into the garden and fed her Koi carps. All this time she had been thinking about the guy that blacked out. Who was he?
“Sakito-kun?” she called out and soon heard footsteps approaching her.
He bowed and looked at her questioningly. “What’s the matter?”
“I have a question. Do you know which family or clan in Kyoto has something like a fir tree as their crest?” she asked and went on feeding her fish.
“A fir tree? Um… Let me think about it for a moment…”
“I’m just asking because I saw someone wearing that Mon today, and I’ve never seen it before though.” Tomiko said and tried to hide her real intentions like that.
“That must be the Suzuki clan. I’m almost sure about it.”
“I see. Thank you, Sakito-kun.”
“Why did you even pay attention? It had never been of interest to you before.”
“I don’t know. It just caught my eye.”
“I don’t know in which Dojo you have learned your Kenjutsu, but in Kyoto we use Shinai for sparring…” Uruha muttered the next morning as Tora stood before him with a Katana in his hands.
“What? Are you afraid to die?”
Kai and Aoi watched the scene being played in front of them with concern. They were ready to interfere at any time, even if Uruha told them to stay out of ‘his business’.
“Let’s get this started.” Uruha discarded the Shinai in his hand and reached for the Katana in his Obi.
Ruki would be the referee, though he wouldn’t be unbiased in the least with all the anger towards Tora and Hayashi boiling inside of him. “Get ready!” He waved his fan in the air and positioned himself close enough but not too close to them.
Uruha was quicker than Tora had expected. While he was still pulling his Katana out of its sheath Uruha was already bridging the gap between them. Their swords clashed together for the first time and Tora could see the determination not to lose in the blonde’s eyes. He laughed inwardly. The more determinate the blonde Samurai was, the better would his victory feel when he had him killed.
“I don’t like this at all…” Kai whispered and placed one hand upon his own Katana resting beside him.
“Don’t worry. Uruha is way better than that asshole…” Aoi tried to reassure him but he wasn’t convinced of his own words at all. Sure, he knew Uruha had better techniques and maybe even more experience in real battle, but they have never seen Tora using a sword before. All they could do was trust Uruha and his ability to foresee his opponents next moves.
Almost suddenly Tora attacked Uruha with real force and managed to cause a small but nevertheless bleeding wound at his right arm. Unfortunately for Tora this was only levelling up Uruha’s eagerness to win. He would even strike him down if necessary, only one of them could win.
“He should’ve practised more during the past weeks though…” Kai mentioned and focused on the quick movements of the two swordsmen.
“He doesn’t need more practise. He’s as good as always.”
“He might be as fast as usually, but… there’s something wrong to it… His attacks aren’t as forceful as they used to be… He doesn’t have the strength to fight…”
Tora got paid back for the wound he caused on Uruhas arm all too soon, except for the fact that he was bleeding a little more. Uruha had struck him across the chest, slicing his Kimono, yet he cared enough not to make it lethal. Not now.
The hair in Uruhas neck clung to his sweaty skin already as he managed to strike Tora once more, this time on his right arm. This time it was forcefully enough that the taller man dropped his sword.
Ruki wanted to stop the fight, but Tora picked up his sword again and went on fighting with his left hand. “This isn’t over yet!” he yelled and attacked once more, but Uruha blocked the attack and while turning around he kicked Tora in the back of his knees, making him fall to the ground. In no time he was faced with the blade of Uruhas Katana at his throat, already lightly cutting the skin and making him bleed.
“Sure it isn’t over already…?” Uruha panted and grabbed a thick lock of Toras hair, jerking his head back violently.
A/N: Another weak attempt of cliffhangering. lol
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