Chapter26

Enishi stopped. They had been going through the winding tunnels for hours, and although there were many intersections Enishi always seemed to know where he was. Maybe he had gotten lost? Kaoru wondered apprehensively, but then she gasped as she saw someone towering over Enishi.

“So he’s brought you out” Enishi said to the man. The tall man nodded. He didn’t seem happy to be here. “I will of course oblige.” Enishi said, and Kaoru noticed for the first time that the creature’s lips were sewn together, and although his eyes were wild, they hold more fear than anger. This wasn’t the creature’s choice and it knelt over before Enishi, as if waiting for something.

Enishi brought out his sword and took off the huge head. Kaoru held back a gasp, knowing it was the large man’s choice. She couldn’t help but emit an odd sound as Enishi carved up the rest of the body and kicked it about. Enishi looked at her.

“If it looks like it was done on purpose, his given up life would be for naught. Fang was blackmailing him.”

“You know him?” Kaoru asked?

“I did, once.” Enishi said, stepping over the grotesque remains. Kaoru knew better than to ask anything more. Mao was silent as he leaned against the wall where Enishi had placed him. Kaoru helped him up as she passed by, wondering why Enishi hadn’t himself this time. Mao showed no sign of complaining and slung an arm around her shoulder.

Blood, there was blood everywhere. The light was fading, but imprinted on his mind was the ever-present stench of blood. He looked to find himself in the snow. He felt, more than saw his arms moving in a great slash. The air in front of him was cut in twain, parting like water as before him fell a body.

Her hair spread out across the frozen ground and his hand rose to his cheek. It came away covered in blood as he felt a diagonal slash much like the one he’d dealt carved on his face.

He knelt by the fallen body and lifted up the torso, holding the woman’s head in his arms. She smiled up at him and traced an identical line across his cheek going the other direction.

“Aishiteru” she whispered as she dissolved from his arms into a swirling maelstrom of snowflakes, falling to the ground and melting in the pooling blood.

“Tomoe” he heard his voice brokenly cry. “I have not forgotten you, come back to me” He said as he fell forward, his hands sinking in the blood. “What have I done… what have I done…” he wept as the snow fell around him, landing on his eyelashes and cheeks.

He lifted his hands out of the blood but it streamed off endlessly, never seeming to fade. The stream started pulling him forward, and he screamed as he tired to pull away, but he found himself surrounded by a sea of blood, sightless eyes attached to dismantled heads. Various grotesque remains floated about him he shivered as a grinning half demolished head brushed by him, it’s skull gleaming stark against the blood as it sank slowly into the water.

Shinta closed his eyes, finally giving up to sing slowly after it into the depths. I’m drowning, he thought as the metallic tang of blood permeated his very being, he could taste it on his tongue and feel it burning his lungs as he breathed it in through his nose.

He opened his eyes once more, only to see a girl being attacked by a white haired demon. Its icy eyes peered over at him, it’s body only a ribcage attached to a curled floating spine. Shinta found himself pounding on an invisible barrier between blood, and the scene unfolding before his eyes. He could do nothing as when he cried out, blood filled his mouth preventing any sound.

He couldn’t see the girls face, but a stark scream tore through his body as the demon carved a cross shaped scar on the girls cheek with a skeletal claw. With every drop of blood the girl shed, the demon began to recover and grow flesh as it clung to its bones, organs draping off like dead meat at a butcher’s.

The demon stabbed a hand into the girl’s chest and tore out her heart. The faceless girl began melting, finally devolving into a puddle of flesh and goo. The demon turned around, its appearance now that of a tall naked human with white hair and still piercing eyes.

It held out the heart towards Shinta and the barrier faded. Shinta fell to the ground gasping and coughing up blood. He looked up at the demon, that seemed to look at him more with distain than hatred.

Then demon grinned almost insanely as around the heart floated the ethereal body of a black haired pale girl. She had a small scar under her left eye by her ear and wore an intricate Kimono that was falling off more than it was staying on, only barely tied together at the waist as her long legs curved out, floating around the heart.

She looked at him with broken eyes as the demon placed the heart in front of him. It floated as if it were in the ethereal image, the girl was standing before him. He found himself standing and reaching out to grasp her in his embrace only to find his hands digging into flesh.

He looked down to find a skeletal figure, hands embedded into the girls body as it bleed, muscles and tissue torn about the claws. He looked at his own body only to find a floating spinal cord. He was a demon!

He looked back at the girl who was crying out in pain as no voice came out. The other demon laughed at him silently as it faded away into blackness

“It is better to forget, you will only kill them again” a voice echoed out into the darkness that engulfed everything afterwards.

Shinta woke up shivering. He couldn’t remember anything about the dream but those last words, and the voice that accompanied it. Then, out of the darkness came only one word. And he remembered the face that went with it as clear as a warm summer day. Shinta smiled, his heartbeat calming as he remembered her faint smile.

“Tomoe…” he whispered into the morning air as he stood up. Today he would shake of his past once more and go to work at the chores he usually took care of. As long as he could remember that face he’d have something to carry him to the next day. That, and his family.

Chou grumbled as he was chased and cornered into the alleyway. He missed his freakin sword collection. Damn battousai for ruining it, he thought good-naturedly. He really held no grudge, despite his complaints. Half the fun was collecting them so he’d just have a chance to get more. And now he had all of china to go through.

But there were these… people, and they were in the way! He thought as he punched one square in the jaw. My god, I’m lowering myself to Sano’s level. He briefly thought as he backhanded another into a wall.

Why were they chasing him again anyway? Oh yeah. He had stolen a sacred sword from the temple here. It was a damn fine sword, although it wasn’t Japanese. He examined the scabbard as he pushed another aside. What was it with holy stuff and making it look ordinary anyhow.

Saitoh was going to have his head if he didn’t meet the psycho cop at the appointed time. That’s your leader now, so you’re likely psycho as well, he reminded himself as he bashed the last guys head into the wall.

These guards were just too easy. He whistled as he walked away, sword slung over his shoulder. What would Saitoh have planned for him this time?

Kaoru glanced over at Mao, he looked away at the last second, and Kaoru barely just caught him looking at her. This had been going on for the last fifteen minutes. I don’t get this guy… she muttered silently to herself. She almost thought she caught a grin out of Mao, but when she looked he had as tired and forlorn an expression as there was when Enishi first showed up.

Enishi had started walking more carefully, and had told them to step only exactly where he did. Kaoru assumed that this labyrinth must have traps. Her thought was confirmed as Enishi slightly tested something on a wall and a volley of spikes came from nowhere and embedded in the wall where his hand had just been. He smirked slightly and muttered something about it being “just as he remembered.”

Kaoru wondered just how many years he spent around all these places. Although he was younger than Kenshin by years, he seemed almost twice the age in experience. Kaoru never realized how much Kenshin had dwelt over one single thing. Kenshin was always gone from her, dwelling in the Bakumatsu.

Granted Enishi had done the same about his sister, but it didn’t seem to last so long, and she couldn’t blame him for picking something like that instead of all these horrors he’d seen. She knew Enishi hadn’t even begun to show her the hell he lived through. Kaoru wanted to grab him and take him away from it all, but she knew well, that if not dealt with, one’s past would come to deal with you.

She glanced over at Mao quickly, ending her train of thought, but this time she could almost swear he had been laughing.

Enishi walked carefully the laid path that he remembered so well from his year in the labyrinth. He checked for any new traps, but it was soon apparent that fang had not the foresight to install them. Either that or he greatly underestimated Enishi’s memory.

Enishi was feeling a little wary though. Fang had sent out his favorite tool of ‘force’ even though he knew Enishi could easily beat him. Was he stalling for time? What else did Fang have up his sleeve? He shouldn’t have stopped keeping an eye on him the year he started planning his Jinchuu.

He turned around suddenly as he heard a muffled sound behind him…. Kaoru!