Ookay... this was odd. Just bear w/me, and note that this is a darkfic...

Death Dealer: By Monica Shin

        It is a dark, wet, insane night, smelling of the damp and blood- of
craziness and my own disbelief. I am running again, trying to get away from
that smell, that scene. The branches hit my face, and leave stinging cuts
that I ignore, fleeing the terrible thing that I have just seen. I can't
believe it... no! I won't believe it- I won't. It's impossible. I laugh
loudly, trying to drive away the horrendous knowledge that I now possess...
but I keep running, unable to stop.

        I look behind me, furtive- I am acting very unlike my usual self as
I try to hear if I am being pursued. In my heart, I know- I know that if he
were to follow me, hunt me, that I could not escape... not from him. I
finally run into a clearing that leaves me vulnerable to any aerial attack,
and that is when I know.

        Turning, I see him. He stands there, quiet, calm- like a deep, clear
pond that is able to absorb anything that is thrown at him. His red hair is
tied to keep away from his face, and I now know what he must have looked
like back then, ten years ago. I can't say anything as his sword rushes at
me- I know i should do something, anything, but I stand, paralyzed as the
gleaming metal that is about to take my life away-

        I jump up from my make-shift bed, and look around. I am where I had
been before I had fallen asleep, before I had been sucked into the nightmare
recollection... Sighing, I get up- I have gotten used to not getting a full
night of sleep. After all, it's not as if I truly need it.

        Today had been a good day- I had picked up the traces of his work- a
friendly villager had let it slip that an important man had met with an
'accident'... such an accident that fairly screamed assassin. I was getting
closer- I could feel it. And when I caught up with him, he would see that
everything had changed... that I was no longer the weak Sanosuke whom he had
beaten so easily.

        No longer the pitiful wreck that he had spared- he had deemed me
unimportant, without enough power to ever be a threat. It was the mistake
that was going to cost him... I shake my head, and look up at the
brightening sky. Well, I had managed to sleep long enough, I suppose. Now,
to see where exactly I was... the villager I had spoken to had told me of a
city not far from here.

        As I approach the bustling city from the forest, I have a strange
feeling that I have been here before... I go up to the guard at the gate,
and ask, "What place is this?" He gives me a wary look, and answers, "This
is Tokyo..." He looks at me with concern, asking, "Are you all right,
stranger?" I had become ashen, and could now see- of course it was Tokyo.
How could I have missed it?

        "I'm fine..." I ignore him as I enter, unable to believe how much
this place has changed in only a... it has only been two years. Two years of
wandering, searching, training... but truly, only two. Everything is faster
here, and some places are just too different for me to really understand how...

        But one section remains about the same. As I approach it, the
familiar building makes me smile, until I remember... Of course, there is no
one here that I would know. Everyone... I shake my head, and resolve to at
least go visit where they must be now. I can't help but wonder where Megumi
was now...

        The property is run-down. Without any visible owner, it is a
reminder of a school which does not exist anymore, whose tenets of
protection have been violated and abandoned... I don't know why I had come
here. After all, I should have know that no one... That is when I hear it-
the laughter of two young children...

        I push the door tentatively, and it swings open to reveal a dojo
that is in shambles... souvenirs from our last fight? Of course- after all,
who would have fixed it? I follow the laughter and find two young girls who
are strangely familiar... "Suzume-chan? Ayame-chan?" 

        The two start at the sound of my voice, and look up at me with
frightened eyes. "Ye-yes..." The older one answers me in a tentative voice,
edging away from me with her younger sister. Can I really look that
different? So different that barely 2 years later, neither of them recognizes...

        But why should they? I have taken the kanji 'evil' off of my back...
It was a hard choice, but I had a new mission now, besides getting revenge
for Sagara-taichou... I had a target, and any recognizable features had to
be sacrificed if I wanted to hunt a hunter... My hair is longer now, tied
back to give me the look of a stranger, so I can't blame them for not
knowing me.

        The younger of the two girls suddenly runs up to me, arms raised as
if waiting for me to pick her up. I smile in uncertainty, and then reach
down. Ayame cries out a little, and snatches her sibling away, giving her an
exasperated look. "I'm sorry... but we're really not supposed to be here..."

        I nod, and then ask quietly, "Where are the graves of the ones who
used to live here?" Ayame peers at me, probably wondering what I would want
to do there. I smile sadly, and then add, "I want to say goodbye..." Ayame
is now looking at me in dawning suspicion, and then tells me where to go in
a voice that is about to ask...

        "Thank you, little girl. Now, you should get out of here before
someone dangerous comes around..." Ignoring her, not wanting her involved...
after all, the fact that she's alive means that he's not just killing
everyone he used to know- it just seems that way... My tired smile can't
stay on my face, as I follow the girls instructions to the burial site...

        I see simple stone markers, nothing fancy, but something solid and
unmoving over all of the graves, engraved with the names- the names that I
had never dreamed of seeing like this, even though I knew what he had
done... Kamiya Kaoru. Myoujin  Yahiko. Takani Megumi. All of them buried
close to each other... the last courtesy that could be shown ones killed for
no reason by a murdering bastard-

        I hear a rustle behind me. It could just be the wind, a passing
bird, but I know. He is here, alerting me to his presence. Reminding me of
how much better he is then me, I can feel his steady, assessing gaze on my
back. I kneel before the graves, and bow my head. I'm not going to let him
keep me from making my peace with the ones who truly were my friends- my family.

        I pray for all of them, unwilling to let his presence keep me from
my memories. For Kaoru, a wish that someday, she be happy... even though it
had been he who had... For Yahiko, a hope that he may be strong somewhere,
somehow. For Megumi... what can I say to her? A dream is all I have of her-
a dream that was shattered when I found her lying in such a way...

        Finally, I stand, and turn. He is there, waiting, his golden-hued
eyes regarding me with a feigned calm- I can feel his rage and
uncontrollable bloodlust, lurking behind the surface. The man that stood
before me, who wore a friend's face, was nothing but a monster. He was
created out of fear and hatred, the undying symbol of the Ishin that I had
vowed to revenge myself against, even before...

        "Hello, Sano." His voice was light and dark mixed. A familiar voice
that had another controlling it, with an undertow that could catch me and
pull me down. I glare at him, knowing my helplessness. But then again, I
have always known... He was always stronger than me. But now, I can last...
I have to. For them. For me. For Rurouni, who is now no more...

        "Battousai." He acknowledges the name that I have given him, his
golden wolf eyes glinting in the half light of the setting sun. "You know
why I am here." He does not smile, does not nod. He is nothing like the one
I knew. Rurouni is dead. Even if his physical body is before me, I know- the
smiling wanderer has been replaced by the one who he tried to drive out...

        In a cold voice, he replies, "I suppose you are trying to kill me
again." Disinterested, contemptuous. Cold as the deadly blade he wears, that
sword which he has not even readied in his disdain for me. I don't answer,
but stand ready, waiting. It has been two years in which the old Sanosuke
has also disappeared. Perhaps he and Rurouni are at a better place...

        Now, it is Battousai and a challenger. Foolish and suicidal,
perhaps, without any weapon except for my own fists, but still, I cannot
merely be brushed away. Not with the depth of hatred I have for him, for his
ideology, for the group that he has come to symbolize in my heart- it makes
me a fanatic, dangerous enough so that he must deal with me personally.

        It is the customary stand-off before a fight, where both combatants
try to get the other's measure. I try for his point of vulnerability, to try
to sense his unbalance, his pivotal juncture, but of course, I cannot reach
it. He does the same with me, and I cannot help but take a little pride in
the fact that he cannot sense me either. 

        I want to gloat at him, show off all I've learned in my hard
training and in my communication with the hidden others in the mysteries of
death- but those are my hidden secrets that I have taken in me knowing the
price, the absolute that must be paid after. Sagara-taichou had lead me
first, and then the others had reached me... but it does not matter- it all
does not matter if I do not win.

        He holds his scabbard ready in the defense of the Hiten
Mitsurugiryu, and then waits. I have a feral smile on my face as I stand,
also waiting. Neither of us moves, and each of us watches, biding our time.
Both knowing that in this fight, the first sign of weakness can be the last...

        I realize that I am speaking, talking. Why? Perhaps to distract
him... It is a soft whisper that I am communicating in, expelling all the
old hatreds into the tension between us. "So, Kenshin. How did it feel as
Kaoru's blood poured out all over you? Did you enjoy it, as you killed the
woman who loved you, and the child that idolized you?"

        Do I expect an answer? Perhaps. He gives me one. "They died because
they wished to. That is all. They awakened me, and made me realize how
foolish my wandering had been. How little I had helped, when I had had the
power to. So now, I am doing the best for my country. Aku Soku Zan. Saitou
knew, when he told me that a wolf was a wolf, and that an assassin was
always an assassin."

        He meets my eyes squarely, and I almost flinch as I see the scarcely
banked fire behind his eyes. His gaze pins me down as he abandons his
position and walks toward me. He moves as a predator, without any wasted
energy, motion. He stops when there is a bare inch between him and me- it is
almost laughable, the height difference between us. But there is no way to
tell who is stronger, truly.

        "I know now that I can stop all those fools who harm ordinary
people. Why should I let people die for a principle? It is a small thing,
integrity, compared to lives. I kill. But I kill for a cause, for a hope.
For the destruction of those who would make others suffer." He waits. For me?

        I say the only thing I can say. "Who says you may judge? You, who
has the blood of innocents on your hands should not- no, cannot, say such
things. That is all I know." I can't help it- I am starting to lose my
temper. Those years of training have just disappeared, leaving behind the
insecure, weak boy that had existed two years ago.

        Taking the half step that makes the thin distance disappear, I grasp
his arm and hold him there. Bending down until we are eye to eye, I ask in a
bitter voice, "How can you say those things when you killed them in cold
blood? What reason can you give?" The golden glare reduces a little, showing
for a moment purple. Purple?

        It was a cold answer, without emotion. "They were all hit with a
fast-acting poison by a minion of one of my many enemies. Megumi was first.
She told me what it was, and how there was no cure. Told me of the pain that
the victim goes through as the poison takes its course. Then, she asked me
to kill her. So I did."

        He is lost, I think, in recollections that should not be touched. It
is beyond me, as he looks to the past, to that night when he regained death.
"I went to the dojo, upset, horrified. I needed to tell someone, and
Kaoru-dono was the only one I could think of. When I got there, I saw them
together, prone on the wooden floor. Their bokkens had fallen as they had,
and I saw that both had been hit. Hit by one who would not have been alive
if I hadn't been a Rurouni..."

        He looks at his sword- it is not the Sakabatou, but I think that to
him, it is. To him, it is the Shinichi-Sakabatou, the new sword that was
dedicated not to kill, and with which he had taken three already dead. "I
killed her, and then him. Quickly, so that they did not know. And that is
when I realized my foolishness, the cost of my indulgence of my pride. That
is when I awoke, and knew."

        The last was said in a triumphant manner, as he looked back up at
me. He is in control, now. No matter what he may have been, two years ago,
he is now Hitokiri Battousai, and he is hunting. No matter why, he had been
awakened, and now, there was no appeasement...

        I nod, and then know my duty. His death must be, no matter what the
price. Knowing that, I smile and attack. My fists fly as I focus, as I've
learned to do. The world narrows to him and me, to strike after strike,
hoping to stop him before he stops me. I see the sword in the corner of my
eye, faster than anything should be, and that's when I feel the pain.

        Red. Blood. Mine? Yes, it is. I look at him, and then at myself. So,
the most likely outcome has occurred... I smile. So be it. I tried, and
now... I see Sagara-taichou, waiting. Have I struggled enough? He shakes his
head, and I know who I have to bring with me. 

        It seems so inelegant, but it's an answer. I feel the rock in my
hand, heavy and sure, and I use the strength that I have saved. I lift my
arm and then bring the stone down onto the vulnerable part of his neck as he
is about to pull his sword from my body. He gasps once, and then is
unconscious for the rest of it, as I bludgeon him once, twice more. Just to
make sure...

        The scene in front of me blurs, as the stone drops from my hand.
Together, killers both, we will go together to the limbo that holds such
souls as ours. Maybe I will see Megumi, and he Kaoru... perhaps. Who knows?
But I know that I have stopped him, and that is enough. I called him
fanatic, but was it really me the one obsessed? Does it matter? No. Not
anymore. 

---Finis---
-----
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