Tanuki To Ryuu

Time to get this show on the road! Sorry for the delay, but I work
retail and it was Christmas.   Now lets get this Hokkaido Arc a-goin!
Oh, and after I introduced Soujiro as a farmer, another fanfic author
started his own Soujiro as a farmer fic... Am I really that
inspirational?   And yes, Seisouhen is NON-CANON!   Its worse than a lot
of fanfics.   I can name about ten crappy crossover fics that are more
in-character than Seisouhen.   I can name 5 GOOD Crossovers that are
better than Seisouhen.   Yes, I hate Seisouhen.

Chapter 20: The Abandoned Resort

        "Another assignment?" Katana Hunter Cho asked, resigned in his
duty of errand boy of the Meiji.   He idlely polished one of his latest
acquisitions in his katana collection as his boss briefed him.

        "Yes," Saito Hajime answered as he took a drag from his
cigarette.   "There have been reports of miners in Hokkaido fleeing the
mines.   Most claim to have seen a demon within."

        "I know ya have little respect for me," Cho stated as he
sheathed his newest katana, "but demon chasing in the north?   Can't you
just send a third rate flunkie?"

        "Precisely the reason I am sending you." Saito replied.

        Cho sighed and stood up.   "Fine fine.   Guess I'm everyone's
whipping boy," Cho said as he gathered his swords and walked out the
door.   "After this assignment, you better get me my own office."

        "Aho," Saito muttered as he extinguished his cigarette.

***

Kaoru leaned on a tree and sunk down to her knees. It was a long day of
trekking and the two were very close to Aomori, and from there they
would take a boat to Hokkaido. Kaoru, though, felt exhausted. At mid
day, she practiced with Kenshin for quite a while, and while it was very
enjoyable at the time, Kaoru regretted it. Her muscles felt so sore, not
to mention a few light bruises from shinai dueling.

"Kenshin, can we set up camp here?" Kaoru asked, near exhaustion.

"Kaoru, we are very close to Aomori. How about I carry you the rest of
the way and by the time you wake up, we'll be checked into a nice
hotel?" Kenshin suggested. "That is if it is alright with you,"

Kaoru blushed, but nodded. Kenshin turned his back towards Kaoru and
crouched down low to the ground. Kaoru took a few uneasy steps towards
her husband and got on his back, piggyback style. Kaoru rested her
forehead on the back of Kenshin's head and sighed.

Kenshin started a slow, yet reasonable pace towards his destination.
"You are uneasy again, Kaoru," Kenshin observed.

"I'm sorry, it's just that I don't feel very pretty at the moment,"
Kaoru replied. "We've been hiking and practicing all day and I'm all
sweaty and bruised."

"I like that about you," Kenshin said with a grin. Kaoru blinked and
decided to probe this further.

"Oh really? Why?" Kaoru asked her husband as she drifted slowly to
sleep.

"Your scent has a hint of jasmine to it," Kenshin said and Kaoru smiled.
"And a hint of something masculine to it as well."

Kenshin found his face embedded in a tree trunk and muttered, "OROROO!"
Kenshin turned around and saw Kaoru standing, fist fully extended.

"Masculine? That's not something you tell your wife!" Kaoru shouted,
enraged.

"Oro!" Kenshin exclaimed. "I did not mean it in a bad way, Kaoru. It is
a testament to your strength." Kaoru looked at Kenshin skeptically and
sighed.

"Alright, I believe you," Kaoru responded as her anger deflated, "but we
really have to do something about that mouth of yours." Kaoru climbed
back on Kenshin's back and allowed her husband to carry her once more.

"I thought you liked my honesty," Kenshin teased. Kaoru fumed slightly
but was too exhausted to put any strength into a physical response.

"My god, didn't your master teach you anything about women?" Kaoru
muttered as she fell into sleep.

"That's what you are for, Kaoru," Kenshin answered his sleeping mate
with a fond smile as he carried her.

***

A miner cautiously poked his head within the mine entrance and took the
first step within. He lit his small lantern and let the dim light
illuminate the surrounding area before he reluctantly continued deeper
within the tunnels. At this moment the man felt foolish to volunteer to
check the now abandoned mines for those 'demons' that drove his comrades
out days before. Small creaks and groans echoed deep within the caverns
and the miner dismissed them hesitantly as the normal sounds of the
earth. As he slowly crept deeper and deeper down in the mine the groans
grew and became more defined. The sounds became less natural and more
sinister. The miner paused in his tracks yet the noise grew louder and
louder and the very earth shook

The noise stopped and the miner almost sighed in relief until bright
lights filled the tunnels, blinding him as the screeching echoed louder
than before only seconds later joined by the bloodcurling screams of the
miner.

***

"Thank you, sir!" Kenshin shouted as he thanked the kindly old man that
pointed the direction to the nearest hotsprings inn. The day prior, the
married couple took a ferry to Hokkaido after a relaxing rest in Aomori
and found a large quantity of families leaving Hokkaido for the main
island. Kenshin noted the odd occurrence but tried to pay it of little
mind as he enjoyed the company of his wife.

"I haven't seen snow quite this thick in Tokyo!" Kaoru noted as she
trudged alongside Kenshin towards the direction of the inn.

"Its hard to fight in snow," Kenshin commented as he walked closer to
his wife to provide both warmth and security. "The weight of it takes
the edge off my speed and I can't bank as easily either." Kaoru nodded
in agreement.

"I only fought in snow once, and even then it was hardly this thick,"
Kaoru added. "I'd rather fight in the rain than in the snow."

"Rain is too random," Kenshin answered. "That is the nature of water.
When liquid, it is flowing and hard to control. When solid, it is easier
to control. If I had to choose, I would fight in the snow,"

"Oh, but the rain can add an extra touch of speed if you slide juuust
right with a charge," Kaoru rebuked as she bumped her shoulder into
Kenshin's playfully.

"True, but sliding is random," Kenshin answered back as the grin on his
face grew and he gave Kaoru a little bump as well. "When water is solid
as snow or ice, it can be bent to your will."

"Anything's better than fighting in mud," Kaoru commented. "It cakes
around your feet and is a pain to clean off a hakama afterwards."

"Try fighting in a tatsumaki," Kenshin answered with a grin.

"That's not humanly possible," Kaoru dismissed rather quickly before she
realized just who her husband is. She stopped walking and gave Kenshin a
look of disbelief. "You FOUGHT in a tatsumaki?"

Kenshin turned and gave his innocent 'who, me?' look. "Umm, yeah, it was
an accident really," he answered modestly. Kaoru marched down to Kenshin
and looked him squarely in the face. "Oro? What's wrong, Kaoru?"

"You're not joking!" Kaoru shouted in disbelief, then she shook her head
as she reminded herself of who her husband was AGAIN. "Now this I HAVE
to hear,"

"Well," Kenshin started as he started walking again, "It was just an odd
occurrence of temperature variance and wind flow which..."

"Not that!" Kaoru shouted as she waved her hands, her patience thinning.
"I meant the fight!"

"Oh, that," Kenshin answered. "Lets see. it was the 3rd, no wait, the
4th year of the Meiji and I was fighting some bandits that sought to
raid a village. It was raining pretty heavily and that should have been
my first hint, but I was intent on hunting down each one and convincing
them that they should seek a better trade. I was distracted in hunting
them," Kenshin confessed. "When the funnel finally formed, I was
engaging six at once and even I didn't fully realize what happened until
I was lifted off my feet. The fight in the sky was rather uninteresting,
since I whacked the bandits each time they flew by me by chance. The
villagers did not take kind to my later arrival, seeing as my clothing
was torn to tatters," Kenshin blushed at the memory and Kaoru giggled.

"You probably flew headfirst through a barn," Kaoru said teasingly.

"It was an inn," Kenshin rebuked. "The innkeeper there whacked me in the
head with a broom when she tried to dislodge me from the wall." Kaoru
couldn't contain herself any longer and fell on her knees, laughing a
very unladylike laugh.

"Hahahaha, ohh, this is great," Kaoru said as she caught her breath.
"Hiten Misturugi Ryuu master flew headfirst through an inn during a
tatsumaki!"

"Ororoo," Kenshin mumbled. "I wasn't a Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu master until
after we revisited Kyoto," Kenshin corrected his wife, "and I didn't
think it was that humorous,"

"It is," Kaoru assured her husband as she stood up and dusted the snow
off herself. "Trust me, its funny,"

"Well then," Kenshin said as he thought for a moment, "Tell me something
embarrassing about your past then. It's only fair." Kenshin grinned.

"Well." Kaoru pondered for a moment, then started to run forward in the
snow. "Naaah! Gotta catch me!" she taunted as she laughed playfully.

"Come back here!" Kenshin shouted with a grin as he followed his wife.
Kenshin kept his distance and followed Kaoru to the point of where she
was JUST out of her reach. Kenshin smiled a youthful smile as his
fingers passed through the tips of Kaoru's flying dark hair. Their chase
ended rather quickly when a small tremor shook the earth and Kaoru fell
down and Kenshin on top of her.

"Shh," Kenshin said as he eyes narrowed. "Can you hear that?" Kaoru
nodded as the rumbling escalated with mechanical sounds becoming
clearer. The pair were low enough in the snow that they were hidden, yet
at the same time their own view was obstructed, not to mention their
trails in the snow would be rather obvious, leaving the two at a
disadvantage. "Can you reach your bokken?" Kenshin asked his wife.

"Yeah," Kaoru answered as she reached into her training bundle and
untied its wraps and grabbed the hard wooden handle of her bokken. "Got
it," she whispered. "What do you think it is?"

"Whatever it is, it doesn't belong here," Kenshin replied. "When I get
up, I will draw their attention. When they are distracted, you need to
take out the closest one. You can sense the closest one, right?"

"To the. right?" Kaoru asked. Kenshin nodded.

"We must try to keep their attention divided, but if they have guns, I
need for you to hide after the initial exchange," Kenshin explained.

"Hide? And leave you here, alone?" Kaoru asked, her voice raised above a
whisper.

"This most likely won't happen," Kenshin reasoned, "but I can block
bullets while..."

"Alright alright, I get the idea," Kaoru interjected. Kenshin smiled and
passed his cheek along Kaoru's face in affection. The next moment he a
speck in the sky and gave a horrid roar which shook the trees. Kaoru
stood up and saw their quarry and blinked. "What the hell is that?!" she
shouted in confusion.

What was approaching would not be quite a strange sight today, but back
in the Meiji it was a sight to behold. Eight primitive steam vehicles,
each had four large treaded wheels and a trail of smoke coming out of
their furnaces and a single glowing headlight. They shouted at eachother
in a language unknown to the pair and raced to intercept Kenshin. Kaoru
shook her confusion aside and leapt into action, giving a mighty yell of
her own as she dived towards the vehicle closest to her and smashed her
bokken against the chest of the rider. The swing was massive enough to
fling the rider right off his seat and into an embankment of snow.

Kenshin saw a target stop right beneath him and the rider tried to whip
out what he feared was a gun. His eyes narrowed at the rider as he sent
a small amount of his kenki to paralyse his target. Kenshin unsheathed
his sakabato and gripped it with both hands and let gravity take a hold
of him. "Hiten Misturugi Ryuu, Ryu Tsui Sen!" Kenshin shouted as he
slammed his sword through the boiler of the strange vehicle. The machine
made an angry rumble and the rider started to shout what Kenshin assumed
were curses and started to run away. Before Kenshin could comprehend the
rider's terror, the boiler shook and exploded, enveloping Kenshin.

Kaoru turned her attention away from the rider coming straight towards
her as she heard the explosion and saw her husband disappear in the
flames. "KENSHIN!" she shouted in horror.

***

Yes, that's the end of Chapter 20! Yes, I am writing again! Well, lets
see. where to begin? People everywhere, we must combat writer's block
and we must combat it now before the rainy season! And whoever brings me
the head of Colonel Montoya will get a shiny new donkey. And by that I
mean, Welcome back to Tanuki To Ryy! I originally planned for this arc
to be somewhat short until I had inspiration just last night of where to
take it. The talk of combat on different terrain, well, they are both
fighters so I see it as one of their topics of conversation. Tatsumaki
means 'torando' BTW. Can Kenshin really fight in a Tornado? Well, I
think so, but to avoid a lot of people getting angry about making
Kenshin a 'proto-Ranma'(yes, people e-mail me saying this), I decided to
make the story more humorous than legendary. Now, the original
discussion about the snow was supposed to be a whole Tomoe comparison
thing about how Kenshin liked the beauty of white, but it was too
sterile and how he preferred the brightness of Tokyo, but I've been
pushing it with the Tomoe fans as it is. I just KNOW I'm on some Tomoe
fans' 'Most Wanted' list for my crime against the snow raven, so I'll
say it again, "WEEKEND AT TOMOE'S 2" was a JOKE! Just wait until you see
"Back to the Tomoe III". Now THAT will be getting personal, hehehe.




             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'