[FFML] [fic][rk][cont] Rurouni Yahiko Chapter 19: The Hidden Christians

[Chester Castañeda]

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Rurouni Yahiko
A Rurouni Kenshin Continuation Fan Fiction
By Chester Castañeda
chester.castaneda at gmail.com
http://www.fanfiction.net/~abdiel

As the last chapter showed, even cannon fodder policemen will get a
chance at the limelight in this fan fiction series.


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Chapter 19: The Hidden Christians

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Twenty years ago, around the time the Shinsengumi-sponsored slaughter at
the Ikedaya Inn happened, a fourteen-year-old Kenshin Himura had already
met Tomoe Yukishiro, and Amakusa himself was just a mere eleven years
of age...

"Mommy, I'm scared. When will Daddy catch up?" a six-year-old Sayo Muto
asked her frazzled mother as they went through the complex tunnels that
lead to clandestine churches built by their ancestors many centuries
ago.

"Daddy... will catch up soon, don't you worry," came Tsuruyo Muto's
white lie (and half-truth) as she prayed to all the saints and martyrs
she knew to somehow help her and her surviving family members from
falling into the hands of their persecutors. "I want you to stay strong,
Sayo. I want you to grow up to be a beautiful lady who'll serve as an
inspiration to all your fellow Christian brethren."

Sayo's eyes and eyebrows crossed as she pouted at her mother. "I don't
know what inspi... what that word means, Mommy."

Tsuruyo resisted the urge to laugh, cry, or both because the echoes
she'd be making would probably alert the shogunate's samurais of their
location. "Everything is going to be okay, sweetheart. As long as you
pray to God and Jesus, no harm will come to us." Another lie.

At that point, the silent Shogo Muto grabbed hold of Sayo's tiny hands
and pledged, "Don't worry, Sayo. Whatever happens, I'll protect you and
Mother. It's a promise."

Any further questions by the children were hushed by their mother's
terrible, intermittent cough that they could do nothing about.
Eventually, in the middle of her coughing fits, she gave her medallion
to her daughter and told her to support her brother, while she told her
son, "Shogo, you are a child who will someday become the leader of men.
Forget your insignificant pity for me and become the light of hope that
Shimabara deserves."

"Don't talk like that, Mother! I _will_ become the light of hope of
Shimabara with you and Sayo by my side! We'll make it out of here
together, okay?" Shogo chided with a smile that didn't reach his eyes,
but his mother wouldn't respond to his plea.

The three afterwards heard footsteps, which prompted them to hurry up
and go outside the cave... a rocky place surrounded by the large,
crashing waves of the sea. The calmer waters were a few yards away, so
Tsuruyo had to carry Sayo on one arm while pulling Shogo with her other
arm as she crossed the narrow, puddle-filled ledge leading towards the
accepted meeting place that she and her children's uncle, Hyoue Nishida,
agreed upon.

Once they reached their destination, they waited for a bit, looking over
their shoulders the whole time for enemy samurais. The stress and effort
it took to lead the children to safety had taken its toll on Tsuruyo's
tuberculosis, so her children were forced to watch her suffocate while
waiting for their one chance at salvation.

Soon, Hyoue... a hook-nosed, pinkish-skinned, and blue-eyed old man that
looked nothing like the old men they knew around town... arrived on a
boat while a large ship that bore coat of arms that resembled a budding
flower or fountain pen tip wrapped around an intertwined number eight
remained offshore at a considerable distance.

Then, right at the moment when the excitable Sayo ran towards her
beloved uncle, the one true savior of herself and her family... her
chubby little hands grabbing hold of both her big brother and her mother
as they struggled to keep up with her... Tsuruyo pushed the two kids
away from out of the blue and screamed, "Run to your uncle now! Don't
look back! Don't worry about me!"

"...Mommy?" Sayo turned, wondering why their mother had pushed them
away, but Shogo shielded her eyes from seeing what happened next.

"Mother! NOOO!" A muscular samurai that looked more beast than man
instructed his two underlings to stab Tsuruyo to death just after he
himself skewered the hapless woman straight in the chest. Before
Shogo's impetuousness made him see red, lose all reason, and charge at
his parent's murderers come what may, he felt a gust of wind that was
hurricane-like in its power burst forth from the boat where Hyoue
stayed.

"Mommy! MOMMY!" Sayo cried like a baby as she removed her brother's
hand off of her face and saw something that no child should ever bear
witness to.

"TSURUYO!" Shogo had never seen anyone move so fast. In fact, unless his
eyes and mind had betrayed him because of the trauma he'd just suffered,
he could've sworn his Uncle Hyoue had just sprinted through the surface
of the seawater from his boat even before making it to shore.

With tears in his eyes and rage tempered with unbelievable self-control,
Hyoue made quick work out of the three bakufu men during the time it
took for a fly to flap its wings. A rain of blood spread everywhere as
Hyoue dropped to his knees and howled for the death of his departed
sister. Then, to Shogo's shock, the shogunate warriors whom the all-
powerful swordsman had just vanquished began to move and twitch.

"Uncle! Uncle Hyoue! Please, finish the samurais off! They're still
alive!" Shogo found himself saying while holding his trembling, bawling
sister in a tight embrace.

After reciting the deceased Lady Muto's Last Rites and doing the sign of
the cross, Hyoue left Tsuruyo's body on the ground and instructed both
Shogo and Sayo to stay there while he fetched the boat that he left at
sea when he did his impromptu dash to save Tsuruyo and her children.

Shogo would have none of that, of course. "Why won't you just kill them?
They just killed our mother! Please, kill him now, so that Mother can
rest in peace!" Upon hearing her brother's confirmation that their
mother was indeed dead, Sayo wailed even harder.

Hyoue took the six year old in his arms and comforted her, saying, "Your
mother is already in a better place, Sayo. She's in heaven. She won't
have to suffer ever again."

"Is she with Daddy now?"

Hyoue's grip on Sayo briefly tightened before he set her down and let
her go. "Yes. Yes... s-she's with Tokisada-kun now."

The largest man of the three samurais regained consciousness and called
out to Hyoue, "K-Kirisaki? You're Kirisaki the Hidden Christian Avenger,
aren't you? The swordsman who would not kill; I couldn't recognize you
without your tinted glasses and hobo-like outfit." He sniggered a
guttural, hideous noise. "You've humiliated me and my men many years
ago. You saved a lot of Kakure Kirishitan back in the day!"

Hyoue turned and sped back into the offshore boat, ignoring the words of
the heavily slashed and wounded man. Without Hyoue to talk to, the
mountain of a warrior turned towards Shogo and informed, "I'm Nakahara
Ryu. I was one of the bakufu's top samurais, but I got endlessly
humiliated by your uncle over there, so I was also continuously demoted
for failing to capture any Kakure Kirishitan for my daimyo. However,
once he retired, I was able to cur favor to the new daimyo, to the point
that I'm now one of the samurais that led this weeding out of your
people and your white man's propaganda of a faith."

Shogo was just about to take matters into his own hands by picking up
the talkative man's discarded sword and using it to decapitate him
when Hyoue at last returned, carried Sayo on his back, and grabbed hold
of the last Muto son before he did anything rash.

"Even during your greatest failure to save your people, you still hold
on to your selfish morals at the cost of the lives of the people you
protect! Why won't you finish me off now? Why didn't you kill any of us
back then?"

Shogo gave his uncle an accusing glare even as they reached their boat
and got on it. "Is that true? You've met this man many years ago, and
even now that he has killed all those you were supposed to protect, you
couldn't bring yourself to finish him off?"

"I... can't." Hyoue's face remained imperturbable as he resisted the
feelings that bubbled underneath his skin from reaching the surface.
"I... just can't. It's wrong. It's against everything I stand up for,
and it won't help in bringing back your mother anyway."

"Who cares about what's wrong or right at this point? You're not just
going to let him get away with his crimes and have him kill another
mother! Or father. Would you even care if he killed us instead?"

"Please, brother! Stop fighting with uncle! Mommy is in heaven now!"
Sayo pleaded, and Shogo couldn't bring himself to tell her how much of a
load of tripe he thought that excuse was. "Mommy told us to be strong so
that when we grow up, we can stop this from happening again."

The injured gorilla man had somehow gotten up to his feet as he derided,
"You're weak, Kirisaki! Even after I've killed the woman you love, you
still couldn't finish me off! Is your arbitrary faith more important
than seeking justice for the fallen? You really won't kill even if it's
your only choice to save lives? Look out at the cliffs above this
shore... look at them and realize that all your past efforts were for
nothing! NOTHING!"

As they moved on further away from shore, they saw the cliff Nakahara
had referred to; a whole rock face full of crucified Hidden Christians
who were stripped naked of their clothes and hung out in a place where
they could serve as an example to other Kakure Kirishitan that dared
practice their faith.

"Killing is never the answer. It's a terrible thing when you kill a man.
You take away everything he has and everything he's ever going to have,"
Hyoue struggled to explain to the completely flabbergasted Shogo. "When
you grow up, you'll understand."

Then again, Shogo never did. Later on, the young prodigy would learn
that even when it came to mastering the final succession technique of
the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, Hyoue didn't have the bravery or determination
to set aside his morals and kill his master for the sake of attaining
power beyond peer.


===


An hour past midnight, near the gunpowder-reeking crater where the
Armstrong cannon lay...

Amakusa jerked his head back... a savage movement... his eyes wide and
aflame with miniature red lighting bolts after he saw the severed head
of Sergeant Yukito Kazunari fly right at his face. His fiery glare then
transformed into a stunned expression of horror. By instinct, he cut the
head in half like a coconut; once his tunnel vision faded, it dawned to
him that Ujiki used the sergeant's remains as a distraction to get the
Armstrong cannon.

"Are you wondering why your rebellion failed even though you're strong
enough to murder a thousand men? This is the reason why; you've betrayed
your convictions and became one of the monsters you've sworn to
destroy," Ujiki mocked before firing the cannon right at the aghast and
thunderstruck Amakusa.

By pure reflex, Amakusa sheathed his sword and unsheathed it at
supersonic speed to cut the projectile apart. He subsequently leapt up
before any of the exploding shrapnel could tear him apart; however, as
evidenced by his numerous lacerations, he didn't get away from the
sudden cannon shot unscathed.

"Silly Christian; religion is the barrier to truth and understanding.
Case in point: YOU!" Ujiki quipped before jumping away from the singed
and bleeding Amakusa's Ryu Tsui Sen strike at the rifled breach loader
itself, cutting it in half.

Before Amakusa could set himself upright, Captain Ujiki had already
stabbed right into the wound that Kamiminochi Lieutenant Yamazaki had to
sacrifice life and limb just to create, the saber's tip reaching all
the way through the cultist's back.

Before the Christian could counterattack, Ujiki had by then kicked him
away into one of the sliced halves of the cannon, his wounded abdomen
hitting the jagged edges of the halved firearm hard. For the first time,
Shogo howled like an animal; it had been years since he experienced pain
such as this.

"What's the matter? Doesn't the good book have other things to say
about this situation? I'm sure if you can rummage through your brain,
you can think of a barely related quote to spout out," Ujiki taunted as
he sidestepped the expected Dou Ryu Sen, then countered the Sou Ryu Sen
hard enough to knock the sheath off of Amakusa's trembling hands.

"Whoops. No sheathe? Then I guess battoujutsu is out of the question. I
don't suppose you're going to try out that Rai Ryu Sen bullshit I've
been hearing about; then again, you're so injured that I doubt you can
even jump anymore."

Amakusa just glared at Ujiki before falling into the traditional
kenjutsu ready stance. "Is that it? Is that all you've got? If you want
to finish me off, then you better come at me with a whole army. Anything
short of that is a waste of time."

Ujiki felt his sweat grow cold upon hearing those words. 'Shit. Is he
going to do one of his stronger Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu techniques now? The
ones that finished off villains like Shishio Makoto? No, he's got to be
bluffing. He's too battered and torn to do anything like that!'

To Amakusa, Ujiki harrumphed. "Yeah, right. Blow it out your ass. After
I'm through with you, I'll be off to kick sick old Battousai's ass and
declare myself the Strongest Swordsman of Japan!"

To Ujiki's incredulity and relief, Amakusa's supposed Kuzu Ryu Sen
turned out to be nothing more than the opening-ridden Ryu Tsui Sen.
Taking a page out of the infamous Goro "Saito" Fujita's handbook on
defeating Battousai, the Tokyo Captain attempted to use the Jigen Ryu
equivalent of the Gatotsu Sanshiki.

To his dismay, his hesitation afforded Amakusa enough leeway to twirl
himself away from the counterstrike just as it was about to hit. At that
point, Ujiki was treated to the strange sensation of seeing half of his
body fall off along with part of his head while the rest of him
collapsed in another direction, a menagerie of guts, blood, organs, and
entrails spraying the landscape.

Amakusa looked on at Ujiki's gasping "heads" and rolling eyes, mildly
surprised that the man was still alive for a few more minutes. "I
apologize. I cannot come up with a better rebuttal than this. You've won
your little debate. I have been forced to bear the unforgivable sins of
many for the sake of my people's salvation. Now please, go rest in
peace."

The redheaded warrior then collapsed, completely spent by his efforts.


===


An hour and five minutes past midnight, behind the closed doors of the
mansion's main entrance...

"I just got some bad news from some of the Togakudan, men. Amakusa had
just killed Captain Ujiki," Kanagawa District Police Lieutenant Yusuke
Nishimura relayed to the remaining five officers he had on hand. "What
do you think, Sarge?"

Sergeant Satoru Sakaguchi shook his head and said, "I say we need to
join forces with the remaining Tokyo troops and head him off from the
inside of the mansion, where we're nearer the ammunition. Who's left in
charge of the Tokyo troop?"

Lieutenant Nishimura turned towards the Togakudan who reported to him
and asked the same question. The owlish Taku Okazaki answered, "Well,
all three senior officers of the Tokyo Squad... Captain Ujiki,
Lieutenant Iino, and Sergeant Kazunari... are now dead. One of their
officers is down, one of them ran away, and five of them are still able
to fight."

Nishimura then chimed, "We're roughly in the same situation. I'm
guessing Amakusa is picking us off methodically, which is why we have
more or less the same amount of officers left. Also, because you and I
are the commanding officers of this troop, we're the prime targets of
this madman."

At that point, Sergeant Sakaguchi opted to distract himself by helping
out the other Togakudan members present... a plump individual named
Obata and a reed-thin person with a bowl cut named Minamoto... with
bandaging the wounded Kanagawa officers. Inside the mansion, a makeshift
sick bay had been created to house the injured or knocked down
policemen. The munitions room housing extra Murata rifles and bullets
was just across the hall as well.

Okazaki took out a piece of paper and took down some notes with what
looked like a self-inking pen. "Er, I need to go and update the
survivors of the Tokyo, Gunma, and Kamiminochi squads... well, maybe not
Kamiminochi and Gunma... about your situation. Can you tell me how many
members you have left and what happened to the rest of your members?"

Lieutenant Nishimura's eyes darted back and forth the room before he
exhaled and informed the Togakudan everything he needed to know. Someone
in the background cleared his throat, while the sergeant made it a point
to keep his back turned from both the lieutenant and the Togakudan spy.

"I see. Two casualties, one officer down, one ran away, six battle-ready
officers. I'll make my report right away. Thank you, lieutenant." They
exchanged bows and salutes, and the Togakudan was off.

A few moments later, the familiar crackle of continuous rifle fire
echoed across the compound, immediately followed by the recognizable
explosion of Amakusa's Dou Ryu Sen earth blast.

Nishimura shut his eyes in seeming deliberation before calling out,
"Sakaguchi, Dankichi, Sugiura, Matsura, and Michishige: Reload your
rifles and start moving out in five minutes. We'll meet up with the
remaining Tokyo troopers and join forces with them. Hopefully, Amakusa
has spent all his energy by this time, and we'll be able to apprehend
him once and for all."

Without any further ceremony or contestation, the Kanagawa officers
obeyed their lieutenant's command. On one of the futons, the gunshot-
wounded Officer Ishimaru apologized profusely to his teammates for not
being in good enough shape to fight, the others immediately reassuring
him that it wasn't that big of a deal.

Amidst the air of camaraderie between the Kanagawa officers, another
victim of friendly fire from the Gunma unit named Yo Aburakoji remarked,
"You're lucky to be able to apologize to your fellow officers, since my
unit had nearly been wiped out while the rest ran away like cowards,"
which quickly silenced them all.

Tokyo Officer Naoki Nakajima, a man with his left eye bandaged and his
right arm in a tourniquet, couldn't help but guffaw at the insinuation,
although he mostly laughed alone.

While this happened, Nishimura grabbed hold of the distracted Sergeant
Sakaguchi and asked, "Are you okay? I mean, you and Captain Yamada...
I'm sorry. I... have no other words."

Sakaguchi gave his senior officer a wan smile. "Yes. We go way back. He
was a great man and a brilliant tactician. A decade ago, he and I were
in the same company as another great man who taught Yamada everything he
knew about strategy and the art of war. But then again, since this is
_Amakusa_ we're going up against, we should've expected this from the
start."

Satoru took of his cap, brushed his hair back, and put his cap back on.
"I shouldn't have argued with my wife after just getting back here in my
hometown. It must have upset my daughter so much too. It was such a
silly argument, fighting over the gender of an androgynous rooster and
the food tab of some homeless criminal..."

"Now don't talk as if you're never going to see your family again! Say
something like that once more, and I'll slap the taste out of your
mouth!" came the Kanagawa lieutenant's rebuke, which came off as more
chiding than harsh thanks to his wispy tone of voice. "We're going to
get through this. We won't be able to do anything about those who have
already passed away, but we can certainly do something about our present
circumstances!"

Just then, the officers heard thunderous footsteps from outside the
manor followed by rapid beatings on the front door. "Who's there?"
Officer Atsushi Dankichi demanded without thinking as he wielded his
bayonet-equipped Murata rifle in firing position.

"It's us! The Tokyo squad! Open up! We're here so we can reload; we've
run out of ammo trying to keep Amakusa off of us!" came the muffled
shout of one of the officers outside the mansion entrance. Figuring that
had it been Amakusa just outside those doors, he would've burst in
unceremoniously and shredded everything in his path without so much as
an announcement of his presence, the Kanagawa lieutenant motioned his
men to put their guns down and let the Tokyo officers in.

Just as the Togakudan reported, there were only five surviving Tokyo
police left on the field, the rest of them either bedridden, dead, or
fleeing to a safer place. Or rather, six officers... one of them, a
melancholic policeman that couldn't be any older than nineteen (but was
actually twenty-five years old), carrying by piggyback a pint-sized
twerp of an officer with a severely bleeding head.

Immediately, the Kanagawa lieutenant and sergeant motioned the officers
to give way to the young-looking Tokyo policeman in order to get the
unconscious man to the nearest futon.

"Holy shit, it's Heiko from Kamiminochi! Is he dead? I heard from some
Togakudan spy that the Gunma squad and the Kamiminochi squad were
battling it out against Amakusa _together_ before being eradicated! What
happened to the others?" the hopeful Aburakoji questioned the youngish
lad before wincing in pain and getting back to his bed.

"No, he's okay. He's only unconscious; he's still breathing. I'm not
sure if I should've moved him, though... b-because of his head injury...
but he didn't look safe out there." The officer wiped his sweaty eyebrow
and shuddered visibly. "The others... Well, I couldn't carry any of the
others, I'm sorry to say."

The wide-eyed Aburakoji could only stare and slowly sink into his padded
mattress's covers as he nodded in acceptance, his head bowed down as his
stare lingered at the slumbering Ren Heiko. "What's your name, kid?

The officer bowed. "Kosaburo. Shinichi Kosaburo. And you are?"

Aburakoji bowed back and introduced himself. "You're a good kid,
Kosaburo-kun. Thanks."

The one-eyed Nakajima grinned and hit Kosaburo's shoulder with a playful
punch. "You're still alive, kid! I thought you'd be the first one to die
out there."

Kosaburo choked out what could barely be called a chuckle along his
grim-reaper-like colleague; he couldn't look him in the eye the entire
time. "Maybe I should've, Nakajima-sempai. Maybe I should've."

"What's happening out there, officer? Where's Amakusa?" Nishimura asked
Kosaburo after the young policeman delivered Heiko to the Togakudan
medics.

Kosaburo gulped and saluted. "We managed to keep Amakusa at bay with
suppressive fire and cycle loading; I even helped my sergeant in
predicting the rebel's techniques and movements."

He licked his lips. "However, he figured out our modus operandi and
eliminated both of our commanding officers. Then again, before the
massacre started, both the sergeant and lieutenant told us to join
forces with any surviving squads, so we used up our rounds to keep
Amakusa from following us back to the sick bay and munitions room near
this entrance."

"We couldn't reload either," interjected the wizened, grandfather-like
Officer Taiki Sagami as he pushed Kosaburo aside to talk to Lieutenant
Nishimura. "The Togakudan have also disappeared. Looks like Amakusa is
now targeting both the police and the spies this time around to keep
them from mobilizing or being informed of the situation. I don't
understand it; he's killing people so fast, it's like he's at two places
at the same time. It's crazy."

"The old man is right. We've been betrayed by one of our own; or perhaps
even by one of the Togakudan themselves," came another interruption,
this time from the brusque, plus-sized officer by the name of Tadayoshi
Nakamura; however, the actually twenty-something Sagami took offense
from the gruff insult and hit Nakamura on the noggin.

While the horseplay between Sagami and Nakamura went on, Officer Amon
Saruwatari added, "Before our captain passed away, he already had
suspicions that there's a traitor in our midst. Amakusa was somehow able
to pinpoint who's who and even knew some of our backgrounds. It's no
wonder we've had such a tough time dealing with him, even with Akahori's
instructions to play mind games with him and his peace-loving religion.
That motherfucker is like some sort of killing machine. I couldn't
believe it!"

Lieutenant Nishimura nodded. "Fine. You can reload your Murata rifles
from inside this mansion via the munitions room. It may be a good idea
to bunker here while we think of a better strategy to deal with
Amakusa."

Just then, a tanned policeman with a swagger usually reserved for senior
officers entered the fray. "Now hold on just a minute there, Mister
Lieutenant from _Kanagawa_. Am I hearing you correctly? Are you
_ordering_ us to get our rifles reloaded?" He would've wagged his right
pointer finger, but he lost it during the initial stages of Amakusa's
assault. "No, no, no. If there's anyone who's going to be in charge,
it'd be someone from the _Tokyo_ troop."

"But you don't have any commanding officers left, you asshole," the
temperamental, Heiko-sized Officer Yukio Sugiura rebutted, which soon
followed the murmurs of support from the rest of the Kanagawa squad.

"I don't care! I'd rather get chopped into pieces by that Christian
lunatic than let some Kanagawa yokel dictate to me what I could or
couldn't do!" the man who started the argument... Officer Wataru
Tadashi... made his position on the chain of command clear and in no
uncertain terms. Predictably, the Tokyo contingent cheered the
rambunctious Tadashi on without question.


===


While Nishimura talked to the surviving Tokyo troopers, Sergeant
Sakaguchi approached the seemingly tossed-aside Officer Kosaburo and
greeted him with, "Hey. You're that Myojin boy's friend, aren't you? I
saw you talking to him earlier on, during Akahori-san's briefing."

Kosaburo blinked and laughed. "Ah, yes. You also know who Yahiko-kun is?
He's my kendo master back in Tokyo. He may not look like much, but he's
pretty handy with the sword, and he has no sense of fear." The young
adult officer fondly remembered the first time he met Yahiko, battling a
veritable giant with a mouth reminiscent of a whale's.

"Seriously?" Satoru laughed out loud. Essentially, he _did_ believe
Kosaburo's claims; if what his daughter, Kyoko, and their family friend,
Chizuru, told him was true (about Yahiko Myojin facing off against
Soujiro Seta in a _swordfight_), then there was no doubt about it.
"That's some 'master' you got there."

"Well, he's only coadjutant master; the real master of the school
describes him as someone who's too stupid to understand or feel fear."

Kosaburo's smile faded as the memory of Sergeant Kazunari's head flying
off of his shoulders haunted his consciousness. 'Although I doubt even
someone like Yahiko-kun could have possibly done much against that
monster of a man. Hell, I'm not even sure if Kenshin-san himself
could've matched up against Amakusa, but then again, his days as the
Hitokiri Battousai are already way behind him.'

"You look like a wreck, son. What happened out there?" Sakaguchi asked
the downtrodden Kosaburo as he slung a supportive arm over the younger
man's shoulders.

Kosaburo had a disturbed expression as he stared at the five remaining
Kanagawa district officers while they huddled around four of his
teammates for some reason; they were probably doing some intense
planning sessions or something. "The same thing that happened to all of
you too, I'm afraid."

"Ah." Satoru propped his back against a nearby wall and sat down on the
floor. He then motioned Kosaburo to sit beside him by patting the space
to his left.

"To tell you the truth, losing someone never does get easier, although
time does heal all wounds. Surprisingly, I'm kind of desensitized by
these events thanks to my previous experience fighting Amakusa. At this
point, he has become like some sort of disastrous plague to me and my
loved ones. I would've never gotten back on my feet without Akahori-
san's help and his connections, let me tell you."

"What happened six years ago, if you don't mind my asking?" Kosaburo
ventured. "Even though Captain Ujiki himself never did have anything to
do with the Modern Shimabara War, both Lieutenant Iino and Sergeant..."
He swallowed the feeling of wetness in his throat. "Both of my two
immediate superiors lost a lot of friends and relatives back in
Shimabara."

"I had a captain that I lost during the Shimabara mission. Actually,
I've now lost _two_ of them. Because I didn't have the skill to carry on
the school my father had built and he had to pass his blacksmith and
swordsmanship knowledge to someone much worthier than myself, I grew up
very insecure. Luckily, there was a man who believed in me; a brusque
neighbor of mine named Nakahara-san."

Satoru puffed his chest out and beat it like a drum, much to Kosaburo's
bemused amusement. "He's a man's man that went on all sorts of missions
during his time as part of the Tokugawa regimes' samurai and as a
commanding officer of the National Police. He's built like a gorilla and
he even had these cool, crisscrossing scars! He's the one who inspired
me to become part of the National Police!"

"Oh." Kosaburo struggled to find words of comfort similar to what
Sakaguchi provided him, but failed. All he could come with was, "I never
realized the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu was such a terrible technique. The
first time I saw someone use it, I was completely awestruck. But now
that I've at last witnessed its horridness, I understand why that man
never wanted to pass it on to anyone else, even Yahiko-kun."

Kosaburo turned and quickly realized that he said the exact wrong thing;
the face that Satoru Sakaguchi made then and there could've turned even
Enma Daio himself into a cowering and sniveling wreck. "I-I'm sorry! I
made you remember something horrible, didn't I? I'm really, really
sorry!"

Waking up from his reverie, Satoru did his best to reassure Kosaburo
that it wasn't his fault why he blanked out like that. "D-Don't worry
about it, son. I... you're right. The Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu truly is a
terrible swordsmanship school." Afterwards, he raised an eyebrow and
queried, "By the way, who was that man that first showed you Hiten
Mitsurugi Ryu? You couldn't possibly mean...?"

At that point, the timely scream of, "DON'T YOU DARE COMPARE KAMIMINOCHI
TO KANAGAWA, YOU DUMBASS! Kanagawa is just at the south of Tokyo, you
uneducated asshole! Who are _you_ to call us 'Kanagawa's resident
yokels?'" by Officer Sugiura caught the attention of both Yahiko's old
and new friends.


===


"Again, who the fuck cares? Tokyo policemen should have priority over
you Kanagawa fools in terms of the chain of command! I mean, that's the
reason why Akahori called the Tokyo police over, after all! None of you
fuckwits could handle this big of a mission even if you had a thousand
Gatling guns or a hundred Armstrong cannons on hand!"

A fed-up Officer Shigeru Michishige retorted, "Really? Well, wasn't it
your late captain that recommended the brilliant idea of shooting at
Amakusa while cornering him? So many officers were injured by friendly
fire from all units, and one our own even died because of that command!
Shimizu's blood is in his dirty hands!"

"You take that back, you little shit! Don't you dare talk about our late
captain like that!" an enraged Officer Sagami spat before lifting the
defiant Michishige up by his collar. "Besides, I thought that it was
supposed to be your Captain Yamada or whoever that's good with tactics!
If ever, he was the one who probably thought it all up!"

"Aw, come on, you guys! Sempai-tachi! Can't we all get along? Amakusa's
still out there!" Kosaburo begged, but his request was completely shut
down by a deafening and resounding unison of "NO!" shouts.

To the speechless Kosaburo's surprise, it was Sakaguchi's turn to offer
a piece of his mind on the already controversial topic even though he
should've known better. "No, Captain Yamada would never have made such a
stupid order! And even if he did plan that out, you people probably
screwed it up, which is likely the only reason why the friendly fire
even occurred!"

At that point, Officer Nakamura couldn't help but refute, "Well, fuck
you, Detective Dumbshit! Why don't you marry Captain Yamada post-mortem
and do his corpse since he's such an awesome guy? Honestly, it's _us_
who fucked up? Listen, numb nuts, I didn't take shooting lessons from
the police academy for nothing! You must have been the one not shooting
or _thinking_ straight!"

"Well, the only reason you five cowards are still alive is because
you're too chicken to actually _face_ Amakusa! If you don't want to
follow the orders of our commanding officer, then you might as well just
sprout wings and fly away with the rest of the deserters!" was the best
rebuttal that the straight-laced Dankichi could come up with in lieu of
a potty mouth.

Not wanting the outnumbered Tokyo unit to win the back-and-forth
shouting match, the usually silent Officer Kazuki Matsura immediately
followed up with, "I've had it up to _here_ with you assholes! If your
troop is so great and powerful, then you can go ahead and face Amakusa
by yourselves. Feel free to raid the munitions. We'll watch and wait to
see you get slaughtered by Amakusa before acting. You only get what you
deserve."

"All right, enough. Settle down. Nobody is going to abandon anybody to
that cross-worshipping maniac. Tokyo troopers, you five... well, six if
you include Nakajima... should vote for who you want to be in charge of
your own contingent, just to settle things once and for all. This is
definitely not the time for us to argue with each other." For once, the
non-authoritative yet soothing voice of Lieutenant Nishimura worked to
his favor by helping him defuse the volatile situation.

Before anybody else's temper flared, Nishimura bowed at Tadashi as a
sign of humility. "I apologize for presuming that I'll be in command of
your squad. Let's not fight. We need each other more than ever at this
juncture of our mission."

Ironically, Tadashi lost to Saruwatari in the ensuing four-for-two
vote.

After everyone settled down somewhat... "somewhat" in the sense that
many of the Tokyo troopers were glaring at the Kanagawa troopers and
vice-versa, Lieutenant Nishimura asked, "So where is Amakusa now?"

The depressed Tadashi regarded Nishimura with suspicion. "Are you
insinuating something?"

"No, no. Nothing like that. I'm just asking where he is. We still have
to kill him; hopefully, we won't be encountering any other people from
his Battousai Group."

>From there, Tadashi murmured, "We left him in the yard. We can go check
him out there."

"You mean you LOST HIM? Fuck you guys!" Sugiura snapped, already
frustrated by the fact that their own lieutenant was easily kowtowed
into submission by these worthless Tokyo bullies. "He could've finished
Akahori off while you're going around and acting like you're the boss of
all of us! Fuck YOU! Fuck you till your asses bleed, you motherfuckers!"

"Look, it's okay that we left him outside because we've done our duty to
heavily injure the zealot... or at least our captains, a Gatling gun, an
Armstrong cannon, and two police units did, anyway," Sagami blurted out
while Nakamura slapped the back of his head for spilling the beans.

"What?" Sugiura asked, thinking that there were echoes in the room but
then realizing that the rest of his Kanagawa comrades had merely
expressed the same question as he did.

"Akahori never expected us to kill Amakusa. Granted, he'd be giddier
than a schoolgirl if we somehow managed to do that, but most of us in
the Tokyo troop knows that his secret weapon... his bodyguard that used
to be the second-in-command of some other rebel group way back when...
is about as strong as Amakusa was at his peak, probably stronger. We're
nothing more than just cannon fodder to him, and in that regard, we've
done a superb job," Officer Saruwatari... the new unofficial leader of
the Tokyo contingent... revealed in as calm yet resigned a manner as
possible.

Meanwhile, behind the huddled police officers, both Kosaburo and Tadashi
got up and paced around the room in order to release their aggravation
over being duped by their own teammates.

"Now that you know the truth, are we even sure we still want to mess
with Amakusa?" Sagami asked, relieved that he could in the end confess
his fears without feeling guilt or rejection. "He has single-handedly
annihilated several of our units, and we're the only ones left. I say
Akahori can go fuck himself and let his little boy toy handle that
insane fanatic! I didn't sign up for this; I heard Amakusa was supposed
to be washed up. I should've been assigned to the Chichibu riots
instead!"

"So you _do_ want to run away, you freaking coward!" Officer Dankichi
exclaimed at the wrinkly Tokyo officer as the satisfied feeling of being
right and the unsatisfied feeling of being betrayed brawled inside him.

"I kind of agree with him," Officer Matsura gently murmured to the shock
of all his comrades. "O-Officer Sagami has a point."

His teeth gnashed till his gums bled, Michishige grabbed Matsura by the
shoulders and shook him. "Like _hell_ he has a point! Whatever happened
to your speech about abandoning the Tokyo group and watching them die
because of their arrogance? Were you instead subtly telling everyone
that you'd rather leave us all to the mercy of that mass murderer?"

Matsura tore himself away from Michishige and cried, "I JUST DON'T WANT
ANYBODY ELSE TO DIE, OKAY? And Sagami's right; Akahori doesn't care one
bit about any of us, pretty speeches or no!"

"Don't you dare talk about Akahori-san like that," Sakaguchi declared as
he backhanded Matsura with ease. "I don't know where you came up with
all these rumors and lies, but I don't believe a word of it. If none of
you are willing to fight, then I'll stand against Amakusa alone."

"S-Sakaguchi-san," a tight-lipped Kosaburo murmured with furrowed
eyebrows that covered his eyes in shadow.

Nishimura rose up and gently pushed Sakaguchi down to a seated position.
"Sarge, calm down. We're saying all these crazy things because we're
stressed out, but that doesn't mean that we can't overcome it. We're in
this to...!"

Just then, the double doors of the Shinshushin Mansion exploded care of
an inhuman, almost divine force. Once the dust settled, the two
remaining Kanto district police units (plus several other injured
officers) saw the dreaded caped silhouette from their worst nightmares.

"I thought you learned your lesson and ran away, only to see you huddled
here." Amakusa sighed and rolled his eyes. "Begone, sinners and
sodomites. My warning before still stands: Don't waste your lives by
fighting me. Do the smart thing, for once."

"YOU AND WHAT ARMY?" chorused Tadashi and Sugiura, much to their mutual
chagrin, as they charged at the unimpressed Amakusa with blazing,
bayoneted Murata guns.

The battle-worn but monstrously strong Shogo brandished his sword, swung
it with all his hallowed might, blasted the errant officers straight
into the second floor of the mansion, and turned the wooden floorboards
into a rain of sawdust, nails, and splinters. "I am a force of nature.
You cannot overwhelm typhoons and you cannot defeat earthquakes; you can
only survive them."

"Holy shit! TADASHI!"

"SUGIURA-SAN! No!"

"Kanagawa squad! Arm yourselves and protect the downed officers! Officer
Saruwatari, give your commands to your men; it doesn't matter whether or
not we're cannon fodder; it's our sworn duty to fight deluded criminals
like him!" Nishimura said in as loud an intonation as his gentle voice
would allow.

"You heard the man, Tokyo troopers! Those who want to run away, do so
now. As for those who actually have the _balls_ to stand up and fight,
lock and load; shish-kebab the terrorist if he's close, blast him full
of holes if he's far away. Those were the last orders that Captain Ujiki
gave to us when he was still of this earth, and it kept us alive all
this time!"

Saruwatari took one look at the cult leader before his jaw dropped. He
struggled with his choked throat before he could find his voice again.
"L-Lieutenant! One of your men is charging at Amakusa RIGHT NOW!"

"What...? NO! COME BACK, SERGEANT SAKAGUCHI!" screamed Nishimura, his
hands outstretched at the shrinking figure of his fellow senior officer.


===


In the middle of attempting his second Dou Ryu Sen, Amakusa spotted the
charging figure of a thirty-something officer; a father and family man,
he suspected.

"I remember you. You're the officer who tried desperately to keep
Captain Yamada Kuniumi from bleeding to death. Please, don't waste your
life the same way that he did for the sake of your loving wife and
child."

"No. We've met even before that." Sakaguchi kept his unsheathed saber to
his side and fell into what appeared to be the battoujutsu stance. "Come
at me so that I may refresh your memory."

Amakusa breathed out, ignored the cacophony of anguish his nerves
shrieked at him, and charged down low in order to counter Sakaguchi's
expected saber draw as soon as it happened.

"SERGEANT! Sergeant Sakaguchi! Come back!" Lieutenant Nishimura
beckoned, his voice box run ragged by all the screaming that he almost
never did until then. The Kanagawa contingent soon followed suit in
support of their commanding officer, which was then strengthened by the
shouts of the Tokyo troopers led by Officer Kosaburo.

To the self-titled messiah's mystification, Satoru instead turned his
back at Amakusa and looked over his shoulder. Since the head wasn't
anywhere in striking range, Amakusa chose to rescind his planned Ryu Sho
Sen charge and use his accumulated momentum to strengthen his leaping
strike.

A flash of light appeared, followed by Amakusa landing several feet away
from the Kanagawa sergeant and his sword embedding itself on the ground
from behind him. He felt a stinging sensation on his cheek, and when he
touched it, a linear blot of blood imprinted itself on his scarred hand.
"How...? Are you from another Itto Ryu school?"

"No, you're mistaken. I am Sakaguchi Satoru... son-in-law of Sakaguchi
Genzo... of the Musou Madden Ryu. Prepare yourself," Sakaguchi announced
as he sheathed his saber and fell into his backwards sword-drawing
stance once more.

In the mind's eye of Amakusa, the ghostly apparitions of two other
warriors superimposed themselves on Sakaguchi's form: one he loathed and
feared, the other he begrudgingly respected and sympathized with.

>From behind Sakaguchi... after recovering from their initial shocked
response... both police teams roared with cheers and approval for the
sergeant's success even though they still couldn't believe what just
transpired.

Shogo himself couldn't help but be bewildered at the turn of events, but
he couldn't afford to be; both the Tokyo and Kanagawa squads had by then
shifted position so that they could have a better shot at him and blast
the ever-living hell out of his disarmed self. Then again, he had the
small comfort of Sakaguchi failing to follow through because of the
sudden rain of bullets at the Christian's direction.

Shiro Amakusa's namesake discharged multiple Dou Ryu Sen attacks in all
directions using his empty metal sheath in order to create a smokescreen
wherein he could retrieve his lost blade. Nonetheless, by this time, the
policemen had figured out the predictable trajectory of the technique
and were merely waiting for the landslides to peter out before resuming
their assault anew.

'Although his standard-issue saber is much harder to pull out than a
traditional katana because of its lack of a curve, he still managed to
counter the Ryu Tsui Sen with his technique, which means that it must be
the genuine article; the same skill that my supposed "uncle"...' The
vertical part of Amakusa's chest scar flared with fresh flames. 'It even
hit at the same trajectory.'

After getting his sword back, Amakusa repositioned himself so that
Sakaguchi stood between him and the two remaining units. "Fine. If you
insist on dueling, then let's fight battoujutsu against battoujutsu,
then."

"Battoujutsu? I'm not using that outdated style. This is iaijutsu... a
sword-drawing school for the new age."

Amakusa chuckled as he slashed through the landscape before sheathing
his sword and going into the sword-drawing stance he was most familiar
with. "Strangely enough, I've heard the same speech before; a long time
ago, in fact. All right, then. My battoujutsu against your iaijutsu,
Sakaguchi Satoru of the Musou Madden Ryu."

"Okay. But before anything else, I have one question to ask," Sakaguchi
put forward even as he gradually inched his way into Amakusa's striking
range using the balls of his feet.

"Speak now, or forever hold your peace... because there's no way in
heaven or hell that I'll let you win this next exchange." Amakusa's head
spun with a million different possible scenarios for their duel, to the
point where he even considered using the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki in
order to ensure his victory.

Conversely, a memory from beneath his subconscious revealed that even
the supposed ultimate technique to end all ultimate techniques could be
countered. The horizontal part of his chest scar also flared; alas, the
key to countering it was based on the very stance that the Kanagawa
sergeant was exhibiting at that moment.

'It doesn't matter; I'll call his bluff. What use is all my God-given
strength if I can't destroy the one man that stands in the way of my
people's freedom and their utopia?' Amakusa reasoned... nearly
beseeched... to the doubts and fears that ravaged his mind.

"Why did you kill Captain Nakahara Ryu of the National Police? I mean,
the captain with a hundred scars all over his body! I-I know you had to
protect your people from persecution and death, but the way that you
killed him seemed more out of revenge than purpose! I want to know the
truth. What did he do to deserve such a violent, revolting death?"
Sakaguchi hollered from over his shoulder, which earned him a berating
from one of his fellow Kanagawa officers.

"Amakusa doesn't care who he kills or how he kills them as long as he
gets his mission done, Sakaguchi-san! Don't you remember what the
Togakudan told us in regards to how he wiped out the Gunma and
Kamiminochi units? He didn't even take a second look when he chopped up
three officers at the same time!" the ever-passionate Michishige
screeched before his diatribe was drowned out by Amakusa's proclamation
of:

"You want to know why I used the Kuzu Ryu Sen on your Captain Nakahara?
It's because HE MURDERED MY MOTHER!" From there, everyone saw Amakusa
disappear into thin air right in front of them.

"I-Is he using that double-strike battoujutsu of his?" Saruwatari asked
the rapidly paling Nishimura. The only thing the Kanagawa lieutenant
could mutter was, "I've never seen anyone move so fast."

"I am not WEAK! I am not like Master Hyoue! Through God's divine
providence, I've inherited the might of the biblical Samson and become
stronger than anyone could even imagine!"

Saber struck against katana at the same time because of how awestruck
the Kanagawa sergeant was, and in a vulgar display of power, Amakusa's
sword won the battle of speed with its incredible strength, shattering
the blade of the blacksmith's son and slashing across his shoulder in
one move.

"I am the everlasting hope of my people! I'll find the strength to bear
the sins of this cruel world so Hidden Christians everywhere won't need
to hide themselves and their faith while residing on the land of their
birth! THEY HAVE NOTHING TO BE ASHAMED OF! THE GOD-GIVEN RIGHTS OF MY
PEOPLE TO LIVE AND WORSHIP AS THEY PLEASE SHALL NOT BE DENIED!"

The sharpened edges of Shogo Amakusa's scabbard was just about to hit
its mark and finish off Satoru Sakaguchi the same way it did with
Gunma's halved lieutenant when a very timely interruption occurred.

"Tsui Gami!" Amakusa had backpedaled and retracted his follow-up sheath
strike upon seeing a sword and a spiky-haired boy come out of nowhere,
but this nonetheless resulted in getting the tip of his scabbard broken
into many pieces thanks to this newcomer's strange, repetitious strike.

'Yeah. 'God Hammer' sounds like the perfect counterattack against this
God-deluded terrorist,' the sixteen-year-old thought, nodding to himself
at his "better late than never" save.

>From behind the sergeant, his attacker, and his savior, the uppermost
remains of the saya spun at the Tokyo and Kanagawa officers before
clattering at the feet of a mesmerized yet ecstatic Kosaburo Shinichi.

"Y-Yahiko-kun! You came!" the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu student cheered amidst
the agape silence of his fellow officers.

"Who the fuck is that boy and how the hell did he do that?" the
impetuous Shigeru Michishige eventually voiced out what was on the minds
of the rest of the gathered policemen.

The injured, bleeding, but amazed Sergeant Sakaguchi echoed Officer
Kosaburo's sentiments as he beheld the boy... no, the young man...
before him and the somewhat inappropriate tag of "Aku" from below his
shirt collar. 'So this is how this person was able to save my daughter
and keep her from fighting one of the strongest swordsmen I've ever seen
in my life.'

The out-of-breath Yahiko Myojin couldn't believe his eyes as he wiped
the sweat around his face. Had he not himself witnessed Kenshin use the
Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki against Gein and Enishi Yukishiro, he wouldn't
have even been able to wrap his head around what he just saw. 'A Sou Ryu
Sen that looks almost as fast as an Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki? That's
just crazy. Or scary. Who is this Amakusa clown?'


===


Next: A ballroom brawl.

At this point, readers who have watched the Shimabara Arc will
notice that I've changed a few things here and there, chief
among them the fact that Amakusa's father, Tokisada, is now a
practitioner of Nikaido Heiho (in order to explain the Rai Ryu
Sen thing).

Finally, Yahiko battles Shogo. Huh. Sounds like a Mugen-created
battle.

Disclaimer: All characters used in this fanfic (save some others)
are the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki and Sony. Don't sue
me please, I'm very poor.

Nasaan ang panginoon mo ngayon?
Abdiel