Sniping Battousai by Ronin Setora (goldensamurai@hotmail.com) (http://ronin_setora.tripod.com/) Ch. 5 My Honor Means Everything a/n... the whole old scar dripping thing... i know i know, it's not humanly possible... it's just to portray a definite sense of dread. _ _ _ _ Using a lamp, he looks into water. A drip is heard and the water is darkened. He touches his left cheek, "Hmm? How... how could it be bleeding?" _ _ _ _ Kamiya Dojo, guest room- 0227 hours- Melchior sleeps fitfully, not still for a moment as a horrid dream cycles in his mind. -- -- -- -- "YAAAHHH!!!!" A tall man, long unshaven and rather worn, steps back as a blade flies just before him, then swings his own sword upward from it's saya at his attacker. The boy, now on the defensive, guards the blow, steps back into a tree trunk, then quickly parries another attack. In a few moments, the boy thrusts at the older man, leaping backward, just to the left of the tree, as the man guards and counters. From the counter-attack, the boy leaps forward again drawing his wakisashi and, striking first with his katana, just missing the man's face, then follows this up with a rising strike with the wakisashi, cutting into the man's gauntlet. The man drops his katana just as the wakisashi hits his gauntlet and draws his own, knocking both the katana and wakisashi out of the boy's hand in two strokes. "Melchior. I've told you, when you attack, you don't stop until your enemy is disarmed." "Yes Father." "No. You will keep training and in three weeks we will again spar. Be ready, if you fail once more, you'll have to keep sparring with your brother." "But Father!" "That is how it will be." -- -- -- -- The scene in his mind jumps to a battlefield, where blood flows freely from soldiers wounds and screams can be heard. -- -- -- -- A young boy watches a battle from a hill. In all the carnage, through all the din, he sees one man and hears his angry cry. "THIS IS YOUR LAST..." he is cut off by a scream as the other man dies. His sword, though covered in blood and human fat, shines brightly, striking through dozens of soldiers. As he prepares to strike down another warrior, a gunshot goes off, soon followed by many more. One shot lands in his stomach just as a fallen soldier picks up a dropped katana and swings at the man. The fighter moves backward a bit and one of his legs is unseen under the bodies steadily falling around him. He falls over and holds his breath. In a few moments, the battle is done, with about twenty soldiers still standing, and though they are not all allies of one another, walk together for support off the edge of the hellish scene. The boy watching the battle turns to his younger, black-haired, brother. He nods to the smaller boy and they race to the bottom of the hill approaching quickly the man they took so much interest in. The smaller boy wails as the man seems to die soon to be followed by eight gunshots and an uncanny silence between the red-haired boy and the fallen and bleeding black-haired boy. The red-haired boy takes his father's katana and saya and places them in his obi above his own wakisashi after cleaning the katana's blade. -- -- -- -- Melchior wakes and shivers despite the warmth of the night. Kenshin wakes again to the dream of the two boys. "What is this? ...why do I see this again and again... something is wrong." -0730 hours Kaoru, very slowly, attempts yet again to teach Yahiko to help in the kitchen and after breakfast, the morning passes uneventfully. Come the afternoon, Melchior goes again to the temple and repeats his message as he goes through the torii. Kenshin, though far behind him, watches him and follows slowly, keeping concealed if Melchior turns or stops. "My dearest family... Father... I chose wrong and cannot avenge you. I have lost all that is important to me for what I thought you believed. Mother... how I do wish you were with us during that war... Would you have believed me long ago if I told you Nihon would again fight Amerika in World War V? To my beautiful sister, I apologize for all the things I said. Even if you couldn't tell, I loved you and miss you dearly. And lastly, to my brother, who should never forgive the horrible acts I have dealt. You were closest to me and dearest, I know, yet in my moment of hatred and fear, I did to you what should be done no man. Though you can never forgive my action, please don't hate me for it." Melchior puts his forehead to the ground then gets to one knee. Kenshin watches from the shadows and listens carefully to Melchior's prayer. "Mr. Himu- uhm, Kenshin, you seem to have forgotten to conceal your life force. Have you lost your edge in these years of peace?" '...!! How?! ...but...' "You... knew I was here Melchior?" "Yes. I'm sorry for what I did to those people that will mean so much to you." "What?" "There is too much about me you wouldn't understand." Melchior walks away, his sword hidden within his coat. He passes an officer when he reaches the street who stares at him oddly. Melchior glares back at the officer forcing the man to go about his business. As Kenshin exits the shrine and hits the street, the same officer glances at him, notices his clothes, then thinks to himself, "...one of them must be American. Or... did Mr. Himura have a brother?" Late in the evening, back at the Kamiya Dojo, Sano confronts Melchior, "Who are you? Really?" Melchior looks up to Sano, then goes back to edging his sword. "I'm a soldier." Sano glares at him suspiciously, "But who are you? All you've given us is bits of information. What is your name?" "Why do you care so much?" "I don't know if they can trust you. I don't know if I can trust you. Who are you, if you say you're related to Kaoru?" Melchior stands and sheathes his katana. He pulls his wakisashi from his obi. "I... killed my brother... gunshots to his head. I watched my dad's last breath, thinking that, if I fought for the Americans against my home, I could have him avenged. I thought winning the war would make me even with him. When my sister was young, I never helped her, never agreed with her. My mom died while I was young, like so many others, she was murdered because she wasn't Japanese... and then my sister committed suicide, jumping off a building her head being crushed on impact." "I don't care about all that. Who are you?" "Distantly, I come from Kenshin and Kaoru, yet also from an American family. I traced my ancestors and they led to Kenshin so I changed my name." "Just tell me who the Hell you are?!" "I am Himura Melchior. Late descendent of Himura Kenshin and the last master of the Hiten Mitsurugii Ryu." "From when do you come?" "Too late. I'll say this, many of Kenshin's children's children are still far ahead of my birth. One of your grandaughters of the next few centuries will be in her deathbed as I am born." "...okay. Why have you come back?" "To stop the horrid things that happened to my family." "How will you do this?" "We will never be born." "So you will kill my friends?" "No. I cannot. I don't have it in me anymore to try and kill them." "Why are you still here? In such a primitive time?" "To make amends for what I am yet to do... to try and regain my life. Of all my family, only two had true honor. Kenshin," "And who else?" "Myself. But, I lost everything that meant anything to me." "Tell me one thing you believe." "The sword," Melchior says as he draws the katana, "is the samurai's soul." Sano nods and walks out of the room. Melchior kneels again and stares at his sword, "When the samurai no longer needs his sword, he no longer needs a body. If I cannot get a new body and a new soul, I must live on and try to restore my past one. And... the best way to do this... will be to relearn everything." The following morning, Melchior never shows at breakfast. After eating, Kenshin goes out to find him again by the rock pond. "To take another's life," "Is to lose your own, bit by bit." "So. It is true. We... are family." "Yes. Is there still more you wish to know?" "Tell me the story of your life. Since I will never meet you, and never have a chance to see you, I want to know you now. Before it's all over for me." "My father sought the Way of Water. He was frozen in battle, and I was left to continue his legacy... your legacy." Melchior begins a story of his life, including all the details of a war he fought that he regrets being part of. When it's all over, Kenshin tells him, "What is honor to you?" "Honor means everything to me." "Then what will you do?" "Get it back." ~Owari~ That's it. It's over. Do you hate that ending? Too bad. April 19, 2002, 8:17 pm- put out a proper ending, an epilogue. if you want, don't bother to read it. it's not supposed to be good, I made it cuz a few reviewers wanted one...