Rurouni Kenshin: Backwards Hurled

By: Rika Wannabe

Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin (much as I love it), Mr. Watsuki does. Arigato, Watsuki-sama!

Prologue:

Ragged scraps of cloth fluttered in the breeze. The snapping sounds they made were the only sounds in an otherwise decimated city. Earthquakes had shattered the once peaceful town; but now there was no town, only looters looking for easy prey.

A shuddering sigh escaped the lone swordsmen. His friends were back at the makeshift hospital trying to help care for the numerous wounded. He had no gift for healing.

‘Only for killing…’ No. He refused to think things like that. He needed something to distract him…

A quiet gasp of pain alerted him to the presence of a living person in the vicinity. Turning, he couldn’t see anyone.

‘Not yet I can’t,’ he thought. ‘But I will.’

He ran towards where he thought the gasp may have come from. He looked around and saw the bodies of several civilians. He felt no sense of Chi from any of them…and yet…

He saw the chest of a young woman rise, slowly, shuddering, but it did rise. He ran over to check her pulse. Strong and steady. But no Chi. The lack of any fighting spirit whatsoever confused him, but not for long. He carefully checked for broken bones, and finding none judged it safe to move her.

As the red-haired swordsman walked back towards the crude hospital building, he suddenly felt eyes on him. He looked down at his patient and saw deep hazel eyes, blues and greens of many shades as well as a glint of copper, looking up at him.

“…Arigato…” she whispered, her voice hoarse, but gorgeous.

The Meiji swordsman was entranced in an instant by her eyes and voice. She had an accent that was unfamiliar to him, and she seemed to trill as she spoke. If he could but learn where she had come from, he would like to live out his days there, surrounded by beautiful voices. Surely someone with a voice so musical would have come from a land where pain was a forgotten thing of the past…! But that thought, though wonderful, was oh so very misguided…

______________________________________________________________________________

Comments and reviews are appreciated at: Fanwork Feedback  It only takes a minute ^_^`.