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The Other Side of twilight - Prologue.

A Rurouni Kenshin x Tokyo Babylon fanfiction by Ariane Kovacevic, AKA Fuu-chan.







Hm, some comments are definitely in order in this case, so please bear with me. This fic is not an attempt at an historically accurate account. I tried to base it on what small information I gathered, but the part of it that was reliable was vague at best--French dictionaries don't hold many details over the history of Japan. There are bound to be mistakes in timing, in events, and in names. Mistakes, and also perhaps misconceptions. I hope you will bear with me concerning those.

However, there is one mistake that I deliberately made. Let me explain: I built this fic around a central concept which I'm very fond of. I only later found out that this implied changing the last name of a character who existed historically. I did so, and went ahead with writing this fic. My apologies to those who refuse to see a writer playing with reality and bend it to suit a story's needs. I didn't change something that is--in my opinion--important, or even significant, at least in the universe this fanfic is based on. You may not even realize what I did, unless you know Japan's history--at least that period of time--or unless you're a fan of a certain character and have been doing a bit of research--and no, I haven't changed anything concerning *that* character. Having said this, I invoke the first law of fic writing: "the writer is god", and cloak myself in it. *chuckles*

Have fun reading this. I have to say, I spent a lot of time developing my main character, and as I started writing, I had no idea what was going to really happen beyond a very succinct storyline. This story wrote itself, the characters and it coming to life under the sun of Koroni. It's always a very special feeling when I find such a story. I like it very much, and I hope that you will like it as well. Good reading.

This fanfic takes place in Japan in the year 1864. The universe is that of the Rurouni Kenshin OVAs, but I have added to it concepts which come from Tokyo Babylon by Clamp.

All right, enough with introductions, here it is. Enjoy! =)


Fuu-chan.






"I have tolerated this behavior for too long. Now it must end."

My father's voice droned on and on, delivering lectures whose every word I knew in advance; lectures about which I didn't give a damn. Imperceptibly I shifted my position so that my left heel would almost be free of my body's weight, careful to keep my hands demurely set in my lap. I allowed myself an inward sigh, relieved to feel the blood flowing back in my left leg which had been falling asleep for some five minutes. My kimono was closed too tight, as it always was, and it restrained my freedom of movement more safely than chains would have. I was starting to be seriously fed up with wearing it.

"You're a grown woman now, it's high time you realized there is a real world around you, and that its rules apply to you as well."

Yes, father. Of course, father. I was more than aware of the people surrounding me and their chokingly strict rules of conduct. I was also aware that I didn't fit in, at all.

But whose fault is it, o revered father?

This discussion was getting long, far longer than previous ones had been. Something in my heart was cold, because there was only one reason for my father to have gathered me and my mother in this room for what felt like an eternity. The elders had at last decided to allow Yuta to undergo the trials, and they believed he would win through.

They fervently hoped he would...so as not to be stuck with the likes of me. If I had dared, I would have laughed in my dear father's face.

"From this day forward, you will never touch a sword again." Said with a finality which would bear with no argument. Yield, or break. Bend, but stop being who you are, it was what I just been ordered to do.

"No." My soft whisper carried through the room, breaking the heavy silence which had followed my father's stern words. Through the open panel on my right, I could hear the hypnotizing, rhythmic clang of bamboo hitting stone every time its hollow inside had been filled with water.

"Tokio...." I cast a brief look towards my mother, feeling compassion for her. She didn't want fights or arguments in the house, she was always for peace and silence.

For yielding, as women must.

Like hell.

"Enough, Tokio!" I held up my head to steadily gaze into my father's dark brown eyes as he went on, "You will comply with the will of the clan. No choice has been offered to you. and so--"

"No!" The passion and violence in my voice were matching my father's. I slammed my right hand on the wooden floor, leaning forward, and shook my head. "I will never obey! You made me what I am, father; all of you raised me, taught me to be what I have become. You were all too happy to use your own daughter, no matter if in so doing you also took her away from what you call a 'normal' life. I was the only one born who could be the heir, so everything was acceptable...including turning me into something which would never be accepted in the world we live in, and then discarding me once you found out Yuta might perhaps fit!"

I paused for a few seconds, fighting to control the fury and distress rising inside me, then I bowed my head and said in a carefully neutral voice, "After helping me shape and grow those wings, do you now expect me to meekly kneel while they are being torn from me?" I faced my father again, locking my eyes to his. "Do you?"

There was a long moment of silence, and eventually my father was the one who looked away. I thought I heard a sigh as he replied, "Yes, I do. You're but one young woman, and the interests of the clan come before yours, or any single one of its members'." Straightening his back, he looked at me directly and I saw the flicker in his eyes.

Regrets.

Regrets that he could never express aloud.

Father.... My right hand closed into a fist and I smiled wearily, set on making a stand and holding. I ignored the myriad of tiny ants running along and inside my leg which kept insisting I stand and walk until they went away, and said quietly, "You can say whatever you want, father. the elders can summon me and try frightening me into submission if they feel like wasting their time, but I will not give up who I am." I brought my right hand back into my lap, once more the nice, well-educated girl...on the outside only. My voice reduced to a whisper as I told my father, "And you will allow me that little bit of freedom, because you dare not break me yet. You dare not until you know that Yuta has passed the trials. The spirits know I love my younger brother and will never wish any harm on his head, but you cannot be certain he won't fail."

I allowed silence to reclaim the room, waiting for a few seconds to give my words the time to sink in before continuing with the same calm voice, "If he wins through, I will gladly relinquish the burden of being heir and next head of clan over to him." I smiled pleasantly, adding, "And I will agree to marry so the clan can grow and find future heirs, but the man I will accept to share my life with will have to take me as I am. I will marry, but on my own terms. If you can agree to this, and convince the elders it's and acceptable way out--which you'd realize it truly is if you just stopped to think about it--then all will be well. If not, " I waved helplessly, "well then I will leave this house, the clan and my name behind, and make my life somewhere where I do not have to accept a collar on my neck and a leash chaining me to a wall."

"And end up in one of the inns in the pleasure quarters!" My father snorted contemptuously. "romantic notions such as the one you just exposed are certainly pretty, but the real world is different. Try as you may, you *cannot* achieve this freedom you want so much. Society will crush you first."

I took all this in, unwavering, and once he was done I allowed a smile to reveal my teeth as I said, "It will *try*, father, I have no doubt about that. But if you believe it will win, then you neither put much faith in yours nor others' teachings...nor in me." I sighed softly, bowing my head and then facing him one more time, asking him, "Is it so much, what I ask? Is it so much to give me this small thing?"

Had there been a plea in my voice? Had the cold feeling which was both fear and distress that I was still fighting to control managed to win through my lips?

"Anata," my mother's right hand had left her lap to lightly rest on my father's left, "perhaps--"

My father abruptly stood, his face set in a grim mask. "Very well, let things stand as they are for now; there are other things which demand my attention in a much more urgent fashion." He passed a hand over his brow, as if overcome by a wave of exhaustion, and looked at me sharply. "But the matter is not closed, Tokio."

I bowed deeply as my father left the room. My mother followed him, but stopped on the threshold, her hand on the sliding panel. Eyes alight with worry, she said softly, "No matter what you think, we love you. We know how difficult it's bound to be, but...." She bowed her head, and went away.

Left alone in the empty room, I gingerly stood up and lightly jumped up and down on the floor to help the blood to flow freely in my legs. Then I slowly walked towards the opening towards the garden, impaired by the kimono, and chuckled joylessly. Yes, mother, I knew you loved me in your way, as much as the clan's interests allowed, just as I knew you didn't understand me.

Couldn't understand me.

It seemed I had won this round of argument, but I was aware it was in fact a stalemate at best. As my father had said, there were matters on his mind right now. Matters which far outweighed the senseless revolt of a girl who should have had the grace to bow her head to the will of others, matters which had kept my father awake in the night for the past few weeks. I knew, for having spied lights in our house's shrine when I had found myself awake and unable to go back to sleep, cursed by uncharacteristic but persistent fits of insomnia. Letters had come and gone between my father and the elders, and they had suddenly sped Yuta's training, as if eager to have him pass the trials and replace me as heir before....

Before what?

I didn't like the answer my mind kept coming with, but I intended to find out the truth nonetheless, and I was quite sure I would be given an opportunity to do that tonight. Right before dawn this morning, I had caught sight of a light in the shrine at the far end of the garden. The light of a fire. I knew the meaning of that. Whatever was happening, it was bad, so bad that the clan elders feared for the current head's life, as if death was hovering over my father somehow.

I had overheard bits of conversation between my parents this morning, and I knew my father would be gone at some point during the night, when nobody in his right mind would have thought of setting a foot outside the safety of the house.... Well if he went, I would follow, and get to the bottom of this. After all, it was also my concern, if what I suspected was correct.

I had felt it too, beyond the rising wave of civil unrest in the city, beyond the murders every night and the blood staining the streets. Beyond the veil of fear cast by the hitokiris and the Shinsengumi roaming everywhere night and day, *something* was wrong. I could feel it in the uneasy, cold shadow over my heart.

It was as if Kyoto's spiritual balance was on the verge of breaking.




I grinned in the night, perched high up an old sakura's branches. If my father had suspected my presence here, he'd have thrown a fit, and perhaps he'd also have realized I had learnt his lessons well.

The men's hakama and jacket I was wearing allowed me a freedom of movement which could have been qualified as wondrous when compared to the women's kimono. I felt so perfectly at ease in men's clothing it was as if I had been born wearing them. It hadn't taken me much time to master the art of moving soundlessly and quickly, using the shadows to blend in with my surroundings and go about unseen. I smiled, and my thoughts went for a fraction of a second to the one who had taught me this art.

Thank you, Soushi-kun.

I sobered immediately, focusing on my father as he stepped into the small unnamed shrine's grounds on the other side of the narrow street. What was he doing in such an unremarkable place? I had expected a secret meeting with nobles or priests perhaps, but this.... To come to this shrine nobody knew or honored in the middle of the night...it didn't make sense. What was here which warranted the coming of the clan head?

"You might as well reveal yourself. I know you're here, watching. I can feel you."

Feel? But feel what? I had never heard such a tension in my father's voice before. He was angry, but it was a cold, icy anger in which revulsion and fear were seeping, as if he couldn't completely hide them within. As if whatever or whomever he was talking to was....

Cold.

Ice. All along my spine.

Gripping my stomach.

Numb, I watched as the darkness around the shrine's area seemed to thicken and as a feeling I had never experienced filled the night. There was no name for it, but the reactions it triggered inside me I could easily identify.

Dread.

Terror.

Fury.

Outrage.

Terror.

Terror.

Terror.

Laughter broke the heavy silence, coming from under another sakura on the shrine's left, and somehow freed me from the trance, from the wild, mad fear which had drowned my soul just now.

"So, I finally managed to draw you out." Amusement was plain in the voice, as well as contempt. It wasn't an unpleasant voice, on the contrary. It was even seductive, attractive, if only because of the feeling of danger and unknown it gave rise to, like when one was looking over the edge of a cliff. The edge of an abyss, dark and bottomless. There was something vaguely familiar in it as well, but then it must be the same kind of known feeling one got when one felt an earthquake coming.

"I thought you'd never get the clue." even though he was completely hidden from my view by the sakura, I could have sworn the man was grinning as he said this.

"What is the meaning of this? what kind of game are you playing at?" My father's voice was eerily calm, in total contradiction with his attitude a moment ago. I focused on him, and felt his aura blossoming around him, as if he was preparing for battle.

"A game, indeed," the man chuckled happily, "you found the right word. It's just a game, a way to pass the time and break the monotony of our days. Aren't you grateful to me for bringing a few unexpected surprises in your life, Yuunosuke-san?"

Yuunosuke-san.

My fingers gripped the sakura's trunk hard. The stranger knew my father's first name. More, he knew who and what my father was...and it amused him. I closed my eyes, fighting to control the tide of raw fear sweeping everything away inside me, and focused on the rhythm of my breathing, willing the thick fog of dread *away*. I couldn't allow it to impair me now, I needed my wits about me. I had been right all along, and I knew why my father hadn't wanted to bring me into this matter. I could even agree with him on this one thing.

Because I knew who the stranger *must* be.

"You are overstepping your boundaries. You have no right to blindly destroy the seals set over this city centuries ago and unbalance its very existence. I cannot let you have free reign. We should never have met, but you leave me no choice." Mocking laughter was the only sound which replied to my father's words. My left hand left the support of the sakura's trunk, and came to rest over the hilt of the short sword on my left side. The kodachi might not be a katana, but it would kill just as efficiently if one knew how to use it.

"I care nothing for this city or for its fragile balance. The times are simply on my side, as you should know. Change is coming, even you must be able to feel it in the air. Try though you might, you won't stop the storm which is coming, you won't be able to maintain your precious status-quo. And I..." the voice became a slight whisper which barely reached my ears, "I merely move along with the flow, in harmony with it." There was a sigh, as if the stranger was gesturing helplessly. "But I won't break this insignificant seal tonight. I'm not in the mood for battle. I just wanted to make sure you knew the game has started."

Suddenly, the feeling of the man's presence faded, as if he had been swallowed by the night itself. My father walked towards the torii in front of him, and leaned a hand against its right pole.

His head bowed.

He stayed there during a minute or two, and then walked away, going back the way he had come. I waited until I couldn't hear the sound of his steps anymore, then let out a small sigh of relief. I hadn't often felt such fear in my heart, or experienced situations coming this close to a catastrophe. Had the stranger been in the mood for a confrontation...I might have been faced with the choice of either stepping in, or becoming the next head of the clan.

Now that would have pissed the elders!

"Come out, little one. Come out, and let's have some fun together."

I froze, and the laughter which had been rising up my throat died instantly. That voice, and the feeling accompanying it.... Dear spirits, he was right at the foot of the sakura, on the other side of the trunk. In a flash, I saw myself panicking, slipping on the branch and falling down on the ground beside him, and--

No.

Quiet.

Focus.

Breathe.

Feel the sakura around you.

Focus.

My mind was clear, impossibly sharp and clear. I had a chance, just one. If I failed, I wouldn't see the sun rise. Countless hours of training came into play, their teachings so deeply ingrained within me they had become instinct without my realizing it. In the face of death I sent terror away and closed my eyes, focusing inwards. I felt the old, ancient sakura tree against me, felt the hard bark of its trunk against my back and reached out, draping it around me like a cloak, making myself one with it.

Time passed, seconds or an eternity slipping over me like a stream of water over a flat stone, and eventually a sigh came up the sakura's branches. "Ah well, it would seem I was mistaken. Odd...." Some distant part of me heard the steps as he walked away in the dark, but I didn't move. One with the old tree, I waited.

Waited....

Waited....




I hurried as much as I could without raising sounds or alerting people to my presence. The night was growing old, and I had to reach home as well as be in bed before dawn. Damn it, a lot of time had passed between my father's departure from the small shrine and my own. Once deep in trance, it had been difficult for me to snap out of it...but at least it had saved my life. My thoughts went back to the man my father had confronted, and I couldn't help shivering. I was sure I knew his name, I had heard it spoken a few very times but it had been enough.

"I shouldn't have come, it was not my place to be there."

Voices, close.

"I am sorry I tricked you into accompanying me, Himura, but having a bodyguard was useful anyway, so--"

Steps. Coming this way.

At this time of night, when all the streets of Kyoto were empty, save for.... I tensed, desperately looking for a way to avoid them but finding none. I had no time to think, they were right beyond the street's next turn. There, the shadows between that house and the high wall of its garden. I glided towards it as swiftly and silently as I could, and at that very moment three men's shapes appeared at the turn of the street.

"I was glad for your presence, no matter what you--" The one up front raised his left arm horizontally in a halting gesture. The other two froze, while the first flung himself forward.

Right towards me.

There was a flash of light as he unsheathed his katana in a movement so fluid and fast my eyes never saw anything else than a blur. In the faint starlight I got a glimpse of bright red hair flying behind him, neatly tied up his head in the high pony tail of the samurai, and of a long scar along his left cheek. Then I saw his eyes.

And death turned its gaze upon me for the second time this night.

Reflexively, I drew the kodachi and tried to counter the coming blow. His blade slid along mine, mastering it and deflecting it as easily as if I had been a child whose hand had never held a sword. I watched, numb, as the katana rushed for my throat. I stared at the unwavering, deep blue eyes, so dark they almost were the color of night, knowing in the deepest part of my heart that I was going to die.

Cold.

Cold.... The wall I was desperately pressing my back against was cold, I could feel the sensation invading my body. I felt my heart beating madly in my chest, and realized I was still alive. I looked at the swordsman, and saw a flicker of uncertainty in those beautiful but cold, merciless blue eyes. His katana had stopped within an inch of my throat. He whispered wonderingly, "A woman?"

Heat came to my cheeks, unbidden, and the terribly sharp blade moved away from me. The young man's voice was soft, incredibly so, quiet and even gentle, a stark contrast with the merciless icy cold light I had seen in his eyes. He sheathed his katana as his other two companions joined him. Both stared at me as if they had never seen another human being before, and the less dignified of them suddenly laughed. "Man , that was a close one! How did you guess this tall, skinny boy whose face can at best be described as average was in fact a girl?"

Anger rushed in to take the place of fear, and before I could stop my self, I hissed, "Why you son of a--"

The red-haired samurai glared at the man, who shrugged. "Okay, okay." Turning towards me, the same man added, "I'm sorry, ojo-san. That was rude."

Ojo-san.... I snorted derisively. Had the man known my name, he'd have meant that with all his heart. As it was....

"Honeysuckle."

I slowly faced the red-haired samurai, who smiled gently as he repeated, "Honeysuckle. Your hair has the slightest scent of honeysuckle in it." I stared at him mutely, taken aback. How had he been able to perceive that in the split-second before his blade ran through my throat? He--

"What is a young woman doing, wandering the streets of Kyoto at night disguised as a man and wearing a kodachi blade at her side?" I turned towards the third man, and my heart missed a beat. I hadn't been able to get a good look at him before, but now that I could see him clearly, I knew him. Or rather I knew what he must be.

Sub-clan leader, perhaps even clan leader.

There was only one possible reason which could explain the presence of such a man in the streets at night, accompanied by a bodyguard such as the red-haired samurai.

Conspirators.

Hell. I shook my head, telling the man, "None of your business, sir. No more than it would be mine to ask you the same question."

His eyes narrowed in speculation, and then he laughed. "And may one inquire as to what your name is, then?"

I shrugged, slowly sheathing the kodachi and noting the scarred, red-haired samurai didn't miss the slightest of my movements. Then I said, "I am called Tokio, and I thought only Shinsengumi spent their time terrorizing people and demanding names or identities."

Shocked silence followed my words, until the same man bowed, almost imperceptibly. "Brave words, ojo-san. They do you credit."

The red-haired samurai bowed deeply, interrupting him. "Forgive me, sir, but we must leave this place now. We've tarried here for too long." The night-colored eyes locked on me and he added, "It would be safer if you forgot everything about this incident, Tokio-san."

I sustained his cold, focused gaze and felt a crooked smile coming to my lips. "I never saw you, just as you never saw me. Believe me, I had rather my presence here tonight never be revealed." I sighed softly. "To be frank, it must never be revealed, so you can depend on my silence."

He shot a quick glance towards the one who obviously led them, silently asking for confirmation, and the other nodded. Quietly, I thought to myself that he'd have killed me on the spot if the other had so indicated. I watched the three of them walk away, feeling cold all over.

You won't stop the storm which is coming.

Something within me shivered as I heard within me the echoes of the words which had sounded like a sentence. Snorting and freeing myself from the memory, I remembered I had to reach home before sunrise. Above me, the sky was slowly turning to gray. Cursing under my breath I ran, unheeding of the noise I was making.

I could only hope that neither my mother nor my father had wanted to check on me yet.

End of the Prologue.


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