“Wear it, Kenshin. Don’t turn your back on what you know is your destiny. That would shame you and myself to the very end.”
“And if I choose not to?”
“Then I would have no choice but to disown you. So, which will it be? Yes, you will wear it, or perhaps, no, you won’t?”
“Fine; I’ll wear the damn thing. You’re getting too old to protect Tokyo anyway.”
With a sigh of annoyance, Kenshin reached for the pulsating pendant his leader was just now removing from around his neck. When his fingers curled around the glowing, painfully hot pendant, a bolt of electricity shot up the length of his arm until it filled his very soul. Kenshin’s lilac eyes drifted closed upon feeling the sensation of power entering his body, and when it was complete, the pendant emitted a crimson-red glow that filled the mauve of his eyes. Then, twin orbs of scarlet snapped open and the world, all of a sudden, overwhelmingly sparked with the hot embers of fire.
The snake had reawakened.
Lilac, frightened hues flew open in alarm as warm, strong fingers reached for the dagger stored away beneath his pillow. His burgundy tee was drenched with sweat and the straight, claret strands of his long hair stuck uncomfortably to the perspiring curves of his cheeks. Panting heavily, Kenshin dug his fingers into his moist strands while he removed the dagger from underneath his pillow, staring down at it in awe, as though he was seeing it for the very first time.
It had only been a nightmare. A horrible, familiar nightmare that Kenshin only had on the nights he was stressed out the most. It was just his luck that he had a paper due for his Historical Archaeology class in a week.
“It was only a nightmare,” Kenshin murmured calmly to himself, hoping to ease the frantic beating of his heart. If he were to be truthful with himself, then, he would have to admit that what he had been forced to endure while in his sleep occurred a mere two years ago.
His amethyst, narrowed orbs focused on the pendant hanging around his neck, quick to notice the faint glow of its symbol, the snake. The pendant itself was calm, but the snake on the other hand…Whenever he dreamed of the day he had acquired this particular pendant, the snake would emit a faint, crimson glow.
“Kenshin, what’s that light doing on? I’m trying to sleep,” the deep, exhausted voice groggily asked from where Kenshin’s roommate slept on the top bunk, one arm thrown carelessly over the side of the bed.
Quickly tucking the glowing pendant inside the drenched material of his tee, dimming the snake’s light almost as swiftly as it had begun to glow, Kenshin’s sagging eyes rose towards that of the top bunk and the man who occupied it. “Sorry, Sano, go back to sleep. I’ll make sure the light doesn’t come back on.” The only answer Kenshin received was a grunt before the dormitory was enveloped in silence once more. Shaking his head, he raked a hand through his damp hair uneasily. Honestly, he disliked remembering the night Hiko gave him the pendant. It was important to Hiko’s cause, though, and for that reason alone, Kenshin wore it.
According to legend, whoever wore the pendant would be granted the power to protect the city of Tokyo from the evil men of Japan, including the cruelty of the Makoto Clan and its masterful leader. It just had to be him though; Himura Kenshin, the one man who didn’t want to be a part of Hiko’s plans. However, the plans of his leader were for a good cause and if everything went according to those plans, then, Tokyo, Japan should be safe from the likes of the Makoto Clan. His leader was a good man, and no one could fault him for what he believed in, but one man wouldn’t be able to stop a few evil, cunning men from taking over the city no matter how powerful one lousy pendant was.
“Damn it. Why couldn’t Okina wear it? He has to be the better choice,” Kenshin muttered irritably under his breath as he gazed down at the calm pendant laying flat against his chest, tucked beneath his tee comfortably. He didn’t want to be the man responsible for the fate of Tokyo. He wanted to live a normal life. He wanted to worry only about college and work.
But that just wasn’t going to be. The fate of Tokyo rested in the hands of Himura Kenshin, a twenty-one year old senior college student with a 3.6 grade point average.
In his hand Kenshin still held the dagger he had grabbed in his hurry to rid his thoughts of the past. With a sigh of sheer exhausted frustration, he relinquished the dagger over to the prison of his pillow, carefully pressing the blade flat against the bed so that it wouldn’t be able to strike him in his sleep.
He was bushed, and if he didn’t get the amount of sleep he was accustomed to receiving every night, then, he would be a walking corpse in the morning. That is, if he could even get up in the morning. Leaning against the hard surface of the wall, Kenshin bowed his head. On nights such as this one, he slept sitting up, but only because he was used to it.
Damn nightmares. Damn Hiko. Damn this snake.
Kenshin damned everything his weary mind could think of as his lilac, sagging eyes slowly drifted closed. He let sleep claim his fatigued body as he entered another world of nightmares. This time, the nightmares refused to free his mind.
It was going to be a long night for Kenshin; that much was certain.