Rurouni Kenshin: From Where I Am

By: Shadow Chaser

 

Author’s Notes: This story is both a mix of fantasy, magic, and science fiction. There are many influences within this fic from various animes, programs, and books. Influences include: Stargate SG-1, Rurouni Kenshin (duh), Please Save My Earth, X-1999, and Dune.

 

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Rurouni Kenshin’s creations. They belong to whomever they belong to. I am not making a profit out of this fanfic. This is only for entertainment. Please ask if you want to use my own creations of characters.

 

Timeframe: After the episodes with the Sanada ninjas, before the pentagram episodes.

 

Characters:

*The Kenshin-gumi and all associated characters within Rurouni Kenshin

New Characters:

Sora Takeshinawa - female, age 22 - master of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu

Ryo Takeshinawa - male, age 21 - uses both kenpo and a mix of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu

Akira Shinonaba - male, age 21 - master of the Aikido style of martial arts

Ayari Chisato - female, age 33 - leader of the Underground Resistance

Tiamat - female, unknown age - demoness-goddess, ruler of Earth

Haruka Kotaro - female, age 16 - various street fighting self-defense techniques, usually uses Voice

Nakahiko Toshiharu - male, age 17 - semi defensive techniques, usually is the healer/doctor

Mikuro Tsurumi - male, age 25 - master of Tennen Rishin Ryu

Mayo Tsurumi - female, age 25 - uses a mix of Tennen Rishin and Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu

The Children (Destined Ones):

Sakyura Nozomi - female, age 5

Takeru Nozomi - male, age 5

Aya Reiji - female, age 3

Yoshio Saitoh - male, age 4

Hiro Sekihara - male, age 4

 

Story:

 

Chapter 1 - Sprits of the Long Forgotten

Present - 2001

 

A bird chirped a melodic song in the quiet woods near the base of Mt. Fuji. Peaceful and tranquil, the mountain seemed immovable, Sora Takeshinawa decided as she drew out her sakaba quietly, only the tip of the blade rasping against her saya (sheath). She shook her head slightly, letting her reddish-brown hair, which was tied up into a braid swing around, whacking a few leaves from the trees. She wasn’t too tall, only about average height of roughly 158 centimeters. She was wiry built, not really muscular, and that led to a few people, to assume that she could be easily overpowered and taken care of. Lesson number one, that is wrong, Sora thought wiry to herself as she held her sakaba out in front of her in a guarded stance.

The sakaba was one of two in the whole world. She knew that back in the Meiji era, there was a former hitokiri whom, after the Meiji Revolution, requested a sakaba to be made, but that sakaba vanished during World War II from a museum. A descendant of the famous sword-smith Shaku Arai made hers. However, the descendent had died soon afterwards by the hand of one of Tiamat’s followers.

That’s what led her into the base of Mt. Fuji. Sora was running, running from the prefector of the whole world, the demoness-goddess Tiamat. Tiamat had emerged after World War II and during the brief chaos that reined the world since they couldn’t decide on Germany’s fate, she had taken it over, wiping out almost all opposition to her rule. Only a handful survived and they formed the hidden underground resistance.

After taking over the world Tiamat began to create soldiers that would almost equal her in power to do her bidding, her secret police. Sora’s grip on her sakaba’s hilt tightened as she stared at a tree, remembering what had happened. She was one of the soldiers ‘created’. At least her parents were. They had too much awareness and when they gave birth to her, plotted to escape and rebel against Tiamat. Her parents, along with a few others of Tiamat’s creations, fled from the demoness and joined with the Underground. They had their powers to fight against Tiamat, their powers of uncanny martial arts, kenjutsu, tactics, magic, the Voice and the Power at their disposal.

When she was little, her father taught her the infamous kenjutsu of great power, Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, stating that it was only to be used for the protection of others. He had then explained to her the history of this kenjutsu and its controversial use. That was when she had heard of the names Kenshin Himura, Seijuro Hiko, Kaoru Kamiya, Amakusa Shougo, and Tomoe Himura. She listened to the histories of these people, how the kenjutsu Mitsurugi Ryu revolved around each and every one of them. Himura was the student of the 13^th master of this kenjutsu, Seijuro Hiko. Hiko had attempted to teach his ‘baka deishi’ the moral and ethics of the Mitsurugi Ryu, but Himura, young and rebellious at the time, left during the middle of his training and eventually became to be known as the Hitokiri Battousai of the Meiji Revolution. It was then that he accidentally slain his wife, Tomoe Himura. It was also then, after the slaying and revolution was done, that Himura asked Shaku Arai to create a set of sakaba swords, customary to create a superior one and inferior one. As her father kept teaching her the various powerful techniques of Mitsurugi Ryu, Sora found out more of the tormented history of Kenshin Himura. In the 11^th year of the Meiji Era, he was protecting a girl named Kaoru Kamiya and didn’t really allow himself to get too close to her for the fear of the same thing that happened with his wife, Tomoe.

Sora snapped out of her daydreaming and focused on the tree that she was going to attack. She imagined it as a person, nine vital points which would hit with the technique of Kuzu Ryu Sen. She closed her eyes and remembered when her father had taught her the Kuzu Ryu Sen. It was a technique that was used also for both defensive and offensive positions as she found out from the battles between Amakusa Shougo and Himura. Opening her eyes again, she narrowed them and focused on the tree.

“Kuzu Ryu Sen!” she yelled as she sprang towards the tree. With a blur so fast that the naked eye could not see, she attacked all nine points on the tree and it crumpled to the ground with a semi-silent hail of splinters and wood chips.

In the wake of the silence that had reigned in the forest, Sora stared at where the tree used to stand, now just a jagged edged stump. If that was a real person, blood would be all over the place, she thought to herself as she held up her sakaba. Though it was dulled on the normally bladed-end, she knew that with her speed and power behind her strokes, it would still cut through flesh like a normal katana would. The descendant of Shaku Arai had warned her that this sakaba wasn’t like the one Shaku Arai had made for Kenshin Himura around 150 years ago.

Sora knew that this was true, as she had mastered the succession technique Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki. She had nearly killed her own father in mastering the technique, but luckily the blow wasn’t fatal enough. However, when her father had recovered he was extremely angry with her. At first she didn’t know why, until her mother pulled her aside one day after she had received a considerable beating, and told her that her father was prepared to die with honor and the knowledge that he had passed on one of the most powerful kenjutsu in the world to someone willing to save the world from Tiamat’s clutches.

“With Kuzu Ryu Sen, you can chop more wood than with a chainsaw, Sora-kun,” a mellow baritone voice spoke behind her and she spun around, her sword drawn up and ready to face the speaker. Her dark blue eyes blazed a bit, a slight gold shine within them.

“Whoa…its only me, Akira,” Sora relaxed her guard slightly as she saw her dear friend walk out from the woods, his black and blue ninja uniform patched a bit with sweat-marks. His sleeves were rolled up, showing his muscular arms and he looked slightly exhausted but refreshed.

Akira Shinonaba was about medium height, with the traditional half moon-face and almond shaped brown eyes. His black hair was spiked up and held back with a dark blue hair band and a fierce looking blue-green dragon tattoo was emblazoned on the right side of his neck, half of it on the back, half of it on the front. It gave him a fierce look, but that didn’t diminish the factor of his handsomeness. Sora already knew around most of the population of girls within the Underground would love to date him, marry him, even die for him. He just had a cool air around people, but that cool air was replaced with friendship when the two of them talked.

That friendship was echoed, whenever Akira called her “Sora-kun”, even though the -kun attachment was meant for boys, it was because Akira always viewed her as a fierce warrior of the Underground, both in strength, magic, Power, Voice, and leadership.

“Hello Akira-kun,” Sora greeted formally, sheathing her sword in the process, “looks like you finished your workout early.”

Akira nodded then scratched the back of his head, “Hai. I figured I stop by and see what you were doing. Ayari-sama wants all of us to report to the Headquarters before midday meal.” Sora could see a blush start up from his neck, growing a bit redder by the minute.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, puzzled by his abnormal expression.

“Um…ah…” Akira pointed to her shoulder and Sora glanced down to see a deep gash that ripped through the sleeve of her kimono. “Doesn’t that hurt?”

Sora shrugged. She hadn’t felt any pain from it and didn’t even notice the gash until Akira had pointed it out. “Its okay. I don’t think its that bad,” she replied then took the edge of her kimono’s sleeve and ripped a strip off. Using one hand she tied up the wound and suddenly felt the stinging pain of it as the cloth touched the wound. It seemed that one of the bigger chunks of wood splinters had dug itself into her shoulder, just beyond the joints. Oh great…now I have to deal with this after…she thought to herself as she tightened the makeshift band-aid, trying not to wince as the splinter dug into her shoulder blade.

“You okay, Sora?” Akira took a step towards her but Sora shook her head.

“Yeah, fine,” she said curtly then glanced at the martial artist, “lets go and not keep Ayari-dono waiting.”

“Hai, Sora-kun,” Akira replied then followed behind her as she took lead down towards the Underground’s base which was a few miles away from the base of Mt. Fuji.

* * *

The Underground’s base was pretty sparse, only a few straw houses identified the base. It was mostly located below earth-level, with its intricate crystalline tunnels, a ‘gift’ of technology that some of the Underground Resistance members had taken with them when they escaped from Tiamat’s clutches. The crystalline tunnels were able to withstand a direct nuclear bombing if Tiamat was able to do such a thing.

Sora made her way through the tunnels, passing tech workers running around to get different things done, to repair some places where the tunnels had collapsed from Tiamat’s constant onslaught. She noted with a cursory glance that many stepped out of her way when she plowed through, all of them knowing that whenever a Creation or a military personnel of the Resistance came through, it was wise to let them pass. She had heard of a story that once a tech-worker slowed a military personnel down and that ended the whole base up into flames. A sudden rumble ran throughout the base, bringing some crystal shards down. She ducked as one fell from her left.

Suddenly the warning alarms began to blare and Sora glanced around by sheer habit. Tech workers who were once milling around were now in full blown combat alert, running to their stations, some saying a quick prayer while others grimly attended to their tasks and posts. She glanced back at Akira and nodded curtly. “Lets go,” she ordered then ran off towards the main war room on the base. Ayari was sure to be there, coordinating in the next wave of attacks sent by Tiamat.

When she got there she saw that Ayari Chisato, the leader of the Underground Resistance, was shouting various orders into her headset and pointing her finger at various people who ran to do their jobs.

“Get those ion cannons online! I don’t care how much power you have to divert from our nuclear core, just do it!” Ayari yelled at one tech worker.

Sora admired her calm, though yelling at times, compassion for the welfare of the people under her command. It was what made her an efficient leader. She didn’t waste unnecessary lives over whatever Tiamat had to stick it to them, and was almost like Katsura Kogoro back when he was leading the Choshu Ishinshishi in the Meiji Revolution. Her raven black hair was tied up hastily in a messy bun, her oval pale face streaked with what looked like oil and grease, but her bright dark brown eyes shown with pride, determination, and a willingness to survive. Though she already knew that Ayari was ready to give her life up in exchange for the Underground to survive, she seemed very committed, no; she was committed to the cause.

Sora didn’t know the extent of Ayari’s powers, but she did know that the early thirties woman was a Seer, a Prophet among their ranks. She was able to detect whenever Tiamat would come within the range before their outer sensors registered and therefore was able to deflect many of her attacks.

“Ayari-sama,” Sora greeted curtly as she stood at attention, saluting their leader, “what are your orders?”

“Sora-san, Akira-san. Good you’re here. I need you to protect the Children. I have a very bad feeling that something drastic will happen. I will come by in a few minutes and tell you what to expect. Your brother, Ryo, and his companions are already in the Waiting Room, with the Children. Protect them with your life. They are our only hope for the future of man-kind,” Ayari replied and Sora noted that her voice held a deeper amount of gravity then normally.

“Hai, Chisato-sama. We will do as you command, Okashira,” Akira replied and Sora nodded her assent then turned and jogged towards the Waiting Room.

The Waiting Room was the most protected place, with psychic barriers and magic guards all around it. It was just a sparse room, but it was the safest place ever built within the complex. The Children were just kids, born from their ‘created’ parents like Sora, except they had a completely new awareness that would be the equivalent of a hundred-fold nuclear bomb. They were very powerful Voice and Power users, but that awareness didn’t settle in until they reached puberty.

Sora had heard that the children were modified within their parents before their parents escaped from Tiamat’s stronghold. It seemed that when they were born, Tiamat was going to use them to wipe out the Underground Resistance and all opposing population within earth and then use them to create her new empire. She narrowed her eyes as she thought of all the horrible things Tiamat was going to do with the human population, or what was left of it, if she got her hands on the people of the Resistance. She gripped her sakaba tightly and made her way towards the Waiting Room and opened the door.

Already inside, was her younger brother Ryo, his normally arrogant expression now one of worry. Ryo was only nine months younger than her, but he still acted as if he owned her and was superior to her, but now…he was waiting for her orders like a subordinate should. Mikuro Tsurumi and his twin sister Mayo were both on their guarded looks, both gripping their sharp katanas with a defensive posture. Haruka Kotaro, one of the teenaged magic users was attending to some of the children, while Nakahiko Toshiharu, another teenager was applying some of his uncanny healing abilities to some of the Children who were wounded from the crystal shards falling.

“Sora-chan is here!” one of the children, Yoshio Saitoh, a mere four-year-old boy cried out, jumping up from his corner in the Waiting Room and running towards her.

“Sora-chan!”

“Neesan!”

“Sora-chan!”

Sora winced a bit as all of the children, all five of them, ran up towards her and hugged her fiercely. She could feel the fear oozing from them, but that fear was also overlapped with confidence directed at her. They knew that she would protect them with her life, using her sakaba to defend them from any harm. They also knew that they were the Destined Ones, but that didn’t help the fact that they were children and children loved to be carefree.

“Children, let go of Sora-san,” Haruka’s control over the Voice shattered through their concentration and brought all of them around stiffly, most of them trying to struggle against Haruka’s command.

“Haruka, no need to use the Voice on them,” Sora retaliated with her own Voice slashing through her friend’s command. She didn’t need the teenaged girl to start scaring the Children right now.

“Gomen-nasai, Sora-san,” Haruka apologized, bowing deeply as she shifted her twin daggers that were sheathed around her waist.

Sora nodded then addressed the rest of the people in the room, “Ayari-san will be coming in a few minutes to tell us about our current situation. Until then we will stay here and if anyone that looks suspicious comes into this room we will kill them. Remember, no hesitations, got that?”

“Hai!” was the reply from everyone.

Sora ushered the children to the two teenagers then beckoned for Ryo, Akira, Mikuro, and Mayo to come closer. “Ryo, Akira, I need both of you to keep an eye on Haruka. She is a bit jumpy and I can guess only why. This is her first battle and she doesn’t know how to calm down. Mikuro, Mayo, both of you assist Nakahiko in dividing the Children up. If worst comes to worst, we will have at least some of the Children to save.” She held up a hand to forestall any interruptions, “I know this sounds crude, but we cannot risk anything.”

“Hai, Sora-san, but what about you?” Mikuro spoke up, running a hand through his naturally silvery-gray hair. Though only in his mid-twenties, Mikuro acted a lot like Ryo, arrogant and infused in his own abilities. Sora knew that Mikuro had a long-standing grudge against Akira and felt him as a rival for her affections, but she didn’t have anytime to indulge herself with men or with love. She had a mission that was given to her at her birth. To protect the Children and most of all to protect all those under her command with her sword and with Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

“I will be fine. Don’t worry yourself Mikuro-kun,” she replied then eyed each of them with her hard-leveled gaze. “Use all your techniques that you have acquired from Tiamat’s ‘creations’. We will stand against her, using her own weapons against her.”

“Takeshinawa-san!” a haggard voice interrupted her meeting and she glanced towards the door and saw a bloodied soldier stagger in. She rushed over and grabbed him just as he collapsed.

“What! What’s wrong, Rentaro-san!” she asked, eyeing the wound in the man’s stomach that was flowing with deep red pulses.

“T-Takeshinawa-san…beware…T-T-Tiamat…” the man hissed a bit in pain then relaxed and Sora immediately felt his life-force drain away as he died in her arms. She put the body down gently as another rumble shook the whole complex. Looking at the door with narrowed eyes she stretched out her sense to feel if there was any type of evil lurking about. What she received staggered her mentally. It was as if all of the good was extinguished within the base. The only hint of determination she felt was the familiar aura of Ayari who was coming towards them.

“What the hell happened?” Ryo demanded as he held his wakizashi tightly, his light brown eyes searching the parameters.

Just then Ayari burst into the room, harried-looking and bleeding from various places on her body. Sora immediately went to her and reached out to support her but hesitated as she saw a deep fire within Ayari’s eyes that made her step back and reconsider what she was about to do.

“I’m getting all of you out of here. Protect the entrance all of you. Haruka, you and Nakahiko protect the Children,” Ayari said curtly without any formal introductions.

“Hai, Okashira,” all of them replied and Sora drew out her sakaba and stood at an en guarde position, waiting for the evil to come through the door.

“Ayari-dono…what’s going to happen to us?” the young voice of Sakyura Nozomi spoke up, a twinge of fear running through her voice.

“Nothing will happen, Sakyura. I’m going to create a time-warp so you won’t have to face Tiamat,” Ayari replied and Sora took a quick glance at the leader to see her closing her eyes and focusing her energies into a single bond of power.

She had heard rumors that Ayari Chisato was very old, almost three hundred years old, though she didn’t look like it. Rumor had said that she was one of Tiamat’s first creations, one of Tiamat’s generals used as a feeler for the demoness herself to see what was going on in the world. Though Sora didn’t know if they were true, she felt that whatever Ayari was going to do, it would save the Children.

“Here they come,” Akira spoke in a monotonous voice as the first wave of cyborg-soldiers piled through the door.

Sora leapt at them her sword drawn. She raced through their ranks, slashing and hacking her way through. Ducking under one of the cyborg’s katanas, she stabbed the throat of another. Pulling out her blade, she didn’t hesitate as she flipped it to her sharp side and sliced through two of the cyborg-soldiers necks, killing them instantly. “Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu…Do Ryu Sen!” she yelled as she slashed her sword to the ground, digging up crystal shards and concrete towards a group of cyborg-soldiers, lifting them up into the air where they were promptly skewered and sliced through by Mikuro’s twin katanas.

Her danger sense tingled a bit and she turned around, blocking a cyborg’s chain scythe. She pushed against the cyborg then retreated using the cyborg’s momentum as leverage. “Tsu Mu Ji!” she cried out as she flipped her blade to the semi-dull side and mortally wounded the cyborg with a diagonal cut, making the cyborg bleed from his right chest to his neck.

She hopped back a bit and glanced around, unconsciously flicking her sword to get the blood off. Ayari had created a giant black portal with her powers and now was beckoning Haruka and Nakahiko to take the kids through the portal. “Get them through. I’ll hold Tiamat and her followers. Akira! Ryo! Mikuro! Mayo! Sora! You guys follow them. Protect them!”

“What is this?” she heard her brother comment as she refocused her attention on the cyborgs who were recovering and converging on more numbers than she thought possible.

“It’s a time portal! I can’t hold it for long so get through!” Ayari’s voice was strained and Sora took a quick glance back to her brother.

“Ryo, get through now!” she used the Voice on him and he obeyed, even though the expression on his face said otherwise.

She turned back to the cyborgs then caught Mayo’s eyes and nodded to her.

“Go, go, go!” she turned around and headed towards the black portal. Already, Mikuro and Ryo had gone through and Akira was about to step through. She watched as Akira vanished through the portal then approached it.

“Sora,” Ayari’s strained voice brought her head back around as she sheathed her sakaba, “find me in the past. Find me and free me.”

Sora looked at her with puzzled eyes then noticed that Mayo was about to use her attack. She nodded curtly then bend over to her Okashira’s ear, “May the Gods protect you, Ayari-dono.”

“Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu…Rai-“

Sora stepped through the black portal.

“-Ryu-“

She saw Ayari collapse from her magic using.

“-Sen!”

The last thing Sora saw was the soft brown-yellow dirt ground coming up to her face…then all was black as she passed out.

* * *

Author’s Notes:

Well, this is the first chapter of a brand new fic that I’m writing. I know, I know…I’m starting a lot of fics and the chapters are coming out slower by the minute, but I am trying to write as fast as my fingers could type. And it depends on my muses and how they are chatty. I guess the next thing I would be working on should be my Robotech fic, but that’s on indefinite hold for now. I’ll probably be working on both Star Wars fics and this one, along with my Ronin Warriors one too. Stay toned for next chapter. Oh yeah, school has started so fics and chapters will be coming in slowly… Another thing…you might be confused about what the heck did Ayari say to Sora…don’t worry it’ll be explained in future chapters…^_^

Chapter Two