What we do in the beginning

[katananokokoro]

Date: February 7th, 2060
Time: Early morning-mid afternoon
Place: Kenshin's safehouse, New Meiji Lower Districts
Characters: Kenshin, Megumi, Saitoh



The road went on. Snow crunched under his feet, chilling them. Icy fingers slid along his arms, trickled down the back of his neck. He couldn't stop walking. Weary. Bent. His sword leaving red trails on the snow, red petals in the air.

You did this

Aa

He tripped and nearly fell. The snow jabbed at his hand like needles. A mouthful clutched in his palm, pressed in his mouth to hide his breath, but it was hot. It was all hot and cold at the same time and he was looking...Searching... No... Following. Just ahead. There she was. The woman with the long black hair. He wanted to reach for her. Wanted to step away. His hands... they weren't meant to touch. They were only meant to kill. She turned slightly as if she had heard his step, paused and he could see a cell phone pressed to her ear.

"You can't stay out here," he told her. "It's dangerous."

"I have to. Hello? Hello?!" Her voice rose in desperation. "Is he hurt?" And then she pinned him with wide dark eyes. "I'm looking for Sa-chan."

No. No! The darkness snapped around them. Just the two of them. The snow.

"Sa-chan. I'm looking for Sa-chan!"

"No, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

"Sa-chan!"

Comments

[katananokokoro]

The cops shot everywhere, screaming, fear and anger and AMP making them stupid. One charged into the room, shooting as if he knew nothing else. Kenshin charged him, moving left and right to avoid his fire, pivoting and snipping the tendons, first in his arms, then at the back of his legs. He screamed and fell, twitching onto the floor. Then there was another one, shooting. Shooting. At everyone. Everything. His lips drawn tight back from his teeth, his eyes black with shock. He had gone mad.

“Wait! Wait!” a shorter cop said. The mad cop gave him one glance before shooting him in the face. Kenshin, pushed forward, twisting out of the way of a bullet, using the force of his spin to come back and cut him in half, spine only giving momentary resistance before it severed and he fell.

Four down. One left. Crouched in the door way, crying, his fingers shaking as he held an epi pen over the unbroken skin of his forearm.

“Don’t.” Kenshin grabbed his hand, firmly but gently and the young man startled, a scream bursting from his lips. “You don’t have to be like them,” Kenshin said, looking into the cop’s eyes. “Don’t make a choice that you can’t turn back from.”

The epi pen clattered to the ground and the man pressed a hand to his face letting out a short harsh sob. Kenshin stepped back, satisfied that he wasn't going to do something stupid. A heavy weight started to fall over him as he looked at the room. Soaked in blood. Everything soaked in blood.

And there...in the shadows... He bought his attention back to the lean man, for the moment, until he could breathe, and looked at his hand wrapped around the knife still. And beside it...a phone. Kenshin narrowed his eyes and wondered...

No... His job wasn't done yet. He still had to find out one more thing. He flicked the blood off Kitetsu and sheathed it, crouching to pick up the phone which felt strangely heavy. The young man slumped to the ground, wrapping his arms around his head.

It was disgusting.

All of this waste.

All of this blood.

He looked through the lean man's call list and found the number he was searching for.

[katananokokoro]

Kenshin stared at Saitoh's number a moment longer. He had half been hoping it wouldn't be in here. (You can't escape that easily.) No. No he couldn't. Kenshin stood straight as he pressed send and listened to the phone ring, wondering if Saitoh would even answer. It was surreal, this feeling, a muddled sort of surprised. A sinking feeling that left a bitter taste in the back of his throat. Two rings. A click.

["Battousai."]

Saitou's voice was harsh against his ear and the name made him clench the sakabato. The old anger rose up in his chest and threatened to strangle him.

"Have the Shinsengumi gotten so weak that they need to use drugs to shoot an unarmed woman in the chest?" he said, his voice flat, his words hardly registering to his own ears. There was a slight pause. But only very slight. Enough for Kenshin to hear the television in the background.

["You stole a tablet, one that you should know would be tracked...what did you expect to happen?"]

Tracked! So that was how-- That was how. He should have known and in the end. In the end it hadn't made a damn bit of difference. In the end... only...only one person...no...not one...everyone who was lying-- but later. Later. There were still things that needed to be done.

"Just answer the question." If this was permissible... If all New Meiji police were...

["Moron. You already have your answer. You saw me fight in the diner."]

Not everyone has your honor, Kenshin wanted to say, except it pricked him somehow. Shinsengumi honor was negotiable at best. But-- wait Shinsen-- why was he even--? That was hundreds of years ago.

"Unfortunately I can't trust the rest of the force to share your sensibility."

["You would be wise to be wary, it would seem."] There was a strange sort of breath and Kenshin could imagine him blowing the smoke from his mouth as the cigarette curled between his fingers and filled the air with his presence. As the air wasn't full enough of him. Still, that gave him his answer. It was illegal. Kenshin let out a soft breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.

["Were they all using?"] Saitoh said.

"Aa." Kenshin glanced to the young man at the door. "Almost. They were using METAL, or something close to it. It's refined from AMP but a more aggressive strain and longer lasting."

"A greater risk of mental instability, too," he continued flatly, remembering the dialated eyes, the teeth, shooting his comrade in the face as if it was nothing. As if he had just been an irritating fly. "But the high is almost instantaneous..." And dangerous. Even moreso than on the streets. The police could make this tenuous world hell.

"Get it out of your men, Saitoh. Before there's a war." And there would be war. People would only bend so far until they broke. More innocent blood splattered on the concrete. He glanced at the young man again who was looking up at him, a different kind of fear in his eyes. He knew the truth.

"I have someone here who can give you names and details," Kenshin said, meeting the young man's eyes, trying to tell him to be brave. "He chose not to take the drug, but I believe he was coerced."

[Fine.]

Kenshin handed the phone to the young man who hesitated.

"It's your choice," Kenshin said. The man stood, levering himself to his feet and took the phone with a shaking hand. Kenshin tried his best not to hate him as the man left back the way he had come. The phone pressed to his ear.

"He...hello...?" he said, faintly, just before Kenshin shut the door.