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Descent into Madness: Chapter 7

by Conspirator

Kenshin slept long and deeply that night, catching up on the sleep he had missed during those tormented nights earlier in the week. And although he didn’t quite wake up with the sun, he still was up in time to help in the kitchen. Okami, Yuka, and Kishi were all there, busily preparing breakfast for the 20 men stationed at the inn. They greeted him warmly as he entered the kitchen, and he went straight to work bringing in more water and making rice balls.

He wasn’t sure what to do about eating breakfast itself, however. He had now been in Kyoto for a week—it seemed like a lifetime already—and he had settled into a comfortable routine of eating with Yoshida and his companions at most meals. Last night, though, it became apparent that Yoshida’s prediction would come true—no one would want to associate with a hitokiri. He truly appreciated Yoshida’s friendship, but he was reluctant to come between him and his long-time friends. He decided to wait until the dining room was filled up before going in himself to avoid causing a problem.

When he finally did go in, there was an empty seat at the far end of the room, somewhat away from everyone else, so he took it. He saw Yoshida wave over to him, but he merely nodded in acknowledgement. He figured he might as well get used to eating alone. Then Iizuka came up and sat next to him.

"Why off in a corner, huh?" Iizuka said breezily. "You should be proud of yourself—you’re getting quite a reputation in Kyoto."

Kenshin looked at him quizzically, but continued eating.

"Word’s getting around that there’s a shadow assassin in town," Iizuka continued, a satisfied smile on his face. "Not only that, they’re saying this assassin has the ability to appear and disappear like a ghost. You sure spooked those guards at Fujiwara’s the other night!"

Kenshin still didn’t say anything.

"Well, you’re sure talkative, aren’t you," Iizuka commented.

"There’s nothing to say," Kenshin finally said. "I did my job. It’s not like I enjoyed killing those men."

Iizuka snorted. "Yeah, whatever," he laughed. "Anyway, it seems folks are so rattled by what’s happened, especially your end-run around Fujiwara’s guards, that they’re putting on more bodyguards around important Bakufu officials and supporters. In fact, there’s someone we need to take care of, and I think we’re going to have to take care of him right away before he gets surrounded by too many bodyguards." He handed Kenshin a black envelope.

"This guy is the chief representative of the daimyo of Aizu to the government. He’s a master swordsman, and our spies tell us he’s already got a contingent of six bodyguards. We can’t wait any longer or he’ll have so many bodyguards, it would take a squad of our own men to take him down."

"So why not just do that?" Kenshin asked flatly.

"Well, I thought that would have been obvious," Iizuka said with surprise. "We send in our squad, they know who did it. That would start a war between Chousu and Aizu. We send you in, however, and it’s a shadow—they have no idea who did it. No idea, no war, get it?"

Kenshin stared at his food. So, he would be delivering heaven’s justice to an enemy of the Ishin Shishi, thus preventing a war. But if he didn’t deliver heaven’s justice in the first place, there wouldn’t be a war, either…. No, this man clearly was an enemy of those seeking the new era of peace and justice…. He pulled his attention back to Iizuka, who was still talking.

"…with those bodyguards chasing you, you need to know about our safe houses," Iizuka was saying.

"Safe houses?"

"Yeah, places you can go in an emergency," he said. "If you were being followed, for instance, you sure wouldn’t want to head back here—it could put everyone here in danger. There are about 10 places scattered all over the area where people will take you in, no questions asked, and hide you for as long as you need. Here’s the list—memorize it. Then spend the day visiting every one of them and introduce yourself so they know who you are. Here’s how you introduce yourself…," and Iizuka handed him another sheet with a series of coded sentences that would alert the safe houses to the fact that he was an Ishin Shishi. "Think you can handle that?"

Kenshin looked everything over and nodded.

"See you later, then," Iizuka said lightly, as if he had just arranged a dinner date rather than an assassination.

Yet another black envelope, and this time there would be six bodyguards. He slipped the envelope in his sleeve pocket and continued eating, but without much appetite. Meanwhile, he scanned the addresses of the safe houses. They did, indeed, seem to be all over the city and even outside the city. He had hoped to visit Shozo again at the stable today, but it looked like that would have to wait. He stood up to leave and found Yoshida waiting for him by the door.

"Well, Himura, I lost my shirt at dice last night, as predicted," Yoshida said glumly. "Worst part is, I’ve got guard duty with some of those guys today, and they’ll just be laughing at me."

Kenshin couldn’t help chuckling. "Yoshida, has it ever occurred to you that maybe you just weren’t cut out to be a gambler?"

"Himura," he retorted, "has it ever occurred to you that if you came with me, I could be a gambler?"

Now Kenshin laughed—it felt so good to laugh—but then the smile disappeared as he shook his head. "I can’t do that—you would lose your friends. They don’t want to be around a hitokiri like me, remember?"

"Himura, you said so yourself—you’re no cold-blooded killer. Once they realize that, they’ll change their minds."

Kenshin shook his head. "I appreciate your confidence in me, but I’m not so sure they’d really change their minds. Anyway, there can’t be that many people out there who deserve heaven’s justice, so maybe I’ll only have to worry about this for a few weeks."

"Not that many?" Yoshida repeated incredulously. "Only a few weeks? Oh, kid, I don’t think so. I don’t know where you got that idea from, but I don’t think so."

Kenshin looked at him with surprise, but his expression quickly changed to one of hardness and determination. "I hope you’re wrong," he finally said. Then he left to go to his room.

In the privacy of his room, he now took out the black envelope and read its contents. There was a name, a place, and a time—6 p.m. The days were rapidly getting shorter, but it was still fairly light out at 6 p.m. And the place was outside a government office, a location that was sure to have a lot of people around it. The man, Iizuka had said, would have six bodyguards. This assignment was going to be a lot more difficult than the first two, he could tell. He decided to scout out the area while making his rounds of the safe houses. Then he settled down to memorize the addresses of the safe houses and learn the coded sentences he would need to gain admission. Finally, after an hour of studying and memorizing, he grabbed his hat and went on his way.

His first stop turned out to be a shop selling women’s combs and toiletries—an odd choice for a safe house, he thought. The next two were private homes. They were not near each other, but both were on side streets in areas that were generally considered hostile to the Ishin Shishi. He was surprised to find that an elderly couple lived at one address, a mother with young children at another. Did they hate the Bakufu so much that they were willing to endanger themselves and their families this way? He continued to wind his way through Kyoto, stopping at an address in the warehouse district and one that turned out to be a bar and brothel in the poor, rundown area near the warehouses.

From here, he knew that if he followed the river, he would come to the Imperial district and the location of the night’s mission. He found the street, a major thoroughfare, and followed it to the government building where the black envelope had instructed him to go. It was an imposing place not far from the Tokugawa palace, but it didn’t seem to be guarded. He sat in an alley across the way, leaning against a building, and watched the comings and goings for about half an hour. He noted that nearly everyone who came or went was either a daimyo or high-ranking samurai with several bodyguards, and that when they left, they all seemed to head in the same direction. He decided to discretely follow the next group to see where they went. It turned out to be an inn whose sign read Nijo Jinya. He noted that every one of the daimyo and samurai he had seen leaving the building over the past half-hour seemed to be milling about the inn’s doorway. He had a feeling this was where his target would be heading at 6 p.m.

It was now lunchtime and he was hungry, but he decided he’d better visit one more safe house before eating. This one was east of the river, in a rather sparsely populated area far from downtown. It turned out to be a small shrine—so small, in fact, that it would have been easy to overlook. He knocked at the gate and was met by a middle-aged monk. After going through the coded conversation, the monk asked him in and offered him lunch.

"We haven’t had anyone from the Ishin Shishi here in a long time," said the monk, whose name was Toshiro, "and you’re the youngest one I’ve ever met."

Kenshin smiled. "I’m 14, and I know that everyone…"—his voice cracked; he stopped in surprise before finishing his sentence— "…thinks I’m younger." He put his hand to his throat, wondering if he was getting a cold or something.

Toshiro chuckled. "Voice changing?" he asked calmly. "I may be an old man, but I remember when my voice changed. What a week that was! Every time I opened my mouth, I didn’t know if I’d be a soprano or a bass."

A sense of panic overtook Kenshin as he realized what the monk was talking about. "You say this is going to last a week?!" How in the world could he announce ‘heaven’s justice’ with his voice cracking!

Toshiro laughed at Kenshin’s obvious unhappiness over the situation. "It happens to all of us, so you might as well resign yourself to it," he said. "If you’re lucky, it’ll only be a few days, but I knew someone once where it went on for two weeks."

Kenshin groaned.

They finished their simple meal, then Kenshin stood to leave. In his now-cracking voice, he thanked his host for the lunch and the information.

"It was my pleasure," Toshiro replied. "It’s a shame this is a safe house. I’d enjoy having your company more often, but as it is, I guess I’d better say, I hope I never see you again."

"What do you mean?"

"Because if I do, it will be because you’re in serious danger. Good luck."

Kenshin went on his way once again, stopping at all the rest of the safe houses and cringing as his voice cracked nearly every time he opened his mouth. He could see it now—he’d arrive to announce heaven’s justice tonight and have his intended target start laughing instead of taking him seriously. What was that Katagai had said last week about 14 being an awkward age? He wasn’t kidding!

He got back to the inn late in the afternoon. He wanted to get in position for his job well in advance of 6 o’clock, so he quickly changed out of his green gi and into his uniform. He wanted desperately to practice his kata, but he had no time to go out to his secluded meadow. So, despite the fact that he would be watched, he headed for the courtyard to practice and proceeded with an abbreviated version. He could feel that there were spectators, but he ignored them, concentrating only on the feel of his sword and the flow of his leaps and footwork. He finished and swept out of the courtyard, not even glancing at the men who were watching. His mind was solely on the task ahead of him—the rest of the world had ceased to exist. The men, however, saw something quite different. Instead of the boy they had taunted just a week ago for being so young and scrawny, they saw a young man with narrowed, amber eyes that promised no compromise in a fight, that promised instant death if anyone stood in his way. It was the change that had scared Yoshida and Sato two nights ago; now everyone else had seen it as well.

It still being light out, Kenshin did not bother taking side streets to his destination; he would be just one among many other pedestrians seeming to hurry home before darkness, and danger, fell. Two blocks from his destination, he turned down an alley and found his way to another alley that gave him a good view of the building in which his target was meeting. Now all he had to do was wait. He noticed that as it got later, there were fewer and fewer people in the vicinity. Maybe, if he was lucky, there would be no one around by the time this samurai from Aizu left the building.

Finally, a little after 6 o’clock, the door to the building opened, and a group of seven men stepped out into the street. It was them. There were three bodyguards in front, one next to his target, and two behind. They seemed to be engaged in a serious discussion, and they were, as he suspected, headed in the direction of the Nijo Jinya. As they passed by his alley, he silently slipped out behind them. Praying that his voice would not crack, he said softly, "Ito Shigetoki, I have come to bring Heaven’s Justice."

There was silence as the guards turned around in surprise. "If you value your lives, you will step aside," Kenshin said to the bodyguards. His voice did not crack, although he would not have noticed even if it had.

They did not value their lives. In an instant, everything was a mass of movement, with the rear two guards charging at Kenshin. He, however, had planned in advance what to do. He needed to move the fight away from the main street and away from the direction of the Nijo Jinya. He turned and ran as fast as he could down a side alley, with the bodyguards following close behind. When he sensed that one guard had outpaced the others and was coming close, he suddenly turned and used the circular motion of turning to slice his pursuer in half. As he did, the second bodyguard rounded the corner. Seeing his comrade dead, he came hurtling down the alley towards Kenshin, sword drawn and ready to kill. Kenshin drew this attacker further down the alley as well until finally he turned and killed him in the same way. Now the other three bodyguards, as well as Ito himself, were blocking the entrance to the alley. Without stopping after his swing, Kenshin flipped forward towards them with blinding speed to give himself more power. His pursuers barely had time to draw their swords before, with one mighty swing, he felled the two men in front. As the third bodyguard started a swing that would have beheaded him, Kenshin leaped high in the air, avoiding the blade and bringing his own sword down through his opponent’s skull, cleaving him in two.

Now there was just himself and his target, Ito Shigetoki. The two faced each other, fiery eyes meeting fiery eyes. In the eery silence that had descended, the samurai from Aizu said, in a voice laced with venom, "Prepare to meet your death. I am a master of Yagyu Shinkage Ryu."

"No, it is you who will die," Kenshin replied with equal venom.

He assumed the battoujutsu stance and waited for Ito to attack. They stared at each other, waiting for the other to move, but neither blinked, neither flinched. Suddenly, in a blur of movement, Ito shot forward, sword aiming for a clean cut through Kenshin’s torso. Kenshin immediately leaped high and flipped over Ito’s head, landing behind him and swinging even as he landed. Ito, however, was too fast and managed to deflect Kenshin’s sword. Swing followed swing as the two continued to attack and defend until they separated after several minutes to catch their breath. Kenshin had not had a fight like this since practicing with Hiko, and it heightened all his senses. Ito, on the other hand, had never met an opponent who could outlast him as long as this stripling of a boy had. Ito growled in anger, his rage building at the thought of being humiliated by a mere child. Suddenly, Ito attacked again, but Kenshin was too fast. With god-like speed, he ducked Ito’s sword, ran past him and, turning, he leaped in the air. Ito barely had time to register that his opponent was airborne before Kenshin landed a blow to the back of his neck, finishing with blows to his jugular, chest, and legs. The man crumpled to the ground, dead.

Kenshin surveyed the scene before him and calmly wiped the blood from his blade before dropping the note proclaiming "Heaven’s Justice" on Ito’s body. As he did, Iizuka and three men came running up—it was Yoshida, Sato, and one other. If Kenshin had bothered to look at them, he would have seen expressions of shock and disbelief on their faces.

"Please clean this up," Kenshin said in a low voice. Then, without another word, he turned and walked away.

He knew that his clothes were bloody, so he kept to the alleys and back roads as he returned to the inn, even though it was now fairly dark out. There were several men in the front hall when he got there, but he didn’t notice, nor did he hear their shouts of "What happened?" He headed for his room, closed the shoji behind him, and stripped off his clothes, changing into his spare hakama and green gi. To knocks at his door, he growled, "Go away." Finally, when it seemed that most of the men had gone off to gamble or do whatever they did at night, he took his bloodied clothes and headed for the washroom off the kitchen to grab a bucket, a washboard, and some soap. Then he went to the well, got some water, and proceeded to wash out his clothes. He sensed some of the men staring at him, but once again he ignored them. He finished cleaning the blood from his clothes and now stared at his hands. He felt like the blood had not yet come off of them, so he continued to wash them. Someone was using the bathhouse, so he pulled up a bucket of water from the well and dumped it over his head, hoping that that would make him feel clean again. It didn’t. Finally, he went back to his room, not saying a word to anyone.

‘Seven men. I have slaughtered seven men.’ Kenshin could not get that thought out of his mind. It was bad enough that he had killed so many, but he realized that he had actually enjoyed the challenge of the fight. The thrill of the chase, the rush he felt as he turned and swung at his opponents, the feeling of flying through the air as he crashed his sword down on his attackers—it gave him a feeling of power that was almost intoxicating. But the result—seven bodies strewn over two alleys. He remembered Hiko yelling at him during their last argument.

"Swordsmanship is a form of murder!" Hiko had shouted. "You will become a mass murderer!"

Kenshin shut his eyes and tried to clear his mind. ‘No!’ he thought. ‘Not murder—heaven’s justice!’

But Hiko’s voice intruded once again. "They are all human beings, merely trying to live their lives the only way they know how!" he had yelled.

‘No!’ Kenshin cried once again in his mind. ‘They’re the enemy, oppressing the weak with a cruel government!’

He grabbed his sword and sat against the wall, cradling the weapon against his shoulder. He sat there staring off into space until he finally fell asleep. Dreams of sightless eyes, headless bodies, wailing women, and bloody corpses lying in the street tormented his rest. He woke up once in the night from hunger, since he had never eaten dinner, but the food Okami had left outside his door seemed tasteless. Then he drifted back into a dreamless, fitful, sleep until dawn.

When he awoke, he thought of going down to the kitchen to help Okami and the girls, but he somehow felt that the events of the previous evening had left him unclean. Instead, he headed for the bathhouse and soaked in the tub until it was time for breakfast. As he walked through the hallway to the dining room, he became aware of whispers behind his back. "A demon," he heard one whisper. He turned to see who they were talking about, but he only saw a small group of men talking to each other.

He shrugged and continued on into the dining room. He spotted a place at the far end of the room and sat down, intending once again to eat alone. He needn’t have worried—the men nearest to him got up and moved away. He spotted Yoshida midway down the room and noted that Yoshida had quickly averted his eyes. He had no idea what was going on and was just glad to receive his food from Kishi.

"We missed you this morning," she whispered as she placed a tray of food in front of him. "We heard about last night." Before he could ask what she meant, she had walked away to serve the others.

Iizuka eventually came over to sit with him, just as he had the previous morning. "You were unbelievable last night, just unbelievable!" he said enthusiastically as he settled himself down.

"Iizuka, I don’t want to talk about it," Kenshin muttered. Damn, his voice was cracking again.

"I’ve never seen such speed and accuracy with a sword!" Iizuka continued.

"I don’t want to talk about it," Kenshin said a bit more loudly.

"I don’t think you fully appreciate what you did last night," Iizuka persisted. "That guy Ito? He was considered one of the top swordsman in Japan! That style of his—Yagyu Shinkage Ryu—one of the most deadly there is! And you defeated him, not to mention all his guards!"

"Iizuka, stop! I slaughtered seven men! I took no pleasure in it!"

"Truly amazing," Iizuka said again. Then, before getting up to leave, he added, "Say, is your voice changing?"

Kenshin gritted his teeth at that comment but continued eating, although it was a mechanical action. His mind was numb, and he desperately wanted to get rid of that numbness. He decided that right after breakfast, he would go visit Shozo at the stable. Shozo was always so happy and enthusiastic, it never failed to lift his spirits. So, as soon as he was done, he headed for the stable. He stuck his head in, but didn’t see his friend. He walked out to the exercise yard, but didn’t find him there, either. Finally, he went over to the house, where he found Shozo’s uncle, Hideko, on the porch polishing his boots.

"Good morning, Hideko-san," Kenshin said, bowing politely. "Is Shozo around?"

Hideko gave him a peculiar look and said, "He’s gone. Didn’t you know?"

"Gone?"

"He was sent to Chousu yesterday, to train horses for Takasugi Shinsaku."

"But…but he told me when he’s 13…he didn’t say anything about leaving now!" Kenshin sputtered.

"It was a sudden thing," Hideko said, once again giving Kenshin a peculiar look.

"Well…." Kenshin was at a loss for words. Finally, he said, "I’m sorry to have bothered you. Thank you," and he left.

He wandered down to the river, where he and Shozo had flown kites just a week earlier. What was he going to do? How could Shozo have left so suddenly? How would he ever shake the numbness he felt in his soul? It was almost as if the part of him that could feel happiness was locked in a closet to which he had lost the key. As he thought this, he suddenly remembered—hadn’t someone talked to him about blocking out bad memories when they interfered with happiness? It was the woman at the inn in the pleasure district, Kumiko. "When the white makeup goes on, I close off my real self and hide it away," she had said. "When the makeup comes off, I lock that other person away and try to forget she exists. That’s the only way to survive." He got up and decided to find her. Maybe she could help him shake off his feelings of desolation.

It didn’t take long to get to the Gion district and to find Kumiko’s inn. When he found the front door locked, he went around back to the kitchen and knocked. A burly man opened the door and then, upon seeing Kenshin standing there, started to slam it in his face. Kenshin caught the door with his hand and held it open.

"I’m here to see Kumiko-san," he said quickly, his voice cracking ever so slightly.

The man seemed surprised. "What business you got with her?" he asked brusquely.

"She’s a friend," Kenshin answered simply.

The man looked Kenshin over, trying to decide if he posed a threat or not.

"Awfully young to go after our girls, aren’t you?" he retorted. When Kenshin glowered, he said, "Tell me who you are, and I’ll go get her."

Kenshin didn’t want to give his name, so he said, "Tell her it’s her friend from the mountains."

The man walked back inside, leaving Kenshin standing at the door. He waited several minutes and was about to leave when Kumiko appeared, wearing a sleeping yukata and looking like she had just woken up. Her eyes widened when she saw who her visitor was.

"Himura-san, isn’t it?" she said. "What are you doing here at this hour?"

Kenshin realized he must have awakened her. "I didn’t realize you’d still be asleep, I’m so sorry…," he stammered. Then he collected himself and said, "I need your help. Could we talk?"

Kumiko noted that there was a profound sadness about Kenshin that had not been there when she first met him last week. She said, "Come to my room while I get changed. Sure, we can talk."

He followed her down the long corridor to her room. She pulled out the folding screen and stepped behind it to change. Kenshin found a cushion and sat on the floor to wait.

"So, what’s on your mind?" she asked as she changed her clothes behind the screen.

Kenshin was silent for a minute. Then he said, "Do you remember telling me how you lock your real self away when your makeup goes on, then lock that other person away when the makeup comes off?" He heard her say yes. Then he continued. "What happens if you can’t seem to bring back your real self? What if that closet seems to be locked, and you can’t find the key?"

Kumiko came out from behind the screen, wearing a simple daytime kimono and fixing her hair. She looked at Kenshin, who was staring at his hands.

"Something’s happened, hasn’t it," she said softly. He nodded his head. She was too experienced in her line of work to ask what, and Kenshin was relieved she didn’t ask.

"Let’s go down to the riverfront and talk," she said, and she led him out to the water’s edge just below the overhanging porches of the nearby inns. They watched the water lapping against the shore, the gentle sound soothing Kenshin’s frayed nerves.

Finally, she said, "The key is having a friend. It’s friends who bring you back. I learned that a long time ago, when I first came here. I was only 13, and after a few nights of this work, I felt so angry and bitter and helpless, I thought I would kill myself. But the other women here were so kind to me—they were like sisters—and soon I found that when I was around them during the day, all that bitterness and anger just went away. And, of course, there are the children…."

"Children?" Kenshin said in surprise. "I didn’t know you had children!"

"Oh, not me," she laughed. "I’ve been lucky, I haven’t had any, but some of the other women have, and we all act as mothers to them. Being with the little ones always makes me laugh." She pointed down aways to some small children playing in the water. "Those three are the children of two of the women from our inn."

She waved to the children, who came running over to hug her and climb in her lap. One was a five-year-old boy; the other two were three-year-old twin girls. The boy was wary, but the girls stared shyly at the stranger with the red hair. They reminded Kenshin of the toddlers he used to watch on those weekly visits to the young widow’s farm with Hiko. He smiled back. Then he stood and, choosing a flat pebble from the shore, started skipping the stone across the water. The five-year-old watched in fascination. Kenshin picked up another stone and skipped that one across the water. Now the boy came over and tried throwing one of his own, with no success. Kenshin picked up a third pebble and handed it to him, then gently took the child’s hand and showed him the proper motion. The boy’s pebble skipped twice. The boy smiled delightedly as he pulled at Kenshin’s sleeve and pointed at his successful toss.

"Looks like you have a way with children," Kumiko commented.

Kenshin helped the boy skip another pebble and then sat back down with Kumiko. They watched the children play, sometimes talking, sometimes not, he telling her about Okami, Kishi, and Yuka, she telling him about some of her more colorful clients. Slowly, he forgot the blood and gore of the previous night—almost. Slowly, he once again felt whole—almost. It seemed to be getting harder and harder to bring himself back.

He almost hesitated to ask, afraid she would say no, but finally he got up the courage to say, "Would it be all right if I came back again sometime, just to talk?"

Kumiko laughed gently at his shyness. "Of course," she said. "Just come a little later in the morning next time, ok?"