[RK] Faerie Chronicles, Sleeping ch.9 (part 2)

The Faerie Chronicles of Kenshin & Kaoru: The Sleeping Prince, a Rurouni Kenshin fanfic by Raberba girl

She couldn't see anything except the fog, cloudy grayness in every direction.  She was afraid to take a step, fearful of going the wrong way, of walking unknowingly into danger....  What was this place, anyway?  Had she fallen asleep, was it all in her mind?  Was it an illusion she was trapped in, while anything she did would be reflected in the real world?  "Help me!" she suddenly cried.  "Someone help!  Kenshin!  Kenshin!  Kenshin!"

"Stop that."  A forbidding figure stepped out of the mist.  For a moment, Kaoru was delighted to see Kenshin, but something about him made her shrink back.  His eyes were cold and hard, his face frightening in its dangerous misery.  His hair was in a ponytail, trailing down almost to his waist.

"Battousai," she whispered.

"You shouldn't be here, Kaoru-hime," he told her.

"I-I know."  She swallowed.  "Will you...show me the way out?"

Without moving, he seemed to withdraw from her even more.  "I don't know the way out."

Kaoru shivered to hear the word ore rather than the now-comforting sessha.

"Such gloomy faces!"  Another red-haired figure pranced out of the fog, clothed in a suit of leaves, the fiery locks tangled with twigs and glimmering like a halo around the breathtakingly pretty face.  The birthmark was not as livid as Battousai's, but still showed clearly against the fair skin.  "Kaoru-chan, Battou-kun, you two look like you're ready for a downpour at any minute!"

"Who are you?" Battousai asked warily.

His fey look-alike grinned and draped his arms around him.  "I'm you, of course, silly!"

Kaoru gaped at him - she had never heard Kenshin refer to himself as boku.

"Goodness, this certainly is an odd situation."  Kaoru turned helplessly to find a third Kenshin appearing behind her, with huge lovely eyes and a long ponytail like Battousai's, though somewhat thicker.  His clothes were patched and frayed, as if he was some sort of wanderer.  "Oro?  Kaoru-dono, this one thinks you don't look well, that he does not."

"Kenshin!" Kaoru said gratefully, but then a little red fox came bounding up.  "Kaoru-dono!" it said anxiously, to her shock.  "Are you all right?"

"A talking fox!" she gasped, then winced.  She was in Faerie, after all.  "Sorry."

"Oro?"  The fox glanced back along itself, whipping its tail close to its nose for a better look.  "Ah."

"Whee, so many of us!" the fae laughed.  "Oi!" he shouted into the fog, "any more coming?"

Somber footsteps approached, and yet another Kenshin became visible through the drifting mists.  He looked almost exactly like the other humans, except that his hair was cut short and his eyes were not so wide-open and girlish.  "This will make things difficult," he commented as he surveyed his other selves.  "Kaoru-dono, this one is afraid you will have to choose between us, that you will."

"Oooh!  Pick me, pick me!" the fae insisted, waving a free arm in the air.  Battousai frowned and tried to nudge him away, but the fae laughed and only latched on more firmly.

"Kenshin, what's going on?" Kaoru said, turning in confused circles.  Five sets of almost identical blue eyes gazed at her, longing for her.

"It seems only one of us is the true - or rather, truest - Himura Kenshin, that it does," mused the easy-going rurouni.

"It's obviously me," the fae asserted.

"No," Battousai said in a low voice, his eyes hidden.  "It's me.  My true nature...of course it would boil down to this."

"No!" the fox insisted.  "This one's true self is not a monster!"

"What do you mean 'this one'?" said the rurouni in confusion.  "You're obviously one of the illusions."

"Now, wait a minute," said the serious, short-haired one.  "You can't make something out of nothing.  Obviously, each of us reflects an aspect of this one's--  rather, of Himura Kenshin's true nature."

"But I'm the real one," Battousai insisted, "I know it."

"Each of us feels that he is Himura Kenshin," the fox said slowly, "because, in a way, we are."

"So how is that going to work?' the fae pouted.  "Kaoru-chan can't take home five husbands!"  He suddenly looked at the fox and snickered.

The creature gave him a cold look.  "This one--  Kenshin obviously isn't literally an animal."

"Are any of you going to get around to explaining this to me?" Kaoru huffed.

"Kaoru-dono," the rurouni said apologetically, "this place is meant to confuse and entrap.  This one--  each of us came to be your guide, but we did not anticipate this, that we did not."

"You will have to choose," the fox said gravely.

"But choose carefully," said the short-haired one.  "We are all Himura Kenshin, but some more, and some less.  If you choose the one from whom all of us were formed, we will merge and become one man again.  If you choose one of the copies...."

The fae made a throat-slitting motion and gave her a nervous smile.

"Kaoru-dono," the fox said softly.  "If a mistake is made, none of us will be able to escape this place."

Kaoru looked around at them.  "Well," she said after a moment, raising her hand to point, "it obviously can't be--"

Quick as a flash, the fae was half behind her and pressing his hands over her mouth.  "Careful, love," he whispered in her ear.  "You wouldn't want to make the wrong choice, would you?  After all, I'm the grandson of the Faerie Queen herself.  I spent half my childhood in the Seelie court...it was my only refuge.  I once loved a princess of the fae.  Who are you to say that I'm just another mortal like you?"

He grinned, even as he heard her breath coming hard.  "You've noticed, haven't you?  You're not the same as you were when you were seventeen, you're getting older.  Still lovely, oh yes, but of course it won't last forever, like it will for me.  Surely you've seen that though I am so much older than you, my face is as fresh as ever, my hair as bright?  I don't look a day over eighteen, and you know it."

The others could not hear his words, but they understood Kaoru's tears well enough.  "Get away from her," the fox snarled, and seemed surprised at the animal sound of his own voice.

"Let her make her own choice," the short-haired one commanded.

"I suppose my life is in your hands, Kaoru-hime," Battousai said darkly.

Kaoru stumbled away from them and covered her face.  She cried for a while, feeling those five pairs of sympathetic eyes on her back, and it was a while before Kenshin's name would stop chanting through her head.  Finally, she was able to get a hold of herself enough to think.  She paced on all fours as she did so, giving the matter consideration.  Then she finally turned to them.  It was obvious which three to eliminate first, at least.

Her mouth opened to speak, but then the fox said quickly, "Kaoru-dono, wait.  You ought to question us, that you should.  This one is sure the answers will be telling."

"They certainly will be," murmured the short-haired one.

"Questions," Kaoru said blankly.  "...All right.  Who are our children?"

"Children?" Battousai said in confusion.

"Ayame-chan and Suzume-chan," the rurouni said easily.

"No," the short-haired one objected, "there is Kenji, of course."

"All three!" the fae announced triumphantly.

The fox looked pained.  "Kaoru-dono, please ask another question."

"You didn't answer the first one," Kaoru pointed out, but then it occurred to her that perhaps the question had been too easy.  "All right, then."  She blushed a little.  "How many moles do I have, and where are they?"

Battousai blushed as well and looked away, saying nothing.  The rurouni and the short-haired one stumbled uncertainly through a list; the fae gleefully and without hesitation gave a complete catalogue of all the distinguishing marks on Kaoru's body, and their locations.  The fox only sighed.  Kaoru got the frustrating sense that she was doing something wrong.

"All right," she said slowly, "here's one.  What will happen when the last petal falls?"

This time, it was the two humans who looked confused.  The fae grinned and said, "Time to show Shishio who's boss."

Battousai sighed heavily.  "Either your father will die, or....."  His eyes clouded over.  "Or he will live, and I will never see you again."

Kaoru paused, her heart going out to him, then turned to the fox.

"When the last petal falls," it said quietly, "we will be free, and the rose will bloom again."

Kaoru caught her breath.  Why, of all five of them, had the fox alone given the answer that had been in her heart?  She had been sure it was the short-haired Kenshin, with such a calming presence and a strong focus on Kenji.  But the fae had answered the other questions most correctly...he couldn't be the one, could he?  "Argh!"  She paced around some more to think, her thick striped tail flicking from side to side in agitation.  She could not get this wrong....

"Kaoru-chan!" the fae called, but was abruptly cut off with a little squeal as Battousai rumbled menacingly, "We've heard enough out of you."

"Let her think," said either the short-haired one or the fox; Kaoru's back was to them and she couldn't see.

She finally came back.  "I know you, Kenshin," she said quietly.  "For seventeen years, I've ruled beside you, talked to you, made--" she blushed, "--made love with you."  She knew she and Kenshin were most likely alone in this place, but seeing five of him made her feel like she was addressing an audience.  "We've been through so much together.  I know your heart, Kenshin - and your truest self is not a murderer."

Battousai bowed his head and faded into nothing.  The others let out sighs of relief.  "One down, three to go," the fae observed, tossing back his hair.

"Was that right?" Kaoru said anxiously.  "Did I do it right?"

"Perfect," the short-haired one assured her.

"If you guess wrong," explained the fox, "the rest of us will shatter."

"So yes, fading is good, Kaoru-dono," the rurouni said with a nervous smile.

Kaoru smiled back, then started pacing again.  After a few minutes, she returned.  "Kenshin."  They looked back at her tensely.  "You...I know what your lineage is.  I've seen that look in your eyes sometimes...but...."

"Kaoru-chan, wait," the fae said frantically, but the fox growled, the rurouni wrapped his arms around the fae to restrain him, and the short-haired one put his hand over the protesting mouth.

Kaoru took a deep breath.  "I've seen your dedication and loyalty, your honor.  It's stronger than whatever eldritch blood you may have.  Kenshin...you belong in the human world, with me."  The fae struggled, but it was too late, he was already vanishing.  Kaoru's relief came out of her in a whoosh of breath; she hadn't been sure of that one.  Kenshin's comfort in the Seelie court, his dance with the queen, the way he seemed to come alive in their midst....  She shook her head firmly.  No, the fae had faded like Battousai, he wasn't the truest Kenshin.

She looked at the remaining three unhappily.  The humans looked exactly like her Kenshin, though the Kenshin she knew no longer had long hair.  The short-haired one and the fox were so alike, she would not have been able to tell them apart if they weren't in different forms; but only the fox had known her answer.

She studied them for a long time before she finally said, her voice shaking, "Kenshin...I love your 'oro's, and your sense of humor, and I can't resist those eyes of yours when you look at me like that.  But...that's...not all you are."  She swallowed, as his expression grew frightened and the others edged away from him.  "You have suffered too much for this cute face to be your truest one."

"Oro," the rurouni murmured in surprise, his voice fading along with his body.  "Not the real one after all...."

"I can't do this!" Kaoru suddenly burst out.  "What if I choose wrong, after all this?!"

"Relax, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin instructed.  He smiled.  "This one trusts you."

The fox also told her to relax.  "Don't try too hard, it will cloud your mind.  Listen to your instincts as well, that you should."

Kaoru looked from one to the other.  "I'm going to ask another question.  Okay?"  They nodded.  Kaoru opened her mouth to ask, closed it to frame the question more carefully, then spoke.  "If you had to choose...which would be more important?  Rescuing Kenji, or rescuing me?"

They looked warily at each other before they answered.  Then they said together, "Rescuing Kenji."

But Kaoru had been watching their faces carefully, and she gasped when she saw that one of them was lying.  "It's you!" she cried, running to throw her arms around the fox before she could change her mind.  It didn't work, though.  She was so shocked at the sight of her own arms that she didn't even notice the short-haired Kenshin fading away.  "I'm - furry!" she shrieked.

The fox looked startled.  "You didn't know?"

"NO!"  Craning her head over her shoulder, she was horrified to find that the dark fur extended over her entire body, and that she had a tail.  "I'm a RACCOON!"

"And this one is a fox," Kenshin pointed out, trying not to laugh.  "This is a place that likes representative forms, that it is."

"I'm a raccoon," Kaoru wailed again, huddling up miserably.  "I'm not even me anymore!"

"Of course you are."  Kenshin trotted over and licked the top of her head comfortingly.

She was very surprised at how good it felt, that rough tongue moving across her head and at the bases of her furry ears.  "Do that again," she asked, but he panted at her in a fox-smile and carefully shook his head as if not used to the gesture in this form.

"We don't have time, Kaoru-dono.  We need to get out of here, that we do."

He was right.  Kaoru got up and followed him, stumbling now that she was so aware of her strange, four-legged movements.

He looked back over his shoulder and noticed her difficulty.  "Don't think about walking," he advised.  "Your brain may be unfamiliar with it, but your legs know the way, that they do."

It was a little easier then, especially when they were talking and she forgot about this new way to walk.  "Why did you come, Kaoru-dono?" he asked wearily.

"You left me," she accused.

"You already knew this one was leaving."

"But you didn't even say good-bye!"  She had been counting on that so she would know when to go after him.  She hadn't expected him to sneak off in the middle of the night.

"That isn't true."

"I was practically asleep!  That doesn't count!"

"It was the best this one could do," he said in exasperation.  "Leaving was only possible when the queen was off her guard."

"But why didn't you at least wake me?"

He stopped walking for a moment.  "Because you would have tried to stop this one, or follow him."

"I followed you anyway," Kaoru pointed out.

Kenshin shook his head.  "You make things so much more incredibly difficult than they have to be, Kaoru-dono...itai!"  She had bitten him, then waddled off to sulk.  "Kaoru-dono!" Kenshin called urgently, pawing at his injured ear.  "It's dangerous to go off on your own, that it is!"

"Same goes for you!" she shouted back furiously.  Then she unexpectedly came to the boundary, hidden in the fog, and let out a shriek.

"Kaoru-dono!"  He bounded after her, but she had already fallen.

To be continued....

Author's Notes:  Tomoe did not spend fourteen years trying to "convince Enishi of the truth."  Remember how short the time seemed to Sôjirô.

There are several Japanese words for "I."  I'm not a native speaker, so this may not be quite accurate, but I get the impression that "ore" is more masculine, "sessha" is an uncommon humble form, and "boku" (which Sôjirô uses) is mostly for young men.