[RK] Faerie Chronicles, prequel chapters 1 and 2

The Faerie Chronicles of Kenshin & Kaoru, a Rurouni Kenshin fanfic series by Raberba girl

The Princess and the Assassin

Summary:  What was it like for Kenshin as young Hitokiri Battousai, forced to carry out assassinations for Shishio Makoto? How did he meet the enchantress Tomoe, and what happened between them long ago? Prequel to The Useless Sword and the Enchanted Rose.

Prologue - from "The Ballad of Tam Lin"

Out then spoke the Queen of Fairies,

Out of a bush of broom,

"Them that has gotten young Tam Lin

Has gotten a stately groom."

Out then spoke the Queen of Fairies,

And an angry woman was she,

"Shame betide her ill-fared face,

And an ill death may she die,

For she's taken away the bonniest knight

In all my company.

"But had I known, Tam Lin," said she,

"What now this night I see,

I would have taken out thy two grey eyes,

And put in two eyes of wood."

Chapter 1 - "No woman belongs in a life like mine."

The dimly-lit chaos of the Unseelie hall surged and parted as a gang of soldiers burst in.  They were dragging a prisoner with them, a scrawny youth with long red hair.

King Oberon's laugh boomed through the room.  "Ha ha ha!  And what have you brought me tonight, men?"

"Seelie scum," one of them announced, flinging the boy to his knees and maliciously driving a boot into his back.

"Found 'im wandering in our territory," another laughed, aiming a glob of spit at the boy's now-empty hand.  "He was carrying these."  The fell knight pulled free a pair of swords and brandished them before the laughter of the court.

The princess, sitting demurely beside her father's throne as usual, watched the proceedings with cloaked eyes, while her younger brother leaned forward with a gleeful smile.

"So, this little redhead thinks himself a warrior, does he?" the king smirked.  He rose and approached the boy, who knelt quietly with his head hanging, making no move to resist the abuse of his captors.  The king placed the tip of his own sword under the prisoner's chin and raised it, but the boy's face was obscured by trailing bangs.  Oberon clicked his tongue and let the kid's head drop again.  "You have nothing to say?"  There was no answer, and Oberon shrugged.  "Very well.  What shall we do with him?"

A chorus of shouting swelled, gleeful suggestions for this or that.  "Roast him for tomorrow night's feast!"

"Make 'im dance his feet to tatters!"

"Give him to me, my lord, my latest love-toy is almost worn out."

"We could hack off that hair of his and strangle him with it--"

"No, string him up with it and make a puppet out of him!"

The dark fae shrieked with laughter and grew more and more excited at each suggestion.  Finally, a lean, muscular fae stepped forward, his eyes glowing red over a crazily-grinning mouth.  The court quieted at his physical assertion, for he was of high rank and had proven himself in battle, and was soon to become the king's son-in-law.

"Grant the Seelie brat to me, Your Majesty," the man suggested.  "I, Shigekura, will make good use of him before my comrades may dispose of him as they will."

A wave of chuckling swept through the room, chilling in its wicked anticipation.  The fae were startled, however, when the captive spoke up at last.

"Shigekura...is it?"  The boy raised his head, revealing narrowed eyes that glinted with enough icy steel to rival the toughest creature in that hall.  "So it was you who raped Junko-san."

Shigekura tilted his head in mock puzzlement.  "Who?"  The fae were chuckling and murmuring again, as they began to grasp what the situation may be about, but they kept it quiet, eager to see how the boy would respond.

He rose slowly to his feet, those eyes sending chills down the spines of his audience, though they would never have dared to admit it.  "She was a handmaid of the Faerie Queen.  She died because of what was done to her."

Shigekura shrugged with deliberate carelessness, watching the boy keenly as he did so.  "What of it?"

The boy was silent for a long time.  "No remorse, then."

Shigekura spread his hands and grinned.  "None whatsoever.  What are you going to do about it?"

Again, the boy was silent, and the fae found themselves holding their breaths.  Then he flashed into action, so suddenly that many of them missed it.  In an instant his weapons were back in his hands and he had flown at Shigekura, who was ready for him.  Steel clanged on admantine, the precious metal of the dark fae, whose touch was fatal to a Seelie.

Again and again the sound rang out, the combatants flashing here and there almost too quickly to follow with the eye.  The fae hurriedly scrambled for the edges of the room; the most cowardly escaped the scene of battle altogether.  A roaring rose, raucous encouragement to Shigekura and vicious slights to his small opponent.  It reached a fever pitch when one of Shigekura's strikes literally missed by a hair, so that a few long red strands drifted to the ground as the boy dodged.

"Slice him in half, Shigekura!" the Unseelie prince howled, now on his feet and riveted by every detail.  "Cut him to pieces!"

"Please sit down, Enishi," his sister told him calmly.  "You will get hurt if you are too close."  The combatants were in fact quite near the dais at this point.

"Shut up," he shot back distractedly, then cursed.  "He almost had him there!  I could have sworn--  FIRST BLOOD!  FIRST BLOOD!"  The crowd was bellowing along with him as Shigekura stumbled, blood spurting from a wound on his arm.  The Seelie kid waited, hard-faced and sword at the ready, for his enemy to recover and continue the fight.

Shigekura, head hanging and sword dangling near the ground, suddenly swiped outward; the boy jumped - and not just to avoid the blade swinging toward his legs.  He leapt high into the air, impossibly high by mortal standards, almost as if he was flying.  "Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryuu:  Dragon Hammer Strike!"  The sword came crashing back down, and Shigekura was split from shoulder to hip.

The boy landed in the midst of deathly silence, his feet tapping the ground as lightly as if he had wings to slow his fall.  In deathly silence he slowly wiped the blade and watched his motionless enemy.  In deathly silence Shigekura suddenly seemed to explode with blood, which spattered the side of the boy's face and came raining down on the nearby prince and princess.  Shigekura crashed to his knees and went sprawling at the boy's feet, who whispered, "Junko-san, please rest now.  This man will never commit such a crime again."

The petrified court finally roared into action once again.  Some of them howled in shock and outrage, a few raced for Shigekura's corpse, but most of them surged toward the Seelie warrior in a furious wave.  The boy, however, had no intention of returning to the passive persona he had adopted during his entrance.  He leaped again into the air to elude them, twisting and turning to fend off their attacks.  His swords glittered like diamond whips, carving a circle of protection around him and spattering the ground with non-fatal blood.  "Get back," he warned coldly.  "Anyone who wishes to keep his life, retreat."

No one listened, of course.  Screaming, they charged at him with no heed to strategy or order; limbs went flying and blood sheeted into the air.  A skilled warrior pitted against an enraged rabble, the boy flitted here and there beneath the very noses of his attackers, eluding all their blades and clubs and fists, yet never missing with his own weapons.

The princess watched impassively, her eyes fixed on his lithe figure dancing amidst the chaos.  'He is trying to escape,' she realized.  'And he is trying to do so by causing as little harm as possible.'  She sighed, then rose to her feet.  'He won't get very far by trying to accomplish both at once.'

The prince looked over at her in surprise.  "Neechan?"

The seething crowd parted for her almost magically.  Sweating, bleeding, cursing fae sensed her and backed away in haste, until she had approached the Seelie warrior where he stood within a ring of enemies.  Movement slowed and then stopped, all eyes fixed on her.

The red-haired boy said warily, his sword at the ready, "Please leave, before you get hurt."  The thought of a female, even an Unseelie, getting caught in a battle was sickening.

She rested her eyes on him, and noted with mild interest that he did not flinch at her gaze.  It was concern for her that showed on his face, mixed with tension as he kept alert to the enemies that surrounded him.

"It was my fiancé whom you just killed," she finally said.  His eyes snapped fully to her for a moment, and she indicated Shigekura's lifeless body on the floor.  "I am Tomoe, daughter of King Oberon.  I was pledged in marriage to this man, now slain by your hand."

The fae watched closely, eyes darting between her and the boy.

He finally said, his tone grim, "I cannot apologize."

"I do not expect you to."  She stepped closer and added, very quietly, "Nor do I wish you to."  She looked at him, and he nodded in understanding.

The fae began to chuckle again, their mood shifting capriciously as their battle-fury cooled.  Half-heard whispers were thrown back and forth, and the boy looked around uneasily, gripping his weapons.

Oberon rose from where he had been watching from his throne.  "Well, now," he called out, grinning mischievously.  "It seems my daughter is now short a fiancé.  We will have to find her a replacement."

The court's murmuring burst into shouts, as they playfully suggested this or that name.  Their eyes, however, glinted in anticipation, for they knew what the king was going to say next.

"It seems fitting, don't you think, that the one who slew her betrothed has now won the right of her hand?"

The Seelie boy frowned, as gleeful shouts rose up around him.  "What are you suggesting, King Oberon?  My purpose here is accomplished, I have no interest in a marriage alliance."

"Sorry, lad, but it seems you're a bit too late to stay uninvolved."  The king laughed heartily as he held up his hands - it took the boy a moment to see a glint of light and realize that the king was holding something like long thread.  He was puzzled to hear the Unseelie girl suck in a breath beside him.  "Congratulations!  May you live long and happily together!"  The king made a flinging motion, and the boy felt a brief sting on his wrist, but the sensation soon faded.  The fae around him were howling with mirth, some making obscene gestures and others calling out dirty jokes.

"Enough of this."  Sheathing his swords, the boy made a shallow bow to the king and turned to leave; no one seemed like they were going to stop him now.

There was a sudden stinging sensation on his wrist, and he heard a gasp and the clatter of shoes behind him.  He looked over his shoulder to find the Unseelie girl, Tomoe, straightening up as if she had just stumbled.  "Please don't walk so quickly," she told him in a flat voice.  "I will not be able to keep up with your usual pace."

He frowned.  "Why should you?"

She looked at him for a moment, as if he had said something unintelligent.  Then she raised her arm and tugged sharply.  He was amazed to find his own hand leap toward her of its own accord, his wrist stinging.  The watching fae burst into renewed laughter, and the boy finally understood.  It was a fairly common spell - a strand of his hair and a strand of hers, entwined around their wrists in order to bind them together.

He sighed.  "I do not have time for your Unseelie games."  Drawing his sword, he slashed it into the air between them, then turned to leave again.

His wrist stung, and there was a hurried step behind him, as if the girl was trying to keep up.  He frowned and looked back again.

Oberon chortled, "Now, I'm the Faerie King, boy!  You didn't think you'd be able to break one of my spells as easily as that, did you?"

The boy stared at him, then at Tomoe, who returned his look with her own quiet gaze.  "Irritating, I know," she said calmly.  "You can imagine it is for me, too.  If I am to be stuck with you for an indeterminate length of time, it would be convenient to know what I may call you."  She ignored the court's rude suggestions for this.

He ignored them as well, musing silently on this new predicament.  Then he finally said, "The name I go by now is Battousai.  That will do until I find a way out of this."

Tomoe looked at him.  Then she stepped very close and said in a voice heard by his ears alone, "That may be longer than you think.  Perhaps you will be telling me another name before the end."

"I hope it will not come to that.  No woman belongs in a life like mine."

She looked at him and thought, even then, that he was wrong.

To be continued....

Author's Notes:  I borrowed the names Oberon and Titania from the fairy king and queen in Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream.  However, the resemblance ends there; I based Titania's personality on the Faerie Queen in stories like "Tam Lin," and Oberon will simply behave in whatever way is convenient to the story.  The two of them are not married in this fic.

Uh...don't ask me why Tomoe's first fiancée ended up with Shigekura's name and Jin-e's looks. *sweatdrop*

The Faerie Chronicles of Kenshin & Kaoru: The Princess and the Assassin, a Rurouni Kenshin fanfic by Raberba girl

Chapter 2 - "Is your beauty meant to entrap me, then?"

Lounging on his stolen throne, Shishio burst into laughter at the sight of his chief assassin.  "What's this, Battousai?  You were never interested in women before."

Battousai glared, his face coloring a little.  "Lord Shishio, I request to be excused from my next assignment."

"Why?" Shishio asked, still thoroughly amused.  "So you can shack up with your first wench?  Not a chance."

"I am not your only assassin," Battousai growled.  "Usui or Kamatari can take care of it just as well as I could."

"Yes," Shishio said sweetly, "but then I'd miss out on the amusement of watching you try to kill someone with a girl trailing from your wrist."

Battousai pressed his lips together.  Seeing that further argument would be pointless, he bowed and turned to leave the room, slowing his pace in order to allow Tomoe to keep up.

"Bye, Tomoe," Shishio called after them, his eyes gleaming.

Battousai froze in his tracks.

With her usual deliberate movements, Tomoe turned back and bowed.  "Good-bye, Shishio-san," she said quietly.  Then she continued on her way, murmuring to Battousai as she passed him, "We should be going."

Battousai resumed walking without a word, but his eyes were fixed on her suspiciously.  As soon as they were out of earshot of Shishio's men, Battousai jerked to a halt and demanded, "How do you know Shishio?"

Tomoe took her time answering.  "He is half-fae," she finally said.  "King Oberon knows him well."

'Of course,' Battousai thought bitterly.  'Faerie is my only refuge, and now I find he's been invading that, too....'

"What are you going to do?" Tomoe asked after a minute.  "Will you take me with you to assassinate your next target?"

He groaned, putting a hand to his face annoyance.  "It's impossible."

"Not impossible," she pointed out.  "I would probably get killed, but what is that to you?"

He shot her a dark look.  "You are used to your heartless Unseelie folk, but I am not such a one."  Right after that, however, he suddenly looked away and mumbled, "At least, that's the comforting lie I tell myself...."

She gazed at him without speaking.  Finally, she said, "It's not a lie.  Most of the men in my father's court would not put my safety before their own convenience."

He looked over at her with a small, humorless smile.  "Are you trying to make me feel better, or are you just stating facts?"

"Does it matter?" she shot back, a little too quickly.  As if to cover that, she raised her chin and said imperiously, "I ask again.  What are you going to do, Battousai?"

He cocked his head, frowning.  Out of curiosity, he asked, "What would you like me to do?"

She stared back at him.  No one had ever asked her anything like that before.

"After all, you're the one who will be affected.  Technically, I could slay a man with or without being bound to you - it doesn't make sense for you to have no input."

Tomoe said, very slowly, "You are my fiancé, at least for the moment.  I will defer to your decision."

"If I really was your fiancé, I would want to know your wishes."

"You Seelie men don't marry lightly, do you," she muttered, then glanced back at him.  "Or is it not that you are Seelie, but that you are...you?"

Choosing to ignore this, he simply shrugged.  "Very well.  If you refuse to inform me of your preferences, I'll have to go with my own plan."

Again, she looked at him without saying anything.

He sighed and continued, almost apologetically, "There's nothing for it.  I must speak to my grandmother...she is the only one with the power to reverse one of King Oberon's spells."

He saw her stiffen.  "Your grandmother is Titania," she realized, her voice flat.

Battousai gave her a thoughtful, unhappy look.  "Believe me, I see the problem.  However, unless you have a better suggestion, it must be done."

"You want to take me to the Seelie court."

He frowned and held up his wrist.  "Do you want to be dragged around during a battle, then?"

'I'd almost prefer it,' she thought, but did not say so out loud.  She simply looked at him, her mouth silent and grim, but her eyes pleading.

"Tomoe-san...."

"Let's just get it over with."

o.o.o.o.o

The fae of the Seelie court were delighted to see their prince again.  "Ken-chan!" the handmaids cried, running to fling their arms around him and play with his hair and toy with the hilts of the swords at his waist.  "Come play with us, Ken-chan!"

"I'm here on business," he said shortly, striding right through their affectionate arms and the drifting, gauzy appendages to their clothing.

"Ken-chan's cheating on us!" they cried with reproachful laughter when they saw Tomoe, making her way with some difficulty in his wake.  "Ken-chan's been hiding away other girls!  So naughty!"

"It's not like that," he said gruffly, though the color creeping into his face only lent fuel to their teasing.  Ignoring them, he came before the throne and bowed to the queen.  "Grandmother, I greet you."

Titania looked down upon him, her eyes flashing.  "What's this, Kenshin?  You dare to bring an Unseelie into my halls?"  The other fae gasped, staring at Tomoe with frightened, angry eyes.

"She is under my charge," he said firmly, taking responsibility for any consequences.  "I have come to beg a favor of you, Grandmother."

A smile curled the queen's mouth.  "And what might that be?" she asked in a deceptively lazy tone; her gaze remained keen.

Battousai's eyes narrowed, and he held up his wrist.  "The spell can't have escaped your notice.  Please, free us."

Titania sighed.  "And just how did my troublesome grandson end up in such a predicament?"

He shrugged.  "King Oberon was upset that I killed one of his men."

Tomoe's eyes flicked to him, but she said nothing.

"You killed an Unseelie?" Titania repeated, quite interested.  "And why would my Kenshin do something like that?  I thought you were loath to take life.  Was it a matter of self-defense, perhaps?"  Her tone challenged him to lie.

Yet Battousai looked at her and said, after a long pause, "No."

"Your Majesty," Tomoe spoke up, her tone soft and coldly polite.  "I offer my condolences on your loss."  She noted the warning look Battousai gave her, but did not respond to it.

The queen quirked an eyebrow.  "My loss?"

"Yes," Tomoe continued, ignoring Battousai's intense stare.  "I would have liked to meet Junko-san, as she seems to have been a worthy person."

The court was silent.  Only now did Tomoe glance at Battousai:  he looked angry, and...fearful.

"Junko?" Titania murmured, as if thinking.  "Junko...oh!"  She laughed, a sweet, silvery peal that startled Tomoe with its loveliness.  "That handmaid of mine.  Yes.  Very irritating, that now I am one short; I'll have to pay Oberon back for that.  Of course," she laughed again, "I suppose you've already taken care of that, Kenshin.  What a good boy you are."

Tomoe, only half-surprised at the queen's heartlessness, looked over at Battousai.  His face was clouded by those useful bangs again, but the pained tightening of his mouth was still visible.  "I see," Tomoe murmured.

Battousai took in a breath, let it out, then raised his head.  "Grandmother.  The matter at hand, if you please."

The queen smiled.  "That pesky spell, is it?  Very well.  Come here, my love."

Battousai approached, but was suddenly brought up short by the stinging in his wrist.  He looked over his shoulder in surprise to see Tomoe still standing in the same place, her hands clenched tightly together.

Titania grinned at her in a rather predatory way.  "Don't worry, dear.  I won't bite.  If Kenshin has vouched for you, that is good enough for me."

Still Tomoe did not move.  Her eyes were fixed, unseeing, on the wall above Titania's head.

"Tomoe-san," Battousai called softly.

Finally, her feet began to move, one tiny step after another until she stood beside him.  On an impulse, he reached for her hand, but pulled back before grasping it.

Titania grinned again.  "Of course, there must be a price for this favor, Kenshin."

His eyes narrowed.  "Of course."  He glanced at the girl beside him, stiff with terror.  "But it is I who will pay it all."

The queen laughed.  "Very well, then.  What I require of you is one kiss, my bonny sweetheart.  And one on the girl's behalf as well."

The court burst into laughter.  Battousai, acting swiftly before she could more clearly specify her terms, leaned forward to place a dry kiss on Titania's right cheek, and another on her left.  Then he backed away and silently dared her to protest.

She frowned, but her people were crying out gleefully, "No foul!  No foul!  A kiss is a kiss!"

"Fine," she huffed.  "So you win again, Kenshin.  Give me your hand."  It was a simple matter for the Faerie Queen to cut the hairs apart, though the brief spark of released magic zapped Battousai and Tomoe a little painfully.  "There," Titania said shortly, "it's done.  And now you'll be rushing off again, since I'm of no further use to you."

He shook his head.  "I still have a little time.  If it will please you, I'll stay."  The handmaids burst into cheers, but Battousai was surprised when Tomoe suddenly clutched at his arm.  Looking at her, he found her eyes wide in desperation as she stared at him.  Then she dropped her head and slowly slid to her knees, gripping his sleeve harder than ever, her breath coming in gasps.

"Tomoe-san?" he asked in concern, reaching down to steady her.  "Tomoe-san, what is it?"

The only answer was Titania's tinkling laugh.  Battousai jerked his head up and stared around, for the first time taking in the elaborate decorations in the hall, the gorgeous clothes of the fae, the flowers and food and even their too-beautiful faces.  'Glamour,' he realized, 'Seelie glamour, almost all of it.  It's hurting her.'  At that thought, he straightened up and shouted at them, "Drop it!  Drop it all!"  They only burst into laughter, watching eagerly to see what the Unseelie girl would do.

Fury crept over Battousai.  He clenched his fists and closed his eyes, gathering his magic close around him, then casting it outwards with a wordless yell.  "Hyaaaah!"  Power blew through the hall, seeming to dissolve almost everything it touched:  the fancy trappings and decorations turned to rags and debris; the food turned to dust and other, less savory things; the fae who had been wearing nothing but dead leaves or cobwebs suddenly shrieked when their clothing was revealed for what it really was.

"Goodness, Kenshin!" the queen exclaimed, her attempt at an angry tone dissolving into giggles.  "Don't you think that was an overreaction?"

Battousai glared at her.  "I don't care."  He turned back to Tomoe and knelt down to her level.  "Tomoe-san, I'm so sorry."

"It doesn't matter," she mumbled.  "The binding spell is gone, at least.  You can go kill people now."

He stared at her.

She pushed away the discomfort and looked up at him.  "I'm all right.  I am no longer your concern, Battousai."  She rose to her feet, disgusted when she stumbled and had to be steadied by his hand on her arm.  It took a moment for her to gather herself enough to bow to the queen.  "Thank you, Your Majesty.  I will now take my leave."

"I'll escort you," Battousai offered.

The handmaids threw up a chorus of protest at this, and the queen frowned thunderously.  "You promised to stay, Kenshin."

He looked a little annoyed.  "I'll take her no farther than the edge of the gardens."

"We'll go with you!" the handmaids cried, and gathered around Battousai and Tomoe in a tumultuous group, dancing and singing.  Tomoe gazed at them in mild surprise.

"They can get silly," Battousai muttered in her ear.  "I'm sorry."

"No," Tomoe said softly.  "I've just...never seen anyone like them at...at home."

Battousai wondered if she thought that was a good or a bad thing, but he hesitated to ask.

They made their way slowly out of the court and through the gardens, bright with sunshine and the glittering wings of birds and butterflies.  As she had done on the way in, Tomoe could not seem to keep her eyes off them.  "It's so beautiful," she murmured.

He paused, then ventured to say, "There are beautiful things in the Unseelie court as well, are there not?"

She sighed.  "It's not the same.  Our beauty...it is meant only to lure and entrap, or it hides rottenness beneath."

"The same could be said for this place," he replied darkly.

"Not for everything, though."  Tomoe knelt, touching the tips of her fingers to a delicate pink flower petal.  "Here...some things, at least, are pure."

There was a pause.  Then Battousai reached down and, very gently, let a lock of her hair slip through his fingers.  "Is your beauty meant to entrap me, then?"

Tomoe froze.  He couldn't mean what she thought he did, could he?  Emotion suddenly flooded her heart, and she gasped at the warmth of it.

Battousai, mistaking her reaction, quickly withdrew.  "I'm sorry.  That was out of line."

Tomoe rose and, without looking at him, asked softly, "Battousai...when I return to the Unseelie court...will you...?"

There was a long silence between them, filled only with the singing of the handmaids as they danced out among the flowers.

"If Shishio has business with King Oberon," Battousai said slowly, "there is a chance I might need to come to the court again."

Tomoe shuddered.  "It would be wise for Shishio to see as little of us together as possible."

"...Tomoe-san."

She looked at him.

He smiled a little - those smiles of his were beginning to break her heart, because they never warmed the hard ice of his eyes.  Tomoe realized for the first time how her own eyes must look to others.

"Tomoe-san, if it will please you, I'll come to the court...without Shishio."

Her face was as impassive as before as she said, "Yes.  It will please me."  She hesitated.  "Except...."

He waited.

She could not bring herself to give full voice to what she wanted.  "It is awkward...to hear such an address...when I only call you 'Battousai.'"

He gave her a very cautious look.  "Is that so...Tomoe?"

She smiled, a tiny smile that took his breath away.  "Yes, that is so."

To be continued....

Author's Notes:  Glamour is a kind of disguising magic.

There was not anything romantic going on between Kenshin and Junko, but he was upset over the queen's heartlessness.