Tears of the Red Sky

Chapter 1 : The Thief in Town

A/N: This story was set after the last episode of RurouniKenshin's second season (after Kenshin beat Shishio and went back to the Kamiya dojo). Let's pretend that the whole Season 3 and all the rest [OVA / movie] didn't happen (except for the Trust and Betrayal OVA [Tomoe's story]) but Kenshingumi already knew about the whole Tomoe affair. This story mentions lots of Japanese stuff and I also made use of some Japanese words. The words and their meanings/definitions are listed in alphabetical order at the end of each chapter. ^_^

Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin and any of its characters. If I did, I'd be doing mangas and not fanfictions. XD.. The OCs are mine though. =)

------------

Chapter 1 : The Thief in Town

"Listen, I want you to run as fast as you can. And no matter what happens, don't look back!"

Chiaki gaped at her father in horror. "But what about you - "

"Run!" Her father shouted.

She stared at her father hesitantly. She didn't want to leave him, but she had never seen him look so desperate. She took Yumi's hand on hers and her brother's hand on the other and started to run but Ichiro didn't move. She tugged at his hand but he still refused to move. He just stood there and stared at their father.

"Nii-chan come on!" She cried, desperately pulling at her brother's hand.

"But-" Ichiro reasoned but their father cut him off.

"Ichiro!" Their father snapped at him.

She saw Ichiro's face twist in pain. She knew that he didn't want to leave their father too. Ichiro bit his lip. He gave one last look at their father and hesitantly started to run with them.

"Nee-chan what's wrong?" Yumi asked.

"Just run Yumi," she told her little sister, dragging her as they ran as fast as their little feet could.

She looked back and saw her father unsheathe his sword and started talking to the person who killed their guards. She hoped and prayed that her father would be alright. She tried to ignore the images of the murder she had witnessed a while ago. Her father wouldn't die like them. As Ichiro said, their father was big and strong. He told them to run and she needs to trust him. She looked at her brother running beside her. He was gritting his teeth. His hand shivered in hers.

"Aaaah!" Yumi cried as she stumbled to the ground.

"Yumi!" They stopped running and helped their sister up. Yumi started to cry.

"Yumi you need to stop crying -"

"NOOOOOOO! Otousan!" She was cut off by Ichiro's sudden cry.

She looked back at her father and saw a sword sticking out from his back. Before her little mind could even find time to comprehend what was happening, Ichiro was already dashing towards their father.

"Nii-chan no!" She screamed but Ichiro was not listening.

She contemplated between chasing after her brother and staying with her crying sister. She was not able to make up her mind. She heard her father gasp as Ichiro froze in his steps. The killer had pushed the sword deeper into her father's stomach. For a moment, time seemed to stop. Everything was still. Even Yumi had stopped crying. Chiaki stared in fear at her father, her mind blank. Though she was young and couldn't understand lots of things, she understood that her father was in danger. She wanted to scream but her voice wouldn't come out and instead muffled into a choking sound.