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War Of Shadows	By : TurtleNinja Category: +S through Z > Samurai Jack Views: 3353 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Samurai Jack, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Once she was certain that the double had gone, Chimitsu sheathed the nodachi on her back before turning and kneeling down next to me. I allowed myself to relax at that point, relieved to see the pure Chimitsu again, to know that it had been a double causing so much trouble instead of a split personality. Her hands gently caressed my face, brushing my hair back out of my eyes.

"Minamoto-kun....what did she do to you?" she asked quietly, the worry evident in her voice.

"Besides kiss me? Tried to weaken me so she could kidnap me and take me to Aku."

"Looks like she did a pretty good job save for the kidnapping you part. Hold still and I'll get you fixed up back to normal, eh?"

I nodded and stayed still as she pulled me close so that my head rested against her chest, her wings folding around me. Instantly, I relaxed, feeling warm and safe within their confines. Her healing energies began to take effect, restoring my drained energies and closing my wounds.

As soon as she had finished, I sat back and picked up my katana, slipping the blade back into my obi before picking up my ribbon and pulling my hair back into its usual topknot. Chimitsu handed me one of the last few fruit from the oasis and I ate, silently watching her. I had no idea what to say to her now, feeling terrible for ever thinking she would harm me.

"Gomen nasai[1]." I said softly.

Chimitsu looked up from her own fruit and over to me, tipping her head at me curiously.

"Eh?"

"I am sorry."

"For what?"

"For not trusting you, for thinking that evil creature was you."

She blinked for a moment before simply smiling that cheerful smile of hers. Everytime I saw that smile, I melted inside. It was as if that simple smile could make everything right again somehow.

"Is that what these last two days were all about, Jack? You saw that woman and you thought she was me, that I was trying to hurt you?"

I nodded slowly, keeping my eyes lowered in shame.

"Forgive me. I really did think she was you, that you had two personalities."

"I see. Can't say I blame you for thinking she was me. She looks exactly like me save for the wings and demeanor. Odd, but really, Jack, it's quite all right. I'm not at all angry for the mistake."

I looked up, only to see her smile again. She was not at all angry, only as cheerful as she usually was. She took another bite of her fruit and I finished my own, wondering how she could be so calm and cheerful when I had just insulted her.

She looked back over to me and I looked away, still ashamed of my foolishness, that I believed it was her without trying to figure out the truth.

"Don't look so downhearted, Jack. Everyone makes mistakes, even samurai." she said.

"Samurai are not supposed to make such mistakes."

She paused and looked at me, a hint of sympathy showing in her eyes.

"You're not superhuman, Minamoto-kun. You're human and you're going to make mistakes like anyone else."

"Mistakes can be fatal to a samurai, especially me when I am lost in this future. If I allow myself to make mistakes, then Aku will surely move in for the kill."

There was another moment of silence before she moved to sit next to me, slipping an arm around my shoulders and pulling me in towards her chest again, holding me as a mother would.

"Oh, Jack," she said. "You're so hard on yourself sometimes, far more than you should be. The only way we learn is by making mistakes and if you want to learn about this world, you're gonna have to make a few mistakes. Fatal? Oh hell no. You and fatal in the same sentence? Only if the fatality is going towards your enemy. You're much too careful to make any sort of mistake that will cost you that much."

"Perhaps. I just cannot help but feel that sooner or later, I am going to make a mistake that will cost me."

"I see."

"Hmm?"

I looked up at her, seeing a distant sadness in them.

"Ikra. No wonder you were having such a tough time trusting me after you saw that double. You thought I was playing you along like Ikra did."

I paled. Never had I mentioned Ikra to anyone before. Not even the Scotsman knew that Aku had taken a female shape and strung me along a few months after my arrival here.

"How do you know about that? I never told anyone about Ikra before."

"I've been watching you for some time, Jack. I know about Aku's little stunt with you in the desert. I should have realized that was why you were so touchy earlier. I'm sorry you had to go through that. I didn't even know it was Aku until the time he revealed himself. Twisted as he was, we never expected him to be so sick as to take on a female form and use your own chivalrous honor against you like that. If I'd known, I would have intervened."

"It is all right. It is said and done with nothing either of us could have done about it. I will just have to get over being so careful around beautiful women."

She gently caressed my jaw, holding me close to her chest, where I could hear her heart beating beneath her breast. If I had not known that she was an immortal, I would have believed that she was completely human. Her heart beat just like my own, her lungs filling with the same air that I breathed.

I could have stayed there forever like that, just her and I. I wanted to stay there forever like that, to lose myself in the dream of a world without Aku, where I did not have to fight battles for survival every day. A world where it was just myself and Chimitsu.

"We should continue on our way. As much as we'd both like to stay here, it would be suicide. They know where we are and they'll be coming for us soon." she said.

As much as I hated it, I knew it was true. The enemy did know where we were and we had to get out of there unless we wanted to fight again. She released me and I reluctantly stood, turning to help her up.

"Where do we go now?" I asked.

"To the east. There's a city not far from the other side of this jungle. We can hole up there for a little while."

I nodded and we headed on our way. Chimitsu was quiet the whole way there, though that was not to say that she was not her usual cheerful self. It was simply odd for her to stay quiet as we made our way through the steamy jungle and into the city.

I shuddered at the sound of all flying vehicles and city industry. It was always so noisy that it was almost difficult to hear yourself think over it. I thought back to the first time I had seen this city and shuddered again, remembering how close I had come to falling to my death after Aku's portal dropped me out high above the city.

I followed Chimitsu's lead through the maze of stone streets past sky-high buildings made of glass and metal. Some people stared while others ran upon seeing me. Everywhere I looked, Aku had advertisements posted for my capture, ads that read that I was armed and dangerous. Armed, yes, but dangerous? I was only dangerous to agents of Aku, not innocent people.

Finally, Chimitsu stopped before a building with a flashing neon sign written in a language that I had seen before, but did not yet understand. She headed inside and I quickly followed, wrinkling my nose at the stench of cigar smoke that lingered within. This place did not quite appear hospitable, but I would have to trust Chimitsu's judgement in choice of hideouts.

After all, she knew this city far better than I did and it certainly beat hiding out in the sewers again.

She paused for a moment at the desk, speaking in a foreign language to the innkeeper before turning to me, smiling, and heading past the desk into a hallway. I followed until she stopped before a door with numbers on it, using the key to open it. I watched and then followed her, closing the door behind myself to find that we were in a room with two beds and a few other things, including a bath. Finally, I would get a decent bath. I had not had a good bath since we left the village three days ago.

"We'll be able to rest here for a day or two, then we must move on again before they pick up our trail and follow us." she said, setting her nodachi down on the table.

"Right. Who do you think that woman was?"

"I don't know. She was identical to me, yet I don't have a twin. Elementals never have twins unless two are born to the same Element and that hasn't happened in several millennia."

"Is there anyone who can pose as an Elemental?"

"Aside from Aku, no. No mortal would be able to pose as one of us, no matter how powerful they may be in magical usage. A mortal's energy field greatly differs from that of an Elemental's and it is relatively easy for us to see through the illusion."

"And Aku?"

"He's not as easy to see through, but I highly doubt that he's stupid enough to try another Ikra with you. He knows as well as we do that you're too smart for that, that you'd be looking for it and you were. Even though you were mistaken, you were prepared for another Ikra illusion. No, it isn't him."

"If it is not Aku, how can you tell?"

"It didn't feel like him. Trust me, Jack, we Elementals know our own and it wasn't him. It was an Elemental, yes, but its signature was far different from Aku's. Even in illusion, Aku keeps his energy signature. You might not be able to pick up on it, but another Elemental certainly would."

"I see."

Chimitsu sat next to me on the bed that I had sat on, watching me curiously. I furrowed my brow a bit, finding that even though she had been a double, it still did not make sense. Who was she and how could she look so much like Chimitsu?

"Don't worry yourself so much, samurai. Whomever she is, I'm sure we'll find out...whether we want to or not." she said with a smile.

"Right."

I sighed a little, physically and mentally exhausted, despite Chimitsu's earlier healing. Actually, the double and Ikra were not all that had been on my mind since we left the jungle. There was something else that had been tugging at my mind and my heart for some time since my arrival here in the future. For awhile, I never thought I would get the opportunity to find out, but I was in the presense of an Elemental...and she might know the answer.

"Chimitsu?" I asked.

"Yes?"

She looked up from preening her wings with her long nails before pushing one last feather into place.

"Tell me...do you know whatever became of my parents after Aku threw me through that portal into the future?"

For a moment, she appeared startled by my question. It was a simple question really, but she still looked surprised to hear me ask it of her. A moment later, the cheerfulness faded from her expression to a deep sadness. She knew what had happened, she just had to. She would not have reacted as such if she did not.

"Oh, Minamoto-kun...." she said softly, the sadness clear on her face.

She reached over and gently caressed my face before pulling me into another tight embrace.

"I don't know if you really want to find out. Neither of them ended up with kind fates, not with Aku in command."

"I never thought for a moment that they would have ended up with a kind fate, but I must know, for my own peace of mind and honor, what happened to them."

She sighed heavily, her hand rubbing against my back. A part of me wanted to forget that I had ever asked, but a stronger part of me had to know. I had to know what had become of them, if they ever forgot me or lost hope that I would return.

"Both of them lived for a few years after you disappeared. Aku, he tormented them for months, gloating in his victory, telling them that you were lost and that the world was his. First he found your mother, destroyed the temple, and enslaved her as he did your father for helping you to train and keeping the heir to the empire out of your reach. He knew that you would be able to use the sword as your father did and thusly punished her for taking you away from him to train to use the sword. It didn't matter that you had already been sent to this future, she still had to be punished in his eyes."

I could hear the emotion thick in her voice from the memories, knowing that she would have been there.

"What happened to them? How did they die?"

"Aku eventually worked your father to death in the mines. One day he collapsed and he never rose again. His heart simply gave out from all the years of strain."

"I thought I freed him."

"You did, Jack, but when Aku threw you through time, it was an easy matter for him to subdue any rebellion that might have arose. Without the sword, there was nothing your father could do. The sword was with you, otherwise we might have been able to use the Star of the Elements to help."

"And my mother?"

"She lived a few years after that, but he broke her, too. At first, she was put into the mines as well, but when she started losing her strength, he put her to work as an elderly maid in his lair. Her heart didn't give out like your father's had, but she wasn't in the best of health, either, at the end of her life. Slowly she grew sick and one morning, she didn't wake up."

"What happened to them after that?"

"We don't know."

"How could you not know?! You are an Elemental!"

"Jack, I may be an Elemental, but I'm not omnipotent. We tried finding out what happened after they died, but we simply don't know. Aku quickly had their bodies removed and what happened to them, we have been unable to find out. I wish I could tell you that they were given a proper funeral, but I honestly don't know. Most people that died were indeed cremated and the remains given to their families, but you were their only family and with you gone..."

I swallowed hard, forcing myself to not cry in front of her.

"There was no one to take their remains and there is no telling what Aku could have done with them. Not when they never had a chance to have more children after me."

"I'm sorry, Minamoto-kun. I told you that they didn't meet very kind fates."

"I expected them to perish in misery with the world in Aku's control, but I never imagined that they would have suffered such dishonor..."

I quickly stood, pulling away from her in shock of what I had learned. My failure had not only caused the misery of my people, but my parents had suffered for the rest of their short lives as a result. If I was not so sorely needed, I would have committed seppuku for such a terrible crime.

Sensing my distress, Chimitsu quickly rose, her hand slipping into mine.

"Minamoto-kun...it wasn't your fault. Don't you dare think for a moment that it was. You didn't know what that demon was capable of. Even your father didn't know about the timewarp spell. He wasn't supposed to know such a technique, so none of us could have prevented that." she said.

"Perhaps I could not predict the timewarp spell, but I was young and overconfident. I thought that with the sword and my extensive training, I could do anything. So arrogant and foolish of me to go up against such evil and think that he would not have a last-ditch plan up his sleeve for me. My father warned me, but I didn't listen. Instead, I left myself wide open, gave him plenty of opportunity instead of banishing him immediately back to Jigoku,[2] and look where it landed me."

"Jack..."

I ignored her and pulled away, hurrying towards the bathroom as quickly as I could, unable to stand the pain burning in my heart any longer. I felt a little bad for hurrying away so rudely, but I could always apologize for that. Crying before a woman was more than my tortured heart would be able to bear, even if she did understand.

I set my katana aside once I had closed the door behind myself and locked it, walking over to the tub and beginning to draw a hot bath. While that was running, I stripped down and washed off, letting my hair out of its usual topknot. Rinsing off, I headed over to the tub and turned off the water before stepping in, the water coming up to my shoulders.

Drawing my knees up, I wrapped my arms around them, resting my chin atop my arms, staring into the water's shimmering surface. Only when I was certain that Chimitsu would be unable to hear me did I allow my emotions to be freed, the hot tears quickly blurring my vision. I hugged my knees tightly at the memory of my kind mother and wise father, feeling my body begin to shake with the raw emotion that was rising in my chest.

"Otousan....Okaasan....onegai...yurusu[3]...." I whispered.

I wanted to whisper more, but my voice broke at that moment and I could no longer hold back the sobs that rose in my throat. I bowed my head against my knees and arms and, as quietly as I could, I let the sobs come, praying that Chimitsu would not hear them. Perhaps I had been holding back for too long, but this was more than I could bear and in my solitude, I cried, mourning for my beloved parents, to whom I had never had a chance to say a final sayonara.[4]
--------------- [1]gomen nasai= a formal way of saying "I'm sorry." May also be seen from here on out as simply "gomen"
[2]jigoku= hell
[3]"Otousan....Okaasan....onegai...yurusete...."= "Father...mother...I beg of you...forgive me."
[4]sayonara= we all know that this means "goodbye", but actually, it's more along the lines of "farewell" than "goodbye."
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War Of Shadows