Ghost from the Past

A/N This story takes place about 5 years AFTER SC2; Soul Edge is destroyed by Mitsurugi and he’s moved back to Japan. The prequel to this story is on FF.net; if this gets good reviews, then I’ll put A New Face up here.

The really pretty, accenty language is Gaelic. Trust me, you do NOT want to try and pronounce it if you don't speak it!

Song translation:
Cherry Blossoms, cherry blossoms. On mountains, in villages.
As far as you can see.
They look like fog or clouds. They are fragrant in the morning sun.
Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms. In full bloom.


Prologue—6 years after A New Face

Bizen, Japan

A lone horse and cart made its way up the barren dirt path in the twilight hours. The figure on the horse urged it to a stop near a ramshackle and obviously deserted hut, one she had known.

*Damn it...he’s not here.* The wanderer remounted the horse and urged it forward with a gentle kick and a nicker. *I know he’s alive...I can feel it.*

In the back of the cart, two small figures slept, one with its arm over the other protectively. The one under the arm stirred. “Okaasan, when are we going to get there?”

“Soon, Asuka-chan.” *I hope*

The other figure stirred and yawned. “Okaasan, who are we looking for?”

“Someone I knew a long time ago, Kenji-chan.” The figure on the horse turned to the cart. “Go back to sleep, you two; we should hit the town in the morning.”

~~

CHAPTER 1

Mitsurugi Heishiro wiped the sweat off his brow.

The 39 year old ronin looked around his tiny property: a rice paddy, a walkway and a rock garden were all that adored the place, but he liked it simple.

He gripped the cloth that circled his wrist unconsciously, then looked down. Kai had given him that neckerchief a few days before...He stopped himself from thinking about it. Six years had past since then and he needed to move on.

*But I can’t...* the man thought to himself. It was a litany he told himself every day...

He picked up a large stone and moved it to mark the corner of his property. It had taken him three long years to build this, but it was done, finally, and he could rest in peace.

“Kirei-na.” [It's beautiful]

Mitsurugi turned to see a tall woman dressed in a simple black kimono. “Hello, Taki, sneaky as ever.” For the first time in years, he cracked a small smile.

He and Taki reconciled after the fight that claimed Kai and Maxi. Taki had been badly injured, but managed to survive. When Taki had been told of Kai’s death, she actually cried; Kai had been like a younger sister to her.

Despite the fact that Taki harnedrned Kai’s inn to the ground, Kai had learned in time to trust the ninja, as did Mitsurugi. She had been incredibly helpful in killing Cervantes and helping Sarah Stewart reclaim her soul, despite the Scot dying some hours later of her injuries.

Kai had disappeared shortly after that. After about a year, Mitsurugi gave up hope of seeing her alive.

“...you still miss her.” Taki gently stated. She knew he still cared for her, just not as much as he loved Kai. The relationship between the ninja and the ronin had gone past friends only once...

~flashback~

3 years after Kai had died, Taki had suddenly appeared in his neighborhood bar, his only living quarters.

"Hei-kun...how are you feeling?" The ninja placed a slim hand on the ronin's shoulder while he down yet another bottle of sake.

"...I...don't want to talk about it."

Taki removed her hand. "I understand. I...hate to ask you this, but can you spare a room for the night?"

Without looking at her, Mitsurugi nodded. He pointed behind him to the temporary lean-to that served as his home. He would be gone in a week or so.

That night, Taki came to him. "Hei-kun, you look awful...You MUST eat something!"

"Not hungry..."

"For the past three years?! You've lost so much weight, you haven't bothered to keep appearances...what happened to the fiery warrior I once knew?!" Tears came to the ninja's eyes. It was true: Mitsurugi was a bad sight. His hair had grown to about the small of his back, he had not shaved in three years and he only ate every few days.

He had the money, Taki knew he did, because he bought a new bottle of sake every few weeks.

"Go away." Mitsurugi downed another gulp of sake. Taki yanked the bottle from him. "Hey--gimme that back!"

"DAMMIT, Hei-kun!! What the hell do you think Kai would say if she saw you today?!" Taki threw the bottle to the ground, where it shattered. Sake drained into the ground, already soggy from the rain that had fallen. "She'd -- aah!"

Mitsurugi had silenced the ninja with a punch to the jaw. He was teetering on his feet, swaying drunkenly. "Don't you EVER say her name!" He advanced on Taki, who just lay there, only to collapse in a drunken heap at her feet.

Ignoring the swelling in her jaw, Taki crawled over and gathered the broken man in her arms. "Hei-kun, what happened to you?" Crying now, she put her head to his ataretared into his dazed brown eyes with her own dark chocolate ones. "Please...remember. What would she say?" she whispered.

Coming out of his drunken stupor, Mitsurugi Heishiro began to cry. Tears flowed unchecked when he saw what he had done to Taki, even out of a drunken anger. "Ta-kun, I...I'm sorry."

Taki wrapped the ronin in her arms. "Shh...it's going to be okay...you'll see."

Not really knowing what he was doing, Mitsurugi began kissing Taki's neck. He worked his was to her mouth and they kissed passionately. He ran his hands up her back to her shoulders, removing her shirt on the way...

The next morning, Mitsurugi woke naked and alone---but with a purpose...and a bad hangover.

~end flashback~

“Is it that obvious?” It was not asked to be humorous, just to ascertain the truth.

“Yes...” Taki’s voice almost broke. “I have some news that may help...I heard that she’s alive.”

Mitsurugi shook his head sadly. “You’re in denial, Ta-kun...Kai is dead.”

Taki smiled softly. “Something tells me that she’s not...” She placed a soft hand on Mitsurugi’s shoulder and continued down the path. “Take care of yourself, Hei-kun.”

The fire returned momentarily, but was extinguished seconds laterrealreality.

~~

Taki walked down the path away from Heishiro’s home.

For the last few years, she had felt something that so resembled Kai’s mental presence in the back of her mind.

Kai WAS alive, Taki told her childish, hopeful side that still existed in the recesses of her mind that still existed. The logical, 39 year old, experienced side said otherwise.

However, there HAD been rumors about a Mitsurugi Marsaili that headed a small clan in Izu. Taki decided to try and back that up—the name and description of this person were tooo familiar to pass up. A small woman with grey eyes and black hair who wielded two katanas and had known about Soul Edge.

This clan was hellbent on the destruction of the accursed weapon...apparently they knew not about its demise at the hands of Mitsurugi Heishiro.

Several days after meeting with Heishiro-kun, Taki returned home to Yokohama. She asked around about where to find this Mitsurugi Marsaili. Kai had been half Scot and if Taki’s limited knowledge of the western European country are served her, ‘Marsaili’ was a Scottish female name. Yet this 'Scot' had Asian features...and grey eyes.

Taki traveled for a week to get to the Izu peninsula and the nameless clan of ronin. *Heishiro-kun would fit right in here* she thought fondly.

It proved too good to be true; Mitsurugi Marsaili did not exist. The clan did, however, and judging by their reactions to Taki’s description of Kai and the association of the last name, they knew her.

Therefore, Kai was very much alive. But very much not...there. “Oh, that’s Mitsurugi Ayame. She left about three months ago and we have not seen her since. She took her two children with her.”

*Children?* Kai didn’t have children, Taki thought. *Heishiro-kun never told me about any children.*

So Kai really was dead, Taki sighed. She had been so close. The ninja headed back home, sorely disappointed in herself. She had been doing this for Heishiro-kun...she cared for him that much. Even though it had been done in a drunken stupor on his part, Taki felt it to be right...

~~

Mitsurugi, in the weeks after Taki left, pondered her words.

She had said that something told her that Kai was alive. Ninja’s instincts were rarely wrong, but there was still a chance...

“Get over it, old man..." he said to himself. “She’s gone.”

He sat in his rock garden, contemplating.

Where the grass grew now
Exists nothing but stone and
Mem’ry of love lost

The characters where painted on a rock before he even thought about it. Mitsurugi sighed and placed the rock in its original position among the others. He grabbed another and turned it over in his hand absently.

“Er...excuse me, sir, could you please help me?”

Mitsurugi turned around to see a tiny figure wearing a brown and travel-worn overcoat. The figure had two katanas at its side and tensed when Mitsurugi stood. “How can I help you, traveler?”

“I’m looking for--Heishiro-chan...is that...?!" The traveler slowly reached up and pulled the hood back.

Two pale grey eyes stared out of a pale part Asian, part European face. A livid scar traced its way from the right eye’s corner and ended about mid throat. The rest of the body was covered in the cloak, but Mitsurugi’s imagination took over.

His jaw dropped. “...you’re not real; she’s dead.”

The woman walked slowly up to him and placed her hand on his cheek, tears streaming from her eyes. “You’re real...”

*I’m dreaming....too much sake....gotta lay off the sake...* “Whoever you are, please get off my propery and leave me be.” Mitsurugi kept his hands by his side.

“Heishiro...you’re not dreaming...it’s me.” The woman placed her hand in the middle of his chest. “Remember about six years ago...? Maxi is my cousin, we sailed from Bizen to Rome. . .we found Cervantes and Soul Edge...do you remember this scar?” The woman moved the cloak aside and took off the armor underneath it. She untucked the tunic and pulled it up to just below her breasts.

About three inches above the navel and slightly off center was a circular scar—the type a musket or pistol ball would make. Kai had received a wound similar to that when fighting Cervantes...

“I’m sorry...” Mitsurugi was about to say something more, but realized that these were all things that he and Kai had done.

It WAS her...the same touch...older, face drawn and travel-weary, but still the same shining grey eyes. “. . .please don’t let me be dreaming..." He moved his arms to take her shoulders, but she was already against his chest, sobbing.

“...I thought you were dead...” Kai couldn’t stop herself from crying. It had been six long years. “I can’t believe I actually found you..." She felt her legs give way and Heishiro’s strong arms around her, supporting her physically.

“...okaasan? Có...?” [who?] a tiny voice demanded in Japanese, followed by Gaelic. It was interrupted by a loud yawn.

Mitsurugi gave Kai a questioning glance, but the woman had turned her back. “Asuka-chan, come here..."

Out of the back of the cart, a small girl about six years old stumbled out. She righted herself quicand and walked over to Kai. “I want you to meet someone very special to me.”

The girl came up to Mitsurugi’s thigh and had shiny, waist length raven black hair. She stared up at him with clear, piercing grey eyes. Mitsurugi went down to his knees so the child was at his eye level. “Có, okaasan?” she asked in a strange yet beautiful mixture of Gaelic and Japanese.

“Asuka-san, this is your daddy.” Kai went to her knees as well and placed her hands on the girls shoulders. She smiled at Mitsurugi, who was dumbfounded. “Hei-chan, this is your daughter; her name is Asuka..."

The child looked up innocently into Mitsurugi’s brown eyes. “Are you really my daddy?”

That face...that tone... “Daibutsu, I hope so...” [Great Buddha, ...] Mitsurugi whispered with tears in his eyes.

Asuka stared harder at the old man in front of her. Mommy must be mistaken...her daddy was a great warrior! Strong and brave and handsome...this man was neither. He put his hand on her shoulder. “Màthair!” [Mother!] Mommy made no move to stop the man; instead, she just smiled.

“Fàg aice mhàin!” [leave her alone!] A small voice came from the wagon. Asuka looked up to see her brother Kenji with his boken rushing over to her. He imposed himself between her and the man.

Mitsurugi looked quizzically at the boy, then back at Kai, who had grabbed the boy’s boken and held it up, halting what could have been a broken hand on Mitsurugi’s part.

“Có eil bhos bodach?!” [who is THIS old man?!] the boy demanded.

“Giùlain, Kenji-chan!” [Behave...!] Kai said harshly. “Có duine eil bhur n-athair.” [this man is your father] She picked the boken out of the boy’s hands and put it back on the cart. “Gomen-nasai, Hei-chan; Shinjiro’s very protective over his sister...”

“Well..the only thing I can think of to say is ‘come inside’...” Mitsurugi said after a speechless moment.

Kai put her arm around Mitsurugi’s waist and gently ushered the children forwards. “Claon, muirichinn.” [Go ahead, children]

The two children gave Mitsurugi a hard look and went inside. They stripped off their shoes, placed them besides the door and sat on the step, waiting patiently.

When they were alone, Mitsurugi looked at Kai. “You’re not kidding…? These are MY children?! And what language are you three speaking?!”

Kai smiled. “Yes, they are. I’m sure because I have not been with anyone else.” Mitsurugi looked over at the boy and the girl. The woman glanced over her children. "We speak Gaelic, the language of my mother's ancestors. Don't worry; they also speak Japanese! "They take after you in temperament, Hei-chan."

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Mitsurugi didn’t wait for a response. He wrapped his arms around Kai and pulled her close. “I have missed you so much over these last six years.”

Kai couldn’t hold it any longer; she broke down crying. “I thought you were dead! I woke up in an inn with a cleric poking and prodding me...he said that I was found by myself by a gaijin woman and brought to him. . .I don’t know about Maxi or Taki...I just don’t know...please, just hold me!”

Mitsurugi did so, barely containing the tears in his eyes.

~~

Some days later, after Kai and the children had slept of the travel weariness, she and Mitsurugi sat on the tiny porch overlooking the valley. “It’s beautiful out here.” The children had been put to bed and it was twilight. The river and the valley took on an ethereal feel to them.

Mitsurugi smiled. “It reminded me of you.”

The small woman looked at the ronin. “All these years and you never got over me?”

“I couldn’t; you were the only woman in my life that actually cared for me, save Okaasan.” The big man wrapped his arms around the petite woman’s shoulders. Kai returned the hug.

“I can’t begin to tell you how much I missed you...” she sobbed into Mitsurugi’s shoulder.

“Then don’t talk...” Mitsurugi turned Kai’s head upwards so she was looking at him through crying eyes. He pulled her closer and was about to give her a deep passionate kiss when he was interrupted by a childish: “Ewww! Kissy face!”

Both adults turned to see Asuka, holding a European doll, staring at them in a face scrunched in in childish disgust. “Asuka-chan, you should be sleeping...” Kai admonished in Gaelic.

Asuka paid no heed to Kai; instead, the child walked over to Mitsurugi and poked him in the shoulder. “You’re not my daddy. My daddy is a strong and brave and handsome man!”

Mitsurugi looked at Kai helplessly. He had faced down an entire army, dealt with demons and fought evil and won, but NOTHING in life had prepared him for a CHILD, much less two...

Kai shook her head and chuckled. “Give them some time. You ARE their father, koishii.”

“...uh...okay...how do I tell them that?” Mitsurugi scrathed his head humorously.

“You don’t; just give them some time...” Kai repeated as Asuka crawled into her lap.

“Mommy, I couldn’t sleep. Evil things were chasing me!” The girl began to cry. “A big purple bunny with an axe...a nasty pirate with two swords...!”

“Shh...it’s okay, love, nothing’s gonna happen.” Kai soothed. She stroked the girl’s hair and sang a Japanese childhood song. "Sakura...sakura...noyamamo satomo..."

Mitsurugi joined in, though it had been ages since he had heard that song. “...Miwatasu kagiri Kasumi-ka kumo-ka...asahi-ni niou"

Kai looked at him and smiled, her eyes crinkling in a way that Mitsurugi found highly attractive. "Sakura .... Sakura..... Hanazakari..”

Asuka looked at Mitsurugi out of the corner of her eye. This man knew the song that Mommy usually sang to her to get her to sleep...he HAD to be her father...The girl left Kai’s lap and curled up in Mitsurugi’s larger one. She was asleep almost instantly.

Kai blinked. “Wow, she never goes to sleep that quickly when I sing to her...I think she trusts you now...”

Mitsurugi looked down at the child sleeping in his lap. "My child..." he breathed.

Kai stood up. "I'm going to put her to bed now..."

"I'll do it." Mitsurugi stopped the woman with a smile.

She nodded once and followed him to the room were Shinjiro lay sleeping and watched the man place Asuka gently, as if she were a piece of glass treasure, on the futon and cover her with the blanket. "I think we should sleep in here tonight..." Kai smiled serenely.

Too filled with pride and wonder to say anything, Mitsurugi nodded.