"We have entered the 11th year of the Meiji era and though the meaningless slaughter has ended there are rumors that there are still shadow assassins from the past doing there dirty work." Megumi announced to her younger sister and she shook her head in disbelief.
"If that's true then that means the Imperialist government corrupt and if that is correct then there is no hope." Kaoru spoke as they sat on the back porch of Kaoru's late father. The two of them were sisters only through their late mother who had left Megumi's father for Kaoru's. This fact and many other things helped to strengthen their sibling rivalry but they were still sisters at the end of the day.
"Don't be so naïve Kaoru even the greatest of men fall corrupt under pure power," Megumi preached and Kaoru raised her hand to slap her.
"How can you say that you big hypocrite, all you talk about is having a strong man who was also rich and powerful!" Kaoru screamed and Megumi blushed before erupting into laughter.
"You fool when will you ever learn that what a man does business wise has nothing to do with the woman back home. Yes, he may become corrupt but as long as he takes care of me then I have no problem with it." Megumi explained and Kaoru nodded her head as if she understood now.
"I see you're no better than a materialistic courtesan!" she shouted to her older sister and she began laughing at her sister once again. She was sure that Kaoru would understand when she got older and became a true woman.
"I'm going into town and to the market to get some food; you just go find you a corrupt rich man for all I care." Kaoru screamed storming out of the dojo heading in to town with her hands balled up into fists. She couldn't believe her sister would do and say a thing such as that it just wasn't right. Kaoru bought enough food to last her and her sister throughout the week and before heading into town she decided to stop by her friend's bookstore. Ame had been a childhood of fiend to Kaoru since the two of their father's had been together when they were assassinated.
Like always they talked about Kaoru's sister and completely dense she could be at times. She felt just because she completed her training to be a doctor that it meant she was better than any of them. Kaoru often wondered why she didn't just return to her family but she soon learned that Megumi's father side had all disappeared. It seemed the two of them were truly stuck with one another but it was alright with Kaoru as long as she kept money in the house. The dojo wasn't quite making that much money since the scandals about her father. He was a man that the people believed in and he often spoke out about injustices and stood up for the weak and so he along with Ame's father was assassinated. Night time had fallen before Kaoru and Ame knew it so Ame walked Kaoru as far as she could without getting too far away from home.
They hugged and said their temporary good byes with promises of tomorrow. Kaoru turned and began to walk across the bridge that led to her neighborhood. Kaoru sat down her basket and leaned over the bridge to stare at her reflection in the water. She thought about the days when she was living happily and peacefully with her father. Her mother had never stayed in one place for long so a year or two after Kaoru was born she took off. Megumi and Kaoru guessed that she went off to make more children and leave them behind. Kaoru also remembered the last day she saw her father alive. He had so much of an influence over the people in Tokyo that many government officials feared him. It was also a known fact that he often healed wounded soldiers of the Shisengumi and on that last fateful day Kaoru unknowingly said her last good bye.
"Kaoru, some things may come up that you don't like or that you do not wish to hear but remember me as your father and no one else. I have kept you in the dark to keep you safe so that you and your sister can grow up to be beautiful women. I love you Kaoru and I will see you again." Were the words her father said to her and she promised that she would take care of everything until he came back to her. The next morning the police chief came to the dojo and told Kaoru that her father along with three other men had been assassinated. Back then Megumi was training in medicine and Kaoru had been all along. She decided to go to each of the other victim's family and offer her condolences and make sure they were all right.
That was when she ran into Ame and learned that her mother died from a disease a long time ago. Kaoru was about nine years old then and Ame was of the same age. The two of them bonded instantly and had been friends ever since then. It was perfect because as of then the two of them were both completely alone. Kaoru felt the wind whip around her face and blow her hair over her shoulder she also felt an ominous presence so she turned to round to check.
"Is anyone there? If there is show yourself you coward!" She shouted and when she saw nothing she scooped to pick up her basket and continue across the bridge and to her home. She had no business being out that late at night anyways.
"I wasn't over there," she heard a man say and she froze where she stood in fear. His voice was cold and devilish giving her body all signs of danger. Kaoru couldn't even see the man but she knew she heard a voice that she was sure of but where was he?
"Well look I cannot even see you and I don't fear people that I cannot see so shove it!" Kaoru shouted bravely and a man appeared out of the shadows. The man was a bit taller than her with blood red hair and a cross shaped scar on his left cheek. He was yet to cast his gaze upon her but she was still trembling in fear. A man approaching a beautiful woman such as her could only want a few things. His hair was pulled up into a high ponytail and in seconds of showing himself he looked up at Kaoru making her fall to the ground in fear. Her blood had frozen and her body was disobeying her order to either stand up and fight or stand up and run. His eyes were cold pools of gold showing no love or soul the only types of eyes a man who has taken lives could have.
"What do you want with me?" she asked him finally able to speak but still unable to stand let alone run. The man began walking towards her smiling like only a cat up to no good would do.
"I'm glad you asked, your father left something behind and I need it badly." He told her and she shook her head no not understanding. The only thing her father left behind was the dojo and this man definitely was not interested in her dojo. Two men crossed over the bridge and engaged the murderer right before Kaoru's eyes. Two more attacked from behind the redheaded man and they all fought him at once. The man was able to kill two of the men that attacked him but the other two had used them as a diversion so that they could kill him. The redheaded man was rushed and stabbed in his chest by one man and then stabbed in the back by the other and he fell to the ground.
Kaoru had been screaming for them to stop for some while now because even though he was intending on attacking her had not killed her. He could have done so if that was his intentions and besides fighting four on one was not fair at all. The man stood and slayed both of his attackers before falling back down to the ground. Kaoru rushed over to him and helped him up from the ground he struggled at first but he was able to stand enough to sheath his sword. Kaoru half dragged and half carried him back to her dojo so that Megumi would be able to help him.
"Megumi! Please help me this man is greatly injured!" Kaoru screamed while pulling him up to her room and laying him down in her bed. Megumi rushed in the room and then turned a devilish eye towards her sister.
"Have you slept with this man?" Megumi asked and Kaoru's face turned blood red before she through a box at her sister.
"No, and now is not the time for this Megumi he's going to die!" Kaoru shouted and Megumi gave her orders to go boil water and bring her some wraps and her tools. Megumi carefully undressed the top half of the man and took a look at some of the scars he had already. The man her sister brought home was very attractive even when he was passed out and bleeding to death. Kaoru returned and Megumi sterilized her tools before getting to work on the man. Kaoru brought the light over to her sister and stayed by the man's side until he was all sewn up.
"Kaoru, he's going to be fine but do you know this man?" Megumi asked concerned for her and her sister's safety. Of course Kaoru shook her head no making her sister even angrier but there was nothing she could do about it now and this was her dojo after all.
"He's wounds are a bit deeper than they look so he'll need to rest for a few days." Megumi told her and walked out of her room leaving her to her devices though she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something wrong with that man. Kaoru wiped the sweat from his brow and cleaned up small areas around his wound that her sister may have missed. She tried to compare the sweet and peaceful face to the evil and deadly one he showed her but they seemed to different to even attempt. Kaoru took his hair down from the ponytail and smiled, she liked it down much better.
The man still hadn't moved when Kaoru woke up that morning but she fetched him some water and some rice balls her sister had cooked just in case he got up. When she got back inside of her room the man was trying to sit up but she gently pushed him back down to the bed. He shot his eyes over to her and almost scared her right out of her skin. She pushed through the stare of his cold eyes and helped him sit up just enough so that he could drink the water and eat the food. He cooperated with her only under the condition that he would not thank her. When he reached down to check his sword he found that it was not in its belt. Kaoru looked at him with his hair down, it had fallen around his face and back making him look beautiful.
He hated the way she stared at him as if he was a not a man to fear but instead some commoner that might be on her level. Kaoru laid him back down gently and ate her breakfast silently beside him no longer afraid of his cold eyes because seeing him peaceful and asleep she could see beyond them. Kaoru could see who he really was behind that mask that he created for himself in order to do what he did.
"Where is my sword wench?" he commanded of her and she gritted her teeth while thinking about striking the man but he was injured and currently under her care so she would have to deal.
"I took it far away from you because I don't trust you. Besides you could stand to show a little more respect to the woman that saved your life!" Kaoru said to him smiling while she ate the last of her breakfast. The angry look on his face told her that she was getting to him and that was all that mattered. He didn't scare her anymore and he knew that which was what angered him even more. He wanted to do something but he didn't have the strength now or his weapon and he still needed information out of her.
"Don't speak to me like that I would have survived with or without your help." He said to her using all of his strength to sit up but all she did was laugh at him. Kaoru went to try and help him lay down but he swatted her hand back and began to stand up on his own. Kaoru stayed by his side the entire time allowing him to use her as a crutch when his pride allowed it. Standing up now beside her with his hair down and most of his chest bare he was truly the most beautiful man Kaoru had ever seen. His scars were plentiful and looked very painful making Kaoru want to help him and protect him even more.
"Hey be careful you don't want to strain your body too much or your wounds will never heal," Kaoru suggested but he pretended as though she did not speak and so he began to walk. Kaoru was right by his side each step of the way to make sure that he did not fall. After about three laps around her room he was exhausted and beginning to fall faint. Kaoru tried to stop him and bring him down to rest but he was persistent and kept going making another lap before he allowed himself to be put back to bed. Besides bathing, fetching water and breakfast Kaoru never left her room and never left his side. Megumi found it strange that she would care so deeply for a stranger and a man that looked dangerous at that.
She had seen his eyes only once and when he cast his haunting gaze upon her she screamed and ran from Kaoru's room. She tried to convince Kaoru that he was dangerous and that she should send him on his way but he was still too weak. Kaoru knew that he was a manslayer and if she sent him back into his world in his condition that he would most certainly die. She sided against it and every day the two of them would walk laps around her room until he tired himself out.
"I made you a bath so if you feel like it can you get up and get washed up you're beginning to smell," Kaoru spat at him and to anyone else this may seem cruel but it had become the nature of their relationship. In a short week Kaoru had come to realize that the way he spoke to her would not change so she decided to return the hateful words and not hold anything back.
"You take one everyday but I still smell you," he told her and she clenched her fist before grinning and pulling him up faster than his body could take. He groaned out in pain and mumbled something under her breath as the two of them walked to the bath house. Nervously, Kaoru undressed the man and helped him into the water. He knew that seeing his naked body made her nervous but he didn't think she would be on the brink of fainting at seeing a naked man. He figured she was still a innocent girl unlike the sister she had.
"Call me when you're down so I can help you out," Kaoru said stepping away from him so that she could run and hide under a rock. She couldn't believe that she had seen his naked frame and he didn't even seem to mind one bit he actually looked as though he enjoyed it. Kaoru did some of the chores she had been neglecting while he bathed and tried to keep her mind off of him. Slowly, day after day he was becoming someone different; less demon like and more human than he had been when she first encountered him. He had stopped trying to ask about her father and what he may or may not have left behind with her and had become a bit more tolerable to live with. He told Kaoru that he really did not like her sister and would try his best to spare her life once he was healed and had his sword. Kaoru ran back to the bath house to check on him and see if he had been calling on her to help him out the bath.
"Are you finished in there?" she asked him and he didn't answer so she grew worried. Kaoru burst through the door and saw him collapsed in the tub slowly dropping down into the water. She climbed in the tub to pull him up from the water and drag him out. Had this man really tried to kill himself? Kaoru rolled him over and began giving him mouth to mouth and doing chest compressions like Megumi taught her. The last time she leaned in to give him mouth to mouth she felt his arms wrap around her head. He used her to pull up and after coughing he looked her in the eyes panting. She of course was blushing and trying to avoid eye contact with him but it was impossible she felt drawn to him.
"The water was too damn hot and I fainted," he said through his pants and Kaoru squeezed her hair to let the water out and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Well if that was the case why didn't you say so then? Your pride is really going to be the death of you." Kaoru fussed and he began smirking at her like he did when they first met.
"I'll be leaving soon, probably tomorrow," he told her in a very serious yet passionate voice.
"Tomorrow, that's just too soon," Kaoru whispered fearing for the first time in a long time of being left alone. It was true that she had not been visiting her friend and had given all of her attention to him but if he left her she would have nothing to do but go back to the same routine.
"What did you expect? I have a job to do and I've already been playing around here too long." The redhead man told her standing up perfectly as if he had not been wounded. His penis was in great view of Kaoru's face but he didn't seem to mind. She was about to pass out or die right then and there while he slowly dressed in front of her. Had he been faking the entire time? If so then why would he stay a full week playing around?
"How long have you been healed mister?" Kaoru asked him standing to her feet soaking wet angry and confused. He put his arm over her shoulder and looked at her for the first time without trying to intimidate her and it was a lovely sight. Kaoru walked him back over to her room feeling rather sad about his sudden departure.
"About three days ago I was completely healed but I have been able to leave since the second day," he admitted once they were back in her room. Kaoru didn't feel hatred or anger but she was confused, she wanted to know why he stayed with her even though he was healed. Did he like her catering to him or something?
"Will you leave in the morning or the afternoon?" Kaoru asked trying to hold back her hopes and the thoughts of losing the strange man.
"Late tonight when everyone should be asleep, except for women like you who choose to stare at their reflection in those hours." He explained and Kaoru nodded her head helping him to sit down on the floor and she rested beside him. She was still wet and a bit cold and her hair and clothes grabbed her not leaving much up to the redhead man's imagination. White was truly a marvelous color when it was wet.
"May I ask you a few questions since you used me?" Kaoru asked not looking at him directly when she spoke. She didn't want him to read into her emotions when he told her no.
"Might as well," was all that he said looking the opposite way from her just as she did to him.
"What exactly was your mission when you came looking for me?" Kaoru asked now looking at him so she could see if he planned to lie or tell the truth. He sighed and grabbed at his wounds before slamming his fist into the ground.
