Prologue

I t was a bright day in Tokyo. It was nosie like it always was. There were people bustling down the street to get to their jobs or to go do some shopping. Everybody was happy and joyful because it was spring again. The season of new life and new beginnings. Especially for two new families from the Kamiya Kasshin dojo: the Himura's and Sagara's. Sano had his son Saishou in his arms. Saishou was only four but he was quite a handful. "Daddy let Saishou down! LET SAISHOU DOWN!!! DOWN! DOWN! DOWN!"

Sagara Saishou looked exactly like his father. And except when it came to thinking, their attitudes were exactly the same. He already forgets to clean up his room and doesn't pay any attention to politeness. But when it comes to fighting or thinking, Saishou uses his brain to figure stuff out and . . . well you know Sanosuke.

"SHUT UP! (ouch) I'll let you down if you just (kuso) stop (grrrr) squirming!!" Sano yelled at him with Saishou pushing and kicking Sano in his arms. They were both making a lot of attention. People walked by murmuring been the restaurant where they had many memories.

People quietly whispered something about child abuse, and the others gave Sano looks of sympathy. Megumi was currently as far as possible from both, trying to look like she had never seen them in her life.

Kenshin was laughing at both of them with Kaoru laughing along. They were holding their twins' hands while walking down the street. The families were headed to the Akabeko to celebrate the twins' birthday. "Mommy, could we get some beef stew? Please!" Toyku pleaded with her mother, Kaoru. The mom smiled and said yes.

"OH!!!! Could I have some too Mommy! Please, please, please, please . ." Kyota stopped and put her hands together and gave the saddest eyes in the world. "PLEASE!" Kenshin and Kaoru laughed hard and looked at their little girls. They were only three but they had quite an appetite. They were both very outgoing and happy little ones . . well, Kyota was more so. They both look a lot alike. Except for their hair and eyes. Kyota has her mother's hair, and Toyku has her father's. Kyota has her father's violet eyes, while Toyku has her mothers calm blue eyes. Kyota is more of the leader than Toyku. They both have somewhat of a temper (A.N. guess which parent they got that from)

Kenshin kneeled down, "Kyota, Toyku: why don't you both have your own?" Both the girls eyes widened with surprise. The smiled at each other and jumped on their father and started bombarding him with thank-you, you're the best, and I love you. Kenshin fell back and said his known phrase, "Oooroo!" Kaoru started laughing watching the ones she loved most. She knew if anything happened to them, she'd never forgive herself. But what was to happen? Not many people knew that Kenshin was the feared Battousai. And if anyone every met him, they wouldn't believe it. He's so kind to everyone. Nothing will ever happen to us, ever.

Those words would haunt her for the rest of her life. A couple of days later, early in the morning, a bandit came into the dojo and took Kyota out of her room. He wasn't any ordinary bandit because he beat up Sanosuke (A.N. and as we all know, that is very hard, unless your Kenshin or some other manslayer).

Kenshin caught up to him in the forest and pulled out his reverse-blade sword. He swore a long time ago that he would never kill anyone again, but he thought to himself, if there was one person that he could make an acception for it would be this man. Then Kenshin changed into his true form, the Battousai.

This bandit was no ordinary person. He had the look of a high positioned authority leader. His clothes were shabby and he was not clean shaven. He also had some kind of uniform. Like a policeman almost, but none like the Battousai had ever seen. It was brown in color and its bottons were a copper-brass look. This robber had a blue bandana tied around his waist, like some sort of identifying mark. Kenshin thought he looked strangely familar.

The bandit just laughed with Kyota in his arms. She was to afraid to say or do anything. Especially when Battousai had those eyes. She wasn't sure if he was here to protect or . . . . . all she knew was that he didn't look much like her father anymore.

"Give her back to me and I'll kill you quickly or don't and you can suffer a long, painful death," Battousai assured the bandit. He laughed harder.

"You! An old hirokito can't defeat me. You may be the Battousai but my master is much stronger than an old man like you!" He laughed again.

"Who is your master. Tell me so that I can kill you and him. Because if you don't, you can have a nice taste of my sword." He pulled out his sword. He switched the blade, and let the light flash on the blade. Battousai was not playing around, and the seriousness in his voice must have brought the bandit back to his senses, and made him fear Himura.

The bandit looked cornered. "I . . I can't tell you, he'd kill me!"

"Looks like you're in a lose-lose situation. But you can try to get out of it if you give me the girl back. Once I get her, I'll think about not killing you. Its not a promise mind you." Battousai had his killer eyes on and all the bandit could do was walk towards him.

Kyota started shaking with nervousness. She was beyond scared. The girl didn't know if she was going to die or be taken away from her family. She started crying.

Moments later, after Kyota started crying, Kenshin noticed a movement in the trees. A voice came from the branches and spoke, "Oh no you don't. You can't back out now Usui!"

The bandit turned to the trees with fearing eyes, but Kenshin was already up swinging his reverse-blade sword. The tree was cut in half). The bandit was horrified. He started running for his life (A.N. LOL literally) carrying Kyota, who was still crying. The man in the shadows came out and killed Usui and took Kyota (A.N. yes, she's still crying. I highly doubt she's going to stop ^-^) in one brief moment. The Battosai saw it all and came running. He jumped up and tried to kill the second man (A.N. duh, cause the other guys dead ^-^). The second man saw him coming and moved as fast as he could. But it was not fast enough for the Battosai. His reverse-blade sword knocked his head forward so much it almost broke his neck. Kyota was thrown onto the grassy floor. Then the man landed on the ground about 3 meters away from Kyota.

The man had dark brow hair. It was unusually straight and fell past his eyes. His uniform looked like the same as the bandits. With the blue bandana wrapped around his waist, the same as the other man, Kenshin thought.

Kyota (A.N. LOL yes still crying) was not hurt much. She stopped crying but was mortified. Kenshin came up to her to take her home. Suddenly, the supposedly unconscious man woke up. Kenshin pulled out his sword to finish the man off, but then he noticed that the man had a pistol. Kenshin froze as the man pointed the firearm towards Kyota. "Heh, not too brave now, Battousai." He shot two rounds near Kyota. The little girl couldn't take it anymore and fainted.

"NOOO!!!" Kenshin ran over to Kyota. He kneeled next to her and held her in his arms. There was no blood. He thought that she had died, but she was just unconscious. Kenshin got up and knocked the pistol out of the now standing man. "You . . are now going to die." Kenshin lifted his sword to the bladed side and lifted it up for the final attack of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu. The man laughed and tried dodging it. But he didn't make it.

By now Kenshin was furious, mostly at himself. He had killed a man, broken his oath, and almost lost Kyota . . . He looked back to where she had fainted. She wasn't there anymore. "KYOTA! KYOTA WHERE ARE YOU!!!" Kenshin screamed for his daughter. He searched throughout all of the forest near Tokyo. He found nothing, not even a sign of her. While he was finishing off that man, some of those other followers of the bandit's so-called master must have taken her. Right then Kenshin felt like he wanted to kill himself. But he couldn't cause Kaoru anymore pain then she will already have. He promised himself he would find that group: the Blue Bandana-Gumi.

It was about nightfall when Kenshin returned home. He still had his Battousai eyes on. Sano and Saishou came out to see him, but right after looking at his empty arms, and his grief and hate stricken face, Sanosuke knew that Kyota would never come home. Sano just stood there with Saishi by his side. He looked down at his son and promised him that he would let nothing ever happen to him. He held on to Saishi while the cries of Kaoru and Kenshin came from inside the dojo. Nothing would ever happen to him, or anybody else: Megumi, Kenshin, Kaoru, or little Toyku. Nothing.