Disclamier: Yeah, I don't own any of it.

Title's inspired by Meatloaf's "The Moster's Loose."

I watch the anime and read the manga, so I have mixed the "that I do" with "this one." I don't know the Japanese very well, but I don't think it's that confusing. The only "I" in the story that is normal for Kenshin is "that I do."

Please review so I know if I should finish it.

Enough of business!

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His eyes blazed amber through narrow slits. The Battosai swelled within him. Blood dripped down the length of his sakabato and onto his hands. Though eleven years ago he would not have smiled, he did now. His first kill in eleven years--he was going to enjoy it.

Gohya, the strongest former samurai for the yakuza, slipped backward off of the blade. He was dead before he hit the ground. None of Megumi-kitsune's little tricks would help him; Gohya was dead. And the Battosai was back.

The first man the Battosai had killed lay behind him. "You never would have been able to kill Gohya without me," the Battosai said to himself.

That man's death had been an accident; he had missed his footing while fighting the rurouni and Kenshin's blade had missed its mark. With nothing to stop his swinging momentum, Kenshin spun completely around while the man regained his balance, stood, and caught the tip of the sakabato in the neck.

At the sight of the blood and the body falling, Kenshin froze up, his arms begun shaking, and he fell to his knees, holding his head in pain. I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, ran through his brain again and again while Gohya sauntered closer.

"The great, peaceful, rurouni who doesn't kill. Not so skilled as you thought, eh? What's the matter? First time you've seen blood? Some Hitokiri! And they say you're the one they called the Battosai, the only man the Shinsengumi saw as a threat." Gohya spat on Kenshin's sleeve. "You haven't seen the last of the blood." He raised his blade to cut off Kenshin's head.

When the redhead man looked up, it was with amber eyes. "You're right." The Battosai stood, knocked the blade away, but the skilled samurai kept it under control. But the Battosai was fast; with seven quick twangs of metal, the Battosai's blade was poking out of the larger man's back.

The Battosai brought the blade to his lips and pressed the tip of his tongue to the flat plain of the sword and took a long lick of the blade. As dirty as the blood of a member of the Yakuza was, the taste invigorated him. The thrill was back, the bloodlust was back. But the remorse was gone, the heart of the young swordsman who had joined the Ishin Shishi was gone.

The Battosai stretched and cracked his neck as if he'd been crouching in a small box for a long time. He was out now; the killer who grew with every fight, every drop of blood. Suppressing him just made him stronger. Without the pressure of having one of his friends present, the Battosai was able to break free from his confines.

The ribbon holding his hair in its ponytail had worked itself lose, mostly due to his haste to tie it twelve hours before. The Battosai picked up the ribbon and retied his hair.

Gohya had been hired to revenge the yakuza on Kenshin and Sanosuke for their past interferences. Some of the money came from what was left of Kanryu's wealth, who, in prison, desired revenge. Though both Kenshin and Sanosuke lived, relatively unharmed, they had won. The peaceful Kenshin would never be the same.

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"Kenshin!" Sanosuke called as he ran in the direction of his friend. Sano was wounded, but not badly. He had stayed behind to fighter some of the lesser thugs while Kenshin ran ahead.

Hearing Sano's voice startled the Battosai and his eyes lost their golden gleam and faded to lavender again. Kenshin fell to him knees and grabbed his head. Why did it hurt so bad?

The taste of blood was still on his tongue. And he realized it wasn't his own blood. Kenshin forced open an eye and saw Gohya's body a sword's length away from him and his bloody sakabato next to him. Then another body lying nearby.

Though thought of as non-lethal, the sakabato was still a sword, the edge on the concave side rather than the convex. It still had a point and it still had an edge. It could still run a man through, though not as smoothly as a normal katana.

Kenshin panicked. What had he done? He'd broken his vow never to kill again. No! And Sano was running toward him. They could not see one another, but Kenshin heard him approach. Kenshin grabbed the bodies and dragged them to the nearby building then shoved the bodies under the raised floor, but not before whipping the sakabato clean on one of the men's shirts. Sano must never know.

Sano came to the corner of the building and found Kenshin standing alone. There was blood on the ground and a trail leading toward one of the buildings.

"What happened?"

"This one wounded him and he ran off, that he did. He pleaded for this one to let him go. This one could not stop him."

Sano looked at his friend skeptically. "They'll be back then."

"This one does not think so. It was for the best. That one will not trouble us again. We should return to the dojo, that we should." Kenshin smiled and walked toward Sano and past him in the direction of the Kamiya Dojo. Sano turned to follow, but hesitated. Kenshin's hair was tied in the high ponytail style of a Hitokiri.