Author's Note: It's been nearly two years since I've written any fanfiction. I've started many but was never quite satisfied. College tends to take up a lot of time, too. But this little gem popped into my mind and I was really excited to write it. I really hope you all enjoy it!

On another note, note don't be afraid if some of my other stories disappear from my account. I'm cleaning house. I like new beginnings.

Threedaysunrise

Demon Hunter

…

"I thought you sent for him. Where is this demon hunter?" Kihei snarled the title. Spit caught itself in his beard and seemed to settle there. Even from the inside of the leader's hut, the heat of the fire accounted itself by the sweat on the brow of everyone in attendance. A little man's shudders grew with every silenced scream and earth tremble. His men looked at him in disgust. This was the brains behind the city's dealings? Even if he himself was a street fighter, Sanosuke was repulsed by them all. Even if this infamous hunter managed the impossible, he hoped these bastards met with Battousai before the night was over.

"I did send for him." Sanosuke drawled. "Perhaps he found out exactly which demon it was. No one can save us now."

Gohie and Kihei clenched their teeth and glared at him. He enjoyed their tension—even relished it. For years they had corrupted this village, bringing in drug lords and brothel owners. These two men owed him and several other people money. Their sow was proving to be bad one—one they had to reap. Sano glanced beside him at the kid who returned it with a glare that held another message entirely. Why don't you just go out there yourself? Save at least some innocent people. Yahiko was a good kid—stubborn as hell, but a good kid. He found the boy nearly beat to death behind a drug dealer's shack. He answered the boy's silent question with a sigh. He was too young to have even seen what the Battousai had left in his wake. Sano had no desire to die tonight.

The door swung open with a slam, and the eyes of every man turned to the door in tense anticipation. It wasn't Battousai, but a woman.

"I am Kaoru." She smirked. "You called for a demon hunter?"

It was disbelief that kept them frozen. This was the notorious hunter who has guaranteed every kill? A woman warrior was unheard of; one who was a demon hunter may as well been impossible. Yet no one dared to correct her. Not with the demon so close to their doorstep. Braided, her black hair fell to the middle of her back, and it made her face severe but strangely beautiful. Her clothes were a combination of black fitting leather and cloth. Both Yahiko and Sanosuke zeroed in on the two blades she wore on her back. They seemed foreign, strange, even.

No one spoke as she walked toward Goehi and his brother, the only two men in the center of their circle. They didn't know whether to step back in fear or to scoff in disbelief. The latter was winning in their minds until she spoke.

"My, my… You both must do some awful dealings to attract the Battousai's attention. My price just went up."

That broke them from their stupor. "W-we're giving you all we have!" They were panicking.

"You bastards are drug lords! Everyone knows you have more!" The room jumped at Yahiko's voice. Tension was thick enough for the demon hunter to cut with one her foreign knives. As if in answer to the silence, a single soul-tearing cry arose, like a wolf who calls to its moon. It cut off abruptly.

"Fine." Kihei set out five burlap bags. His face was pale. "You have everything. Now please!"

Her face was transformed by a smile. "A pleasure doing business with you—"

"If you can't kill him I want it all back!" It was Gohei who dared the insult, but the hunter again just smiled.

"If that's the case I'll be dead and won't have need of it." She grabbed two of the bags. "And neither will you." Even after she left, those who gathered in the room could not move. Her presence was like the wind, though it came in went, you felt the effects of its passing. Yahiko was the first to move as he followed her outside.

"You're a woman." He said.

The hunter looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. "And you're a kid. Does that mean you can't fight?"

"Hmph. This is Battousai, you fool. I've heard the stories. You're walking to your death."

Kaoru turned her back on him to sling the bags of gold over her horse. It pranced in agitation at the sudden weight but calmed to her touch. When everything was secure, she patted its rump to send the bay gelding trotting into the forest.

"It's my job."

"I'm coming with you—" He started to follow her.

"No."

"Yes." He countered. "My parents died protecting this village. I won't let that death be in vain."

He must have hit a nerve for she turned on him, suddenly angry. And his insides grew cold. Her eyes seemed a translucent white in the moonlight. She shifted and they were blue again. He didn't dwell on it.

"This village is filled with nothing but whores and addicted men. I doubt this is still the place they died for. Find your own reason worth die for, boy, and then find what's worth living for. Dying is the easy part."

She left him open mouthed and angry. Find what's worth living for, she had said.

"Damn her!" She didn't know anything about him. He clenched his hands and his teeth. Just when she was out of sight, he followed her.

…

There was a swagger in her step as she moved through the chaos of burning houses and forgotten bodies.

"BATTOUSAI!" She yelled, dragging her blades on the cobblestone beside her. Blue fire erupted from the metal. "Come face me," she murmured to herself, "you evil bastard." She could feel the eyes of maybe thirty villagers upon her as she boldly paraded through the streets, beckoning her death near her. They were curious at the spectacle this hunter had proven to be: warrior and woman. Even if she did die tonight, she'd at least make it a good fight.

"Come out, come out wherever you are…" she whispered under her breath, noticing that the air had suddenly gone still. The ringing in her ears exploded at the unnatural silence and Kaoru found it difficult to concentrate on slowly maneuvering her way around the town's memorial fountain which lay in its center. He was here, she knew it. She circled the fountain, scanning rooftops and alleyways for this notorious creature. She would not be cornered.

Kaoru…

The whisper came with the caress of the wind and the deafening silence was broken. She spun around but nothing was there.

Nothing.

"Hey, ugly!" Yelled a quite different tone.

Disbelief and rage colored her expression. The boy from the meeting had followed her this far into the city. He was mad, she decided, or just plain stupid.

"You little brat."Her growl didn't faze him. "I told you to stay put. No one has ever looked upon Battousai and lived to tell the tale!"

"And how would you know?" He countered, angry. "I'm here to help!"

Soft laughter silenced them both, and their attention was drawn to the figure slowly walking towards them. Minstrel tales had not done him justice, and it was wondered if they ever could. Where his foots stepped, the earth burned. The scenery around him flickered from the heat that emitted from his garments. Golden eyes gleamed unnaturally in the firelight and the smile to his lips only made him more terrifying. Hair the color of fire cascaded down his back and darkness followed him. Yahiko felt the warmth leave his body. He fell to his knees.

"I've never had a woman and a child face me before." His tone was mocking, calculating. "Are your leaders trying to see if I carry mercy? They won't find any."

With a warning look at the boy, Kaoru turned her full attention to the demon who would stalk them if they ran. She directed her blades toward him and calmed her body and all its muscles and bones. Her face betrayed nothing of what she felt. She said, "Just me, Battousai. Your fight is just with me."

When she blinked he was gone, and she felt rather than saw him come at her barely in time to parry his attack. When their blades clashed, she felt it reverberate throughout her entire body, and for a brief moment her muscles were numb. Was she still holding the swords? She hadn't heard the clang of metal hitting cobblestone. Again she sensed him rather than saw him behind her, and with an inhuman speed of her own she spun her bade to thrust behind her. He wasn't there.

'You're going to have to try a little harder than that, little firefly.'

His laughter infuriated her. Lunge, slash, block, parry. He either blocked them or disappeared all together. He was playing with her. Kaoru was not one to be messed with. "Fight me to my face, you evil monster." No sooner had the words come from her mouth when suddenly the air was forced from her lungs. The sheath of his sword hit her abdomen full force. She was brought to her knees.

"Kaoru!" It was the boy who came running toward them. Belatedly she realized she had forgotten about him once her attention was on Battousai. She wondered if he had been there for the entire fight and was reminded why she hated bystanders.

"No!" she wheezed and held out her hand. Magically, he stopped. It was about time he listened to something she said.

With the Battousai's attention drawn away from her, his form stood motionless not five feet away from her own gasping body. But it was close enough. With a breathy curse she drove the dagger from her waist into the ground. It didn't take long for the Battousai's eyes to register what she was doing—he was suddenly furious. A silvery blue fire erupted around the two in a perfect circle. Suddenly the outside world was muted. The persistent yells of the boy were muffled as were the wind and the brewing storm it was bringing. They were alone. There was no escape for either.

"You fool," spat the demon, "you'll kill us both."

Kaoru chuckled dryly. "It's my fire circle. So my chances of survival are better than yours." She held on tighter to her dagger and the flames responded by growing taller. "I like to gamble." She released her dagger and ran at him with her swords which had also come alive with flames.

The fire consumed them both.

The people seemed to be too numb to rejoice over the death of Battousai. However the will of the survivors was great enough that they started cleaning up the remains of their broken home— and not just the physical. Fires were put out in hopes of salvaging at least some of the buildings. Despite the wreckage, it was the grace of a new beginning.

Yahiko couldn't believe it. The Battousai was gone. But so was the demon hunter.

Something didn't feel right.

He had watched with his very eyes as her sword plunged deep into his heart; had seen him fall to his knees. And he had seen the strange, ethereal fire consume them both. He found it difficult to believe that there were no bodies. Even fire leaves the ashes of bones.

Yahiko raced through the streets of debris and heartache until he was forced to stop when building collapsed before him. Red flames danced high and joy at bringing the establishment down, and he cursed because he could go no further. But there was a movement beyond the flames that got his attention, and he squinted to see it clearly. Disbelief stole his breath.

Battousai was alive. He stood tall, proud and unscathed. Beside him stood the demon hunter. The braids from her hair had come undone and his hand knotted itself in the dark, flowing mass so he could tilt her head back. He was going to kill her. He was about to watch it happen.

"Kaoru!"

His voice caught their attention and the Battousai stopped what he was doing with an irritated look. It was Kaoru who smiled secretively at him, and this time he was certain her eyes flickered white and then back again. She turned back to the demon, tugging on his ponytail until his lips met hers. Their kiss burned like the fire around them and Yahiko looked away in shock and embarrassment. When he looked back, they were gone.

Epilogue

"Well that was interesting."

Kaoru quirked an eyebrow at her red-haired other half. "Yeah. We almost got caught."

He smiled that secret smile she had come to understand.

"Hey, Kenshin?"

"Yes, Kaoru?"

She came up behind him and tugged gently on a ribbon of his crimson mane. He leaned back as if she had put force behind her pull so she put her chin on his shoulder, close to his neck. "Can we head East? It's my turn to play the evil demon."

…END…

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