I'm feeling slightly emo today... yeah right. But anyway, I had a lot of time to make an attempt to be emo...

Disclaimer: Don't own. Don't sue. Not that anyone who reads this can sue, because they're probably younger than 18.

The world would always be cruel. That was what she had figured out in her sixteen-year existence.

She stared petrified at the monster in the alleyway, with his sword gleaming a sharp, stinging red. Only this wasn't a monster, couldn't be a monster. Tears flowed unchecked down her cheeks. Was that really Himura-san?

"The Battousai went for another kill last night, I hear."

"Ah. Best be careful, eh?"

"Who isn't in this chaos? But hey, cheer up. Just 'cause the Battousai's on the loose doesn't mean we can't enjoy our lives."

"Hmm…I hear the Battousai kills all the witnesses along with his victim. In just one stroke!"

"Impossible! Ferget about it. Check out that pretty waitress…"

Himura-san had saved her from those drunks. He had been so polite, the first friend she had had before leaving her village for the city. It wasn't the first time he had gotten her out of a sticky situation. And he had come to the pub where she worked every day to talk to her.

"Hey Himura-san, why do you come here every day? Doesn't a young man like you have something else to do?"

"Iie. I like sitting here."

"So where do you come from, Himura-san?"

"A farming village."

"Really? Me too. It's sad that everyone is leaving the villages to join the rebels."

"They don't know what it's really like."

"What's 'it'?"

"The war. They shouldn't join the war."

She had thought that Himura-san was a pacifist, yet he was the one responsible for all the murders in the past months.

"Hmm… I hear the Battousai kills all the witnesses along with his victim. In just one stroke!"

The monster was coming toward her. As the moonlight streamed onto his face, she could recognize Himura-san's facial features, but they had been twisted into the mask of a murderer. Cold eyes, so cold that she was frozen to the spot, knowing that running was not an option. She wouldn't live to see tomorrow.

"Himura-san."

In sick fascination, she stepped closer. And closer. The tears kept coming.

"Himura-san… Sayonara."

Silently, the hitokiri moved. She felt the blade slip into her heart, felt her knees weaken, his emotionless figure towering over her body.

"Why are you always protecting me, Himura-san?"

"You don't deserve to be stabbed in a sword fight."

"Oh really? But I guess that won't happen when Himura-san is around."

But in the end, she had been stabbed anyway. The world was a cruel place after all…

I really wonder what it would have been like to live back then. Probably just a normal life with like...paranoid people talking about assassinations in the background... xD

If my truce buddy is out there... HI TRUCE BUDDY! YOUR FRIEND HAS NO LIFE!