A damp hot wind blew through the dark clouded night, foreshadowing a storm

Disclaimer: I did not nor had any hand in the creation of Rurouni Kenshin. In other words I do not own these characters.

A damp hot wind blew through the dark clouded night, foreshadowing a storm. The smell of rain was heavy in the air and nothing could be heard aside from the rustling    of leaves in a nearby bamboo grove. Drop by lonely drop the rain began to fall, gaining intensity and speed. Lightning flashed across the sky and sent shockwaves of thunder through the silent night.  Suddenly screams could be heard from below in a small clearing          on the streets of Kyoto.  Lightning lit up the scene where the fallen water ran red with blood.  Nearby a young samurai cleaned and sheathed his sword. His vision was clouded by the blood of the man he had just slain and he blinked furiously to clear them out. 

From a side alley five men carrying swords approached with urgent speed.  The smelled blood was heavy in the wet rainy air.  They stopped when they reached their fallen comrade lying in a watered down pool of his own blood and looked up to see his murder starting to walk away not ten feet from were the body lay. His long hair swished from its high ponytail on top of his head and glowed red in a single moonbeam that showered on him through the clouds. Two of the men unsheathed their swords and the other three stood back with their hands on the scabbards ready to strike.

"Turn and fight, coward!"

The young samurai stopped were he was, but did not turn around.  His hand lightly gripped his sword. The moon disappeared from behind a cloud.

"Turn and face us or die from the back!" one of the men shouted and the rain began to fall even harder.

The samurai lowered his head a bit and spoke calm and certain, "This rain is good…" he paused for a second making the men uneasy by his tone. Lightning once again seared the sky. The samurai then turned the left of his body and face towards the men who caught a glimpse of a cross shaped scar that was etched into his left cheek, and continued, "it will wash away the blood so only your bodies will be left to be cleaned up."

"Hitokiri Battousai!" the man in the lead yelled, but it was drowned  out by the clap of thunder following the lightning. The men around him charged disobeying his orders to retreat. The hitokiri drew his sword with his renowned god like speed and sliced the first man to reach him diagonally in half, his blood spewed through the air, staining his cloths and dripped across his scar. The second and third man came even quicker than the first and he dealt each of them a similar fate. As the fourth came the Battousai raised his sword to meet the attack. This man was obviously better than the first three, but it was to no avail. The hitokiri expertly sprung back from the clashing swords and landed on the side of a building before jumping back and slicing through the man's raised sword and skull.

He stood there, showered in blood, gasping for breath in it's stench, and turned slouch-shouldered to face his final opponent. The man stood frozen in terror of the hitokiri who was said to have no mach under the heavens. Finally his senses came to him and he sheathed his sword and took off down the dark alley behind him. The hitokiri took a leap over the fallen men and chased after him.  The alley turned into a maze of alleys but the hitokiri was able to follow the fleeing man by the footprints he had left in the mud and by the sound of his heavy breathing. He entered upon another clearing were he saw the man cornered by several buildings at the end. Seeing now no other choice he turned and faced death.

Battousai charged and by chance the man dodged his first attack and the hitokiri made a large slash in the building in front of him. He dislodged his sword from the stone and turned in time to block a blow from his opponent's sword. The hitokiri fell back causing his opponent to become unbalanced and he materialized behind him and slashed his back killing him instantly.

As he was walking away from the body he heard some commotion from inside the house that he had slashed. The lights turned on in the front windows and the door opened. Two boys and one woman stepped out to see what had happened. The boys were the first to see the body. Evidently knowing the man they yelled out his name and rushed to his side to see if he might still be alive. The woman sat down, staring at him in disbelief and began to weep.  Silhouetted in the doorway of the house, a small child stepped into the softening rain, her large green eyes wide and full of tears. She stumbled her way down past her weeping sister to her brothers by the slain man in the mud. Her tinny hands gripped his blood stained shirt and she began to sob face buried in his chest.  

Pain struck the hitokiri's heart when he saw this. He did not and never had enjoyed killing and seeing scenes like this made him hate his job even more. As he looked  back he saw the large, green, tear filled eyes of the child staring at him through the dark, and he ran off and hid himself in the rain of blood.

…

Kenshin snapped into consciousness. It was still late at night and it was beginning to rain outside. His breathing was heavy and he was sickly hot under his covers.  He tried to get up but a soft touch on his shoulder kept him from rising up.  The soft hand moved it's way up to his face where it rested on and felt his forehead. It was removed and replaced with a cool damp cloth. He tried to open his eyes but there was no reason to, it was too dark to see anything or anyone. He tried to lift himself up once more but again he was held down by the unknown hand. Slowly he moved his hand from under the sheet to grasp the hand that held him down.

"Kenshin, are you awake?" came a very soft, whispery voice. To this he rolled his head up and tried to peer at the speaker's face through the darkness. "Shhhh, shhh, shh. Don't move so much," the voice said removing the cloth from his head and replacing it with a fresh, cooler one.

"Kaoru dono, is that you?" he questioned in a whisper, feeling her soft hand on his shoulder.

"Hi. I heard you tossing and turning all the way from my room. I'm surprised that Yahiko didn't wake up with the noise you were making." She whispered removing the cloth from his forehead and feeling it's temperature again. Lightning flashed outside and he saw Kaoru's worried face as it was lit up. He smiled. Kaoru had been so nice to him for the last few days, since he had been sick most of the time.  He reached his hand up and grabbed Kaoru's hand off of his forehead.

"Thank you, Kaoru, I'll be fine now."

"Kenshin, … you still have a fever," she began and she pulled her hand from his and reapplied the damp cloth to his forehead.

"Thank you," he said closing his eyes letting the coolness of the cloth sink in. Lightning flashed and Kenshin suddenly remembered his dream. He sat straight up in bed, startling Kaoru so that she knocked over the bowl of water she had been using to dampen his cloth.

"Kenshin!" Kaoru yelled, surprised and worried. She grabbed him by the shoulder's as he stared blankly ahead of him. "Kenshin! What's wrong?!" Exhaustion gripped his body and he leaned onto Kaoru for support. "Kenshin?" she whispered worriedly as he slipped almost unconscious into her arms. "I'm taking you to see Megumi and Dr. Gensai first thing in the morning, Kenshin," she said caressing his burning body in her arms as he breathed heavily, in and out.

"Kaoru dono," he whispered breathing even heavier than before, "I don't want to be a burden to you."

"Shhhh, shhh, shh. Don't talk just try to go back to sleep," she said laying him back down in his bed. "I'm going to go get some more water then I'm going to stay right here beside you all night," she whispered in his ear, then got up and moved quietly to the door as his breath softened.

"Kaoru dono, I don't want to be a burden," he said sleepily.

"You aren't, Kenshin. Don't worry you aren't," she whispered quietly to the sleeping Kenshin and silently slipped out the door. 

…To be continued…