"No! Kenshin please stop! Don't! Kenshin!" Kaoru reached out to Kenshin but it seemed as if he couldn't hear her. He kept on fighting and pushing himself to kill again. It seemed as if he wanted to feel the blood of another man on his skin, wanting to taste the scent of the blood in his mouth. To have fresh warm blood dripping down his sword after another killing made him remember how it was to kill, the pleasure of it all.

Kenshin lunged forward sticking the reverse side of his Sakabatou into his chest. The police man's eyes widened, blood dripped from his sword onto his hand, having the tingling pleasurable feeling return to him. He thought he had lost it after he became a wanderer, but he was wrong. The sight of blood made him remember, his scar seemed to have ached just as it did when he had completed the cross shaped scar on his cheek.

It was his fault he killed for the first time once more after becoming a wanderer. He turned the blade to the wrong side by mistake. Not actually meaning what he did. He plunged it into his chest. The blood made him go crazy. He spilled the blood of another human once more. It brought back the pleasure. Kenshin gave the sword a twist to the right. Making the police man cough up blood as more and more dripped down to the hilt of the sword touching his pale skin. His eyes bloodshot red and his face as cold as ice.

He quickly took the sword out of the body, letting it hit the floor as a puddle of red liquid began to form around the body. Kenshin looked at his sword, now stained red. He looked numb, not crazy, happy, or sad, but numb. He didn't move for a while, all he did was look at the sword. "Kenshin! How could you?! Kenshin!!" Kaoru screamed out, tears streaming down her cheek. She had witnessed it all. The body lay lifeless on the floor of course. Drenched in his own blood.

Kenshin finally moved bringing his sword up and swinging it down in one big motion as the blood removed itself from the sword. He sheathed the sword and turned around. He looked at the floor as he took some steps, not daring to look back. "Kenshin?! Where are you going?!" Kaoru said in a low voice. She wanted to get up and fallow him but felt her legs immobilized. She couldn't move. She was frozen in time. All she could hear were the footsteps of the Hitokiri Battousai, her breathing, and her heart beat.

"Kenshin….."

A few days later, there were more killings spotted. Some were killed slow and extremely painful; others had the luck of being killed fast and painless. Some were decapitated, some were sliced in half, others well, had the luck of just being sliced. The word was spread in many different cities.

"The Hitokiri Battousai has returned…."

That name brought fear into the hearts of everyone. Everyone was afraid to step outside, the worst has yet to begin, they all thought. It seemed as if the blood drove him to complete insanity. He would kill and leave no trace behind him. It was just for….simple pleasure.

"Kenshin…." Kaoru repeated his name day after day. In the dojo should we stay, moping around, weeping from time to time. She would try to live her life normally.

She tried sweeping the outside of her dojo, but as she did so she would see the bucket of water where he used to do the laundry, so peacefully, with his ever so pleasant smile on. She would lean her head against the broom and try to contain her tears inside but failed constantly. "How could he…...Kenshin…."

Yahiko tried to stay strong for Kaoru. But it did hit him hard. The person he looked up to, his idol, had resumed killing. Kenshin was the one who taught him that killing was never the answer. That he should use his sword as a tool to help bring peace to the world. But look at Kenshin now. Killing for pleasure. "How am I supposed to grow up to be someone respectable now?"

Now Sanosuke wasn't really sad. Well, ok he was but he was angry at the same time too. His friend, who also taught him that killing isn't the answer to problems, was doing exactly the opposite of what he taught him. He sits in a room and drinks sake until he passes out. His knuckles are bloody from all the wall punching he has ever done, hoping it would release the anger he had for Kenshin right now. "Dammit Kenshin! Why'd you go and do that?!"

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With very swift motions of the wrist and body weights, one by one he would resume killing. Passing by villagers, police, and other people that would cross him had no idea what was to become of their fate. To be killed by a man who didn't know what he really had in life. Didn't know where he was or what he was doing. He had no purpose at the moment, but one thing was on his mind and that was blood.

Kenshin kept his blade on the reverse side at all times. He sat in the trees, sword in hand waiting for someone. To his luck a young woman with long straight black, blue-ish hair pulled back into a ponytail came walking by. She looked very pale and her eyes were red and puffy. She had tofu in her hands hidden in a basket.

Kenshin dropped down and held the sword in his hands. Bloodshot eyes and a face as cold as ice bored into her eyes, showing no emotion. The young girl stared in shock, she felt her breath leave her lungs. Frozen, unable to do anything, dropped the basket of tofu onto the ground. She couldn't believe it. "Kenshin…" Was all that escaped her lips at this moment.

Kaoru stood silent after that, they looked at each other for what seemed to be almost an eternity. Kenshin made the first move forward as he pulled the sword back. "Kenshin…" Kaoru repeated as he lunged forward. He slowly pushed it into her stomach, her blood now dripping into his hands, feeling the pleasure once more and quickly took it out. "Ken….shin.."

She repeated. She dropped to the floor, holding her stomach, breathing hard now. She looked up at him, tears once again streaming down her cheeks just like the day the pleasure of killing returned to him.

Kenshin felt the warmness in her eyes as he stared into them. He closed his eyes tightly shaking it off. "Kenshin…I…I…" Kaoru tried to speak but the pain began to become unbearable. Kenshin lifted the sword in the air and brought it down with another swift movement as the blood flew off of it. He looked at Kaoru on the ground, shaking slightly. She didn't take her eyes off of him.

"Kenshin….I love…you…" Those were her last words. She fell to the floor, face wet with tears as her body was drenched with her warm blood. It was now Kenshin's turn to be frozen. He didn't move. His body went numb.

He began to tremble a bit as he closed his eyes once more, this time to stop the tears from flowing down his cheek. He had now realized what he did. Not just with Kaoru but with other innocent lives.

The lives in which he tried to save and repent from his wrong doings from before in the war. But he failed…he killed again. This time he killed someone he loved dearly. This was the second time he had lost someone he loved so very much. Guilt began to flow through his body quicker than anything. He trembled a bit harder as he lifted the blade up.

His blade was stained with the blood of innocent lives. He couldn't hold it in any longer. His tears began to blur his vision. He looked back at Kaoru on the floor as the guilt grew bigger. He flipped the sword up in the air and caught the hilt upside down, the point of the blade facing his chest. He took one last look at Kaoru. "I love you too…."

He pulled the blade inside of him, deepening it into his mind, soul, body. Slashing through the guilt and memories. His eyes widened as he fell to his knees, next to Kaoru. He took the blade out with the time he had left and threw it to the side. The blade of the sword dug into the ground as there was a loud thud in the background. Kenshin fell right next to Kaoru.

He killed himself to stop him from trying to harm other innocent lives or loved ones. He couldn't bear the guilt and he wouldn't be able to bear the huge amount of depression that would soon fall over him.

"A sword is a weapon. The art of swordsmanship is learning how to kill. That is the truth. What Miss Kaoru says is sweet and innocent talk, by those whose hands has never been stained with the blood of men, can believe…."

-Himura Kenshin