Title: Upon Perished Grounds
Author: ThirdReInCaRnAtIoN
Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin belongs to its rightful creators; inspiration and ingenuity.
Rating: R
Spoilers: Not really any...maybe just mentions of some stuff....
Author's Note: This is an AU but some of the story will have insights into the actual storyline.
Summary: She could still taste the sorrow like a lingering kiss, a kiss of one whom she could not have. (K/K/B)
There was a fierce sense of solidarity in the night. At least that was her opinion on the matter.
Whenever its dark veil fell against the brilliant hue of the dusk golden sky she could feel just the slightest shiver of foreboding creeping up her spine.
It wasn't so much that she was afraid of the night or the atrocities that it could bring but rather the feeling invoked in her, she didn't like being scared of anything, she wasn't used to it and the emotion didn't suit her. Pulling her loose navy jacket closer to her body she absorbed her surroundings.
The air carried a light chill that turned her nose and cheeks the sweetest shade of red whilst annoying her to the extreme extent of her patience. She didn't consider herself to be an impatient person but the nips of cold air that wriggled their way under her jacket and danced across her icy skin drove a mallet of vehemence through her soul.
Sighing in mild annoyance she quickened her steps as she passed the commercial area of Tokyo and proceeded to her small apartment just outside of Shinjuku. She slapped her cheeks softly and blew on her hands then stuffed them into her pockets in a vain attempt to find some warmth.
Tonight had been one of the coldest nights she could ever remember witnessing since she'd moved to Tokyo 8 years ago. A sigh ripped its way from her throat and she rounded the last corner.
10 more meters and she'd be safely at her doorstep ready to relax for a nice comfortable night of sleep. She closed her eyes and a small smile wormed its way onto her face and she almost laughed in relief.
She'd always been a bit strange about walking home by herself, alone in Tokyo. Japan was relatively safe compared to the rest of the world but to face the facts, just because it was safer than other countries didn't mean that there wasn't a share of sick, mentally disturbed people lurking in the shadows.
She didn't delude herself into thinking Japan was always safe because like every other country, any semblance of peace that lingered was brought forth by countless bloodshed by others.
Just as she reached her doorway, key in hand she heard the one thing she'd never wished to hear in her life, the helpless cry of a child. Kaoru had never been one for flying into the rescue of others like some kind of superwoman.
She normally was the one of the sidelines trying to get by and trying not to interfere or start meddling in the business of others. She rationalized as her hand held her keys to her lock that it was probably just some high school kid out with friends screaming and laughing. It simply wasn't her business and in Japan people kept to their own business.
Shaking her head she gave a rueful smile, she always over reacted. She hears a scream and "Wham" thinks that someone's under attack. Another scream rang out, this time in a course baritone voice.
She dropped her keys onto her doorstep and spun around, hands brought in front of her body in a defensive maneuver. She wasn't hallucinating and that definitely wasn't the scream of a couple of high school girls out for a night of fun.
Gritting her teeth and cursing all the kami she could think of she pocketed her keys, picked up the small bokken that leaned precariously against her doorstep and sprinted off towards the direction of the screams.
In Kaoru Kamiya's opinion Tokyo had been built to no residential plan what so ever, she swore that she'd been heading towards the scream and yet she also felt that she'd somehow been turned around. It was the most frustrating thing she'd ever been through.
The only thing that reassured her that she was on the right path was the smell of tainted air. It smelled dark yet she could only explain it as feeling as if all the lights of Tokyo had suddenly dimmed and become suffocated by some great shadow.
It wasn't a cheerful thought when she thought about exactly how much light Tokyo emitted on a daily basis and how it was if it had all been smothered. Her breathing became choppy as the ominous feeling of impending doom grew upon her shoulders and lifted off as if it were some giant bird escaping from a particularly skilled predator.
Her heart thundered in her chest, so loud she was sure the kami above had heard its noisy racket. She tried to steady herself, lest her heart palpitate and jump from her chest in pure fear. Gulping she swatted the small sweat droplets that formed above her brow.
She inhaled and slowly counted to three before breaking into a run and skidding into the small alleyway she was positive the scream had issued from. The sight that met her eyes made her fall to her knees and start to wretch. She'd expected attempted mugging and at the most attempted rape but the sight before her left her heaving for air and bile rising up her throat.
There was blood everywhere. Splattered up the concrete walls, dribbled along the ground, she could even make out slight hand prints in the sticky substance when one of the two victims, lying in a bloody gore filled heap had tried to pull themselves up to stand. Kaoru looked at the bodies in morbid horror.
There was a man around his forties, dressed in a business suit, or at least what she assumed to be one, she couldn't really tell anymore as one of his arms was missing and half of his face had disappeared revealing to Kaoru parts of human anatomy she had no desire to learn about.
His legs were twisted under him as if he'd tried to sit down in a drunken state and not quite achieved his goal.
Next to him was a small bundle pulled close towards him with his remaining arm. Kaoru could see the long black hair flowing down from the bundle's head and she shivered realizing she'd just found the child who'd screamed.
The small girl's eyes had been shut gently and only a faint splatter of blood ruined her pale porcelain complexion. Kaoru knew though that she was dead. No child would ever remain so still.
She shuddered as confliction emotions warred within her. She wanted to go closer, yet to run away. But she couldn't bring herself to move. She was frozen by the startling tragedy and heart breaking scene before her. "What kind of monster...?" She asked softly.
"Me." A cold voice answered from behind her. Kaoru flew upwards as if wings had taken up residence on her feet. Spinning around she met the face of a man she considered a murderer.
Her breath left her body in one foul swoop and her heart stopped beating all together.
Before her stood the most horrific sight she'd ever encountered in her life.
He stood and shadow, a compliment to darkness, swathed in dark black trousers seemingly molded to his form and a midnight black tank top laced around the collar with shiny silver steel buckles as if to act as some sort of armor for his neck.
His mouth and nose were hidden by a long black scarf that whipped out behind him like a cape and effectively hid his facial expression. She stumbled backwards as he started forward, his black runners swiping across the loose gravel of the alleyway and his left hand fingering the hilt of one of his swords.
"The girl shouldn't have needed to die." He said in a dangerous monotone. "But humans are so frightened of death, so filled with selfishness." He continued, he didn't even bother to look at her, his eyes remained fixed on the small girl lying broken in the elder man's arms.
"I made him suffer for using the small defenseless girl as a shield, but she still needed to die. Pathetic. At least I made her death quick." He drew his sword so fast Kaoru could barely comprehend seeing it move. "He died too quickly, the coward," He yelled sauntering past Kaoru and kicking the man's body viciously. "I was too merciful on him, he should have suffered more."
Kaoru's eyes darted from left to right forming a half-hearted escape plan. She slowly inched her way backwards towards the entrance of the alleyway, her muscles tensing in preparation to run. Without even blinking he was behind her his sword at her throat, his scarlet hair blowing into her face. His mouth was too close to her neck for comfort and his sword too close to her body for her to breathe normally.
"W-what's the meaning of this?" She whimpered, ashamed of herself as soon as the trembling question left her lips. "What did you see?" He asked a silky dangerous tone of promised pain entering his voice. "N-nothing." She automatically replied.
"You did not see a man bleeding from dismembered limbs or a child dead from a single stab wound?" He asked as if to confirm something. "No!" She replied angrily, her fear overcoming her rational senses and she started to struggle. "Please just let me go!!!"
Remembering the weapon in her hand she became limp and fell to the ground and as he let go in surprise she swung the bokken around to connect solidly with his shin. He growled in simple reply to her reaction as she jumped to her feet and began pounding away at the pavement, running away for all she was worth.
It didn't take long for her to realize he moved so much faster than she could. He would appear on the tops of the low rise buildings and taunt her with glimpses of his red hair as she retraced her way back to her house. If she could just get inside and lock the doors, she reasoned, she'd be safe.
As she reached her doorstep a pair of arms wound around her trapping her against her doorframe. "Such an insolent little child. Have you never understood that the Battousai doesn't play games with little girls?" Kaoru gulped realizing the voice and arms wrapped around her immediately.
Gohei Hiruma. "Gohei," she snapped out angrily. "Let me go." Gohei's face nuzzled into the side of her cheek and he whispered into her ear a simple, "No you slut, your father never gave me my money's worth but you will." Kaoru saw red. "Fuck you asshole." She spat and elbowed him in his solar plexus. He staggered backwards and Kaoru used that precious time to look for her key.
Her fingers fumbled through her pockets shaking as they latched around something solid. Yanking the keys from her pocket she pushed them into the lock and turned. Gohei staggered to his feet and staggered up the stairs, his hand latching onto Kaoru's long hair, and he pulled.
Kaoru screamed as she tumbled backwards down the small set of stairs.
He pushed her to the ground, his fist in her hair and climbed on top her. Kaoru struggled. By no means was she a weak, she kicked and bit, elbowed and scratched. Gohei slapped her hard and she stilled, her head forced to the side, her cheek grazed from the gravel. Then she opened her mouth and screamed the loudest scream to ever grace the Tokyo area. Car alarms 3 blocks away started going off and two streets across the people in the high rise buildings swore that they were in the middle of an earthquake.
Gohei paused and then started to punch her midsection. Kaoru let out a suspicious sounding 'oof' and for a second she was silent until she resumed her screaming and kicking. Her heart thudded in her chest and she silently wondered if death by the Hitokiri in the alleyway would be worse than the feel of Gohei's body slung along hers and his disgusting breath on her face.
Tears streamed silently down her face and the world turned a darker shade, she still unwilling to give up. Giving an angry cry she wriggled a hand free of his grip and punched him in the nose. Gohei reeled back yelling profanities into the night.
Kaoru leapt to her feet and turned running. If she could just get somewhere safe...Coming to a quick decision she hurled herself around a corner and hoped to kami that Gohei hadn't seen where she'd gone.
Panting and still running she tossed a glance over her shoulder to see if Gohei was still following her, only to find herself end up on her rear as she ran into a rather solid compact object. Glancing upwards, panic flowing through her freely at the thought of Gohei catching up to her, her heart stopped dead as her eyes met the amber of the hitokiri from the alleyway's eyes.
"Holy Shit," she whispered and scrambled round on her knees preparing to jump up and run in the opposite direction. That was until his arms circled round her waist and pulled her over his shoulder like a sack of rice. "Excuse me!" she spluttered, her face turning red. The thought of Gohei and then the thought of the hitokiri was enough to bring on a fresh onslaught of tears.
Today, most definitely was not her day.
Battousai skimmed over the pavement quickly, hardly sparing a thought to those who might see him. He was a shadow of the night, any who saw him were killed and those whom he sought were dead men anyway.
Yet the girl on his shoulder would not die tonight, perhaps she would have if he had not seen Gohei paw at her with such fascination and raw lust. It was true he supposed, she was pretty in her own way, nothing compared to Tomoe of course, but in her own right she had beauty.
And as that beauty seemed to ensnare Gohei Hiruma so much, it made her perfect bait.
His mind had calculated the risks as he watched her struggle against Gohei so fruitlessly.
He'd had the strangest notion to help her at some point, to slice Gohei as he had the elderly man in the alleyway, for using someone as defenseless as a weak girl to appease and save them. The girl on his back was exhausted.
He'd felt her collapse early on, whether deciding that in an assassin's arms she could rest safe from Gohei, or that she no longer cared what happened to her, he did not know. Nor did he care. He had the bait for the trap.
He moved her so he held her in front of him, no longer finding it comfortable to feel her ribcage pressed against his shoulder. Game, set and match. Now all he needed was Katsura's permission to eliminate the treacherous spy. He smiled in satisfaction under his long scarf and sped up. No one noticing the shadow racing through the streets, an unconscious girl wrapped up in his arms.
Kaoru dreamed, her thoughts relieving happier memories of days gone by.
"Kao-chan, Kao-chan!!!" A small voice called. Kaoru turned from her training to watch a small boy with short ragged red hair running up to her. She smiled as his foot caught on a loose rock on the way up and he skid the rest of the way until he ended up at her feet.
"Oro?" He questioned, his eyes spinning. Kaoru hid her laugh behind her sleeve and helped the young boy to his feet. "Ken-kun, why are you here?"
His grin widened as he jumped to his feet. "I'm going away!!!" He proclaimed happily his eyes alight with joy and wonder. "Hiko- sama said that it was time to start my training so we have to go the hills in Kyoto, to some special dojo!" Kenshin clapped his hands together in glee as Kaoru watched on in disbelief. Tears started prickling her eyes and her grip tightened on her bokken. "KENSHIN NO BAKA!" She screamed and smacked him with her weapon.
Kenshin fell to the ground under her heavy blow and looked up confused. "Kao-chan?" he asked rubbing his sore head. "Baka," she sniffled. "Don't you get it?" She sat down and started to draw a little picture in the dirt. "This is where we are," she said pointing to the two little stick figures. "And this is where you're going." She drew a picture of the mountains.
"Do you understand?" She asked, rubbing out the Kenshin next to her and putting him in the mountainside. Her features became sad again.
"You're leaving me all alone." Kenshin's face lost its smile and his face paled.
"B-b-but..." he stammered. Kaoru dropped her bokken and started to sob. "My family's all gone Ken-kun. I don't want you to go to!" Kenshin gave her a quick hug.
"But I have to train Kao-chan, it's tradition!! I'm going to Kyoto and be like a samurai! Like in the Bakamatsu!!!."
"Idiot!!" Kaoru sniffled. "All the samurai died." Kenshin's face became serious. "I'm going to be the last samurai and I'm going to be so strong no-one will be able to kill me. Then I'll always be able to come back to you." Kaoru scoffed her tears disappearing. "No way, I'm going to be the best so then I'll save you from being the damsel in distress...like Sailor Moon! But cooler and I'll have a cape and a sword." Kenshin looked skeptical.
"Kao-chan," he began softly. "Can we make a promise?" Kaoru looked up, her eyes slightly pink from stopping her tears. "If it's a Tokyo U promise then no way, I saw how Keitaro turned out." Kenshin nodded solemnly. "I know, running a bathhouse full of naked beautiful women."
Kaoru glowered at him. "What's the promise? If it's for the prevention of bodily harm to you I may not be able to keep it." Kenshin fidgeted. "Kao-chan, promise me that we'll always be good friends and that we'll always have each other to hold onto when we're sad or upset? I don't care how strong I'm going to be if I don't have anyone to be strong for. You're my best friend and I don't want to let you get hurt by anyone. I want us to always be able to save each other, that's enough, that's all I want."
Kaoru smiled her eyes watery. For a 10 year old that was basically a love confession worthy of Harlequin. Her fingers fumbled their way around his neck and she held on for all she was worth. "That's what I want to! I promise I'll always save you and you can save me."
Kenshin laughed and grabbed a bunch of grass and put it down her top. "No fair!" He grinned.
"You have the easier task!" He jumped up and started run as an enraged Kaoru grew 2 heads and sprouted flame. "KEENSSSSHHHHIIN!! She roared and grabbed her bokken.
Kenshin laughed from the distance. "Where is my Kao-chan?? You promised you'd save me, save me from the hideous beast!!!" Kaoru fumed and then started laughing. "I'll get you Himura!" She chuckled in a dark voice. "AND YOUR LITTLE DOG TOO!!" She bellowed.
Then both laughed until they cried hysterically. Panting for breath Kaoru crawled over to Kenshin and flopped over his midsection. "Kenshin, what if we never see each other again? Kyoto's pretty far from here and even though Japan's small there are so many people we'd probably never even bump into each other if we stood side wards! Even if I went through every phone book or looked at every internet site! I don't want to say goodbye and never see you again! You're my best, best friend and I love you!"
His arms hugged her slightly; his face tinted a dark, rose pink. "Why don't we have a special place to meet, at a special time and specific location in the future?" Kaoru started to beam.
"That's great. But we're both never allowed to forget or...or...."
"A kappa can eat our brains." Kenshin stated. "And a tennyo can eat our souls." Kaoru added.
They both nodded. "But we need a reminder..." Kaoru's brow furrowed. "I know! Kenshin, lend me your knife!" Kenshin scowled and took out his small knife that he used for practicing throwing kunai. Then he winced as Kaoru used the blade to draw a small cross on her wrist. Then she rubbed dirt into it. She hissed through her teeth and then looked at Kenshin.
"This way it scars and I'll always remember." Kenshin nodded thoughtfully. "Where do you want yours?" Kenshin paused and bit his lip. "One line...on my face, that's way you'll know who I am and what I promised the moment you see me." Kaoru gasped and threw the blade into the bushes. "No Kenshin," she breathed her eyes wide and terrified.
"I won't do that to you. I won't do that to your pretty face. You can't ask me to." She shook her head. "Put it somewhere that doesn't matter. See mine's on my wrist why don't you put yours there too?" Kenshin scowled and scanned the shrubs for his knife. Upon finding it he took a deep breath and heard Kaoru still pleading with him not to.
Steeling himself he raised the knife and slashed down, ignoring Kaoru's startled scream.
Kneeling, his blood splattered the ground and Kaoru rushed over prying the knife from his grip.
His eyes opened and he saw her tear stained face in front of his.
"See, I sacrificed something for you so in the future you have to do the same for me."
Kaoru buried her face in his neck. "Moron," she whispered. "If you wanted me to sacrifice anything all you had to do was ask." Kenshin dropped his mouth against her ear. "In the future you will have to sacrifice yourself to me." Kaoru shuddered behind the prophetic tone in his voice.
"I just want us to always be together like this." She murmured the bright sun blinding her even as she closed her eyelids. Blood pooled on both of them and Kaoru felt as if something had suddenly been ignited. "Fate" She said in a hushed tone. Kenshin nodded and replied, "Future."
Kaoru awoke from the gentleness of the dream to find herself on a hard cold futon.
"So you're finally awake." Kaoru turned and caught sight of the hitokiri from the alleyway.
The evening before flashed through her mind and she felt the stirrings of anger and disbelief.
But more so she felt the stirring of hunger. Growling at her self as her stomach made noised she tried to ignore the hitokiri's cold stare. "I am Battousai." He said, the frost in his tone making her cringe away. "And you are bait. Do as you are told and you won't die."
Kaoru was definitely beginning to feel the urge to rampage and pummel. "Look buddy, I don't know who you think you are but..." Her voice caught in her throat as he caught sight of the face that had previously been hidden behind a scarf. "K-kenshin!!!!" She spluttered and then decided it was best for both of them if she was to pass out.
This same dream once again overflows,
With your voice, your fingers,
For now, I just want to make you see
This single precious moment in time