Furtive Glances - A Rurouni Kenshin Fanfiction

Chapter One: First Impressions

She was nothing.

Her and her ragtag band of misfits.

He smirked.

The Kenshin-gumi, as that boy called them. Unremarkable in skill and inept in execution, her little group of outcasts together did not have a tenth of the skill or experience of even just one of his men. They were undisciplined hotheads who rush to the fray impetuously and unprepared, without a backward glance. That they had the temerity to take an unknown woman under their wings was mind-boggling. But the fact that they would even dare to fight to keep the opium producer was astounding. He shook his head. Defeating them, intimidating them should not have been an issue. Retrieving Megumi Takani for Kanryu should have been a relatively painless exercise, an irritating nuisance at most.

Except for the Battousai factor.

When he first learned of Battousai's presence, a plan had slowly formed in his mind. This was the chance he had been waiting for. A chance for the Oniwaban group to go down in history as the 'strongest.' It was something he could give to his men. A source of pride they could all draw upon. He had been given the golden opportunity of fighting the man he should have fought long ago in the revolution. To fight this man, this Battousai, to defeat him would have been a vindication to the Oniwaban group's strength.

He wiped his brow and continued with his work. He was, he might as well admit it, tired and injured. He wondered at the odd tricks that fates played. Of all the places in all of Tokyo for the opium doctor to barge into, her luck would have her run straight into the arms of Battousai and his companions. And what an odd band of brothers (and sister, if one were to be more accurate) that turned out to be. Again, he shook his head as if to clear his thoughts.

What in god's name was the legendary hitokiri doing with a group of helpless idiots? The fighter-for-hire, he could understand. Maybe. While next to being the most threat after Battousai, Sanosuke Sagara was still nothing but a street punk with adequate offensive moves and little or no defense to speak of. Hardly much use to someone like Battousai. And then there was that former pickpocket. A child, for god's sake. He winced, remembering the look in the boy's eyes. He didn't think he had ever been that…spirited. Whatever times that boy had spent with the Yakuza, it wasn't enough to dampen his fighting spirit. Admirable, but foolish.

And last, but not least, there was Kamiya.

"Kenshin!"

He closed his eyes, pausing for awhile. He could still hear her voice calling out for Battousai.

That woman housed not just Battousai, but every other down-on-his-luck fool who happened to wander by her sight. Megumi was just the latest, but he was sure not the last, to be taken under the wing of her dojo.

What kind of woman opens her home to virtual strangers?

The kind of woman whose worried eyes followed every move Battousai made during his fight.

He frowned, remembering the intentness of her gaze. Her eyes had been fixed on Battousai long before the fight began. He had a feeling that those eyes had been on Battousai ever since she met him. He grunted, feeling the sharp pain in his legs as he continued on his task. It was useless, of course, for her to have any hope of a future with Battousai. The past would always haunt the hitokiri's steps, preventing any sort of safe haven even at the Kamiya dojo. Then there was the fact that he, Aoshi, would challenge Battousai again in the near future. And this time, this next time, he would be able to give his friends the title of the 'strongest.'

Again, his thoughts went inexplicably back to the woman. He remembered noticing the faint smell of jasmine just before the fight. It had intrigued him at first. Such a foreign scent intermingling with the oppressiveness of Kanryu's mansion. Battousai soon claimed his attention, however, and he had dismissed the scent as inconsequential. It wasn't until now, with this task at hand, that his mind wandered back to the scent of jasmines.

He cursed with frustration.

What was it about that woman that led him to think of her even at this time?

Perhaps it was the look she gave him.

Back there, across the room. Across the wide abyss that was his comrades' dead bodies, he had looked up for a moment to see the Kenshin-gumi head towards Megumi's location. In that space of a moment, his eyes had met hers. And for the briefest of seconds, in spite of the chaos and the darkness that clouded his heart, he had felt…peace. With her one look, she had relayed sympathy and sorrow, kindness and compassion, perspicacity and…pity. His heart had basked under the caring of her gaze until he recognized the pity that clouded the depths of her eyes.

That one such as her should ever have reason to feel pity for him!

With soul-jarring abruptness, their gazes had broken away from each other and his eyes returned to stare unseeingly at his men's sacrifice. At the corner of his sight, he had noticed her give a respectful bow towards his lifeless friends before she turned her back and joined Battousai.

Battousai.

The name reverberated in his mind as he placed the last bit of earth to cover his friends' graves.

Back in the mansion, Kamiya had gone with Battousai to find the opium doctor. At her departure, his mind had once more focused on the slain Oniwaban group. The bullet-laden bodies of his friends.

Shikijo.

Hyottoko.

Beshimi.

Hannya.

All had died to protect…him. They had died to protect the one who should have protected them. That life should hand all of them such a cruel blow.

He remembered.

It was then that he let the darkness come.

Without her eyes looking upon him, he had succumbed to the rage that enveloped his entire being. He had given himself over to madness.

His jaw clenched in remembrance as he stared at the inadequate makeshift graves he had been all but capable of providing for his men. He had no flowers to give them at this time.

Maybe someday.

When Battousai is defeated.

When they become the 'strongest' of men.

He would adorn the graves with flowers of victory.

And perhaps…some jasmine.


She hadn't really given him much thought.

In the beginning, that is.

Or rather, she had not thought of him, not really, as a separate entity outside of Kenshin.

At first, she only thought of how his skills, how his knowledge, how his actions all affected Kenshin. They were to fight him and his men, after all, for that fox doctor. He and his men were experienced. Veteran fighters from the Revolution. It mattered not that they themselves did not fight in Kyoto. Their strength was still formidable.

She smiled as she continued to walk towards her destination.

And yet, no matter how formidable the foe, she and her friends had still rushed to help, to save, to rescue Megumi. Foolish and dangerous, she knew. But…but they had Kenshin. With Kenshin, everything seemed possible. Even the impossible. For who would have thought that her group of friends would come out unscathed from that whole debacle? And who would have thought that the Oniwanban group would come out with only one man standing?

Fate could be strange at times.

Her breath gave a slight catch as her thoughts raced back to the time in the mansion. That time, in that huge hall. The fight between Aoshi Shinomori and Kenshin. She remembered her heart on her throat as she watched the two warriors dance upon their duel. Her eyes were fixated, morbidly entranced at the fluid movements of both men. She had bitten her lip at the clanging sounds of swords as they struck one another.

"Kenshin!" her heart had cried. Her hand had gone to her mouth when she realized what she shouted out loud.

Kenshin, she had thought quietly, then desperately as his body fell on the floor.

"Battousai is dead," he had said so dispassionately

And even then, when they all thought he had killed Kenshin, she had not thought of Aoshi Shinomori as anything other than Kenshin's murderer.

When was it that it began? When was it that she began to see him as someone separate from Kenshin? It was back there, in the mansion. Sometime back there.

She sighed as she felt the sun begin to burn hotter as noon approached. She should arrive at the place soon. Otherwise, she'll be late coming home and Kenshin…Kenshin would be worried. He would question her about where she went and why. And those were questions she would prefer not to answer.

She looked up ahead, searching for signs. She felt the wind brush against her ear, almost as if to whisper to her a wordless clue. Where she was heading, she didn't think she could ever tell Kenshin. Why she was going there, she sighed. Even she did not know the answer to that. How she even knew where she was going was a mystery to her. All she knew was that as she passed through these woods one morning, she had felt something tug at her heart. It was the same feeling she had that time…in Kanryu's mansion.

Aoshi Shinomori.

She remembered the destruction that gatling gun had wrought. As she followed the others to find Megumi, she had looked back at the tragic scene that lay before them and met the icy gaze Aoshi Shinomori. As their eyes had locked upon one another across a sea of devastation, in that one unguarded moment, her heart wrenched at the grief she had glimpsed upon his face.

She had raised her hand in an instinctive effort to brush away the pain and the loneliness she saw reflected in his eyes. She had raised her hand, almost as if it were possible for her to touch him from across the room and across the bodies that littered the floor. She had raised her hand…only to put it back down to her side as his face donned an impassive mask.

Perhaps, perhaps the grief had been a product of her fervid imagination.

Perhaps, perhaps his unvoiced cry of pain was nothing more than the howling of the wind outside the mansion.

Perhaps…perhaps…perhaps.

She had left with Kenshin then, but deep down…she wondered why her heart cried out in protest. She had wondered why a deep sense of loss haunted her every step as she walked farther and farther away from Aoshi Shinomori. She had wondered at the cry of rage that only she had heard moments later.

And now, she looked across her to the place where her heart had taken her. It was a quiet and peaceful place in the woods. A perfect place really for those four stones.

It had been over a week since that night at Kanryu's. Why then did her heart lead her to the graves of the Oniwaban group?


Next Chapter: In the streets of Kyoto…two lost souls pass each other.