Samurai's Heart Battosai's Heart

by Deception'sChosen

Sano finds a woman who is starving and brings her to the Kenshingumi. She has a dark past. How does she know Kenshin? What is their relationship? Where does Sano stand on her?

1. Chapter 1

Samurai's Heart. Battosai's Blade.

Chapter 1

Sano sighed and looked up and down the street. The sun was setting, and he knew that he should be getting home before he did something stupid. Like get in a fight. Actually, that sounded like fun, but oh well.

He looked toward a darkened corner where usually a prostitute or two stood, plying their trade with cool smiles and lewd comments. Tonight however, a person of about Kenshin's height with a hood drawn over their head, wearing a tattered yukata and hakama with no shoes. When he got a little closer, he saw that the person had a sword at her hip.

"Hey."

The person raised its head, wide grey eyes locked onto him for a moment. Now that he could see the person properly, he saw that the figure was female. She took a step toward him, then fell forward in a dead faint. He caught her and tried to shake her back to consciousness to no avail. Finally he scooped her up, she felt like a skeleton with a thin layer of skin stretched over it.

"First thing we're doing when I get you to Kaoru's and you wake up, you're getting as much food as Kenshin can cook. Can't have Kaoru cook for you, you'll puke whatever's left of you out."

He walked as quickly as he could without jostling the woman slung over his shoulder. Her hands were decorated with scars, and there was a long thin scar that ran from left to right over the bridge of her nose and stretched under her eyes over her cheekbones. It was obvious that she was a fighter, but why was she carrying a sword? Didn't she know it was illegal?

He pushed open the door of Kaoru's house, calling out for Kenshin to start cooking and Kaoru to get some clean clothes. Kaoru looked at the woman draped over Sano's shoulder and grimaced. The woman stank, her hair, which hung in ropes over her face, was so matted and dirty that nobody could tell what color it was. Yahiko jogged to the bathhouse, lighting the fire and coming back in as Sano set the woman on the ground outside the door.

"Kaoru doesn't want her in the house until she has been washed. Can't blame her really, she does smell."

Yahiko nodded and looked around as Kaoru came outside with a clean robe and a towel. She heaved the woman up into her arms and stalked into the bathhouse just as the woman opened her eyes.