I don't own jack. And I'm a terrible writer. My writings have less life than an old mans penis so flames are welcome. I haven't seen Rurouni Kenshin in years so my image of the personalities of the characters and places are sketchy.

The Oath

It's been three years since the incident with Enishi, everything went back to the way it was. There was Yahiko still insulting and taunting Kaoru, Sano freeloading off the dojo, Kenshin still doing a majority if not all of the chores, Megumi with her intrigues, and last, but not least our temperamental, yet loveable tanuki, Kaoru. Yup, they were pretty much the same, except Kaoru.

With the years that have gone by, Kaoru had finally given up on Kenshin. She had finally started going out on dates with other men, who were practically throwing themselves at her feet. In those three years she had developed into a beautiful young woman and this did not go unnoticed by the men of Tokyo. Everywhere Kaoru went she would have eyes ogling her and men blushing whenever she walked pass them. At first she brushed them off as perverts and sexually repressed creeps, but their consistency even from Yahiko, Sano, and Kenshin made her notice what she could do. Kaoru used her looks for almost everything. She flirted with sellers and merchants at the market to get the price of goods lowered or for free, but no one seemed to mind. Kaoru had gotten all caught up in her hype that she had failed to notice the pain that she was causing to Kenshin, who was already thinking of leaving.

"…Miss Kaoru is going on another date again," sighed Kenshin as he watched a well dressed Kaoru, his current love interest, in a beautiful floral pattern kimono open the gate and leave.

'Which man bought that dress?' thought Kenshin.'Was it Haru, Keiji, or one of her other lovers?'

Kenshin felt a sharp pain in his chest as he said that. He could no longer stay here, the place that he considered home for several years, his heart could not take it. Kenshin made up his mind that afternoon. He would pack his belongings, leave, and never return. There would be no goodbyes of speech or letters, his departure would be without notice. It would only make parting more painful.

There was a knock on the gate. Kenshin opened it, to find a man with oddly familiar raven black hair and a matching black kimono and hakama grinning widely at him.

"Hello, Kenshin. Do you remember me?" the man asked.

"No I'm sorry I don't."

"Oh! Come on." The man said in an almost disappointed voice, "Remember, we drank sake in Kyoto together, in that restaurant called Masturi."

It was all coming back to him now. The restaurant, the brawl, the promise…

"Itto, it's you!"

"Indeed it is old friend!" He laughed. "Can I come in? I've brought some Sake."

"Sure."

They sat by the doors of the Dojo sipping from the cups that Itto had brought, talking about the old days and reminiscing of times gone by.

"So Kenshin, you still remember the promise."

"Yes. I remember. I made that pact to you shortly after Tomoe's death. I still remember it like yesterday. If I could not find the peace that I had desired in my heart by the time I was 32, then you would kill me."

There was a short pause. The only sound made between the two men was the sipping of sake.

"Indeed, so did you find it?"

'I thought I did, but I was wrong,' thought Kenshin.

"No…I haven't." he said.

There was again another pause, but much longer. Itto, who was about to drink another cup, looked up to speak.

"Ah, so it is…meet me at the old Edo Bridge in about three hours."

Itto quickly got on his feet and walked towards the gate, but before leaving he turned and said:

"Keep the sake and the cups."

Kenshin quickly prepared dinner for the dojo. They had not yet arrived and he hoped they wouldn't, not until he left. After he was finished, Kenshin went to his room and packed his belongings.

'I shouldn't make them worry. It's best if they knew that I had left instead of killing myself.'

When everything was set, he walked out his home for several years, not once looking back, and headed for the Edo Bridge…to die.

"You're early Kenshin," said Itto. 'Why do you rush to death?"

"I finished my chores early."

There was laughter between the two men. Kenshin then threw his belongings into the river, unsheathed his sword and got into stance.

"Oh! You're not going to commit seppuku then?" Itto asked surprise in his voice.

"I know that my Hiten Mitsurugi style is no match for yours. You're the only one who's ever beaten my master Hiko in a duel, but I don't want it to end like that. I wish to go down fighting."

"If that is so, then I will do it for you."

"And Itto, promise me, that you will bury me next to Tomoe."

Smiling, Itto said, "For you old friend, anything."

Their swords clashed only four times before Kenshin collapsed. As he slowly bled to death, Kenshin uttered, "She's here…I can see her. She's calling me…Tomoe you're so beautiful…"

His eye lids went shut and his body went numb, but he felt happy, for at last he was to rejoin Tomoe in the next life.

Back at the Dojo

"Where's Kenshin?" said Kaoru, "I haven't seen him since this morning, he's not in his room. Have you guys seen him?" She asked Sano and Yahiko, but they both shook their heads.

"But hey at least he's got dinner prepared, so we shouldn't really worry. He's probably just doing whatever it is he does after doing chores," said Yahiko.

They agreed and proceeded to eat dinner without him.

The Next Day

That morning Kaoru went to Kenshin's room, noticing that he hadn't done any of the morning chores. To her surprise and dread, the thing that she had feared for years had happened, Kenshin had left. His room was empty, stripped of belongings. Kaoru collapsed on the floor and cried silently, she didn't want to wake the other tenants, but she couldn't deny the feeling in her heart. She knew that she had driven Kenshin away with her changed behavior. Though she had given up on Kenshin, she never gave up loving him. There was a knock at the gate, Kaoru quickly got on her feet and composed herself. She opened the gate to find nothing, but a letter on the ground entitled: "To the Proprietor of this Building"

She opened and read the letter. What was written broke her heart even more, it was a detailed account of what had happened to Kenshin from a man named Itto.

'Kenshin's dead!' Kaoru thought to herself as she sobbed loudly that the whole dojo could hear, 'It's all my fault!'

Fixing herself into a fetal position while still holding the letter in her left, clutching it tightly that her nails have penetrated the paper and her skin, blood covering half the paper, Kaoru said to herself, 'I loved him and I killed him'

Crappy ending huh? I couldn't come up with a good way to end the story, sorry about that.