Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin is the creation of Nobuhiro Watsuki, with the manga and anime rights belonging to Jump Comics and Sony Entertainment, respectively. FF is non-profit, meant for entertainment only.
FF can be archived anywhere, just let me know where. Please send no flames, I'm sensitive. For all other comments 0_o you may contact me at kaoru_koishii@yahoo.com
Summary: After three years with Kenshin, Kaoru takes the worst blow of all. Feeling desperate and lost she looks to the heavens to help her. She makes a wish on that night, while looking up at the eerie moon. Never thinking it could come true.
Chapter One
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Kaoru sat in the yard of her dojo, crying. Today was the last day of the full moon. It had also been the third year anniversary to Kenshin's stay here at the dojo. It was a date she wouldn't soon forget. Tonight, he'd made it very clear where she stood with him. Well as clear as the rurouni can. Tripping over his words in order to set her down gently. She had always hoped that maybe with time she could win his heart. But then after the thing with Yukshiro, Enishi she didn't think she had to. As hard as it had been, he'd proven he'd loved her. She been so sure of his affection, especially after they told her how he'd acted after her supposed death.
"Why?" She cried out into the night.
"Why do things have to be like this?" She held a small blanket to her face. Muffling the sounds of her cries.
"I thought you loved me." She pleaded at the moon. Hoping what he'd said had been a mistake on her part. It must be his guilt. It has to be. If only there was a way to free him off that. To make him let go. "Oh, how I wish . . . ."
What is it she wished? For him to love her? Yes, of course but wishing for that would be selfish of her.
So what is it she wished for? For him to be happy. Yes, but he would never be happy as long as he carried the sins. Those sins burned his heart and his mind. Consuming him.
So what is it she wished for?
"Was there ever a time when you were happy Kenshin?" She whispered. The cool night air drifting into the yard.
He must have been happy with his wife. But in the end that brought pain for him too. The worst kind.
He was happy with Hiko. Though at that young age he was restless.
The Only time she could think of, or piece together would be when he was around the age of fifteen. Exactly at fifteen. It had been just before Tomoe and a while after Hiko. He was doing something he believed in. That made him perhaps not happy but content. He was protecting all he could with the wield of his sword. Bringing hope to the defenseless or at least it would later on.
Kaoru turned her tear stained face to the heavens, noting the inky blue color surrounding it, trying to fill it. "I wish I could have met you then, when your mind was at ease." She choked out another sob she was able to muffle with her blanket. "Oh how I wish it were so." She doubled over into a fetal position crying till she felt too drained to do anything else. The moon was just starting to descend as she got up, slowly. Feeling a big headache coming on. She dusted herself and slowly made her way into the house back to her room.
'Hopefully Kenshin will only think I went to the bathroom this early in the morning,' she thought. Her eyelids were so heavy. There was room for nothing more than sleep.
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He was running through the streets. Chasing someone. He couldn't tell who it was only that they were eluding him. He ran faster but it didn't seem to make a difference. Why couldn't he catch up? He paused in the middle of the street, closing his eyes and stretching his senses. He could feel no one. He opened his eyes again and he could see the shadow, lingering up ahead. Just standing there waiting for him to take chase again.
He took chase and so did the shadow. "Oi!" He yelled.
The shadow made no move of acknowledgement but somehow he knew the shadow heard. "Oi." He yelled again.
How can anyone not stop when they hear you calling them?
"Stop!" He yelled and this time the shadow's step faltered as it ran ahead. He was becoming angry. "Stop!" He yelled for the last time. His deep tone carried the anger he felt. He gripped his katana and blurred for a moment. His speed had increased to an unbelievable point. He pulled out his sword and not being able to see in the dense fog, he swung out blindly. He heard a thump. The fog had gotten thicker. He reached down and felt a shoulder.
"Oi!" His voice had lost all edge. All feeling. He wanted answers and he wanted them now.
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"Kenshin can you hear me." Kaoru said as she shook him a little. She'd been calling out to him for a while but he hadn't woken up.
"Kenshin. Please wake up." She shook him a bit harder. He was scarring her. Her eyes started watering again. He couldn't have died in his sleep. He just couldn't have.
"Kenshin." She cried, almost yelled into his face. She felt his hands moving and quickly her eyes turned to his face.
They slowly opened to reveal deep purple eyes. He blinked slowly in confusion. He'd been asleep. How was that possible? He blinked again and things came into focus.
"Where am I?" He commanded.
Kaoru felt the air grow thin and her body heavy. Her eyes rolled back as she started to fall.
The confused man caught her before she fell to the floor. He placed her onto the futon he'd occupied a moment ago.
He took notice of the room and the atmosphere. Everything was quiet. Peaceful.
Was he no longer in Kyoto? What had happened the night before?
He looked down at the petite woman on the futon. She would know. She would tell him. He peered down at her carefully. He hadn't noticed she was in a yukata till this very moment. He felt a bit strange, to be looking at her. So without a thought he reached for the blankets and covered her up. No need for a distraction when he started interrogating her.
He sat to her side. With closed eyes, waiting.
Kaoru's eyes were slow to open. What a nightmare. She looked up to see the familiar face. "Kenshin," she called out. "I had a nightmare. It was silly of course but it seemed so real." Her eyes focused on his face as he revealed his eyes.
She blinked at the look in them. They were guarded. She opened her mouth to speak.
"Where am I?" He asked cutting her off.
Kaoru covered her face with her hands. "This isn't real. I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming." She moved her hand to peer at his face. He didn't seem amused.
"Tell me where I am?" He asked, his tone was strong.
"Kenshin." She cried as she sat up. "Kami." She said gripping her head before opening her eyes and looking at him again. She studied his features for a moment before she spoke again. He kept saying I not sessha, but I.
"I can't believe this," she choked.
He grabbed her wrists and moved them away fro her face. "Tell me," he growled.
Kaoru was choked to say the least. "You're not him anymore." She cried as she fought to cover her face again.
Her sobs were getting to him. She sounded so heartbroken. What is wrong with me? He thought for a moment. He separated her hands and brought them out at her sides. "Answer me."
"You're in Tokyo, Kenshin." She said as she sniffled.
He blinked in confusion.
"How do you know who I am?" The question brought out another tearful sob from her.
"We met three years ago. You've been living with me ever since." She tried explaining.
Three years, what the hell happened to me? "What do you know about me?" He asked.
She whimpered.
And he shook her. "Himura Kenshin. Master of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu. Once known as the hitokiri battoussai." She sobbed and continued. "Currently a rurouni and living in the Kamiya dojo." She hiccupped at the end.
"Rurouni," he repeated. He noted it increased the silent tears streaming down her face. "How long?"
"Over ten years." She said.
He threw her to the side, back onto the futon. "You LIE!" He accused. He searched around for his weapon. He wouldn't kill her but he'd scare her into telling him the truth.
"Kenshin" She choked. "How old do you think you are?"
His eyes narrowed. "That isn't your business." He snapped.
She wiped at her eyes. "Kenshin you're 31."
His mouth dropped slightly. She was crazy. His eyes softened for a moment. She would be of no use. No point in scarring her, then.
"Please, look in the mirror." She urged.
He shook his head. "I am 15." He stated.
Kaoru felt the world give under her again. No, she thought. This can't be my fault. "Will you allow me to get you a mirror?" She asked.
"What will that prove?" He asked. The annoyance back in his tone.
"Everything." She said rising to her feet. She noted he stood up as well and followed her into her room. She pulled out the mirror and handed it to him face down.
He took it and turned it over. He looked into it and blinked. He openly frowned and blinked again. His hand went to the scar on his cheek. It had not been there when he went to sleep. Small wrinkles around his eyes confirmed him to be older than fifteen.
He handed her back the mirror. "What happened?"
She wiped at the insistent tears streaming down her face. "You did all you could for the Ishin shishi. After you helped win the battle for them. At the age of eighteen you disappeared. You became a rurouni and wandered for over ten years. You and I met three years back in the streets of Tokyo. Someone was going around killing people, he claimed to be the Hitokiri Battoussai and he said he was using the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu to do it. So I set off to capture him. I couldn't let him smear the name of my school like that. So in my attempt to capture him I met you. I miss took you for the Battoussai. But you told me you were nothing more than a rurouni. You showed me your sakabatou, which has the edge on the reverse side. I lectured you on carrying a sword during the Meiji era. I was doing that when I heard the whistles of the police. I ran off to see a masked man killing off the policemen. I told him to stop. I charged him with my shinai and he cut it with his sword. He was about to strike me when you intercepted. You carried me off before he killed me. He only cut my arm, luckily. Still I believe I fainted." She gave a watery smile in remembrance. "I was grateful to you. Someone who moved as fast as you did could only have been a warrior at some point. I was grateful to you so I asked you to stay."
"Where is the sakabatou?" He asked interrupting her.
"In the other room." She said.
He got up and in less than a minute he was back, carrying it. Kaoru looked at it like a foreign object. The sakabatou had never seemed deadly before. Probably because now it was been held by the hitokiri battoussai.
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The battoussai sat at the table waiting for the woman to return. She had finished her story on how they met and what had happened in the last three years. But there were things that she didn't say. He could tell. It wasn't that she was lying just refusing to go include certain facts. Through out the story she had failed to mention her name. He knew she was a Kamiya but what was her first name.
Kaoru brought him tea and some rice balls to eat while he finished his questions. As long as she held his answers he wouldn't leave. She placed the food in front of him and sat to his left like she always did. She served his tea and then herself.
"How old are you?" He asked after he took a drink of his tea.
Her mouth opened and her face grew hot. He noticed but didn't say anything. "I'm twenty now." She answered him.
He peered at her with an unreadable expression. She was very pretty. Someone like her should have been married by now. He noticed she bowed her head down in embarrassment. From what she said every time an enemy resurfaced, she was the first one kidnapped. Meaning she held value . . . .
. . . . to him.
The battoussai put down his cup almost spilling it in the process as he ran out of the house and into the yard.
Kaoru sat wide eyed for a moment before she followed him out. He couldn't leave.
"KAoru!"
She ran out to find the Battoussai, his sword drawn to Yahiko's neck.
"NO!" She screamed running over to them. Trying to separate them. "He lives here too. He's my student." She cried pleadingly. Pulling at his hands.
The battoussai let go reluctantly. He'd hesitated at the call of the familiar name. It's the only reason the boy wasn't dead. He re-sheathed his sword with a small click. He watched her approach the boy, checking him for injury and then hugging him when she found none. She took a deep sigh before meeting his gaze. While Yahiko stood behind her shaking and pale as sheet. Too frightened and confused by what had just happened.
"Kenshin, you can't do that. A lot of the people who come by here are our friends." She said in exasperation giving him a stern look, which melted to hopelessness. "Come on. I want you to finish eating." She said as she grabbed him and the boy by the hand.
He allowed himself to be pulled in, giving his surrounding a once over. He turned back to her, noting she sparked interest.
Well, That was it for chapter one. If you're reading this because you've read my other fics than you know this story will be at least ten chapters long. Like many of my other stories this fic has just being sitting on my pc for a while so I thought I would finally get around to finishing it up while I'm on summer vacation.
Small Note: Not much to say other that her wish has been granted. She wanted him when his mind was at ease. And though maybe not completely he was more himself at fifteen then he was now at thirty-one because the rurouni hides behind the facade.
The Hitokiri Battoussai if you watched the OVA never hesitated and though I wish I could have killed Yahiko off as a result of that. I cannot mess with my own story like that. Besides I like Yahiko even if he's annoying at times.
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All right. Please remember that anything between these lines means dream sequence. In this chapter it was Kenshin who had a dream. Whether nightmare? That's yet to be determined.
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Thanks for reading. Please review.