Disclaimer: I don't own Rouroni Kenshin, but I just twist the names and create my own story. It's not illegal right?
This story is very different from my first fanfic "Fugue of Spastic Melodies", but shares a couple of its elements that I like. I hope you enjoy the first chapter, which I wrote with every intention to change if I get a lot of reviews with some good suggestions. My plot centers around Kenshin and Kaoru (which are my favorite) but I brought in some of my other favorite guys from the anime. So tell me if you like it, if you don't, and what you think would help make my story better. Thanks!
Chapter 1
Kaoru watched as people milled away from the lonely casket that was sheltered from the pouring rain by the large black tent. She stood in the rain, far away from the coffin. She watched teenagers her age cry while boys hung their heads down to hide their sadness. Parents didn't even know the deceased were dabbing their eyes with handkerchiefs, talking to each other about the shame of it all that a poor 17 year-old soul was being sent to the heavens so soon. Finally, when everyone left, Kaoru walked toward the coffin her face set, tears streaming down her determined face, not from her eyes but the sky.
She kept telling herself not to cry. That it was all a dream, and that she would wake up from it anytime now. She walked toward the black coffin, her clothes soaked and her hair clinging to her face. She stared at the coffin; the top portion of it lifted so people could see the deceased. Kaoru felt her heart hammer against her chest, trying to break free of the fear awaiting her. A fear so horrible that only a select few have ever felt in their entire lives. The fear of losing someone you love.
She took a few steps and looked down into the coffin. There, on white silk, lay a handsome youth with his normally amethyst eyes closed, his lips curved in a slight smile. His short crimson hair stuck up in the front as it always did, no matter how much he tried to gel it down. His hands lay resting beside his body. Kaoru shivered as she remembered the touch of those soft hands pressing against her back, holding her close, hugging her so that she would never feel lonely ever again. She wanted to leap into the coffin and shake him till he woke up, just like she did in Trigonometry class every time he fell asleep during a lecture. She wanted to reprimand him for worrying her, pretending he was dead, just like when he would speed on a highway in his convertible. Tears fought to release themselves from the dams of her eyelids but she refused to. Last night, when she found out that he had been killed in a mugging that Sunday night, by her close friend, Megumi, she though Megumi had been lying. Megumi, who was shocked as well, didn't push the subject but hung up to cry to her parents.
However, when Kaoru went to school and saw all the students crying, she knew something was wrong. All the teachers allowed the students to leave for the guidance office for consolation but nothing those people said would make heal the hole in her heart. Kaoru had spent the entire day staring at the lonely chair beside in all of her classes, silent and not even shedding a tear. But when she reached home, she cried, falling on the entrance step and hugging her knees close to her body. Her little kitten, Tyger, came over and rubbed his petite amber frame against her knees, trying to cheer her up. Kaoru cried all night, with no one to lean on since her parents were dead and her brothers living far away. She wanted to call Aoishi and Soujiro, but she didn't want them to risk their jobs just to see her. She was better off not letting them worry about her.
The next few days passed on in a daze. Kaoru continued to get good grades but she still felt like it had been an April fools joke, and he would return on his birthday, a month later, with a huge grin on his face. She knew he was gone, she had seen his face, his stillness, but her heart kept keeping her hopes high. Normally, Kaoru felt that her heart keeping her hopes was a great trait to have, but in this case it wasn't. Because he didn't come back. Shinta was gone forever.
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"Wake up, Kaoru!" yelled an annoyingly familiar voice.
Kaoru hugged her comforter closer to her, determined not wake up. It's way too early! Leave me alone! Then she felt the pillow beneath her head yanked out from under and slam into her face. Kaoru bolted up and threw the comforter over the figure beside the bed, trying to strangle to him.
"Soujiro! Why are you doing this to me?" Kaoru yelled as she held him under the comforter with a headlock.
"Agh! Kaoru, let go!" Soujiro gasped beneath the blanket. "Geez, crazy woman! I'm trying to wake you up! It's the first day at your new job and you're going to do this to me?"
Kaoru paused for a second, allowing Soujiro to peer from beneath the blankets with a hesitant look. Kaoru stared out into to space for a few seconds before turning to Soujiro. Soujiro cringed, ready for another onslaught of Kaoru's usual morning grumpiness.
"You're right! Agh, I better get ready!" Kaoru said surprising Soujiro and jumping into her bathroom. Soujiro yelled from outside the door.
"Hey, Kao! Aoishi has some food ready for you on the stove. He said he's off to Goldman Saks for his work. You better hurry up too if you don't want to get late! It's already 8 in the morning!"
"What about you, Soujiro?" Kaoru asked, while she yanked off her pajamas in haste. "Don't you have to get ready for work too?"
"Goldman Saks can wait for their Vice-CEO since the CEO is there!"
Kaoru smiled at herself when she hopped into the shower, feeling the initial cold spray heat into a nice hot shower.
She thought about her life as she squirted some sweet smelling body wash into her loofah and scrubbed her body.
Life had changed for Kaoru since she had come to terms with her best friend, Shinta's, death. She had gotten over it, or so she seemed, and continued on with her life, going to Princeton at the age of 18. She didn't think of Shinta everyday, but whenever she did she was gloomy. Her brothers, finding about her ordeal a month later, were angry at her for not telling her about her problems, and immediately started living with her. When she graduated from Princeton at the top of her class, her brothers used their influences as CEO and Vice-CEO at Goldman Saks, the number one banking business in the world, to get her a job there. However, Kaoru did not want to be too dependent on getting help from her loyal brothers. They had always been there for her, so she wanted to walk her life without any more support. She was going to start her job at Morgan Stanley as their new Financial Advisor in the Bio-medical field. She smiled at the thought of her new job, choking on a few shampoo bubbles in the process. Her new boss was a very handsome man by the name of Sanosuke Sagara. He was kind to her on the interview, already using his looks and moves to win her heart. Kaoru, not wanting to act like a hoar, kindly declined his repeated offers to walk her to her house or to join him for a glass of wine and a movie at his flat. Kaoru had impressed him, and she was welcomed aboard. Of course, Morgan Stanley knew of her brother's standings but that didn't cause her from being a little proud of her new self.
Kaoru stepped out of the bathroom, her long dark black hair tied up in a bun and her face made up. She wore a black skirt that hid her well shaped legs down to her knees and a black business jacket with a pink button-up shirt underneath. A pair of sparkling 2-carat diamond studs adorned each ear and a single diamond drop necklace hugged her elegantly chiseled neck. She glanced herself in the mirror and noticed a Thomas Pink tag hanging off her skirt in the back and yanked off the tag. Her brothers had bought the outfit for her in celebration for her new job.
She opened her door and headed to the kitchen of the nice suite her brothers and her shared. She grabbed her breakfast off the kitchen table and sat in the leather reclining chair, enjoying the view of Manhattan from her window.
"You like the breakfast?" said a serious tone behind her. She looked behind her and saw her handsome brother looking at her with a solemn face, toweling his shag of black silky hair dry. She looked into his blue-black eyes and laughed. Her brothers were so different. Night and Day of each other!
"What's so funny, Kao?" Aoishi asked, throwing the towel on the back of the leather couch and began trying to tie the loose blue silk tie he had around his neck.
"Let me do it, idiot. Anyways, I thought Soujiro told me you had left for work?"
"I had. But I forgot to change out of my bathrobe," Aoishi said emotionlessly, but Kaoru could have sworn she saw a glint of humor and embarrassment play across his stern handsome features.
Kaoru laughed out loud and ruffled Aoishi's damp hair.
"Well now that you're ready, you better get to work. I got to go to my job anyways. Listen, I should be back home around 5 so don't worry about me till then. And don't call my cell a thousand times!"
Kaoru snatched up her black leather briefcase, pecked a kiss on Aoishi's cheek, and yelled a good-bye to Soujiro who was still in the shower before leaving for work.
Kaoru was so close to her building that it wasn't but 5 minute walk to work. She hummed as she listened to her Ipod and crossed streets. But then, something red caught her eye. She turned around to get a good look but all she saw was a little kid wearing a bright pair of red shorts. Kaoru shook head to clear her thoughts before continuing her walk to work. It looked like Shinta…but he's dead! Kaoru trudged on, putting that incident at the back of her head. As soon as she opened the glass doors of the building, a large bouquet of red roses were under her nose, causing her to sneeze.
"Oh, haha, sorry Ms. Kamiya!"
Kaoru peered over the roses and saw Mr. Sagara scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
"Just thought you should have a good welcome to the company!" Sagara said brightly handing the flowers to Kaoru.
Kaoru smiled at the man. "Thank you very much. But I can't have it all roses and candy at work. I need to do something around here. Lead me to my cubicle."
She was lead through security, to the elevator, and emerged at Floor 14. When Sagara opened the door to her room, it wasn't a cubicle. A nice sized room opened, the floor was hardwood and covered with a handsome blood red rug with an ornate Indian-looking design on it.
"I hope you like it."
"Mr. Sagara! I hope I didn't get this because…"
"Heavens, no! Our last financial advisor had this room. Her name is Megumi Takani and she's now on the board of directors here."
Kaoru heard something click in her mind. Megumi! I haven't seen her in ages! I'll go stop by later but I don't want to overwhelm Mr. Sagara with my high-powered connections. I think he's still having hock from hearing my brothers are leaders in his rival company.
"Thank you, Mr. Sagara. Who is my client for today?"
Kaoru worked the day out till 4:30. She had talked to all of her 6 clients and established a connection with all of them, giving them stock market advice, and affiliating them with herself with a few jokes and side conversations. She sighed and stretched her hands high above her head, squinting her eyes in satisfaction like a cat.
"Can I come in?" said Mr. Sagara's voice from outside.
"Yeah, come on," Kaoru said exasperatedly. Hopefully he won't take up too much of my time. I promised Aoishi I'd be home soon.
Mr. Sagara stepped in and beamed at Kaoru. Kaoru had to admit he was pretty handsome in his classy Thomas Pink black suit and pale cream button up that was festooned with two solid gold cuff links.
"Uh…well…I was just wondering…if you wanted to..grabsomethingtoeat," he finished. Panting from the effort of saying all those word together.
"Well, if you're asking me out, I'm sorry. I kind of have to go home. But thanks anyways!" Kaoru finished brightly.
"Oh…I see," Mr. Sagara said disheartened.
Kaoru felt a little bad, but she was telling the truth.
"Well today might have been a bad day, but how about tomorrow? Lunch? Is that okay, Mr. Sagara?"
He looked hopefully and smiled a goofy grin that looked so cute with his handsome features.
"Okay! But you don't have to call me Mr. Sagara anymore. Call me Sanosuke. Or better yet, Sano!"
Kaoru smiled as she watched him practically waltz out of her office. Kaoru sighed as soon as the oak door slammed shut and leaned back in her leather chair. Man, it's been a long day. Well, can't tell Aoishi or Soujiro about Mr. Sargara…I mean Sano. Then, she glanced at her little silver watch on her left wrist. It was 4:45!
Kaoru jumped up and ran to the elevator. As soon as the elevator landed on ground floor, she bolted out of the doors and ran down her street. OH MY GOD! I better hurry!
WHAM!
Kaoru fell flat on her back on the hard concrete, while hundreds of other business people scurried around her. She had run into something hard and warm. She looked up and saw a man of average height standing above her with a long black leather trench coat that covered his body as well as his face and head.
"You okay?" he asked, his voice soft and aristocratic sounding.
"Yeah," Kaoru said weakly, taking the offered hand and hoisted herself up.
"You almost ran into a hotdog vendor. Oh and by the way," he said, his head tilting down then quickly going back up. "You might want to pull down your skirt," he said in a soft monotone.
Kaoru looked down and saw her skirt was hiked up to her thighs, showing a little bit of the red lingerie she wore underneath. She blushed and pulled down her skirt before looking back up at the man. He had turned away from her and began walking in the other direction.
"Wait! I would like to say thanks, but I'm afraid I don't know your name!"
He kept walking away, ignoring her.
Kaoru watched his retreating back. Who was that? He seemed a little odd..,
"Agh!" she exclaimed suddenly, looking down at her watch.
It was 5:15.
She ran a bit but there was so many people walking about on the streets that she was hardly covering any ground. So she took a shady looking alleyway in hopes of a shortcut. She ran down the grimy narrow alleys, her legs splashing flecks on muck on her legs. Then suddenly, she tripped over something and fell on the cold, slimy concrete floor.
"My, we found ourselves a rich little pretty, right boys?" said a nasty sounding voice above her.
Kaoru rolled on her back and looked up. She saw three men wearing oversized hooded sweatshirts. One particularly fat one was leering down at her, his eyes traveling up and down her body in with fiendish delight.
Kaoru scrambled up and backed away from them. She took a step backward, slowly edging the other foot behind so the three strangers wouldn't attack quite yet. Her plan didn't work very well. One person pulled out a gun and slammed it against her head, causing dark stars to play across her vision as her body crumpled to the floor. Her eyes couldn't stay open long enough to find out what the fuzzy outlines of the people over her were doing but she didn't lose consciousness. She heard a coupled voices shouting and then heard a gunshot. She expected to be the one shot, her money then taken out of her wallet but none of the sort happened. She felt a heavy material across her body and a hand slide behind her back. Scared of rape, she began thrashing about, her fist colliding with something before the throbbing in her head became severe and she fell limp.
"Hey. Wake up."
The voice sounded ethereal, like some kind of hollowed out voice one would here in a dream. Then, Kaoru heard a sharper, "hey" , and her eyes snapped open. Her vision was fuzzy at first but slowly it came into focus. She was looking at a white-washed drywall ceiling with a brown fan rotating at a rate that was causing it to rock back and forth in a manner that one would think it was going to wrench itself from the ceiling. Kaoru slowly turned her head and saw the back of a pale green couch that she as lying on.
She looked down at her body and saw that she was covered by a feather-down blanket. She then slowly looked to the other side. This little movement brought tears of pain because she felt the large tender lump on her head rub against the pillow she was lying on. After blinking away the tears, she saw a man looking at her with large amber eyes. He had long shiny crimson-orange hair that was brought back in a ponytail behind his head, but his long strands of hair stuck out in odd directions on the top and front of his head obviously due to applying heavy amounts of hair gel. His face was beautiful, as if it was sculpted by a ancient Greek artist. He looked like…Shinta. But Shinta would never have worn such a scowl on his face...
"Shinta?" Kaoru asked weakly.
"I think you were hit on the head pretty soundly. I say you should get back to bed," he said in a monotone voice that was both soft and delicate.
"What…happened?" Kaoru mumbled, her head throbbing at the strain of trying to talk.
"Don't ask to many questions or else you'll hurt yourself. Anyways, you were attacked by a few muggers. I took care of them before they could harm you. You should never walk down sketchy alleys like that."
"Wait!" Kaoru said, suddenly leaping up from the couch, a cool piece of cloth sliding from her head. "Your voice! You're the one who I ran into earlier! Thanks so much! By the way, can you tell me your name now?" He's not Shinta, Kaoru couldn't help but think sadly.
The man looked at her in disbelief and stood up from his chair. He turned his back on her and walked to the end of the couch before pausing.
"My name is…Kenshin."