Chapter 2 – Unexpected

Kenshin hated sitting through mindless meetings like this. For the tenth time he'd agreed with his peers on the plan they had formulated in locating their target and they were still here for reasons beyond his understanding. He had an almost perfect record of locating and extracting his targets. Almost perfect. He'd only lost one and to this day he hadn't found her. Kaoru Kamiya played on his mind so many times. It was as if she had never even existed since the day she left. Two years later he was still smarting from the one imperfection he had experienced.

His stint as a parole officer had been at the behest of his superiors after they had claimed that he needed an easier job for a while. Two months in that job had left him feeling more haggard than if he had to extract a target from a fort in under a minute. Timed stress in familiar restraints he could handle, emotionally battered and strange women he could not. Something the presenter was saying caught his attention and he shifted his attention back to the meeting at hand.

"Our targets seem to only have one connection: This woman." He clicked to a photo of a woman who was facing slightly away from the camera. Her long black hair had been tied up in ponytail. Her skin flawless and face completely devoid of emotion. Kaoru Kamiya.

"What do you mean when you say that she connects them all?" he asked quickly, his voice even despite his heart pounding faster and louder.

"She was seen in the company of all three contractors, and each of these contractors had placed bounties on the heads of the deceased targets. Although we have found no connection between the deceased, this woman has been sighted often."

"Who is she?" asked Sanosuke another member of their elite force.

"We don't know yet." Admitted the presenter.

Kenshin's phone vibrated violently in his pocket. He started at the vibrations and stood quickly excusing himself from the meeting, simultaneously sliding his hand into his pocket to pull out his phone.

The screen didn't indicate who was calling, flashing the word "Blocked" and he wondered whether it was one of his agent friends in a foreign country asking for a favour.

"Hello?"

"Hello Kenshin." husky tones melted through the receiver. Kenshin recognised the voice instantly. He'd only heard it a handful of times but it was imprinted on his mind with absolute clarity.

"May I know who's speaking?" he enquired politely even though he knew who it was.

"Let's not play that game Kenshin" came the laughing reply.

Kenshin remained silent before replying.

"It's been a while."

"Too long."

"Obviously this isn't a social call" prompted Kenshin quietly.

"I wanted to know how you feel about Chocolate."

"I like it"

"Hot or cold?"

"I like hot chocolates." He shrugged not seeing where this conversation was going.

"Me too. I'll be seeing you soon Kenshin." He heard a click and silence signalling the end of the call. Sighing heavily Kenshin looked at his mobile in confusion. Why would she ring now? Why was Kaoru Kamiya ringing him after two years of silence? He had a feeling that this case was going to become more complicated than he had originally anticipated.

An hour later Kenshin sat at his desk, his fingers steepled as he contemplated his current case. His computer beeped incessantly at him which he ignored for the first ten seconds before he gave up and attempted to investigate the issue. A small bubble appeared in the bottom right hand corner indicating that he had a meeting to attend in fifteen minutes. It was one am, he sincerely doubted he had any meeting, obviously the computer had screwed up somehow. Opening his calendar he clicked on the entry and found that he in fact did have a meeting.

Meeting: Hot chocolate? 1:15 – Swell

Attendants: Himura Kenshin, The one that got away

It all clicked into place. Grabbing his keys he sprinted to his car. Swell a small nondescript coffee joint, open 24 hours a day was 10 minutes away. He hoped he'd get there in time.

Kenshin was sure that he broke every speed limit on his way over, and he resented that she seemed to be controlling everything. He locked his car and walked briskly up the side of the café hovered in the doorway. He spotted her. All her hair had been tucked into a little Eskimo hat, he guessed, unless she'd had it cut.

"I shouldn't be doing this." He pointed out dryly as he stood next to her table. She leaned back and studied him nonchalantly.

"Yet here you are."

"Mmm" he murmured sliding into the booth seat across from her. "What exactly am I doing here?" he asked firmly.

"You won't be able to extract any of your targets."

"Okay. Why?"

"Because they'll be dead before you get there."

"Am I allowed to know who's killing them?"

"Me."

Kenshin studied her carefully, looking for signs of a façade. She simply stared back impassively before sighing. It was the most emotion he'd seen her show yet.

"These men and women are not innocent."

"They are upstanding citizens of society Miss Kamiya. They are essentially pillars of good."

"That's what you think." She inserted softly.

"It's what I know" he retorted.

"Then you know nothing and I'm wasting my time. And I don't like wasting my time Mr Himura."

"Just tell me what you came here to say."

"Just this: none of these people have good hearts. There is a reason why they must die. Two words: Emancipation Facility. Look it up." she replied. He frowned and looked into his cold hot chocolate questions forming in his mind but when he looked up she had gone. Glancing towards the cafeteria doors he saw them swinging shut as if someone had just left.

He slumped in the booth alone, twisting his mug back and forth in thought.

Short I know but it's been on my hard drive for so long and I'm not going to add to this chapter so I thought I'd post it.

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Iuvenalis.