Disclaimer: Jupe spent all her money in Hawaii. She has none. So don't bother suing her.

.:Chapter 2:.

With an exasperated sigh, Kaoru picked herself up off the floor and headed for the gate, but Kenshin's arm reached out to stop her.

"Don't."

Confused, she turned her head to look at him, and discovered that his eyes were fairly glowing, a righteous anger simmering behind them.

"There is Corruption outside your gate. Do not invite it in."

She looked again at the gate and focused herself, feeling for the ki outside the dojo. A sudden wash of slimy sensations flowed over her, slipping between the fingers of her ki.

Corruption.

'Eww,' she thought disgustedly, now glaring at the gate. The residue of the Corruption still clung to her, and she shuddered at the feeling. Only a truly corrupt being could have a ki like that, one in which there was no purity at all. Bracing herself, she re-centered her mind and felt for the ki again, trying to determine how many there were outside her gate. Her eyes snapped open.

'...Lots.'

Suddenly nauseous, she turned away from the gate and faced Kenshin again, forcing a smile.

"Well, this should be interesting," she said with false cheer, reaching for her bokken. Kenshin frowned at her reprovingly, and her grin faded.

"What?"

"Do not attempt to fight off this Corruption. It is stronger than you are," he said matter-of-factly, alternately glaring at the gate and at his clenched fists. "However..."

Kaoru's ears perked up. "However?" she asked tentatively. His gaze returned to her face.

"However, it may be possible, if both of us work together, to erect a barrier- at least a temporary one. Something that will last until I have repaired my ki," he mused, calculating. Kaoru settled onto the dojo floor and tilted her head.

"Hmm, a barrier? I've never tried that before," she said. Amber eyes softened slightly.

"No, I don't suppose you would have. I'll have to teach you, then," he decided, shifting himself into a more comfortable position on the futon.

"Close your eyes and center yourself - feel for your ki. Be aware of it, and feel it in your hands. Can you sense it?" He asked her, his voice gentle and not unlike a mother showing something to her child for the first time. Concentrating as best as she could with Kenshin's voice echoing in her mind, Kaoru reached with her mind for her ki and tried to tame it, to pull it towards herself.

"Yes," she whispered, struggling to hold onto her ki.

"Now imagine the grounds. With your mind, flatten your ki and use it to put a shell around what you want protected." It sounded so simple, but the actual action was proving to be exhausting and difficult. She stretched her ki as much as possible, finally driving it into the ground in front of her gate. Her eyes opened and she stared at the boards of the floor, panting.

"Excellent, for a first try," he commended her, eyes still closed. "Now I shall attempt to cover the rest."

She snapped her gaze upwards, staring at his serene face incredulously. How could he possibly cover the rest of her dojo with ki, when he was so injured? It had been hard enough for her to place her ki in front of the gate. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, and his mouth curled slightly.

"Finished." he said in a singsong voice, as though he'd just put the last touches on a finger painting and not a spiritual barrier. Eyes narrowed, Kaoru re-centered herself and felt for his ki.

And gaped at what she found.

He had really done it! Really, truly, actually, honest-to-God, done it. He had completely and efficiently coated her house in pulsating golden energy, which hummed brightly as she probed it with her mind.

'...No fair.'

And then she noticed that he had fallen asleep again. A slow smile spread across her face as she tucked the sheets around him.

'Rest well, Kenshin.'


Gohei would admit that he wasn't the most patient of men. Or spirits, for that matter.

The point was, when Gohei had raised his fist to pound on the annoying Kamiya wench's gate one final time and hit a spiritual barrier instead of wood, he had not been amused. Most definitely not .

After he had finished hopping around, screeching out profanities as he clutched at his still-sizzling hand, he had bellowed to his henchmen to attack the blasted barrier with whatever evil they had in their miserable carcasses.

He sat down on a handy boulder to watch as the blue and gold barrier cracked bit-by-bit under the onslaught.

He was going to make that blasted brat pay for this.


Kenshin awoke from his impromptu nap feeling rejuvenated. Immediately, he tested the barriers to see how they were faring.

And paled noticeably.

They were almost completely shattered, most of his sections already worn through, though Kaoru's thicker shield at the gate was doing better. He gave it half an hour.

Hopefully, that would be long enough to finish piecing together his ki.

He forced himself to relax, focusing his mind and energies on the wisps of energy that tangled around him, trying to reinforce the barrier. 'Too scattered,' he thought absently, drawing from the dojo's inherent power to reform his remaining ki. Bits and pieces of it had returned to him as they were chipped away from the barriers, falling back into their places around him and then shifting about restlessly in agitation.

He had to hurry. He knew that. But still, if he didn't take his time with this, he would be permanently damaged. That wasn't a desirable option. He scrunched his eyes shut tighter as he desperately took each shred of his ki and melded it to the whole, placing the fraying pieces in their slots.

"Kenshin?"

Cursing inwardly, he finished sealing a piece in place and resurfaced from his subconscious, eyes narrow as he glared at Kaoru.

"What," he snarled, irritation at being interrupted overriding his senses. She started, distrust creeping into her gaze as she glanced at him warily.

"I just wanted to let you know that my barrier seems to be mostly gone. I thought you'd want to get ready to meet whatever is on the other side of that gate," she said tightly. He closed his eyes, exasperated, and rubbed at his temples with his fingers.

"I was getting ready. My ki is still not completely whole, and it would be very difficult for me to engage in battle without it in perfect condition. Please kindly leave me be unless Corruption breaks through the barriers," he said in a clipped tone.

And then Corruption broke through the barriers.

'Oh crud.'


Gohei and his minions rushed through the now-shattered barrier and wooden gate eagerly, swarming around the courtyard and leaving behind them tendrils of Corruption.

It was ever so much fun to corrupt things. Especially when they were as pure as this place seemed to be.

Gohei had had his beady little eyes set on the Kamiya Dojo for a few months now. After his fall from the Realm, he had pieced his fractured ki together with his fingers, rendering his right hand useless in the process. Of course, he still had been able to use his left hand, and he made very good use of it when he proceeded to kill anyone who crossed paths with him so he could absorb their death-spirits. It was what kept him on Earth - the energy he got from killing humans. The weaklings he slaughtered called it 'bloodlust', but he preferred 'deathlust'. After a few months of wandering from town to town, killing whoever he happened to meet, he had found the Kamiya dojo, an astoundingly pure place owned by a girl who taught some poppycock about swords that protect life. Pah.

What interested him was the purity of the dojo - pure things had always attracted him. Especially if he was allowed to corrupt them. At first he had contented himself with saying he used the school's style for his murders - that had corrupted the dojo's reputation. Now he longed to corrupt the grounds themselves...and the girl who owned the dojo. He grinned slyly in anticipation. Oh yes, corrupting things was fun. And when the girl herself strode out of the dojo, anger blazing in her eyes, he knew he would enjoy this very, very much.

"Hello, Kamiya brat."

"Hello, bastard."

With greetings exchanged, Kaoru charged at Gohei, swinging her bokken forcefully in an overhead attack. He caught it with his right hand, and jerked it from her grasp before breaking it in half without a second thought. Kaoru gaped at him, before remembering who he was and glaring instead.

"So, any particular reason why you've broken through my barriers, gate, and bokken?" she asked with feigned nonchalance. Gohei's face lit up with evil desires.

"Nice place cha got here," he commented idly, ignoring her question and letting his gaze wander over the grounds insolently. He could feel her anger building and his smile widened.

"Yes, nice place I have here. Not you. Now, sir, if you would kindly leave I could get back to practicing in my dojo," she seethed, fairly emitting sparks of anger. Gohei tamed his face into a look of bored amusement.

"Ya know, some people offer their guests things to eat 'n drink, instead of jabbering on about nonsense," he drawled, eyes half-closed.

Kaoru snapped.

"Listen, you evil, insolent brute. I will not tolerate people breaking onto my property. Leave now, before I remove you myself," she growled, jabbing a finger into his chest. The offending brute managed to hold his neutral expression as he calmly picked her up by the collar of her gi and hauled her up to his face.

"With what, wench?" He asked, gesturing with his free hand to the bokken lying in two pieces on the ground.

"With this, de gozaru ."

Gohei's expression quickly changed from calm to a furious snarl as he flung Kaoru from him, only to come face-to-face with a very angry Kenshin.

"Battousai! Since when have you been here, you bastard?" Gohei growled, adjusting his grip on his sword.

"Long enough, Gohei. I suggest you leave quickly," he threatened, the click of his katana being inched from its sheath oddly loud. Gohei's face twisted into a demonic sneer.

"Nu-uh, Battousai. This place is mine to corrupt. I won't lose it to someone like you," he said in a voice that couldn't possibly be human. "Hey, you blithering idiots - attack him!"

The horde of men in the yard rushed towards Kenshin en masse, and he crouched into a Battou-jutsu stance as they advanced. When they were close enough, he whipped the pure sword from its sheath, striking out in an arc and felling all who approached him with a disturbing sizzling sound. Shrieks of pain rent the air as he continued to slash at the evil spirits, weaving through the masses effortlessly and dealing death to all who met his blade. Within moments, the ground was coated in quickly disintegrating bodies, and he glared at Gohei from the corner of his eye.

"Do not mistake me for one of you. I do not corrupt those I come in contact with. I purify," he said in a low voice, advancing as he spoke.

"I shall now purify you."

Gohei didn't even have time to scream as his head swiftly flew from his body, both parts evaporating into nothingness.

Kenshin stood in the courtyard, head bowed, while Kaoru simply gaped at the now-empty yard, stunned.

"That is one awesome sword."

Amber eyes peeked through scarlet bangs as he tried to discern her mood. Such carnage, whether of humans or not, was not exactly the nicest thing to watch. He was surprised to find Kaoru gazing at the yard in wonderment, her face in an expression of awe tinged with...pleasure?

He blinked.

How was she pleased with this?

"Well, I'm glad that's over with. If you'd taken any longer fixing your ki, I might have had to resort to less-than respectable tactics," she said matter-of-factly as she stood up from where Gohei had thrown her. Kenshin stared at her.

"Don't you want me to leave?" he asked before his mind knew what he was doing. She turned her head slightly to stare at him, an expression on her face that said he was clearly either insane or stupid.

"You just got rid of an unsavory spirit who was intent on destroying not only my dojo's image, but my dojo itself. Do you think I want you to leave?"

He blinked again.

She gave an exasperated sigh and opened the shoji, gesturing inside.

"Listen, you don't have anywhere else to go, right? You still need to heal some, right? If there are evil jerks out there who want to soil my dojo because it's fun, I need some training or at least protection, right?" He nodded mutely. "So get yourself in there and go to sleep like a good little spirit. We can work out details tomorrow morning ."

That said, she strode into her dojo, leaving the shoji open.

Kenshin stared after her for a moment, and then focused his attention on the shoji. It seemed to make sense. He could stay here, surviving off of the energy in the dojo. He wouldn't have to kill people to sustain himself. He could protect this fiery half-spirit and train her to use her hidden talents.

It was the last thought that won him over, and he walked through the doorway and closed the shoji behind him, a smile on his face.

Just for a little while...

--

Glossary:

Ki- One's life energy, or aura

Bokken- A wooden sword

Dojo- A school for training in Japanese arts of self-defense. In this fic, kenjutsu

De gozaru- An archaic form of "desu". Basically, it means that Kenshin is being super-polite

Shoji- a rice paper door

AN: Finally back from Hawaii! -flops onto computer- I missed you

Dang, I missed everything about home. But Hawaii was good too. I found some candies called "Tomoe Ame rice candies" or something, so of course I bought those. xD

And, since Misaoshiru is a totally awesome beta, I'm giving those candies to her. -luffles on-