Author's notes: This part was harder to write than the previous two, maybe because there's so much "action" in it. ::makes a face:: I don't write action very well (or romance, or drama, or comedy... and I hope this isn't turning out to be dark -- is it? it's supposed to be sort-of fantasy or something like that) but I decided I'd balance it with more thought-scenes. Oh, and this part was written much more hurriedly than the others... I don't know why. Maybe because I was sort of depressed and/or ic-afflicted? I certainly didn't have the inspiration I did in part two ^^
Part three would never have been written without Chibi Chiriko-san, her directions to several places to go to for RK stuff ::sparkle:: and most of all those wonderful comments that pushed me to keep on writing this. And also to my prereaders, Setsuna-san and Jackie-san~! You guys are the best... thanks for the ideas, crits and comments ::hugs::
Oh! Almost forgot. This is not historically accurate at all -- though I *did* spend a few hours in research about the ancient Japan thing (and promptly disregarded whatever I turned up during that time in favor of 'creative license'). You can say it's sort of alternate reality... ::sweatdrops:: Standard disclaimers apply. As always, comments are very very welcome at sumire@rurouni.com (onegaiiiiii...)
Written June 2000
* * for emphasis, ( ) for thoughts, [ ] for mindspeech, ... ... flashback/vision

Preceding part(s):
Part 1: What Brings the Wind
Part 2: Shadowed Secrets

Starlight, Hellfire
Part 3: The Mark of Blood
by Mia Sereno

Kekkon [Bloodstain]:
......Wash as he may, still......
On the killer's hands, unseen
....The bloodstain remains....

The silence that reigned over the Kamiya dojo was palpable, a living thing that one could almost touch and lose oneself in to never be found again. Outside the sky was perfectly dark, the moon and stars shrouded in shadows that faded into the night.

Mikomi shivered. She couldn't sleep. The quiet and the dark, instead of soothing her as they always had, frightened her, as if they hid and concealed horror too great for her to comprehend. Something rustled in the dark night outside, and she flinched at the sound.

(I'm sure *they* would be amused if they could see me now. Frightened by the dark, indeed!)

She finally gave up on trying to sleep and sat up, wrapping her arms around her and looking out into the darkness. There was something in the air that troubled her, a malevolent presence that almost reached out to her in a gesture of infinite longing and hatred. Somehow, though the night was perfectly still, a voice in her mind kept screaming its warning at her, telling her to beware. The last time she had felt this way... the last time she had heard this voice... was when she had set out to warn... Himura-san... and almost died before she even saw him.

Suppose... tonight... *they* of the evil would come?

It would not be unexpected if they did. Once more, the hunters of the darkness had found their prey. The next step would be to kill her, something they had been attempting ever since she was a little girl. With the resignation of one whose life had been ruled by the law of death and escape from it, with one's soul growing slowly numb to fear until it walked beside her as a panther waiting to pounce, Mikomi knew that all she could do was wait.

And so she did.

Yet... yet her thoughts still troubled her. Knowing the darkness as she did, Mikomi knew how cruel the fate of those who helped its enemies was. Kaoru-chan... Yahiko... Sanosuke... would they, too, become targets of the darkness as she, Himura-san -- and perhaps Megumi-san -- were? The thought was too much to bear, and her head bowed to hide the tears in her eyes from the night.

...The darkness was coming...

For what seemed like the thousandth time she cursed her heritage. Oh, what she would have given to not be born under the curse of the Keeper's duty! But she was, and there was no changing that.

There was no changing, either, the danger she had brought to the dojo by her very presence.

Or was there?

What if the others had *always* been in danger, not because of her, but because of Himura-san? It was possible, wasn't it? He had been... was... after all, the Hitokiri Battousai. And if her look in Megumi-san's mind had meant anything, Kaoru-chan and the others had been in danger ever since they had met him.

The thought calmed her for a moment and troubled her even more after that, as all thoughts about Himura-san were wont to. The darkness was after him as well. The possession of a man with such a soul, with such a will, and with such power lying untapped within him must have been irresistible to the demons. Once -- if -- the shadow that had haunted him for so long was able to take over his mind, he would be the darkness' instrument, lost to the evil. Mikomi drew a long, shuddering breath as she contemplated that possibility.

...The darkness was coming...

"Stop it, Mikomi!" she whispered to herself. She forced herself to be calmer and think about it more reasonably. Even the demons who were the darkness had weaknesses, things they didn't understand. They didn't know -- as she did -- that Himura-san's very essence was the reason he was so powerful; if the darkness took away his soul he would lose that which had borne him through more trials than should be encountered in a lifetime by any mortal, even a hitokiri, even a killer.

...The darkness was coming...!

The evil was bent on claiming its own. Soon, though he did not know it yet, Himura-san would have to make a choice between giving in to the darkness... or trying to resist it. Mikomi knew that he *would* fight the darkness as long as he still lived -- if not for himself, or for herself, then for Kaoru-chan... for truth and for life, for what he had always believed in. But would Himura-san still choose to fight if he knew that he was putting the others in even more danger by doing so?

The girl closed her eyes. He would choose correctly. He *must*.

Still, that did not prevent the evil from threatening the lives of those in the dojo. She would have to leave as soon as possible, now that the evil found her... as soon as Himura-san knew what he must do.

A soft growl broke into her thoughts. Mikomi's head came up sharply as her eyes scanned the room, all the while wondering if the sound or the slight movement she saw was just a product of her fevered imagination.

Licking her suddenly parched lips, the girl stood up and took the diamond star from her obi. "Who's there?" she asked shakily. Her voice sounded very small in the night.

Silence.

Slowly an inky black shadow detached itself from the darkness and glided towards the center of the room. It solidified quickly, drawing the night about it, until it stood as a man, body completely filled with black, with blazing red eyes looking out of the darkness of what would be its head. Mikomi blinked lavender eyes and shrank back until her back touched the wall, trying to reassure herself that she was still awake; not trapped in some nightmare. The only sound in the room was that of the girl's half-choked breathing.

"Lady Hoshino." The voice was smooth, like poison, and seemed to be drawn from the depths of some unimaginable abyss.

Mikomi bowed her head and struggled to keep her fear in check as she looked death full in the face. Finally a single gasped syllable dropped from her lips, throbbing with the bitterness and hate of years. "You!"

The dark figure inclined his head. "Indeed. I see that you have still delayed the assuming of your duties, Lady," he said, his tone neither one of reproof or commendation. He just said what he did.

"You speak of something you know nothing about, demon." She tried to suppress the
indignation in her voice, and couldn't. "What would a creature of darkness know about the Keeper and her duties?"

"One should find out everything one can about one's enemies, Lady Hoshino. I must say we have been baffled by your continued refusal to accept the fact that you *are* the Keeper."

The girl's eyes narrowed. "One should not judge one's enemies, either. I am no more the Keeper than you are, Wraith."

"And yet you belong to the line of the Keepers that has existed for centuries. As the sole survivor of that line, should you not accept your family's duty? Do you not owe that much to your father?"

The Wraith's reference to her father seemed to strike something deep in Mikomi, hurting her more than any insult could have. "I do not see why the creatures of darkness are so concerned about the Keeper's existence," she retorted icily, "when they should be overjoyed that for more than a decade there has been no Keeper and that for all that time the barrier between the two worlds has stood defenseless."

A smirk twisted the formless lips. "Indeed. Do you know how near collapse the Gate is, Lady Hoshino? All that is needed for it to give way is your death."

Mikomi did not answer, but her fingers tightened around the small jewel in her hand.

"You know why I have come." The demon raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist, letting supernatural fire -- red as blood and golden as a killer's eyes -- form around it. "If you were the Keeper you would be able to delay your inevitable death, but because of your stubborn refusal to accept your duty, you do not have the Keeper's power. Thus you will die." The girl could hear the distinct sound the fire made as it crackled around the Wraith's fist, and she tried not to listen as she desperately tried to think of a way out.

The demon glided over to her just as she screamed. Trying to give the others a warning, and maybe time to escape...

Then the scream gave way to excruciating pain as the demon wrapped his flaming hand around her throat.

~*~*~*~*~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kenshin's violet eyes snapped open as soon as he heard the scream. In an instant his sakabatou was in his hand and he was running down the corridor to Mikomi's room.

Once there he slid the door open, brushing it easily aside, and stopped, aghast. A figure in the shape of a man, his form etched in darkness, was choking the girl with hands that seemed to be aflame and red with blood. As Kenshin unsheathed his sakaba Mikomi's face twisted and an involuntary cry came to her lips. "Himura-san! No!"

The swordsman's eyes narrowed, the golden flecks in them not entirely a reflection of the fire in the demon's hands. "Let her go," he said, his voice very soft. Crimson, pupilless eyes turned their gaze from the girl to Kenshin as he charged towards the demon, then widened, as if in recognition. The Wraith's hands tightened involuntarily around Mikomi's throat in an emotion as close to panic as was possible for a demon.

Mikomi screamed again as the flaming, clawlike fingers dug into her skin.

A swirling doorway -- an entrance to another place? he didn't really know -- suddenly materialized behind the demon and the girl, and as Mikomi's lavender eyes dilated and Kenshin reached them, the Wraith backed into the portal. Dragging the girl with him.

Behind him Kenshin could hear Kaoru's footsteps and a sharp intake of breath. "What the-- Kami-sama! Mikomi-chan...!"

The doorway began to waver, shrinking into nothingness. Kenshin's hand tightened around his sakabatou's hilt, and breathing a silent prayer to the gods to keep the girl, and Kaoru, safe, he clenched his jaw and dove into the rapidly disappearing entrance.

The last thing he heard was Kaoru's terrified cry. "Kenshin!"

Then a peculiar tingling, and pitch-black void that swallowed him up totally, as night extinguishes the day.

~*~*~*~*~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sudden pain lanced through her mind, dragging her from the nether region of sleep to the less compassionate reality of life. Megumi growled as she was jolted awake, sat up and rubbed her head. "Aggggh," she groaned. "Head feels like it's on fire..."

She got up, drew her yukata around her and retied the obi, and went into the clinic itself to look for the herbs she kept for severe headaches. Her bare feet made almost no sound as they touched the wooden floor, and in a few moments she was hunched over the set of medicine drawers. Her fingers, fumbling blindly in the darkness, finally found the herb bag and took it out. Megumi's sigh of relief as she undid the knots was somewhat marred by the stab of pain at her mind.

Megumi inhaled the pungent smell of the herbs and half-smiled to herself, expecting the pain to go away soon. She was unpleasantly surprised when it didn't.

"Oh god."

That only meant one thing: the pain wasn't hers. She had been experiencing this since she first discovered her ability to look into others' thoughts, occasional flashes of pain in her mind whenever someone close to her was in agony, be it agony of the spirit or agony of the mind. When her father, to whom she had been closer than any other human being, died she had gone through so much that since then she had closed her mind. Closed it to anything other than ordinary human perception.

Closed it until she had met Mikomi.

For a brief moment Megumi wondered if using her gift -- or curse -- once more had been a wise decision. Then the doubt disappeared when the thought came to her that prudence was overruled by necessity, that wisdom and normal common sense couldn't be applied in situations like these that were very, very far from normal.

Situations like these... the thought was cut off in mid-thread by another burst of pain that brought her attention back to just who the ache was coming from. Ignoring the splitting headache, she sent a feeler of thought out to follow the pain back to its source.

...Mikomi!

The girl's mind was a welter of emotions and split-second choices that only faintly resembled coherent thoughts. Megumi frowned, her breath hissing between her teeth as she persistently dug deeper and tried to piece those thoughts together into a picture of what was happening to the girl.

Mikomi was in... her room, and her throat hurt as if someone had wrapped a choker of heat around it. As Megumi concentrated even more she could feel the despair in the girl's mind clearly: hopelessness, and resignation to her fate. Then a strange surprise and an even stranger terror as Kenshin burst into the room.

After a torrent of confused emotions through which Megumi couldn't see, Mikomi calmed herself down enough to think about what she had to do. Through the girl's eyes she could glimpse a strange -- what? a doorway of some sort? -- and sense a burning force dragging her towards it. Fear clutched Megumi's throat. What...

[No, Mikomi! You must break free!]

But the mindspeech came too late. The girl disappeared into the portal -- Megumi could sense what it was now -- whatever had dragged her into it still holding her by the throat. The doctor could feel the sense, almost akin to relief, that washed over Mikomi in a wave of acceptance. She was going to die, but at least she had not drawn anyone else into the danger...

A silent cry. [Himura-sannnnn!]

Kenshin had followed Mikomi into the portal.

The trouble that jolted the girl reached out to Megumi as well, tinged with worry for Kaoru and Yahiko, left behind. Then the crystallization of decision. [Megumi-san!]

*That* surprised her. Mikomi knew that she was in her thoughts?

[Aa. Megumi-san, Kaoru-chan and Yahiko are in danger.]

[And *you* aren't?]

The portal disappeared, and for a moment the link between their two minds wavered. [Perhaps I am. I don't really care, as long as no one else is affected by this.] The sheer lack of hope in that statement struck Megumi like a blow. [The darkness knows where I am now, and it may try to...] a brief flicker, [...harm them. Sanosuke *must* go to them. You, as well.]

[Me? I can't fight!]

[You won't have to. Kaoru-chan needs someone to tell her that everything will be all right.]

[Will it?]

A brief flicker of emotion. [I don't know, Megumi-san. I really don't know.] Then all contact with Mikomi broke, like a snapped thread, and Megumi found herself staring at the dried leaves scattered on the floor, releasing the sharp smell of reality into the waiting night air.

~*~*~*~*~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He was standing on a featureless plain that was lit by some unknown source, with the demon and Mikomi standing some distance from him. As he ran to Mikomi she wrenched out of the dark figure's grip and collapsed on the ground. The gold slowly faded out of Kenshin's eyes when he heard the gasps that escaped her throat, reassuring him that she could still breathe. "Why have you brought me here?" she whispered, just as Kenshin reached her.

"Merely an expression of my respect, Lady Hoshino. It would not do for she who would be the Keeper to die an ordinary death."

The part of him that was growing in disbelief and man's fear of the supernatural died as the Kenshin who *knew* of these events and the supernatural as well as he knew the back of his hand struggled to break out of the prison ten years and the hitokiri's pain had created. Kenshin bent over the girl, interposing himself between her and her assailant. "Mikomi-dono... what happened?" he asked as she raised her pale face. Then, "what is all this about?"

Mikomi gasped as she looked up at him and into his eyes. "Himura-san! I... no! Why are you here?" She rose to her feet with some effort and faced the demon. "Why have you brought him here, Wraith? No one has a part in this except you... and I."

"He came of his own free will, Keeper."

"What?!" Mikomi's lavender eyes widened and she swayed, holding a hand to the wounded skin of her throat. "Why...?"

"I couldn't let you die," he said quietly. "Not again." Then Kenshin stopped. The words had just... slipped out of that part of his mind buried in the mist of forgotten memories and the past lived by another. Those words! What part did Mikomi play in his past? Why did the hitokiri remember her...?

Slowly, painfully, Mikomi raised her face and let her eyes meet his. Violet reflected its paler counterpart, darkening in infinite despair and the terrible pain of knowledge, and finally Kenshin turned away, as if he couldn't bear to look into those eyes any longer. "I... don't... understand all this. What is happening, Mikomi-dono?" Somehow the question's tone alternated between bewilderment, the need to know and to see past the veil that had shrouded the truth about her, and overwhelming dread of what the answer would be, dread born of the chilling premonition seen in the light of her lavender eyes.

A shadow passed over Mikomi's face, blotting out the cold half-light that outlined her features. "Do you choose to stay?" she whispered. "And not leave me to my death? You can still go. I have accepted this long before."

For answer, Kenshin raised his sword in salute. The girl shuddered and then laid a hand hesitantly on his right arm.

"Please... understand, Himura-san... I will explain... if I survive." The words faltered as they came out of her mouth, and her voice, already whisper-soft, broke.

"You will." The answer seemed to be drawn out of a deep, hidden well of anguish and suffering deep within the man's heart, like the last secret drops of blood from the heart of a dragon. Kenshin brought his sakabatou up and moved in front of her in a defensive stance, resolve in his violet eyes and his mouth set in a grim line. The demon's red eyes suddenly flared.

"Do you wish to die as well, Battousai?" he rasped. "Stay to defend her, and you will most assuredly never see the light of day... or the face of your beloved... again."

Kaoru! His mouth went dry as the implications of the threat burned into his mind. With Sanosuke gone back to Tsunan's place to talk with him, she and Yahiko were very vulnerable to attack. What if...

A light touch on his back brought him back to the strange unreality of this plain. "You don't know her heart, Himura-san." Mikomi's face was very pale, but determination lent strength to her lavender eyes. "She is strong enough."

And somehow those words shining with painful truth and clarity were all that remained to convince him. Kaoru *was* strong. She would understand.

"Then die both." The words were spoken with dreadful finality and all the non-emotion of an accepted fact. The Wraith stretched his hands out towards them, the bloodlike fire blazing around his arms.

"Listen to me, Himura-san," Mikomi murmured from behind him, her voice like steel, honed to an intense cutting edge. He had never heard her speak like that, though he long knew there was something more to her lavender eyes than any of them saw, as steel is hidden in the petals of a flower to pierce in deadly beauty.

"The Wraith is a demon. He has transported us here, to this reality -- something he created out of his own twisted mind -- so that he will be able to kill me quietly. Or, as he says, so that my death may not be ordinary." Her breath caught in her throat as the fire intensified and she felt its heat. "You will only be able to go back to the real world... and to Kaoru-chan... if he is destroyed."

Red hair shaded narrowed, glinting eyes as Kenshin nodded in assent. He could feel the girl tense behind him and hear the soft rustle of her dark yukata against her limbs. Something seemed to pass between Mikomi and the demon standing in front of them, and the girl made an obscure gesture as the fire around the Wraith's hands flickered into glowing, dancing tendrils.

"As it is..."

Mikomi hesitated, for a moment, before replying to the demon's words, "So be it."

And then the Wraith struck.

~*~*~*~*~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Kenshin..." An almost-whimper. "Mikomi-chan..."

Kaoru drew her arms around herself, feeling that in the span of the few moments from Kenshin and Mikomi's disappearance the air had grown suddenly, unbearably, cold. She had been feeling an uneasiness, a coldness in her heart, ever since the time she had seen Kenshin changed by the shadow over the moon, and she knew instinctively that this night was the vertex of all the omens that something was terribly, horribly wrong. For since that night -- whose memory she couldn't erase no matter how hard she tried -- a question had been echoing in her head, a question that had to do with Kenshin and the past and strange shadows and darkness.

This night the question would be answered.

And yet... and yet... she feared what the answer to the question would be. He had suffered enough bearing the curse and the burden of the hitokiri; what more if there was something else? Something worse?

Even more importantly, where had he and Mikomi gone when they vanished with that strange dark figure? What was happening to them? Were they safe... or even alive? Kaoru shook her head, biting her lip. They were. They had to be! (Kami-sama, keep them safe. Protect them from whatever it is they're facing.)

If they weren't... oh, if they weren't... The helplessness and agony of not-knowing, the pain of being left to imagine what had happened to her two friends, the despair of being left behind once again tore her up inside. She clenched her hands into fists at her side, trying to put all those thoughts out of her mind and instead focusing on what she had to do. Perhaps there was some way she could help them, even if it was only to be strong and stand against all the emotions raging inside her and trying to weaken her to the point of collapse.

"Hey busu."

The young woman whirled, her face paling and then coloring as she saw a sleepy-eyed Yahiko standing behind her. "Yahiko-*chan*! Don't scare me like that!"

Yahiko opened his mouth to retort, then snapped it shut when he saw the expression on her face and the fear clouding her blue eyes. "I heard noises," he said uncomfortably, "and I thought something'd happened."

(Something did! Something happened!) Kaoru wanted to scream, and instead leaned limply against the wall, feeling her strength drain from her. (Kenshin and Mikomi are gone, and I don't know where they are. Or even if they're still in this world... even if they're still alive... and all this is driving me insane! But how can I tell you anything like that?)

That action combined with the unusual pallor and the almost-despair in Kaoru's eyes, making her look so different from the radiant, vividly alive girl of everyday, made Yahiko add with unusual concern in his voice, "what's wrong?"

Resisting the temptation to say 'nothing,' and order him to go back to sleep -- for he was just a child, as a tiny voice in her mind reminded her -- Kaoru looked at the boy and tried to think of a reply as she drew her thoughts into coherence. No, no, she couldn't dismiss him as a child, and the tiny voice was drowned out by a chorus of other voices. She could still remember the resentment she felt when Kenshin would hide things from her in an effort to shield her from himself, and the wish of her heart that he wouldn't. That he would tell her the truth... as she should now. As Kaoru looked at the young, serious face before her, shadowed and more mature in the shadows of the night, she knew that Yahiko was a child no longer. He had a right to know what was happening. She wouldn't -- couldn't -- deny him that.

"Kenshin and Mikomi-chan..." she tried to go on, but the words stuck in her throat. Kaoru sucked in the cold, cold air and tried again. "They're gone." Bitter, hot tears stung her eyes, but she made no effort to wipe them away, finding comfort in the liquid heat that broke up the knife-sharp cold of the night.

Yahiko drew closer. "Hey, close your yukata," he reminded her unabashedly. Then his tone changed from that of insult to genuine worry. "What really happened?"

His words, and the tone they were said in, suddenly make her feel like it was she who was the child and he the adult. Kaoru absently drew her yukata tighter and tied it closed, feeling too numb with the cold of the night and the intensity of her emotions to blush. "Kenshin... he... he..." She buried her face in her hands, and after that though her words were muffled, they had been marshaled into some semblance of order.

"I heard Mikomi scream," she began shakily. "When I came here a dark *thing* was holding her by the throat," a choked sob of sympathy for her friend's pain, "and it dragged her... somewhere when Kenshin started attacking it. Then they disappeared." The wave of frustration at being left behind to endure the agony of waiting almost swamped her self-control under. "No, Yahiko, I don't know what's happening!"

"Kami-sama."

"I know," she said miserably in answer to the bewildered, disbelieving worry of that single exclamation. "I don't have any idea what's happened to them. It's eating me up inside." And more tears trickled out from between her hands to splash on the floor, liquid yet diamond-hard and very, very real.

"Why'd anyone want to go after Mikomi? What's happening anyway?"

Kaoru raised her face, cheeks streaked by tears and eyes shining with the brilliance of pain. "I don't know," she admitted. "Still... oh, this is even worse than all of those other times. I get the feeling we're dealing with... the supernatural here, pure evil. I don't know if I'll believe what I'm seeing -- I don't even know if I want to believe! Because all this... what it's about... *I don't even know*!"

"Kenshin doesn't, either."

It was easy to forget that Yahiko was unusually perceptive for his age until he surprised one with a statement like this. It was easy to dismiss him as an impudent little boy until he showed just how mature he truly was. Kaoru licked her lips nervously, afraid for Kenshin, afraid that the trouble in his eyes and the nightmare of his past had-- "Oh, do you think he's... do you think he and Mikomi-chan are still..." she stopped. "He will be strong enough. He *will* survive this." She murmured it over and over again, a chant against the fear and unfamiliar, ominous darkness.

"Kaoru?" His voice was suddenly very, very soft and whisper-thin, but the maturity was still there in the courage to admit his fear. "I'm scared."

The young woman shivered. "Yes." She placed a reassuring arm around his shoulders and drew him to her. Yahiko didn't resist and buried his face in her shoulder, his shoulders heaving and body racked by sobs. "I am too."

~*~*~*~*~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whiplike bursts of fire, hissing softly, blossomed from the demon's flaming hands and converged on them. Kenshin easily jumped clear and risked a quick glance at the girl. Despite the yukata she wore she, too, had evaded the whips of fire and now crouched on the ground, panting. "They aren't like real whips," she cried. "Behind--"

He felt several pinpoints of heat behind him and twisted to the side just in time. The fire he had dodged had somehow doubled back and now pursued him, undulating snake-like through the air. Taking a deep breath, he let the instincts he had learned so well take over, putting all but the twisting flames out of his mind.

Cloth brushed against his face, and he glanced up from the crouch he had landed in just
as Mikomi, dark hair flying, somersaulted over him with several streams of fire in pursuit. She looked over at him as she landed, nodded in acknowledgement, and launched herself off the ground once more as Kenshin leaped to her side.

Now as they twisted and turned side by side while the Wraith smirked in the background the whips of fire intertwined with each other, all moving in a terrifyingly beautiful dance of motion, of hissing snakes and burning fangs, of all-conquering death. Kenshin could feel the sweat standing out on his forehead and the heat growing unbearably stronger to that of eternal hatred; could see Mikomi, a shade slower, weakening, and he found himself wondering how long he could still...

Suddenly Mikomi cried out, and Kenshin became agonizingly aware of the acrid smell of burnt flesh when he saw the burns on her arm and her back. He was not surprised when her eyes hardened, decision replacing pain.

The next time Mikomi landed from another somersault, streams of fire crashing into the ground behind her, she came to her feet only inches from the Wraith. Kenshin's eyes narrowed and he blurred towards her with his sakabatou at the ready, but the demon shot out a flame-marked hand and took hold of her yukata's front a moment before he reached her.

Mikomi brought her right arm up in a seemingly futile gesture, her hand clutched around something. "Tessen!" she screamed.

Kenshin's eyes suddenly widened in disbelief. Mikomi's fingers loosened around whatever she held, and just as he recognized the star-shaped jewel it came alive with white fire, momentarily blinding him and consuming the remaining whips of flame. When the fire died down the girl held a steel fan in her hands, and she instantly slashed at the demon with its blades. The Wraith's eyes widened, the clawed fingers letting the yukata go.

She dropped to the ground, gasping. Kenshin had taken the chance when it presented itself and followed up her attack, striking the Wraith with the sakaba's blunt edge. "He's not human," she murmured from behind him. "Use the sharp side."

The swordsman attacked again, timing the skillful strokes with the controlled sweeps of the tessen in Mikomi's hand. The darkness that shrouded the demon grew tattered and seemed to grow fainter, though in the strange unreal gray that seemed to shadow and light up the plain at the same time he couldn't be certain. In this... reality he couldn't be certain of anything, not while he was fighting a demon with a girl who seemed to possess all the skill of a warrior who had survived enough suffering for a thousand lifetimes and who held a weapon as unearthly as the demon's fire itself.

"Katana," came the hurried whisper from beside him, and the tessen blurred into a sword, its steel glinting in the half-light. The demon made a growling sound deep in his throat when he saw the weapon, and stopped his grudging, step by step retreat.

"It is time to end this," the Wraith bit out, crossing his hands in front of him defensively. The shadowy tatters solidified, growing darker and molding themselves around the demon's body. The shining blades plunged into the darkness, again and again, but unlike before... nothing happened.

Mikomi drew a hissing breath. "No..." She tried to rush forward again, but found herself frozen in place, her feet rooted to the ground. Looking at Kenshin she saw the sudden widening of his eyes as he struggled to move his feet, and the hissing breath became the dangerous whisper of controlled fury. "Wraith!"

The Wraith laughed, mockingly, savoring the fear that suddenly surfaced in the girl's eyes. "Give it up, Lady Hoshino," he said, and took a step forward, supernatural fire suddenly appearing in his hands. "The only way for you and the Battousai to survive is through your refused inheritance -- the Keeper's power."

The sudden confusion and almost-accusing question in Kenshin's violet eyes were almost tangible, searing through in their exchanged looks, and the doubt and guilt that had persistently clawed at Mikomi finally stabbed her heart, cutting through its defenses, the reasons of necessity and lack of choice she had shielded herself with. Why did she have to involve him in this? He didn't know anything!

"Ah," the demon paused, for a moment, to look at her with his piercing red eyes. "Have you been so cowardly that you have hid all that you are from him, Lady Hoshino? Does he not even know who you truly are?"

The girl was silent, though as she looked at Kenshin there was a silent cry for understanding -- the emotion of a helpless creature trapped in the snare called destiny -- in her lavender eyes. Kenshin was staring at the demon, and in the light of the fire it seemed that he was a hitokiri again with the flame of his soul burning from within and through his eyes in gold, indescribable emotion written on his face with a pen of confusion and dread and pain.

"Battousai." The fire around the Wraith's arms stopped moving, as if it had been frozen into a sheet of molten gold streaked with human blood. "Do you have any idea of who this girl really is? Do you not know how much danger she has brought to you and to yours?"

The involuntary sob did not escape Kenshin's attention. "I trust Mikomi-dono," he finally replied, "I know that she wouldn't have done anything to endanger us if it wasn't necessary... Whoever she is," and his eyes narrowed as he brought the sakaba up once more, its cutting edge glinting with a reflection of the bloodlike fire, "she is my friend, and I am not going to let her die. Not like this." The Wraith's eyes gleamed with malevolent amusement and Kenshin heard another cry, cut off almost as soon as it escaped Mikomi's lips. And he suddenly knew that he was going to die.

"Arigatou..." Mikomi murmured, closing her eyes as the fire started moving again and rushed towards them in a searing wave of certain death. "Kenshin... arigatou."

Kenshin brought his sword up and extended it in front of her, leaving himself open to the fire's attack. If he was to die, let it be in a place like this, protecting someone else and somehow paying back the debt of blood the hitokiri owed. In acceptance of the inevitable. Yet... let Kaoru understand. Let her be happy without him. "Sayonara..."

The fire licked hungrily at the edge of his hakama. It would not be long until...

And then Mikomi somehow broke free of the demon's grip and leaped in front of him.

White light flared into existence around the girl, and Kenshin saw, with the same eyes through which he read his opponents' emotion and perceived their battle auras, the power in her that had lain hidden before but now shone forth with the glorious strength of a thousand suns. "It won't end this way," she said quietly. "This is my death. Not anyone else's." The girl made a gesture with the jewel in her hand. "As the heir of Hoshino I assume all the power that is the Keeper's..." her voice rose above the hissing crackle of the flames, "Starlight, hellfire... by the legacy of my blood and the Keeper's right I summon you!"

The light around Mikomi grew stronger and pushed out until it covered both of them, driving back the demon's fire. Mikomi held out her hands, and the light suddenly swirled into the shape of dazzling flames, strangely cool and brushing with a multitude of tiny wispy fingers against Kenshin's skin. "Go!" she cried. The girl's eyes narrowed in dreadful concentration, then shrank to slits as power surged through her and towards the demon in the form of intense white overwhelming everything in its way, the pure brilliance of the stars and the irresistible might of hellfire united. It extinguished first the bloodfire...

...then the Wraith himself.

A wail of defeat and frustration burst from the demon's disembodied lips. "Damn... you...!"

"You wanted the Keeper, Wraith?" she said, her voice restrained with the self-control that clamps like an iron vise around extreme emotions and binds shattered minds together. "I am the Keeper now, as I have been forced to become. You have nothing to blame for this but yourself."

The last remaining shadows that surrounded the Wraith grew tattered and faded into the grey light.

The silence that followed the demon's disappearance was broken only by the choked gasps that escaped Mikomi's throat. Her lavender eyes were wide open, the expression in them terrible in the sheer amount of agony and helplessness it signified.

The look in those eyes struck something deep within Kenshin. "Mikomi-dono..."

But Mikomi didn't pay any attention to him or anything else. As the glow of the Keeper's power died down around her and the inhuman resolve in her face disappeared, the girl fell to her knees and wept.

~*~*~*~*~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Keeper...

"Mikomi-dono."

Keeper...

Mikomi bit her lip to keep from screaming as she felt the power rush through her veins like quicksilver, deadly and uncontrollable. So her hand had been forced at last. She had finally made the choice to become the Keeper despite the fact that every fiber of her being cried out against it.

Keeper...

If she had time to spare, if she could stem the torrent of events and emotions, she could perhaps go on weeping and distilling the agony she felt into tears and cries of frustration and anger and rage. Yet she didn't. The acceptance of the power was done. Now she truly *was* the Keeper, and she could do nothing about it. Not anymore.

(Helplessness... the story of my life.)

"Mikomi-dono!" A hand shook her shoulder. "Daijoubu?"

She tried to keep herself from shuddering at the touch of that hand and looked up. Kenshin's face was a study in conflict, worry for her and almost suspicious questioning warring for supremacy in his face. (Himura-san...)

The questioning won out over the worry, and Mikomi steeled herself for the rush of questions that would inevitably follow.

None came.

Only a silence that poured like healing balm over her, giving her precious time to gather her thoughts and quiet any shrieking protests against the choice she had been forced to make. A silence that, though she could sense no understanding in it, was nevertheless born of pity. Mikomi wished the silence would last forever, that she would not have to explain.

"Himura-san..." It was an effort even to speak, and the word seemed to sink claws in her throat as it was dragged out. "I... forgive me for drawing you into this."

"There's nothing to forgive." Kenshin paused, remembering the wound in his own heart, how the ache had taken years to heal. "And you don't have to tell me anything."

"Iie, iie." She shook her head. "You were willing to trust me in spite of everything... you almost died because of me. You should know the truth. I owe you that much, Himura-san." The diamond in her hand suddenly felt very heavy, and pulling back her hair in a half-ponytail, she clasped the jewel around it. "But... do not say anything before I finish, onegai."

Kenshin bowed and sat down on the ground beside her. "I understand."

Her hands shaking, Mikomi wiped the tears from her eyes. "Do you?" A bitter smile full of so much pain Kenshin felt a chill running up and down his spine. She touched a hand to the hollow of her throat, murmured a prayer, and began.

"When this land was created it was not separate from the world of the demons. Beings of the world of mortal and that of demons could travel freely between the two worlds. Because the two worlds are so different, after some time there was so much chaos both were in danger of collapse. In the end the gods decided to create something that would let only a few chosen beings pass from their world to the other. Thus they created the Mortals' Gate."

The tone of Mikomi's voice was completely dead, and Kenshin had the uneasy feeling that, if the iron grip around her emotions loosened even just slightly, she would shriek her pain to the sky , neither day or night, that hung above them like a colorless pall. "To safeguard this gate, for the demons *would* try to destroy the barrier, a Keeper was appointed. The Keeper of Mortals' Gate."

A strangled exclamation of "You..." slipped from Kenshin's mouth before he could stop it.

Mikomi inclined her head in acknowledgment, but when she spoke again it was only to take up the dropped thread of the story. "This Keeper was given supernatural power, which was passed throughout his family for generations until the family died out and it came to another. Centuries passed and finally the duty of the Keeper, with his power, came to our family.

"The line of Hoshino has had its strengths and weaknesses, all of which are... unnatural to ordinary man. When steel wounds a Hoshino, the blood will not stop flowing until the wound is properly treated. Several of my ancestors have died from the merest scratch." The memory of the day he first saw her, as vivid now as it was then, rushed back to Kenshin. He looked at her wonderingly, a half-formed question in his mind, and found that question answered moments later.

"I knew the risks when I set out, Himura-san... and yes, I would have died if it had not been for you or Megumi-san." For a moment the self-control wavered and she almost sobbed, but with a quick intake of breath she recovered and continued her tale. "The Hoshinos were also given control of the mind, control that lets one see into the thoughts of others and... manipulate minds."

(So it *was* you! The blow to my mind, those words, the pain of the wound I felt on that day... it was all you!)

His violet eyes met hers, and the lavender darkened. "Yes. It was." Mikomi swallowed nervously. "But, Himura-san, I couldn't really be sure I could trust you, not after what happened when I was a child."

The truth had to come out in the end. Both of them knew that and dreaded it; Kenshin, its meaning and what it would tell him about the hitokiri's past... Mikomi, the revelation that would hurt even more than the wounding touch of steel.

~*~*~*~*~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The silence of the streets at night was eerie, almost overwhelming. Megumi shivered as she slipped out of the clinic, a dark mantle draped around her patternless kimono, and wondered what on earth she was doing out on the street on the way to the Kamiya dojo.

Then the urgency of the situation hit her like a bucket of ice-cold water, and Megumi found herself running to the dojo, searching with her mind for the all-too familiar sense of Sanosuke's presence. She was slightly relieved -- and more than slightly irritated with herself -- when she unexpectedly found him in a few seconds. [Oi! Roosterhead!] she screamed at his mind.

[K'so!] Sano was definitely not asleep, but he was definitely not sober either. [What the--]

[It's Megumi, you dimwit.]

[Fox?] A confused pause. [How come I can hear you? What are you doing in my mind?]

Megumi stopped, panting, at the gate of the dojo. [Never mind that. This is important. You *must* go to to the dojo.]

[C'mon, kitsune-onna... we're in the middle of a card game here. Plus it's the middle of the night, for crying out loud! What're you doing awake?]

[Damn, Sano!] It was the most intense mindspeech she had expressed for a long time. [Do you want to get Kaoru and Yahiko killed?!]

Even though her mind was not linked to his -- or was it? and she shook herself again for letting her reflections wander like that -- Megumi could feel the shock that rippled through Sanosuke, and when his thought answered hers it was completely sober. [What's going on?]

[I wish I knew... Now, Sano!] she snapped. She leaned against the gatepost, exhausted, and started when a familiar tall figure appeared at the end of the street. "What are you *doing* here?"

"You told me it was important, so I ran from Tsunan's place to here." As Sanosuke drew closer she could see the faint sheen of sweat that outlined his features and the well-defined muscles of his bare chest. He noticed her level gaze and the glint in her golden brown eyes as she looked at him, and he glanced down at his clothes... then swore. "Chikusho! I even forgot my jacket!"

She tried to laugh. It sounded harsh and brittle to her ears, metallic notes that dropped from her lips to shatter on the ground, and the injured expression in Sano's eyes shifted to one of concern. "Hey! Fox! What's wrong with--" The words died in his throat as Megumi slumped to the ground, her face paper-white against the darkness of her hair and her eyes half-closed.

Sanosuke caught her as she fell. "Megumi! Hey..."

Megumi's eyes opened slowly to look up at Sano. The horror in their mysterious, shadowed depths frightened him more than the sense of danger and evil hanging in the air for the past few days had. "Mikomi!... kami-sama..." and her eyes grew unfocused, as if she was there and not there at the same time. The man shuddered.

(Mikomi? What's happening to her?! Why'd Megumi call out to her like this?)

He took Megumi's limp form into his arms and ran into the dojo.

~*~*~*~*~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Megumi was past hearing. Or seeing, or feeling, or sensing. She had been drawn into the
spell of the memory woven by Mikomi's words, the web the girl had created to relive the events that had taken place in the era ruled by blood and the law of the sword. The relief and thankfulness she felt when her mind touched Mikomi's again and she was reassured that she and Kenshin were still alive was negated by the mental anguish that followed.

Vaguely she could sense Mikomi murmuring to Kenshin, "Do you still remember? Has the shadow taken even that knowledge from you?" and placing her hands on Kenshin's temples.

Images flooded her mind, the images Mikomi was stirring into life in Kenshin's mind as she rekindled the warming, the searing fire of memory.

After a few questioning moments Megumi realized that she was looking through the eyes of another person, not Mikomi, with his mind dominated by darkness and sorrow. Memories not her own flooded into her mind, the remembrances of a killer, and she cried out.

"Mikomi!... kami-sama..."

The memory, the thoughts, the moment, reached out for her. She hesitated, then gave in to it. If she could find the answer to the questions through this... if she could just understand!

...

Snow. Blood. Death. And fragrance, sadly sweet.

The scent of white plum blossoms united with that of blood grew stronger, and he felt the katana in his hands grow impossibly heavy. A tortured cry. "Tomoe..."

...

The web of memory unravelled for a moment to show her the tears trickling from Kenshin's cheeks. Kenshin turned away and tried to remove Mikomi's hands from the sides of his head, but the grip of the girl's slender fingers was too strong for his shaking hands. "No. You *must* remember."

She was plunged into the vision, if that was what it was, again.

...

The ache of loneliness and sorrow in his heart was eclipsed by the guilt that threatened to tear him apart as he watched the flames of the funeral pyre rise to the leaden and uncaring sky. He made several efforts to turn.

An eternity of pain passed, then he slowly placed one foot in front of the other, crushing the snow beneath the wood of the sandals.

The first step was always the hardest.

The most painful.

...

Megumi heard a voice calling her and a touch on her cheek. She struggled to open her eyes. "What--?"

Kaoru's concerned voice drew her out of her daze. "Megumi! Wake up!"

"I can't. I mustn't. Ken-san and Mikomi-san..." Feeling very annoyed, she asked herself, (Why do I sound so confused? So afraid? Megumi! Get hold of yourself!) She could hear other voices in the room though she could not see the speakers; Sanosuke, cursing more out of fear than anger -- "Whaddaya mean-- K'so! I *knew* something was wrong, but *this*! I don't believe it, I *can't*--" and Yahiko answering him, his voice uncharacteristically low. Megumi didn't bother trying to make out the indistinct, muttered words.

Hope surged violently into Kaoru's voice. "They're still alive?"

The doctor nodded weakly and sat up. "I think the enemy -- whatever it was -- is gone now."

"How do you know?" A hand helped her sit up, and she nodded her thanks to Sanosuke. This was no time for the jokes and insults of everyday.

"I can't explain right now." The vision was pulling her into it once more, and she barely had enough time to say what Mikomi had asked her to. "It will be all right, Kaoru. It will be all right." Somehow the words sounded hollow to her ears, and she wished with all her heart that they were true.

...

The black envelope.

He turned it over in his hands, feeling reluctant to open it. Another man would die tonight; maybe even a whole family. This piece of paper held the judgment on a human life. Battousai wondered if he would be able to put the memory aside, at least during daytime; it was during the night that the bloodied spirits of those he had killed came back to haunt him. For during the night he wasn't Battousai, not fully... there was something in the darkness, in the lack of sight, that let him be truthful with -- and to -- himself. Sometimes he dreaded the truth of the night even more than the lies of the day.

Paper fell in black shreds to the ground as he tore the envelope open and read the message inside aloud.

"The Hoshino family. Destroy all members of the family, including the children, as even this family's name is dangerous to the Ishin Shishi and its principles. Directions to the Hoshinos' location are at the back."

It was as if he had just pronounced a judgment over the lives of people he didn't, and would never, know. He stared at the message again, not reading the words but just looking at the characters and lines the ink made on the paper.

Abstractedly he thought that though the order was written in ordinary black ink, it might as well have been written in blood. The blood of those who were already dead, though they didn't know it yet and would still continue to breathe and go about life for the few hours it would take him to reach them.

He crumpled the paper in his hands after studying the map and reached for his katana, already shielding his mind with the coldblooded efficiency that was the hitokiri's way of thinking.

A few hours. That was all that remained to the Hoshinos. For their sake, he hoped they used the time they had left well.

...

"But it wasn't real, don't you see? Himura-san, it wasn't real!"

Megumi almost wept for Kenshin's and Mikomi's pain. "I... the Battousai was ordered to do that? My superiors..."

"Iie, iie. It was the shadow."

A single tormented question. "Why?"

"The darkness chose you as its instrument, long before you were born. It thought you would become what it wanted you to be by killing, and it tricked you."

"Into believing that order?"

"Yes. But what happened next *was* real." Finally, an anguished sob that escaped her rigid self-control. "Very, very real."

...

The bamboo door was shredded by one slash of the katana. Battousai stepped in and looked around at the family sitting at dinner around the low table in the middle of the room. Strangely, they didn't look surprised, and one of them, a woman, instantly blew out the only lamp in the room. Tendrils of smoke drifted off like phantom hands, clawing and grasping, into the sudden darkness.

"We have been expecting you," a man, most probably the father, remarked quietly.

A voice not his own replied. "Oh?"

"Of course," the woman sitting at the right of the man who had spoken said. Her voice was deep for a woman's, and though it was soft there was no mistaking the underlying strength that wove like a cord of steel through its other, gentler overtones. "The doings of the shadow have been no secret to us."

"If that is so, you will know why I have come."

Another, older woman, her face lined by care and the pure white of her hair contrasting oddly with the eternal youth in her clear blue eyes, lifted her chin as she said, "You are mistaken if you believe that the line of the Keepers will die so easily."

Battousai shook free of the almost hypnotic spell of her words, instantly forgetting the conversation that had taken place, the shadowy presence that had spoken through him, and putting all but his assignment out of his mind. The katana's steel glinted in the moonlight that had entered the shattered door, as he raised the sword, and the people drew back, their faces suddenly bewildered. "He doesn't know," the older woman gasped. "Kami-sama, protect us." The man tried to run out of the room with a child in his arms.

The man died first. It was surprisingly simple to kill him; a single effortless slash that caught him through the heart and he slumped to the ground, his blood pooling around him in dark liquid death. As Battousai started towards the two women, thinking distastefully that he hated killing women -- their screams haunted him, helpless and vulnerable, and there was something in him that revolted at the idea of killing defenseless women, something that was not so easily pushed aside by the knowledge of his duties' significance -- and that it was strange that the man should bleed so profusely and so quickly from a simple cut. Behind him he heard a terrified girl's sob and panicked footsteps.

"Demon!" the younger woman spat as he loomed over her.

The older woman was chanting to herself as she bowed over a small object cupped in her two hands. "Starlight, hellfire... The mark of blood will never fade... Let the eyes tell the story and bear the mark. Lavender for gray, blood for life--"

The chant was cut short by the katana's stroke. He killed her so that she would die instantly; he owed her that much, he thought. Bravery did not deserve a cruel death. The younger woman did not bother to scream when she saw the other die. Instead, she took the object from the dead woman's hands and threw it, glistening in the random beams of moonlight as it flew, to where the body of the man lay. She died a second after and sighed a sigh in which triumph and despair were curiously mingled before falling lifeless over the body of her companion.

Leaving the two bodies behind him, he started for the child.

Revulsion at having to kill a child, a wave of almost physical rebellion, slammed into him. He did not want to -- *could* not -- kill a child, not this way, not like this. Not this child, who seemed to have inherited all the courage of her mother and now stood against the wall looking up at him with her gray eyes unafraid. No. No. He would let the child live, go back to headquarters and report his mission as completed. Drops of blood spattered onto the floor as he flicked his katana then sheathed it.

He turned to go.

Inexplicably he found his feet rooted to the ground and an unbearable need screaming in his mind. He had to kill the girl. He had to, he had to!, a voice screamed at him, its sense of presence identical to the shadow he had felt a while ago. He had to! and his hand went to the katana's hilt once more. Steel rasped as he drew it out of the saya.

And with that overpowering command and almost-desperate need to see the last of Hoshinos destroyed crying throughout his mind, sweeping all other thoughts away in a great fiery wave of revenge and hatred and darkness all not his own, the hitokiri raised his sword in salute and stabbed it into the girl's throat. She cried out as she fell, a cry that died in a gurgling gasp as blood stained the pallor of her skin. Even then she was looking up at him, the object her mother had thrown -- a jewel, he saw now -- in the grip of her nerveless fingers.

It might have been a trick of the light, or the veil that falls over people's eyes as they cross over to death, but it seemed to him as she fell that the misty gray of her eyes was eclipsed by vivid lavender. Reflected as he was in that wide-eyed, accusing lavender gaze he saw himself as he really was, not a golden-eyed hitokiri who was obeying his masters' orders but a man with pupilless violet eyes controlled -- no, deceived -- by a powerful, dark evil from another world.

He ran from the house that now smelled of death, ran to escape from the memory of those lavender eyes and the brilliance of the gem in the child's hand, ran to drive away the evil that held him in its clawed grasp.

And as he ran he felt the shadowy presence in his mind disappear, taking the memory of what had happened with it. He leaned against a tree in the forest that surrounded the house and fell asleep.

When he woke he would forget all about it. All about them, all about her.

~*~*~*~*~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kenshin opened his eyes and saw Mikomi's lavender eyes gazing at him sorrowfully. Those eyes... those eyes... they haunted him even more now, for he knew from what abyss they had arisen to overcome death and the past in bringing back memory.

There was only one thing he could do, now that he knew. Kenshin drew his sakaba and offered it to her, holding it carefully balanced between his two palms. "You may have your revenge now," he said, his voice hoarse in the pain of discovery and regret and newly-awakened guilt.

Mikomi's eyes were bright with unshed tears as she stared at the sword before her and shook her head. "Do you really think that I came to you only for revenge?" asked she, softly, answering the plea in his tormented violet eyes with a question of her own. "Revenge is an empty thing, Himura-san, and it more often wounds he who tries to use it than he for whom it is intended."

"But it was I who did that -- not the Battousai. I." Even the protection of the Battousai and his duty was gone now. As Kenshin released the sword it fell to the ground with the ring of steel against stone, a sound that echoed through the colorless reality that now vibrated with ache answering ache, wound answering wound: the agony of the killer and the sorrow of his victim.

"Iie. It was the shadow; you were only the tool it used."

Kenshin wondered how she could still speak, until he realized that pain had so completely claimed her that she could no longer express the suffering that even now tore at her with its poison-tipped nails. "Forgive me."

Mikomi shook her head again, gently. "There's nothing to forgive. You had no choice. None of us did." Hesitantly, she took Kenshin's hands -- hands with fingers spread wide apart at which disbelieving violet eyes were staring in horror of what they had done -- into her own. "Please try to understand that." Hot tears, shining in the half-light, trickled down her cheek to splash onto her hands that held Kenshin's in a gesture meant to keep him from doing anything to himself, from further blaming the choices he had made decades ago.

(Mikomi-dono... you don't have to shift the blame to anyone else. I know who I am. I killed your family. I killed *you*.)

"You didn't kill me, Himura-san. Not as you thought; I was saved. I survived, to live through my childhood in sorrow and hate of he who had done this thing to my family and left me the sole survivor of the Hoshinos." She sighed, wiped the tears from her eyes. "But even though your katana deprived me of all that, even though I was consumed by revenge for so long, I finally learned to forgive. I forgave you long ago, when the one who took care of me died to the evil and I learned of what fate had done to you. I forgave you when I set out to find you, and again when you saved me from death."

He thought of the way fear would come into her eyes whenever their gaze rested upon him, and how she shuddered when they came into contact. Even while they were fighting the Wraith she had seemed, sometimes, to be more afraid of him than of the demon. "The wounds that... night left haven't fully healed, yet." She traced the scar on his cheek, dark in the union of day and night of this reality, with her gaze. "There are still scars."

"Yet you became the Keeper just so we... I... would not die. Mikomi-dono..."

The lavender eyes closed again, streaming tears, and Mikomi's hands shook convulsively as she released Kenshin's hands to clutch at the diamond in her hair. "What's done is done. I don't regret assuming my duty, for it means that you are still alive. And as long as you are still alive there is hope yet."

[Himura-san, please don't blame yourself for what happened. Don't. Everything that happened had to; I can see that now, and you had as much choice in it as I did. None.] Her voice in his mind sharpened to a single pinpoint of focused, intense emotion. [You *can't* let your own guilt take over now! You just can't! What's happening is too important for that!]

Those few sentences shimmered into existence as shining bonds of lucidity around the swirling dark shadows of guilt in his mind, controlling the darkness that threatened to shatter all that he was. "I came here for a purpose," she continued out loud. Her voice was not steady, its tones overlaid with the plaintive music of sorrow, but there was strength in it -- the same strength that once shone through the child's gray eyes and now burned in the lavender eyes of the woman. "The darkness is coming. You know that."

Slowly he brought his mind back to the imminent danger her words hinted at. Mikomi was right; he couldn't give in to his emotions, not now. Not now. "Hai." The word took a long time to come, but when it did it was devoid of any distracting emotion.

"Because there has been no Keeper for more than ten years," a pause, "the Gate has stood unprotected from the demons of the other world. Right now it is near collapse. The Wraith was able to enter this world through a momentary gap through it... and as it grows weaker more demons like the Wraith will be able to pass through it. Until, finally, it gives way and opens the connection between this world and the world of demons again."

Kenshin nodded. (What next?) he asked silently, wondering if his spirit could still endure more revelations like this, more pain, more guilt.

"I am the Keeper. I *will* destroy the Gate," said with a quiet determination that was a thousand times more frightening than emotion.

"What will that do to this world?" Kenshin asked, after an eternal pause. He tried to keep the shock from showing on his face and would have succeeded, if not for the slight widening of his violet eyes.

"Both worlds will become completely separate. Forever." She held out her hands, and a faint glow appeared around them. "The darkness, the evil, the demons, will try to stop me, and to do that they will try to make you surrender to the shadow. If I had not come you would have no choice but give in. You felt it, didn't you? You just didn't understand. Or know."

Cold stabbed at his heart. "I... felt it before, but it was only tonight that I knew." (She will be throwing her life if she does that; I can't, won't, let her die. For even though she has forgiven me, even though the whole world may forgive me, I still can't forgive myself for all that I have done. Forgiveness is a thing too precious for one such as I.) "Mikomi-dono--" Whatever he was to say broke off into a strangled gasp when he saw what was happening to her hands.

The glow around Mikomi's hands had been intensifying while they spoke, and just as it became dazzling, blinding light it died down abruptly to reveal an unsheathed sword resting on her hands in the same position as Kenshin's sakabatou had been only a few moments ago. Mikomi lowered her hands and let the sword slide to the ground, wincing as the steel pressed against the skin of her palms. "But now you have a second choice. You don't have to surrender to the shadow; you can choose to fight against it. With this."

"I will fight. I must." He reached out to take the sword, but Mikomi stopped him with a raised hand.

"Do not decide until you have thought of those whose fates will be guided by your choice, Himura-san." A bitter smile. "If you choose the darkness it will leave Kaoru-chan and the others untouched, yet you will be forever lost to them; if you choose to fight, it will assume that all those whom you love and are sworn to protect are also its enemies." (Once,) she thought, (once it wasn't like this. Once he might have chosen *not* to choose. After that, when he decided to fight the Juppon Gatana there was still a third choice, a way out. Now the third choice is gone, and if he does not choose soon the darkness will decide for him.)

The voice of agony -- torturing, accusing, whispering all the fears and doubts he had pushed aside, stirring all the forgotten memories of the hitokiri into life -- rose to a crescendo, his soul writhing violently under its mastery. He had drawn those he loved most into danger... again, just by being who he was. "Why me?!?"

Mikomi could have interpreted the question several ways. Instead she looked past the words and into the meaning that lay hidden into the heart of the true Kenshin, neither the hitokiri or the rurouni, and sighed as her mind briefly touched his pain. "The evil wants you because you *are* who you are. Himura-san... think about the choice you are to make. Your strength may be what is needed to tip the balance of power one way or the other." She stood up.

"Where are you going, Mikomi-dono?" (Please, don't leave now. There is so much to explain to the others... so much to think about, and I need to understand more.)

"The Gate." Her eyes came alive with unearthly power once more. "Take the sword, Himura-san."

That was something he had to change, however minor it might be. "I'm just Kenshin, Mikomi-dono."

"If you say so, Kenshin..." There was a ghost of an ironic smile playing around her pale lips as she said it. "The sword will know your choice when you make it." The cloth of her yukata billowed around her as Kenshin saw the power in her grow, and in a swirl of glowing dark hair and cloth Mikomi was gone. [Return,] her thought murmured to him. [Return to your world and those who await you and the answers.]

After a few moments Kenshin could feel himself being pulled by an unknown force back to where he had come from. He thought he could see that reality crumbling as he left it, now that the restraint on it was gone and its maker destroyed.

~*~*~*~*~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mikomi paused as she left the Wraith's reality to remove the restraint that held it in place. That accomplished, she flickered back to the world of mortals, appearing just outside the city gates. She stood immobile for a moment as she let power flow through her, healing her wounds and quelling her exhaustion. (Finally. It begins.)

The girl sent out a thread of thought, the same way Megumi had earlier, though *her* search was very much simplified by the fact that the person she was searching for had an extraordinary mind. She was sure there was not another like it in the whole city. [Oneesan!]

The thought came back swiftly, though it was not unsurprised. [Mikomi? What happened? I sensed a demon a few hours ago.]

[There was one who was able to pass through a weak place in the gate. *Was*.]

[Your mind feels different. Have you finally accepted the Keeper's duty?]

A rueful smile as Mikomi, walking stick materializing in her hand, started down a path only she knew how to follow. [You know me very well, oneesan,] another, more rueful smile, [even though it *has* been ten years.]

[I don't pay that much attention to the years, Mikomi. What are they to me? But I *do* pay attention to the habits of people, and I see that you still persist in calling me sister -- despite my not being related to you at all.]

[Gomen nasai, but I miss my family tonight, and if we are not related by blood we are related by that which we serve and by what we must prevent.]

[So you *are* the Keeper now.]

Plucking at the cloth of her yukata, Mikomi drew in an insignificant portion of her power and changed what she was wearing into a dark gi and hakama, adding a pair of sandals as she realized belatedly that she was barefoot. [Hai. I am.]

[Sou... I wouldn't use the power for things like that if I were you. Remember what your mother used to say.] A pause, during which effects and consequences were weighed in the balance of the unknown person's mind, rapidly yet carefully. [What do you want me to do?]

[I didn't say I was asking you to do anything. But if you want to do something for me, guide Kenshin and the others in what they must do. In case he chooses to fight the darkness. Hopefully he will.]

[Hopefully.] A vibrant, golden laugh that danced amidst the stillness of the night. [Since when have you been calling the Battousai by his first name?]

[Since he asked me to.]

[To seek the Battousai as an ally... and the woman with many burdens yet the gift of supernatural sight -- Takani, isn't it?... You have fallen in with strange companions since I last saw you.]

Mikomi looked up at the night sky and at the full moon as the clouds around it drifted away, mischief lighting up her lavender eyes. [None so strange, or worse, than someone I could mention,] she retorted teasingly.

[Don't make fun of my husband, Mikomi,] warningly, though the other person laughed as she
said it.

[Why, you do it all the time, Tokio.]

~*~*~*~*~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Tsuzuku! (Dearou... hopefully ^^)