Standard disclaimers apply, I don't own RK.

A/N: For those wondering, I have written the 4 chapters of this story already; except, it is not typed out yet. P heh. I prefer to handwrite my stories first rather than type them straight on the computer. The 5th one is being difficult and may lead to a possibility of a 6th. I am aiming to complete this story by this weekend; hopefully before my muses die on me (they have a short life span).

Thanks so much for the reviews, they make me really happy.

--

Makoto Shishio smiled cunningly as he approached the Lord of Hiou Manor, his sword unsheathed and hang threateningly on his hand by his side. "You bastard" hissed the man of 40 as he retreated cowardly and unarmed up against the wall.

"Shishio sama…please hurry up and kill this old fool" implored Yumi, mistress of Hiou Manor, wife of the Lord and lover of Shishio. Her role had been significant in the success of this venture and she stood behind Shishio dressed seductively with her red kimono falling pass her shoulders, accentuating the swell of her breasts but going no lower. The sound of a man gurgling on his own blood filled the room soon after and Yumi moved to embrace Shishio from behind, pressing her breasts against his back as he sheathed his sword. His skin was hot and all that was exposed were bandaged – the parting gift Battousai had given him when he had betrayed the Mitsurugi Manor. The flames were meant to kill him but he had lived and made an alliance with the Lord of Hiou within the same week.

"Yumi," he whispered his hand tugging at hers so that he could turn around and face her.

"Hai" she replied in the same whisper.

"We have succeeded. You are free…this calls for a celebration, no?"

"Yes" she replied obediently as he bent down to kiss her passionately. His hands wondered around her body, earning breathless moans from her. Laying her down on the floor, a mere 5 feet away from the dead body of the once proud Lord of Hiou, he stripped her of her clothes and proceeded with his celebration. He had forgotten that in the months it took to bring Hiou Manor into his control, Mitsurugi Manor had been watching silently and waiting for its revenge.

--

"He has conquered Hiou Manor" reported Shinomori Aoshi at the crack of dawn during the meeting after a few hours of its actual occurance.

"Good" replied Lord Seijiro. "Kamiya," he called and Kaori whipped her head up to meet his gaze, "What do you propose?"

"I propose that we strike now, while Shishio forces are weak and when he has not yet formed a defence against us" she said confidently. There was a murmur of agreement amongst the captains. Over the past few months, Lord Seijiro had given her the opportunity to voice out her thoughts and propose ideas. Each time, his eyes would bore straight into hers as though it was searching she could not quite make sense of.

"Himura! Ready the men and set the strategy with Kamiya. This meeting is now dismissed."

All of them stood up and bowed as Lord Seijiro left the hall and then began to follow suit. Ever since the day she first voiced her opinion in the meeting, Himura had been acting weird and in general defensive when the subject of her is brought up amongst the other captains. Kaoru had attributed it to the fact that he felt threatened by her. When she had sought him alone after a month or 2 of its beginning, he had calmly told her that it was all in her mind and that he would be a fool if he thought her as a threat for she had only at best equalled him during their spars. The strangeness however, continued.

Kenshin had asked Aoshi for Kaoru's background information on the pretext of requiring it to see if he could be convincing on a certain secret mission of sabotage at Hiou Manor. Aoshi merely handed him Kaoru's details telling him that Hiko had asked for the same thing before him and whatever that was their fascination with Kaoru, he simply was not interested. The main reason for this was because he had never seen or interacted with Hiko's late wife and daughter, joining the Mitsurugi Manor a good 11 years ago at the age of 13, after it all occurred.

Her background was the usual, she was raised in Nagasaki by her father, Kamiya Koshijiro who taught the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu and owed a dojo. Nothing new there, what made him raise his eyebrows was Nagasaki was where Lady Kya's body was found. But that alone did not explain anything and neither did it connect to the links Seijiro Ai had left behind.

"Himura- san?" asked Kaoru as she waved her hand before Kenshin's face, snapping him out of his daze.

"Are you alright?" she asked concern lining her voice. They had left the meeting room a few minutes ago to proceed to his quarters to plan their line of attack. As he sat down in attempt to formulate a plan he had slipped into a daze, reminiscing the events of the past few months.

"I am fine" he bit out, annoyance lining his voice. 'Focus!' he chastised mentally. Listening to her line of strategy he let of a rare smile and added his own valuable input. As she wrote what they had discussed down on paper and list the amount of supplies required, he studied her profile and wondered briefly, what she would look like in a kimono. Slapping himself mentally, he returned his attention back to the plan they had formulated, trying to find its exploitable flaws. The plan was simple, a raid to take place in the middle of the night by 2 teams. The aim was to destroy what little military supplies Shishio had left, along with Hiou Manor's own and to obliterate the sole military base stationed a good 2km away from Hiou Mansion. He would lead 2 battalions of men as 1 team in an open strike whilst Kaoru would lead 1 battalion of men as the 2nd team to destroy the military supplies. The attacks would occur concurrently. The remaining 2 battalions of men would stay behind to guard the branch of Mitsurugi Mansion in the lands of Houshi, where they currently were and the main Mansion in Miturugi's lands.

It seemed like a good plan. Now all Kenshin needed was to verify with the captain in charge of supplies if they had enough and Lord Seijiro's approval. Handing the completed draft to Kenshin, Kaoru bowed deeply and left his quarters. She was to ready the men for battle. If the plan goes through, this would occur in 3 days time.

--

Kaoru and her men crouched below, hidden by the trees and shrubs which surrounded a small clearing, a cave and a small stock shed. There were guards around but not enough to outstrip the amount of men she had brought along. According to Shinomori's information, the guards should be changing in 5 minutes time. Transition was always the most vulnerable period and Kaoru intended to capitalise on it fully.

As the time drew near, Kaoru signalled her men to get ready. As the guards began to move away, Kaoru signalled her men to charge. In the distance, she could hear the battle cries of the other battalions as they launched their attack simultaneously.

Swords clashed and sparks flew as men fought for their lives. Fire raged as torches were tossed into the stock shed burning what it held inside and as victory drawled near for them, the tables turned. Suddenly, hundreds of men dashed out of the cave heading for combat. Kaoru's eyes widened, Shinomori never reported that. They were drastically outnumbered, eyeing the burning shed, she bellowed to her men, "Pull back!"

The game had changed on them as they fought to pull back but one by one her men fell to death. The cave was Shishio's true hide out. Slashing through soldiers after soldiers, her own sword found itself clashing against one wielded by a boy no older than she with brown hair and eyes. His face lined with an unnerving smile.

She jumped back to get some distance, vaguely aware of her own wounds on her limbs, her loose hair, the soldiers that encircled her and the youth and the fact that she was the sole survivor of her battalion. Her opponent now was none other than the notorious TenKen – Seta Soujiro, disciple of Makoto Shishio and once her sparring partner in the Mitsurugi Manor.

"Vice-captain Kamiya Kaoru I believe" he said with a smile and a light hearted tone.

"TenKen" she acknowledged, raising her sword to her eye level, slipping into an attack stance.

"It is an honour to spar with you again after so long" he replied, the unnerving smile still on his face.

"Likewise" she muttered coldly. She was not in her best condition now. She was battle worn and wounded. Damn, this could be her last fight.

Charging at him with all her might, they began their dangerous dance of swords, each aiming to kill the other. Each time she narrowly dodged his attack, small pieces of her clothing would be cut and the skin beneath it grazed. It hurt and to make matters worse, runs the risk of divulging her true sexuality. She had to finish this soon before she acquired more wounds and before anything was discovered. In her haste to finish the long drawn battle which had both panting and suffering from near fatal wounds, she had miscalculated, resulting in a sharp knock at the back of her neck and darkness followed.

Soujiro panted heavily, thrusting his sword on the ground to hold him steady. Vice-captain Kamiya Kaoru truly lived up to his name. Looking at his unconscious opponent, he forced himself up against the pain from the various wounds he had obtained (in particular, the deep gash that ran from his left shoulder to his waist) and sheathed his sword.

"Seta-sama! The enemy…"came the voice of one of the soldiers.

"Yes, he lives. I want him alive for interrogation"

As 2 soldiers moved to pick up the fallen enemy, their eyes widened.

"Seta-sama!"

"What?" came Soujiro's annoyed response as he halted in his tracks back to the cave.

"Kamiya Kaoru is a woman"

Soujiro froze, his lips losing its smile for the first time ever since the death of his family. Turning immediately, he returned to the side of his fallen opponent to verify it himself. Like his men, he was stunned…how could a lone woman possibly have fought they way she did. Glancing at her pale form which was fighting to live, he wracked his brain on what is to be done. A woman…she would have no use at all and if anything, either way death awaited her. Her sharp gasps of air broke him out of his thoughts as the blood pool which surrounded her began to widen ever so slightly. The girl was fighting to love and blast it; he had affections for his ex sparring partner still.

"Take her away to my quarters and have someone treat her wounds" he ordered, "woman or not, she is still the vice-captain"

"Yes sir!" the soldiers answered, their eyes glittering with lust, thinking of the various torture methods that could be used to obtain information.

"Men!" Soujiro called out after them.

"Yes!"

"Do not touch her in any way" he ordered, authority taking his voice as the same unnerving smile slid back into place on his face.

"Yes"

Following the men into the cave and down its steps, Soujiro headed straight to the medical room to have his wounds treated before moving swiftly through the corridors and avoiding the booby trapped rooms to reach Shishio's quarters. Knocking on the door, he waited for Shishio's gruff voice to prompt him to enter before telling his teacher and master of the news.

--

Kenshin was fuming, his strikie had been a success and he had returned back to the branch of the Mitsurugi Manor located in the past lands of Houshi but Kaoru had not and it was a good 2 hours past the agreed time. Aoshi's team had been despatched to find out what had happened and they were to return soon with Kaoru otherwise the consequences would be dire.

The strike had been successful mainly because unusually few soldiers were present in that sole base camp. His fighter's instinct immediately knew something was wrong and he sourly hoped that somehow Kaoru would be alive. Aoshi's team had returned in the twilight hours of the day with grim looks on their faces. Reporting solely to Aoshi, who immediately called for an emergency meeting.

Kenshin was seething with anger as he settled down with no Kaoru by his side. Aoshi's grave face remained as he delivered his report that the entire battalion led by vice-captain Kamiya Kaoru had been annihilated due to their proximity and lack of numbers to Shishio's cave base., which his team did not discover till tragedy struck.

Lord Seijiro's face was stone cold and no emotions ran through it. Thinking for a moment as he observed Himura's tightened jaw and clenched fists.

"Vice-captain Kamiya will be mourned as will his battalion but their small sacrifice had given us an exact detail of Shishio's new method of operation and base-"

"Small?"hissed Kenshin, interrupting Lord Seijiro, no longer able to keep his anger silent. His eyes burning with amber as he glared at Hiko, his mentor and teacher.

"I lost her" he continued, his glare unwavering.

"Her?" questioned Hiko as he equalled Kenshin's glare, taking on a dangerous tone, ignoring the small tugging at his heart.

"Lord Seijiro!" cried a soldier as he yanked the door of the meeting hall open, collapsing onto his knees panting hard.

"What?" demanded Hiko, swinging his glare from Kenshin to the young soldier.

"Shishio sends a message" the young soldier replied, holding up a letter and a small lock of hair in his trembling hands.

"Bring it over!" cam the order and the young soldier walked over trembling ever slightly to hand the letter into Lord Seijiro's hands. Kenshin blinked as his eyes caught on the lock of hair that was tossed immediately on the floor by Lord Seijiro – it was Kaoru's.

Pulling the letter open, Lord Seijiro read its contents with widened eyes. His initial furious expression gave way to a shocked one.

"Ai" he whispered before dropping the letter on the floor, his eyes focusing on the lock of hair on the floor. It was the same raven coloured as her mother's. Clenching his fist, he whipped his head up and addressed the men who had been observing him.

"Shinomoru! I want you to analyse the cave area right this instant. Study its geography and analyse it for all its escape routes by tonight. Inoue! I want my men supplied with food and water to allow them to be battle ready by tonight. Himura, ready the men and have them stationed around that cave. We are going into Shishio's lair tonight."

"We?" questioned Kenshin, as he eyes the letter which Hiko had dropped.

"Yes, we. I, you and Doctor Gensai" he answered with affirmation, "the other captains stay guard of Mitsurugi Manor!"

"I as well my Lord?" asked Doctor Gensai as he blinked. Though he could fight, this was the first time in a long while he had been asked to come.

"Yes," replied Hiko as he looked at Gensai in the eye, his eyes softening a bit, "Shishio says he has my little Ai"

Kenshin's eyes widened and Shinomori did a double blink, raising a questioning eye brow at Kenshin for he was the lone captain with no knowledge of the incident 12 years ago. Kenshin will clarify him on it later. The other captains accepted their Lord's orders and prepared accordingly – Lord Seijiro's daughter was all he had left of family.

--

Kaoru blinked many times before the blurriness of her vision became clear. By all accounts, she should have been dead; somehow she had managed to defy that. Letting out a soft groan, she tried to get up when sharp shots of pain ran up and around her body. Yes, there were consequences to such defiance. Biting her lip to prevent the cry of pain from emerging, she sat up and noticed that she had been lying on a futon, had a blue kimono on and was in a foreign place. She had escaped death to enter a living hell. Her hair was still long and untied but the left section was distinctly missing 2 inches.

Scanning around, to find a weapon, she let out a groan of frustration when none could be found. The room only consisted of the futon she laid on, a pillow and candles which offered little light in the windowless dark room. When the door creaked open, she instinctively pulled the pillow into her right hand and tossed it at the figure that entered. The figure dodged it,

"My my, fiery aren't you?" came a chapped voice. Kaoru froze at its familiarity and found herself staring up into the blood red eyes of Makoto Shishio.

"Makoto-san" she greeted coldly, allowing her voice to slip into its female baritones for he already knew her identity based on the clothes she was in.

"You remember me don't you my heir?" he replied in the same chapped voice

"What do you want?" she demanded

"Your father"

"My father is dead, you mummy!"

"Mummy?" he asked, voice lined with amusement as he gave a harsh laugh.

"Yes…you do have your mother's spirit. I wonder, how all of us missed it…you do too well a job disguising as a boy young Kaoru…no…do forgive me, Lady Seijiro Ai"

"What?" she asked incredulously, momentarily forgetting her position as a prisoner and the need to tread carefully.

Shishio moved forward from his previous position by the door and lifted her chin with his fingers so that he could have a closer look at her eyes. Kaoru cringed and slapped his hand away with her left hand; in the process, tugging at her injuries there. She wore silently at the pain that wrecked up her left arm.

Shishio laughed once again, returning to his previous position by the opened door. "Careful little Ai" he teased, "Soujiro did not go easy on you and I am sure daddy dearest would hate to have you so badly injured after he finally found you"

"For the last time, what are you talking about?" she snapped, trying to divert her attention from the pain to him in hopes of alleviating it.

"You will understand soon" he replied as he turbed his back to her, walking out of the door to slide it shut.

Kaoru scowled, that bastard had underestimated her. If anything at all Kamiya Kaoru was a fighter and she would etch that fact into his thick almost burnt skull. Ignoring the funny bits of information he had told her as a case of sorely mistaken identity, she forced herself up and winced at the pain that seared her body – she had a debt to pay to TenKen and she really hoped that he was in as much pain as she was. They had underestimated her tolerance to pain and left the door unlocked and her unchained. Escape would be so much easier if she was not wearing a kimono, it was so restrictive! But it helped slowed her pace down as she crept silently through the slowly lightening corridors. Sunlight was coming in, dawn had approached. Attempting to get her bearings, she followed the path of the sunrays, pushing open the door that seemed to keep the rays. Ignoring her warrior's instinct that warned her of the ease of the escape in favour of the need for security, she wondered into the room and observed a door by its end. Using the wall as support to move herself, she unknowingly pushed a spring hidden stealthily and unnoticeably in the wall triggering the mechanisms of a dart firing machine. The darts came swiftly and she had to dodge the dozen that came aimed and flying in her direction with an uncooperative body wrapped in restrictive clothes. As the final one hit her on the right shoulder, she cursed as she yanked it out, studying it before the darkness forcibly consumed her mind. Poison.

Seta Soujiro was resting in the medical room when the clinking bamboo strips jolted him up right. They were the alarm that informed inhabitant of the triggering of a booby trap. This particular alarm came from booby trapped room number 26. Dashing off from the medical room, he ran to the direction of room 26 where only one person would be in – Ms Kamiya for everyone else would know what rooms to avoid and how to avoid the traps.

Swearing as he entered the room to find the girl lying crumpled on the floor, he promptly picked her up bridal style and dashed to the medical room. Yumi would not be pleased that one of her kimonos, albeit hated one, was stained with poison filled blood. If she doesn't live, Shishio will have his head on the platter for he was in charge of watching over her.

The mansion in the cave was built to be maze-like and illusionary. It was filled with 50 booby trapped rooms and 20 functional rooms; which meant more traps than functional rooms. No one who entered the cave without some knowledge of its blue print survived their journey. This was the reason why her door had been unlocked arrogantly. At least she had got the mild room 26 instead of the spiked room 28 down the corner or the crumbling cliffs of room 13 down the hallway. It was still treatable.

As Soujiro watched Kaoru fight for her life and eventually stabilise in the hands of the doctors after a mere 8 hour interlude since her last battle, he found himself intrigued by the girl and slowly began to respect her, a feat no one but Makoto Shishio had attained from him. She managed to dodge 11 of the 12 fired at her in the state she was in, a worth vice-captain indeed. After securing from the doctors that she would live and the drugs feed to her during the process of treatment would keep her unconscious for the next 8 hours till the evening, he picked her up gently, resting her head against his shoulder and carried her back to his scarcely lit room. In the process, happily ignoring the doctor's demand that he himself rest properly for the sake of his own wounds.

Kicking open the door he noticed the queer position of the pillow by the door frame and kicked it along as the approached the futon, gently laying her down legs first than her back. His right hand supporting her head as he tucked the pillow beneath her head on the futon and allowed her head to rest upon it. Tucking the lose strands of hair behind her ear and pulling the covers around her, he move over to the right hand corner of the room and settled himself down in a sitting position with his back leaning against the wall. He had no more duties till the night when the Lord of Mitsurugi Manor came and until then, he shall stay in the room with her. If she woke up before the 8 hours, he would be around to knock her out before she did something foolish again.

--

A/N: in this fic, Shishio is older than Kenshin by 5 years. So he is pretty familiar with Hiko's family and is also part of the reason why he betrayed the Mitsurugi Manor. He felt that he was not well-recognised and appreciated.

Yippee! Next up, chp 4…