A/N: This story is doing much better than I anticipated...yays...thank you to all reviewers!

2.

The repulsive sound of white noise woke the giant from his sleep. He rolled over in the bed and opened his eyes, his first view of the world being the cracked ceiling above him. He blinked a few times before hoisting himself up. He flicked off the radio sitting a few feet from him. Silence filled the room.

"Oh, you're awake finally."

The giant was startled. "Don't do that. You pop in whenever you want...you're not Big Brother," the man said, his arms crossed.

The voice originated from the small black ankle bracelet the giant was forced to wear. "Well, I can't read your thoughts but I can tell when you awake. You stop snoring."

"Do you keep the transmitter on all the time or something?" The giant padded out of the bedroom and down the hallway, stopping at the bathroom. "What do you want? I don't think you want to listen to me going to the john."

"Just telling you the news Professor," the voice said. "I wanted to talk to you about the legislation that is trying to pass through many government bodies to separate the creations even more. Of course there are different mandatory restrictions placed on them but..."

"Get to the part where you tell me something that I don't know already," the 'Professor' said, sitting down on the toilet.

"There are pieces of legislation that are coming to the point that the UN and Amnesty International are objecting to them. However, these pieces of legislation are almost to the point of being passed in countries like USA, China and Russia."

"What are they demanding?"

"They're saying that all of the creations brought about are to have blood samples taken to be on a database. They also wish to put a chip in all they can, especially newborns that, while not controlling them, essentially acts as a shock collar. Scientists are trying to create a unviersal remote so that any human can use these on them."

The 'Professor' drank in the information. He sighed, flushed the toilet, and walked out of the bathroom, his mind heavy. "So...what? Can the UN or AI do anything about it?"

There was silence again. The 'Professor' waited for the response, grabbing breakfast in the meantime. "Well, of course they're trying their best. But, when up against such formidable countries trying to pass these laws, there's only so much either organization can do."

The 'Professor' mulled for a moment. "Why do they want the blood?" he asked finally. Deep down, he already knew the answer, but he wasn't going to let anyone know that.

"There have been noticeable similarities between all creations. Really, I'm sure they want some kind of DNA because the strands have a different strain to them than a regular humans," the voice said. "This is all the information I can give you Professor. I will, as always, check up on you periodically."

"Wait," the 'Professor' said. "How long?"

"How long what?"

"What I always ask you."

"Oh," the voice paused. "You now have been confined for five years, seven months, twenty four days, seven hours and thirteen minutes."

"Right," he said, lowering his voice. The 'Professor' looked down to his ankle where the bracelet was. He tugged on it, as he always did, and sighed. He got up from the table, wandering over to the fridge and standing front of it without opening it. There were newspaper clippings on it. They started out as things that were to do with the creations. That was when the 'Professor' believed the house arrest to be no more than a week. After several months he started clipping out things that caught his interest. After that, he began clipping out just anything so he would have something to consistently read. Now he didn't even try to cut out the columns. He read half sentences and wondered what the other half said.

He placed his forehead against the cool fridge. This was his fault.


Kaoru spent two days at her beau's place without intending to do it. She and Sanosuke always had a good time together, and it seemed that she didn't want to tear apart from him. She supposed that was why she wasn't around him a lot. Kaoru was aware that she would be calling in "sick" if she stayed on weekdays. She'd already done that a few times, she didn't want to keep coming in looking refreshed rather than "sick".

"Look, I really need to get home," she said. Sanosuke had his hands around her waist. They stood on his stoop, Sanosuke trying to pull her into the threshold of the house, Kaoru pushing against him. "I really do Sa..."he kissed her. "Don't you go doing that now mister!" she said, finally wriggling her way out of his grasp. "I promise I'll call tonight. We can spend all night on the phone if you want."

"That'd be nice," Sanosuke said, "but we both have a shift tomorrow don't we?" Sanosuke asked. It made Kaoru remember that Sanosuke had been called over the weekend for a construction job. He told her he didn't know where he'd be working, but that he believed it would be somewhere near the line on the train that Kaoru took between her home and his.

"Yeah. Guess I won't see you much," she said, gripping the strap on her bag hard. Spontaneously she ran back up to him, kissing him. "This weekend's been fun," she said, her nose deep in his shoulder blade. He had a scent about him that drove her mad. She pulled back, her eyes cast downward.

"What's the matter?" Sanosuke asked.

"N-nothing," she said.

"Something's wrong," he said. Sanosuke lifted her chin to look him in the eye. "What's up?"

Kaoru couldn't tell him that suddenly she'd seen the man with red hair, Kenshin, flash before her eyes. She squeezed Sanosuke tighter. "I just...remembered that my shift will probably run long tomorrow too," she half-lied. She never knew if her shift would run late, but there was a chance, more often than not, that it would. "I gotta go okay?" she said, dashing down his stoop and down the street, hardly looking back.

Kaoru arrived home quickly, the commute home seeming to run a little faster than normal, but she played that into her nerves. She had never, ever had a thought of another man when she was with Sanosuke. Sanosuke was everything to her; heaven, earth and inferno. There was no way she could escape him. He was like the sun, creeping anywhere and everywhere it could, and while it slept at night, there was always a glow somewhere. But now, with the image of Kenshin flashing in her eyes, she was frightened. Her stomach was in knots.

She marched up to her apartment, struggling to put the key in the door. When she toggled on the door, she found it still locked even though she heard it 'click'. She turned the key again, once again hearing a 'click'. She opened the door, gazing around at the darkened apartment. Maybe she'd forgotten to lock the door.

"Were you with the bruiser all weekend?" Kaoru jumped she was so afraid.

"Yahiko!" she yelled. "What the hell was that?"

"Sorry sis," Yahiko came out of her kitchenette. "Mom and Dad asked me to come over. Said that you hadn't returned her calls. I told her you were probably at what's-his-name's house, but they're worry warts."

"You can tell them I'm fine. And you can also give back the house key."

"Ah ah, Mom's rule. She'll rent the apartment for you if you check in with her and still do crap with the family." Kaoru couldn't believe it. She was twenty years old and still under her parents' thumbs.

"Yeah I know," she said, tossing her bag on the table. "How long have you been here?"

"I don't know. Twenty minutes," he plopped down in the recliner. "So were you with the dude?"

"Sano. His name's Sano; and yes, I was with him."

"'Kay," Yahiko pulled out a phone. Kaoru knew he was texting their mother to tell her that Kaoru was alright. "You know Mom doesn't approve of him."

"So? It's not Mom's decision who I like and dislike," she said. Although she was usually argumentative with her little brother, there was an extra drive for her to convince herself that the only reason she saw Kenshin was because he was strange looking and stuck in her memory. "She doesn't really know him."

"She knows he puts his feet on the coffee table. And eats like a pig. And has no manners."

"So? You do that stuff and she still adores you." Kaoru scoffed, sitting opposite her brother. "Have you heard anything about any law stuff being passed against the creations?"

Yahiko glanced up from his phone, confused at what his sister was asking him. He put the phone away, placed his feet on her coffee table and said: "Yeah...in the US and somewhere else, why?"

"I heard a customer talking about it," she said, picking up the television remote. "She...bribed me to "forget" what I heard."

"She sounds crazy."

"I know but…she said something about...blood samples I think...I don't know. All I know is that there is this...creepy...creation on the trains. He works for them. He's got this blood red hair and these strange eyes."

"Sounds like a weirdo like the rest of them," Yahiko said. "Why were you on the train at night?"

"My shift ran late. I didn't have any other ride."

Yahiko laughed. "You're so gutless," he pulled his phone back out again.

Usually when Yahiko insulted her, Kaoru would have said something back. This time she didn't feel like it. She felt too lost with all that had happened over the weekend. Alongside the woman that she overheard talking, and the thought of Kenshin she just had, she was still ecstatic. Her whole body seemed to be in overdrive from being around Sanosuke for long. Not to mention that their weekends usually involved staying in his place (mostly his bedroom) and being raunchy. It all mixed up in her body, as if she were a blender, and she still wasn't done pureeing the mix.

"Shouldn't you be leaving?" Kaoru demanded. "You did Mom's little errand."

Yahiko sneered at his sister but got up nonetheless, saying good bye. Once he left Kaoru crawled to her bed and laid down, hoping that if she finally slept that maybe she could cool her nerves.


On Monday, Kenshin rose to the stale air of the space he resided in. The sun broke through the paper curtains, small dust particles dancing in the air. He sat with his head arced downward staring at his knobby knees. He pulled them up to his chest and put his arms around them, thinking.

It was nine in the morning. He always slept very little. He got home before the crack of dawn, laid down, and woke early enough in consideration before starting his day.

He finally got up off the moth eaten mattress. He lived in what could barely pass as an efficiency apartment. There was no separate place between his kitchen, bedroom, living room and bathroom. He turned toward the door, as if waiting for someone to walk through. He frowned, picking up the uniform he'd thrown on the floor. He hung it up neatly next to the window, patting it out for any filth that might have gotten on it.

Turning around he opened the fridge, staring at the empty contents other than the milk jug. He pulled it out, knowing it was spoiled, but still sipped from it, withstanding it as best he could. After that he pulled on a pair of worn jeans, stretching the wrinkles out of his t-shirt as best he could before grabbing his wallet and leaving the house, not bothering to lock the door. There was nothing worth stealing, and no one would dare touch his uniform.

On the outside, Kenshin momentarily glanced back at the high tenement, some twenty stories, and wondered how they could stack so many creations there. The brick was dirty and covered in messages sprayed painted by scornful humans. He turned away from them.

Indifference grew in many creations. Not because of their strange spectrum of emotions or because of their suffering, but because they realized rather quickly that fighting the system was going to get them nowhere. Through the many stages of repression that they'd gone through, apathy for the horrors they were face with grew alongside it.

There were the attempts at educating themselves, on finding out how they could lift themselves from this hardened repression, or so Kenshin noticed. They studied the movements of Gandhi, and of Martin Luther King Jr. They studied the end of the apartheid, knowing that this was too widespread for the tactics to work. Peaceful movements were beyond them. Built in fighters as they were, it was their instincts to fight instead of flee.

"Himura," he heard from behind him. Kenshin immediately recognized the voice of an individual with a dark soul.

"Want to come with me to the market?" Kenshin asked, aware that Aoshi didn't speak too much. He nodded, coming up to Kenshin's side. It seemed that he perpetually wore his heart on his sleeve, not that his feeling traversed much terrain. It was apparent beyond his apathetic expression that he was depressed, much like many of the inhabitants. Kenshin found himself a little less. He was down, of course. There was nothing really to look forward to. He'd found solace in his job, looking around at the passengers on the train, wondering what they were thinking and making up the stories of their lives. Often he pretended his passengers, predominately creations, were instead human. It made the wideness of their careers possible.

"You should visit the hospital," Aoshi said.

"Was there another beating?"

"No," Aoshi replied. "They're wanting us to give blood."

Kenshin gave a one breath laugh. "For who?"

"For ourselves. Testing."

"I guess we have to pay for it huh?"

Aoshi shrugged, tucking his hands in his pockets. "I would suppose."

Kenshin stopped at an outdoor booth run by a gypsy looking woman. It gypsies weren't discriminatory. They welcomed all customers with open arms. "Back for more of my fruit?" the woman laughed. Kenshin picked out a few pieces, handing over the coins for it. She handed him the bag. He continued on.

"I got paid," he said. "I wonder if I can get meat that I do. I've been wanting some lately." Aoshi stood like an obelisk, stopped in the middle of the road. Kenshin stopped with him, glancing around at all of the people passing through, and their heads down. Coming in the clearing was a blue clad man, an officer with a sharp face and sharp eyes. Kenshin let his arms loosen a bit and continued walking briskly; behind him was one of his subordinates, or so the two believed since he was a few paces behind. He was mumbling something to himself.

Kenshin brushed shoulders with the taller officer, Saito, knowing all too well the man's name. His follower, however, seemed a little less than able to contain his anger. He immediately grabbed Kenshin's arm. "Yes?" Kenshin asked.

"What have you there?" he asked, prodding at the bag that Kenshin held. The red head changed the hands in was in, giving the officer eye contact.

"Fruit sir," he said politely. "Have I done something wrong?"

A strong hand came on his shoulder right before he was shoved to the ground, his elbows scraping against the concrete. When he looked up, the officer was in the direct light of the sun, the light coming off him somewhat devilishly. Kenshin registered that he was about to be kicked, rolling out of the way just in time. "Why you sonofa..."

Kenshin tossed the fruit up to Aoshi, bringing himself to his feet. "I'm sorry if I have somehow upset you sir," Kenshin said. The man threw a punch at him, Kenshin jumping back just far enough that he could catch the air off of the punch. The officer began charging him. Hi back was against the wall. The officer was smiling.

"Nowhere to run now is there scum?"

Kenshin flattened his back against the wall; he pressed his hands against the brick, the crown on his head resting on the brick. He might not have been afraid inside, but his face certainly expressed the fear. The only thing that was running through his mind was that he had to dodge anything the man threw at him, and not touch him as he did it. The moment that he touched a hot headed officer like this one was the moment that he was arrested and sent to prison. He'd seen it happen many times and knew that there was no way to escape a fate like that.

The officer threw another punch to which Kenshin rolled off the wall, ducking down and trying to run away. He was kicked in the small of the back, falling to the ground.

"Himura?" Aoshi asked. Kenshin was lying on his stomach, his nose at Aoshi's shoe. He was amazed to see that Aoshi kept his shoes neatly polished.

The heel of a boot came into the small of his back. He cried out, his legs starting to curl beneath him. "It's better to try and not run away from me you trash. You'll just end up getting hurt more." Kenshin was drawn up by the back of his shirt.

The red head was, despite his formidability, a very small opponent. He was a man that was easy to underestimate in his power.

The officer threw him across the ground where he laid playing possum. "That ought to teach you," he said. Kenshin had heard that a few times before. He rose up one his knees, brushing off his shirt and wiping the blood off that was dribbling from his elbows. Aoshi came to his side, handing him the bag of fruit.

"Do I have a boot print on my shirt?"

"Yes."

Kenshin did his best to try and pat it out, trying to be tender where the man had jug the heel of his boot hard into the small of his back. "Let's go, I still need to finish shopping."

Aoshi strode ahead of Kenshin, staring forward and not seeming the slightest bit interested in the world around him. Kenshin was somewhat saddened by seeing creations fall to a certain level of ineptitude. At first they simply lost the ability to be empathic the more they were created. Finally they seemed to lose the curiosity that all humans had.

Aoshi had walked away without wondering if Kenshin was following him. Kenshin stood there, his head lowered. He glanced back at Saito and his little accomplice. He sighed and under his breath said:

"Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive."


A/N: The quote above is by the Dalai Lama so….yeah. I figured it was a bit appropriate and whatnot.

I thank you for reading this story and I also must caution you. A lot of the little things are very important….

KenSan out!