A/N: Yay! Chapter seven! Gah, I'm just going to be frank… I have no idea when the next chapter will be out. No one seems to want to stay in character for some reason. I'm working on it, so keep that in mind! Thanks go to Nekotsuki for the amazing beta work! ALL BOW DOWN TO HER!

Anonymous Reviewers - I just wanted to take this time to say: I appreciate all your reviews, sorry I can't reply to them! But if you have questions I will answer them in the next A/N so please don't be afraid to review!


Chapter 7 - A Deadly Story

A great white shark jumped out of the sea, crashing back into it with a splash and a shout. "Did you see that?" the Englishman exclaimed at seeing the giant fish flying through the air. "I didn't know they could do that!"

Kanai sighed, not at all thrilled at seeing the creature jump. Not that he'd seen it before – actually, it was his first time ever seeing it – but he just felt uneasy. He didn't want to be on this ship at this meeting. He was worried about Neko, although he knew he had nothing to fear. She was with Battòsai, after all.

He heard his partner talking excitedly about the shark to the Englishman. That was his job after all, pandering to the clients. That's why they were out to sea anyway; the Englishman had some sort of foolish superstition about stepping on land. He didn't understand it, but if Kanai wanted to keep his job he had to get the man's business and that was making the Englishman happy.

He looked to the late afternoon sky and worried about Neko and he had no idea why.


Neko sat quietly in front of Kenshin, kneeling on the floor of the dojo. He had requested that they have a talk alone right after leaving the market. So here they were, neither wanting to start the conversation when they knew what was going to be said.

Kenshin studied Neko. She sat ready to answer any questions he had. He carefully put the sentence together in his head before speaking, his heart clenching as he did so. This girl he had once held in his arms, one that he had tried to protect, had killed. Had tortured a man. "Neko, did you really kill Hiroko?" He knew by the look on her face that she had and yet he stared hard at her, not wanting to believe.

"Yes. I did." She said it easily, proudly even, but her heart ached as Kenshin lowered his head, disappointed.

"Why, Neko, why?"

"Because he deserved it!" she shouted. "Saito I can forgive. He did what he did to save his life, to keep his ideas alive, to fight for what he thought was right!" She sprang to her feet, pacing the room like a caged tiger. "Hiroko was wrong! He had no right to do to you what he did!"

"Neko, we were enem-"

"It doesn't matter! I saw what he did to you, Kenshin. I got a good look at you when you rescued me, and he had no right." She snarled the last part out, with her lip curled back.

"What gave you the right?" Kenshin started to say more, but choked on his words when Neko fell to her knees, her face in her hands.

She was sobbing. "You don't know, do you? You don't know what he did." He kept quiet, and gave her time to collect herself. "Oh Reizo…"

He stopped breathing. Reizo? Did he have a hand in this? No, he couldn't have. One of the only men Kenshin had known during the war that was friends with him, who had tried to protect him. But it wasn't the thought that he helped Neko. He knew that wasn't what Neko was crying about. A sickening feeling of dread slowly crept over him, and he knew what had happened even before Neko said it.

"Hiroko killed him."

He had known that was coming, had felt it, but it still hit him like a solid wall. Reizo was dead. Slowly, he lowered his head in mourning.

"Kanai was sent to a small farming village to negotiate a price for fresh crops. It was to be used in a trade or something like that." She gave a wave of her hand, dismissing the unimportant information. "Anyway, we stopped for some lunch and that's where I ran into Reizo. I didn't recognize him at first, his hair was longer, but he recognized me." She smiled. "He ran up calling my name, he seemed so excited to see me. He yelled: 'It's me! Reizo! Don't tell me you've forgotten me!' He took us out to eat and we talked. Oh Kenshin, it was so good to see him again!"

She shuddered and had to pause a moment. "He had become a farmer. He talked and talked and talked about farming, he seemed so happy." Tears slipped down her face. "He mentioned you, said he really wanted to see you again. To see how you were doing. He told me that if I ever found you and you needed a place to stay or anything to send you over his way."

Kenshin smiled slightly, hands clenched tight on his lap. Reizo had wanted to take care of him, had wanted to see him. If he had known, if only he had known where Reizo had gone, he would have loved to visit him… and now it was too late.

"It wasn't that long ago. Actually, it was right before we came to Tokyo, but we did stop at a couple of other villages first for business. We made a side trip to the village to see Reizo again, but… but…" She hung her head, unable to say it. "We found out that Reizo had been drinking with some of his friends, when a man with a scar on his face walked in. The barkeeper said Reizo must have known the man because when he turned around to look at the man after his name had been called he had such a look of dread before the man shot him and took off." She covered her mouth with her hand.

She sat still for a minute, trembling slightly, then her eyes narrowed and she lowered her hand. "I couldn't let him get away with that. I just couldn't. I went after him, and I found him."

Kenshin was quiet as Neko told her tale.


Hiroko sat down at the bar and ordered cheap sake. It had felt good, finding that traitorous Reizo and killing him. It was time to celebrate. He had already gone through a rather large number of bottles when a downtrodden man walked in. He watched as the man sat down next to him, ordered one of the more expensive bottles and began to drink.

"Got a good job I see," Hiroko murmured, jealous.

The man sighed. "Yes, but I'm not happy with it. I see your cup is empty. I'll fill it if you'll be kind enough to listen to my story."

Not about to turn down such fine quality sake, Hiroko agreed. So the man with dark brown hair filled his cup. "Into the market I take it?" he guessed, noting the man's western style suit.

"Aa," was the simple reply. The man talked about his business; how it kept him away from home and his wife. How he had come home and found her cheating on him with another, and he didn't know what to do. He constantly refilled Hiroko's dish each time it emptied, too busy talking to drink his own.

Hiroko slapped the man on the back. "I tell you what you do." He tried hard to keep his words from slurring together, and failed horribly. "You go home, and you beat her." Had he not been so drunk he might have noticed the sudden glint that came to the man's soft brown eyes. Maybe he would have seen the man's hand slip over his drink and drop something in it, but he was too busy laughing. Soon the man joined in with his laughter and their conversation continued.

After a while Hiroko found he was having trouble keeping his head up. "It's been nice talking to you, but I think I need to get back to my room now." He stood up from his stool and staggered for the door.

Grinning, the man came up and caught him by the arm before he could topple over. He laughed merrily. "I think you might have had too much to drink, my new friend!" He slung Hiroko's arm over his neck. "I'll help you get home!"

"Much obliged!" He looked around and pointed down a street. "My inn is that-a-way!" he shouted enthusiastically, and then paused. "I think…" Giggling like a couple of children, the new acquaintances stumbled down the road.

Hiroko wasn't sure when he passed out, all he knew that his head hurt something awful when he woke up.

He opened his eyes and peered around him, unsure of where he was. He had just been in town, and now he was in the woods. His arms were tied painfully behind his back and his ankles were also tied. He panicked. What was going on?

"Finally awake," a calm voice called from the darkness. Hiroko whipped his head to the side to see two green eyes staring back, as a figure limped towards him. "Did you have a nice sleep Hiroko?" the woman hissed angrily.

"Who the hell are you?" A swift kick to the face sent him reeling back.

"Neko. My name is Neko." She knelt down close to his face. "A long time ago you kidnapped me. You kept me in a dark room, and then you took me and used me against Kenshin. YOU USED ME TO HURT HIM!" Her cane struck painfully against his ribs.

He screamed as he heard the sickening snap. "Who the hell is Kenshin? I don't know what you're talking about!"

She snarled, grabbing a fistful of his hair and yanking him to his knees. "Ten years ago you raided an Ishin Shishi safe house. You kidnapped a little girl. You USED me! Then you gave me back to Muroi!" She threw him back to the ground, disgusted. "Do you remember now, Hiroko? Do you?"

He remembered; she could tell by the look on his face. She came toward him, ready for revenge, but he kicked with his bound legs and knocked her good leg out from under her. Neko fell with a cry to the ground as Hiroko attempted to roll away.

He rolled up to the boots of a man. "Battòsai!" he yelled, fearing it was him, but became angry when he looked up and saw it was only the man from the bar. "You!" he shouted and was going to say more, but instead saw stars as the man backhanded him.

"Don't you touch her! Don't you touch her, you bastard!" Kanai shouted.

"And who the hell are you?" Hiroko snapped back, but he would never know. Neko descended on him like a pouncing cat. He yelled and screamed as she viciously beat him, never relenting for a second. He tried to kick at her again, but the ropes restricted his movements. He tried to throw her off him, but she was so wild, so angry, so filled with adrenaline that he wasn't able to do more then buck her off him a couple times. She'd just jump right back on him, ignorant to any blows he might have been able to land.

Kanai paid no mind to the shouting, and instead checked the water he had boiling over the fire.


Hiroko laid in a trembling heap as he listened to the two talk in hushed voices. He hurt, he hurt badly, and the irony hadn't been lost on him. He remembered causing each and every injury on Battòsai. He knew what was coming, and just waiting for that scalding water was almost worse than actually being burned by it. Almost.

Tears ran down his face. He was scared, very scared. The man was trying to talk the crazed woman out of it; at least that's what he thought he heard. He heard her mention something about an eye, oh god, don't let her rip out his eyes. His heart began to beat faster and faster as he watched her approach slowly after the man handed her something.

Her head was down, and the item in her hand reflected a bit of light from the fire. Oh god. He squirmed uselessly. Oh god. He knew what she held. OH GOD! He screamed as the knife was shoved into his side. He screamed for all his worth, his voice cracking as it was drawn down. Screamed even louder when dirt and grass was shoved inside.

Why was this happening to him? He asked silently, tears streaming down his face. His glazed eyes moved over to Neko, watching as the man handed her a pistol. "Please! Don't!" he shouted with what was left of his voice. He didn't want to die! Not here! Not like this!

"You're begging!" Neko yelled back in an angry hiss. "Why are you begging? Are you pleading for your life? Did he beg too? I don't think so." She took her aim; he was lucky his bullet had instantly killed Reizo.

"Please I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"

"Don't beg"

Bang.


Kenshin's head hung low. It had been difficult to hear. How Kanai had agreed to help her and found some drugs from a shady businessman. The treatment of Hiroko. The only thing that he had been glad for was that the final blow had been quick.

"Kenshin? Aren't you relieved? You don't have to worry about Hiroko anymore, I took care of him."

"How, can I be happy? Neko, you killed someone. No, you didn't just kill him. You tortured him." He looked up at her with hard eyes.

Neko was hurt; she thought he would be happy she had taken care of Hiroko. She would have told him sooner, but she hadn't wanted to relive that day just yet. Although it had felt good, it hadn't felt as great as she had thought. "But I thought-"

"Don't you understand? You tortured him!" Kenshin didn't know how to respond. How could Neko, sweet little Neko, have done this? "How could anyone be happy about someone being tortured?"

"An eye for an eye Kenshin. An eye for an eye. That's what Itsuo told me. If he hadn't done it to you I wouldn't have done it to him. If he hadn't killed Reizo I wouldn't have killed him."

Kenshin's mouth hung open. "Neko, that was a story. Stories aren't real."

"I know that!" she snapped. "I know it was a story, but the lessons in stories can be real, and that one was!"

He sighed. He had no idea how to handle this. "So, because I killed people they should come and kill me?"

"NO!" she screeched, horrified. "No! You were fighting for something. You didn't use dirty underhanded tricks!"

"Neko." He looked her in the eye. "What you did was wrong."

She shot to her feet. "What's wrong with you? How come you're not happy? You've changed, Kenshin! Hiroko deserved to die! How can you not see that?" She turned and ran from him. She ignored his yell for her to come back. She ran out of the dojo and past her new friends, but she didn't miss the accusing look Sano shot her as she ran by.

He would have gone after her, but he knew where she was going. He would give her time to calm down and then he would go and talk to her. Kenshin looked at his friends. He had some explaining to do anyway, and this time he would tell them everything.


Kanai tore up the stairs when he came home later that day. The innkeeper, who he had become friends with, had told him that Neko had come back in tears. Something had happened; he knew it, something bad had happened.

He burst through the door and saw Neko huddled up on their bed. Clutched close to her chest was a simple old grass doll, with old and faded bloodstains on it. His heart dropped, she only got that out when things were really bad, like when she found out Reizo had died. He called her name softly and she looked up at him.

"Kenshin knows about Hiroko," she said quietly.

He moved and sat beside her. "And?"

"He hates me!" she wailed. She threw herself into his arms. "Kanai… he, he, he yelled at me!"

He held her close, whispering comforting things to her. As she was starting to settle down, there was a knock on the door. He opened it to find one of the maids outside.

"Excuse me for the interruption, but you have a visitor downstairs."

He felt a touch of annoyance. He didn't want to leave Neko, but if he ignored a client waiting downstairs he'd be in trouble. He gave Neko a kiss and told her he'd be back shortly. He descended the stairs quickly, intending to deal with whoever was down there as quick as possible. Saying he was surprised to see Kenshin waiting would be an understatement.

Kenshin opened his mouth to greet Kanai, but wasn't given a chance.

"What are you doing here?" Kanai snapped at him.

Kenshin was a bit shocked; he hadn't expecting that kind of reaction, at least not from Kanai. "Sess-"

"Get out," Kanai hissed. "Get. Out."

He hesitated. "Would it be all right if-?"

"No." Kanai stood firm. "No, it would not be all right. I might have been scared of you as a child, I might still be scared of you, but I'm not going to let you hurt her. I said get out."

Now Kenshin was just a little upset. "It was not my intention to hurt her. I just want to talk to her."

"Everything she's done since you abandoned her, she's done in order to find and please you," he growled. "What we did was because of how much she cared about you. Now leave or I'll have you thrown out."

Kenshin sighed. This was going nowhere and he didn't want cause trouble. "It's all right Kanai, I'll leave, but I would like to talk to Neko again."

"She'll talk to you if she wants to talk again. Get out."

Kenshin turned and left.

"I won't let him back in," the innkeeper said, having witnessed everything.

"No, that's all right Setsuo, he won't be back." With a quick turn of his heel Kanai returned to his room.

"Who was it?" Neko sniffed when he entered.

"Just one of my clients."


Kaoru met Kenshin at the gate when he came home. Her chest felt heavy when she saw his bowed head and dragging feet. "Didn't go well?"

"I didn't even get to talk to her." He passed through the gate and started to head inside when Sano snorted, stopping him.

"That girl is trouble." He had his arms folded, standing in the yard, glaring at Kenshin. "I don't see why you feel the need to apologize."

"You don't understand, Sano. Neko had a hard life growing up. I don't think she fully understands what she did."

"She was going to shoot a man in front of everyone," Yahiko mentioned, crossing his arms and closing his eyes. "I think she understood what she was doing."

Kenshin sighed, not knowing how to make them understand. "I didn't mean it like that. She understands killing." He was quiet a moment, putting his thoughts together. "When she was little, she heard a story about two brothers. One was good, one was evil. The evil one hurt the good one, stole what was his. When the good brother was able to take back what was stolen he didn't kill his brother; instead, he did exactly what his brother did to him, saying an eye for an eye."

"But that's just a story!" Yahiko yelled. "Doesn't she know the difference between real life and stories?"

"Yes, she understands, but she thinks the saying an eye for an eye was a moral. She thinks it's all right to take revenge for those that hurt her and the people she cares about."

Now Kaoru spoke. "Then why did she forgive Saito? Didn't he kill her parents?"

"According to her, what Saito did happened during a war. To Neko he was justified in what he did; he was only protecting himself and his ideas."

Sano snorted. "So, wasn't this Hiroko an old Shinsengumi member? What happened in the past happened during the war, wouldn't he have been protecting his thoughts and ideas too?"

"Not to Neko. He used her; she saw it as being underhanded. She saw what Hiroko did and what Saito did as two very different things."

Everyone was quiet until Sano finally spoke up. "I guess selling slaves and killing a man just because he got old would fall under that too." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I guess I can kind of understand how she feels. I mean, I targeted every revolutionary I could when Captain Sagara was killed, and she's only targeting the ones that hurt her personally." He was quiet for a bit, glaring at the ground. "But what she did was sick and disgusting I might have targeted everyone, but to torture someone..."

Yahiko kicked at the ground absentmindedly. "Yeah, I guess I can understand too, I mean, if someone was to do something like that to someone I knew I'd be pretty pissed too. I don't like what she did, but I understand her feelings."

"Me too. Her methods are all wrong, but I know how she feels," Kaoru added.

A small smile crept over Kenshin's face, he was glad his friends understood. He headed inside. "Sessha will be in his room."

Kaoru watched everyone disperse. Yahiko went back to his training and Sano headed home. She stood outside the gate for a little longer before heading inside. Quietly she made her way to Kenshin's room. He seemed all right now, but she could tell something was still upsetting him. She knocked lightly on his door and waited for him to answer; when he did, she let herself in.

"Is there something you need, Kaoru-dono?" He was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor, his sakabato resting on a small stand within his reach.

She knelt down beside him. "Are you all right?"

Her concern for him touched his heart, and he sighed. "Yes, I'm just worried about Neko." He managed a meek laugh. "Kanai was really upset and sessha thinks he wanted to hit this one."

"Hit you?" She was surprised. "I just can't picture him doing that."

"Kanai cares very much for Neko." He smiled as he said that. "He took a lot of risks when he was little to help her; he was only trying to protect her feelings. They've known each other since they were kids."

Kaoru smiled as she pictured Kanai and Neko as children. Her smile slowly faded as she pictured Neko standing with a gun in her hand. It just didn't seem right. "Poor Neko," she said at last. "I wonder how she would have turned out if her parents had never been killed."

He was quiet, having wondered that himself many times before. What if Neko had never known Battòsai? She probably would have been much happier. He was pulled out of his thoughts when he felt a hand on his. Looking down at Kaoru's hand on top of his, he blinked a few times, and then moved to look at her smiling face. "But, at least she had you to watch over her. If you hadn't been there, she probably wouldn't have ever found Kanai again or maybe even be alive today. I'm glad she was able to find you."

With a smile he reached up with his free hand and placed it on top of the hand covering his. "Thank you, Kaoru."

A slight blush slowly spread over her face to match his own. Thoughts about how cute she was when she turned that shade of red entered his thoughts, and he blushed even more. They sat like that, hand in hand, and it wasn't long before they lost track of time.