This one is SOOOO sorry it took me so long to write. I was having some issues with life, almost as bad as Kenshin's!!!! (minus the killing) I'm trying to finish this up as quick as possible. I hope this chapter makes up for lost time!!
This one does not own either Rurouni Kenshin or Cat woman!!! I wouldn't want to own them either. The makers did a good job themselves! *bows to Watsuki-sama*
Deceiver
Kaoru took a quick glance back to her empty room before walking up to the pillar, the letter flapping in the wind as if taunting her. She watched it flutter a couple of times before she yanked the dagger out of the wood and held the letter in her hands, flipping it around in her hands a couple of times.
The letter was on plain rice paper. The addressing told no sign of who it originally came from, it simply stated her name. It was sealed on the back with a simple wax mold, the insignia on it looking foreign to her, though it looked familiar in some form but she couldn't put a name to it. She ran her thumb over it slowly before pulling it off and opening up to see the contents inside. The text of the letter was clean and well written, signs of a wealthy and educated person. She started to skim over it.
Kamiya-san,
My name is Nomane Akori; you might not recognize my name, as we have only met for a brief time. But in that short time you showed courage and independence not common for woman in our day and age.
I write this letter in the greatest urgency. I know who you become at night. Neko-onna is not someone I fear but am inspired by. You face your adversaries with grace and astuteness.
I know you are not responsible for the death of our honored student Kiba, but I know who is. My husband, Roku, has lost his humanity and reason to logic. He plots against our mother country and will stop at nothing to get what he wants.
I am scared for me and my students. I fear what he will do to me when he figures out I have learned of his devious and malicious ways. Please, Kamiya-san, I am asking you to help me get to safety before he figures this all out. Come as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Nomane-san
She stared at the name. The woman's face appeared in her mind from the alleyway behind the marketplace. She read the letter again then dashed to her room, a sly grin forming over her lips in wonder and glee. She started putting on the pieces to her costume while thinking. This was perfect for her. She now had the evidence to bring justice upon Roku Not only did the letter imply Roku's involvement but once she got a statement from Akori-san, it would piece everything together and He would be off for all the evil he had done. It would make up for her own murder that she couldn't get justice for.
She walked back on to the porch while tying her hair up with the black ribbon and looked at the tray of food and tea on the floor, frowning in confusion. She would have to figure out Kenshin's sudden and mysterious disappearance later. From the sound of the letter, she didn't have much time left before Roku placed everything together and got a hold of Akori-san before she did. She strapped the wooden bokken to her back and darted to the fence, where she then jumped to the roof of her neighbor's house.
She made her way around quickly, being careful not to be noticed by the commoners and sticking to the shadows of day as best as she could. She scaled the tiled roofs with ease, her mind wandering and wrapping around the idea of a much younger Kenshin doing the exact same thing, years ago while still in his hitokiri years. She frowned slightly as she thought of his reactions if he ever found out who she was turning out to be. She sighed and landed by Nomane's neighbor's roof.
Kenshin walked slowly to the police head quarters in shock. He just couldn't imagine his sweet Kaoru murdering someone, especially one that practiced Kendo. He knew she worried about the arts, the fad of being a samurai slowly diminishing in the new age of Meiji. What affects the whole of the culture also affected her own dojo and income.
He also wondered what in this world, after so much he had been through with this gentle yet fierce kendo master, could bring her from her truths and force her to kill relentlessly. He just couldn't see it. Yet, there in her room laid the evidence to finally catch the culprit Neko-onna. He couldn't shake the evidence off no matter how hard he tried denying it to himself.
"You were there the night the student was murdered. This one fought Neko-, I mean, Kaoru-dono right after she jumped from the dojo wall at the time of his death." He sighed and gripped the handle of his sakabato loosely, remembering the fight that now seemed so strange to him. He hadn't really noticed that Kaoru had become so excellent in Kendo. He remembered all her practices and kendo fights, and not once did she show this brilliance that she showed in the fight that night. Her senses seemed equivalent to his own. That was saying a lot, Hiko practically made him wild to hone those skills and even still has to go to the forest and re use them so they wouldn't become rusty.
He walked into the police station and up to the front desk where Chief Uramura sat, looking over a smaller case. He quickly looked up and smiled upon seeing Kenshin walk up to him. He quickly dropped it as he saw that it was all business. Kenshin's face had formed hard mask to hide his truly feelings when ever he was out on grim business, everyone in the police station knew of it
"Chief, this one needs to know if Fujita-san is currently available. It is of utmost importance. It's about the case against Neko-onna"
"Of course, Himura-san. I'll go get him right now." The chief quickly removed himself from the seat and ran down the hall towards the detectives office was currently being held. Kenshin walked a bit further toward the hall then stood waiting. A few minutes later the chief returned. "Just go straight down the hall. It's the last door to the left. He wants this in confidence."
Kenshin nodded once toward Uramura-san before heading quickly to Saitō's room. He didn't want to be here and he was repulsed by what he had to do. But the Kaoru he had known would have wanted the criminal caught and put away before more harm was done. He was going to do right by her last true self. He quickly opened the door and hurried himself in, closing the door behind him.
"I hear you have some new information for me about the Neko-onna case. I ready to hear it." Saitō said, Leaning back in his chair and lighting a cigarette. She let out a puff then looked at Kenshin's grim face. "From your expression, it can't be anything good."
"It's not. I have found that you were telling the truth Saitō. Kaoru-dono had asked me to help her with laundry this morning." Saitō gave a small grunt, shaking his head in disgust. The once legendary Battousai was now called on to do laundry. He was horrified. "Anyway. While I was going through her room and picking up the pieces that needed to be washed, this one found Neko-onna's suit and mask in Kaoru-dono's drawer."
"And you are sure that wasn't planted to make her out to be the criminal?"
"This one is not sure but no one besides us knows who the suspects are in this case. How would one know who to plant the evidence on? Plus before hand, a couple of days ago while I was with Kaoru-dono, I found a diamond ring in Kaoru's room. I believe it to be one of the rings still missing from the burglary." Kenshin looked down to the floor in embarrassment. Who had he been with that night? Was it his Kaoru or that murderer that was now wandering the streets? He let out a depressed sighed and continued. "No matter what Kaoru means to this one, this can not go unlooked. The Kaoru I know would not have wanted us to stop."
"Indeed. Is the girl still at the dojo or has she found out about this?"
"This one just came from the dojo after finding the costume. I believe she is still at the dojo now. She has enough food for the week and there are no lessons being held today, she has no reason to go out."
"Let's hope so. The sooner we get her in, the lesser punishment she receives." Saitō stood from his desk and quickly strode around the deck and towards the door, sword in hand. Kenshin stood in his way for a minute before side stepping and allowing Saitō to take the lead.
"This one is sorry Kaoru-dono. But your rain of blood has to be stopped and get you the help you need." He whispered quietly to himself before turning and walking with Saitō toward the Kamiya dojo.
Kaoru carefully jumped down from the neighbor's roof then scaled the wall to the dojo, trying to make as little noise as possible in case someone was on the other side of the vicinity. She jumped to the ground gracefully and stealthily. She quickly darted behind the nearest tree and crouched their, leaning on her hands against the rough bark. She slowly gazed around the tree, watching the area with sharpened senses she had finally honed. She scanned the dojo, locating several students on the opposite end of the house and the cook in the kitchen. But she found none that would challenge her
She slipped from her hiding spot behind the tree and tiptoed to the porch and jumped up onto it. She soon started to investigate it thoroughly, listening or feeling for any foot steps that she might have missed in her earlier scan. After finding nothing, she slid the shoji doors open to the inner hallway and snuck into the house as she ran silently to the master bedroom. She slipped by the other rooms before stopping at the double shoji doors. She cracked the door an inch and peered inside, trying to locate any hidden danger in the room.
After sensing no kenki or movement in the room, she prepared herself to enter but stopped when she heard a noise from behind. Kaoru grabbed her bokken handle and spun around, finding Akori standing behind her in a non-chalante fashion. Kaoru got up from her attacking stance and stood to face her, unnerved by her unusual calmness.
"Akori-san? Where is Roku? You sounded so desperate in your letter that I cam as quickly as I could." She watched as Akori's face slipped a devious smirk before walking past Kaoru. She seductively put her hands on the shoji and opened the doors all the way before moving aside elegantly, allowing Kaoru to freely enter the room.
"Ah yes, you are wondering about my dear Roku-chan." Kaoru gave her a confused glare and took a couple of steps into the room. Her eyes widened and slipped to Akori's face, which was watching her back intently, and her feet came to a halt. Her gaze quickly leapt from Akori's face to the body of Roku lying just in front of her, a pool of blood now draining around Roku's corpse. Kaoru's mouth opened as if trying to form words and looked back into Akori's eyes in horror. "As you can see, Roku-chan won't be joining out little rendezvous. He isn't feeling too well, are you dear?"
"What is this, Nomane-san?" Kaoru tensed up as dread seeped into every fiber of her being and mind, now regretting ever coming here. She quickly figured out that this wasn't woman wasn't following the same charts as herself. Her eyes darted to the corpse one more, the lips of the man now turning a cold blue. "How did you…?"
"Oh come now Kaoru-chan, you didn't think you were the only woman in this town with experience in Martial arts?" She lifted her hand to her mouth and let out a tiny polite giggle that turned Kaoru's stomach. Kaoru then followed Akori's hand as it went inside her clothes and pulled out a small dagger caked with drying blood. "My husband was such a true and courageous man. He learned too much about my plans and decided to thwart them. After finding over hearing my plot, he had me followed every where, even the day we met in that back alley."
Kaoru looked at Akori in confusion then back at Roku's body. She let out a small gasp and swayed, her eyes closing as the rest of her memory came back to her. Memories of the meeting, where the traitorous informant was leaking out important information to other governments before her death. Then the last clue, the faceless demon in the background in her last seconds of life. She had seen slender legs and small ankles and feet. She hadn't realized she had seen Akori that night and not Roku.
"Ah, from the look on your face, I would say the last of your memories of that night have finally been returned to you. "Kaoru snapped her eyes open and her head turned to toward Akori. Kaoru's eyes turned into slits as she glared at the malignant woman. "I am still at a loss at how you your survived that blow to the head. I could have sworn my goons head quickly killed then disposed of you that night. "
"You- you were the one in the background? I was so sure it was Roku…my god." Kaoru felt rage build up in her. The woman before her had played her for a fool and used her as just another pawn in her game. She had ruined her life. She flipped her bokken out and sprang forward, attacking first.
Akori quickly dodged to the left side and sliced sideways with the dagger. It caught Kaoru's scarred cheek, leaving a wound diagonal to Kenshin's wound to make it identical with his. She then managed to throw the dagger at Kaoru. Kaoru quickly intercepted and grabbed the dagger by the handle before it could land in her shoulder.
Kaoru stumbled back, her hands pressed against the wound on her cheek to stop the bleeding. Akori grinned slyly one last time before jumping toward the door and flinging it open, letting out a high pitched scream of fictional horror in the process. Kaoru's head snapped right as she heard feet running and a police whistle sound through the air at the gates.
Kaoru cursed and looked around quickly at the perfect trap Akori had laid. As the feet grew louder, Akori ran over to the man she had just killed moments ago and started sobbing and whining, begging Kaoru to spare her in a dramatic scene. Kaoru shook and dashed out of the room, startling a group of students and the few police officers there. She looked at the dagger in her hand before dropping it, shaking her head as she ran the opposite direction. She jumped the wall before they had time to get their bearings to attack.
Kaoru kept her pace, wanting to our run all of her problems. After a few miles, she slowed to a halt and took short shallow breathes trying to regain composure. It just kept getting worse and worse in her situation. Now everyone in Tokyo would think of Neko-onna as nothing but a murderer. The men had a clear view of her face, seeing the wounds on her cheek. She had no where to go. She brought her hand back up to her wounded cheek and then back again to see fresh blood on her skin. She looked around to se that she had cleared the town in a few minutes, landing herself in the slum district of Tokyo.
She jumped a rickety wooden fence and snuck into one of the run down bedrooms. She stripped of her dirty black bandages and switched her clothes for a clean, worn out cotton kimono. She grabbed her stuff and went on her way. She wandered around aimlessly, having no where to go and scared of confronting her dojo in the state she was in.
She slunk near the shadows, cringing when someone would get too near to her. Her eyes were glazed over and confusion swirled in them among other things. She didn't know if she could keep hiding, the guilt of seeing those two men lying dead on the floor was almost too much. She didn't know if she should go back to her dojo or skip town. She looked down the peaceful river as she stopped on the bridge to the side her dojo laid on.
The woman in the reflection in the calm water looked tired and hopeless. Nothing could save the woman that was starring back at her. Blood flowed freely down her chin and into her kimono from the wound on her cheek, doing nothing to stop the flow. She headed out again and trudged the rest of the way home. She walked up slowly to her gate and stared at it for a moment. She opened it slowly and shuffled inside, dead tired and about to drop. She stopped and looked up from the ground, hugging her parcel to her chest.
Kenshin and Saitō stood in front of the porch with faces made of stone.