Chapter 10

Kaoru looked around her house, trying to sort out all the feelings of familiarity inside her. The damage to the dojo during the fight that fateful night had been repaired, and everything looked like it was back to normal. Kaoru looked at the well and remembered Enishi's house on the island with its own indoor plumbing and smiled wistfully.

"Kaoru?" Megumi asked, seeing Kaoru smile. She had been visiting the dojo everyday to check on the recovery of Kenshin, Sanosuke and Aoshi.

"What is it, Megumi-san?" Kaoru asked.

Megumi sat down beside her. "We've been back for three days. The boys are recovering fine… but Ken-san has suffered the most among them. The injuries he suffered are as severe as the ones he had gotten in Kyoto. That man, Enishi, was very strong."

"Yes he was," Kaoru agreed.

"But we all know how Kenshin is. He will fight until his last breath. I already told you in Kyoto, that it is important that you keep smiling for him, because it is that smile that will always bring him back to us alive. Your smile for Kenshin is like Tomoe's smile for Enishi." Megumi paused. "But since we've been back, you haven't really smiled. Not like before."

Kaoru closed her eyes. Because I long for Enishi. "I am sorry, Megumi-san. I will try to remember that."

Megumi touched Kaoru's hand. "Are you all right, Kaoru-san? I know you have been under a terrible ordeal as well, being with that bastard for a month. He… he didn't force himself on you, did he?"

Kaoru thought about Enishi pleasuring her with his fingers, of him wrapping his arms around her in the forest, of that kiss they shared on the beach before the fight. Were they all nothing but memories now? "No he didn't, Megumi-san. He was very much polite."

Megumi sat back. "I must admit that I'm surprised. If Enishi knew how important you are to Ken-san, I would have expected him to hurt you as well."

"He couldn't," Kaoru said. "The memory of his sister protected me. He was part of his sister in me."

"Well, I'm glad about that, although… I thought Tomoe-san was beautiful," Megumi said, frowning.

Kaoru sent her a sidelong glance, raising an eyebrow. "She was. And apparently, I reminded Enishi of her."

Megumi laughed, holding up her hands. "All right, all right. I know he's crazy anyway."

Kaoru rolled her eyes. She knew Megumi was trying to make her feel better the only way she knew how. But what Kaoru needed now was someone to talk to about her feelings. She needed to tell someone about what had happened on that island. "Enishi is not that crazy," she said.

Megumi quieted down, shaking her head. "Maybe. Do you know that Misao finds him handsome?"

"She did mention it," Kaoru said, rubbing her shoulders.

Megumi looked at her closely. "Were you attracted to him?"

Kaoru took a deep breath. "Can we walk into town? I want to get some more bandages from your clinic."

When they were out of the dojo grounds, she answered Megumi's question. "Is it wrong for me to be attracted to him, Megumi-san? I know he was the enemy, but whenever I saw him, that tall and muscular build, the way he moved with such grace and confidence… I wanted to touch him, to feel him with my own hands. I was confused, I never thought about anyone like that before, not even Kenshin."

Megumi looped her arm through Kaoru's. "That's not unusual," she said. "You are growing up, Kaoru. Sometimes physical wants and needs are felt more when we come of age. There is nothing wrong with that. Did you do something about it?"

Kaoru bit her lip, wondering if she should tell Megumi what had happened.

"Oh," Megumi scoffed. "The fact that you couldn't answer me straight away tells me that you did. It's a physical need, Kaoru. Sometimes it's better to satisfy it yourself rather than let it build up. Otherwise you might get even crabbier than usual," she finished with a snicker. "Oh, Kaoru-san, stop feeling guilty. I do that myself too, sometimes."

"It's not just that, Megumi," Kaoru sighed. "Enishi caught me at it."

Megumi's perfect eyebrows show up. "Idiot girl. Don't you lock the door?"

"No. What's the point? He has a key anyway."

"Yes, but if he had to unlock the door before coming in, then you would have had time to stop what you were doing."

"Oh," Kaoru said. She narrowed her eyes at Megumi. "You know an awful lot about these things."

The older girl smiled mysteriously. "Of course I do. So what happened after he saw you?"

"He… he came over and finished me off. With… with his fingers."

Megumi gasped. "And you let him?"

Kaoru was embarrassed. "Yes."

"Hmm," Megumi said, putting a finger to her lips. "And then what happened?"

"He finished me off. I wanted more, but he said no and he left the room."

Megumi was surprised. "And that was it?"

"Yes. We never talked about it. For the rest of my stay there, he was very proper. I thought I was attracted to him because I was stuck with him on that island, but now that I am back home, I still find myself thinking about him. And it's not just an attraction… I actually care for him."

They reached Megumi's clinic, and the doctor got a fresh roll of bandages and put them in Kaoru's basket. Then she looked at the younger girl in the eye. "Do you want my advice?" she asked. "Consider yourself lucky that he was good to you. I could think of a lot more ways your captivity could have gone worse. Secondly, it's in the past. He is in jail, and you are back with Ken-san and the others, who are all very concerned about you in spite of their own injuries. Enishi is in your past now, and you have to live in the present. If Enishi comes back into your life, in the future… then that's when you think about it again. I promise you I will be here if you need to talk with me again."

Kaoru mulled over Megumi's words. It made sense. However, there was one last thing she needed to do before she moved on. "Thank you, Megumi-san," she said, giving her a small bow.

Kaoru left the clinic, but before heading home, she stopped by the police station. She had stayed away for three days to allow things to settle down, but she could wait no longer. She located Saito, with a cigarette in his mouth as usual.

"Kamiya-san," he said in greeting, tossing the cigarette to the ground and putting it out with the heel of his shoe. "What can I do for you?"

"Yukishiro Enishi," she said. "I was wondering if I could visit him in jail."

Saito looked at her. "You can't."

"Just for a few minutes," Kaoru persisted.

"I mean you can't, because he's not in jail."

"What?" she gasped.

"He escaped as soon as we reached Tokyo Bay. We searched for him for more than a day but we couldn't find him. Personally, I don't care. Yukishiro's syndicate has been broken, and by himself, he is no longer a threat."

Kaoru let out a sigh of relief. So he had managed to get away after all. "What about the charges against him?"

Saito lit another cigarette. "What charges? The bombing of the Akabeko and the attack on your dojo were orchestrated by that man Heishin, as shown by evidence we found at that island house. There were also documents showing proof that Enishi had given Heishin complete control of the syndicate a year ago, with both of their signatures on it. Did Enishi frame Heishin? Probably. But we have Heishin in custody, we have a criminal to show to the people. That is the end of it. The only charge Yukishiro is left with is kidnapping you." He glanced at her. "Unless you're not pressing charges?"

She shook her head. "No."

"I thought so," Saito said, exhaling a cloud of smoke.

"Thank you for your time."

xxx

"So Mr. Crazy escaped," Yahiko scoffed as he gripped his shinai with both hands.

"I'm not surprised," Sanosuke said with disgust. "And the government is just going to let him go?"

A week had gone by, Aoshi and Misao had gone back to Kyoto, and Kaoru decided that Yahiko had had enough time to recover and made him start practicing kendo again. When he complained about it, she merely raised her eyebrows at him and said she thought he wanted to get stronger. That settled the matter.

"Keep practicing your swings," Kaoru ordered him.

"Stop being so bossy, you ugly hag," Yahiko muttered under his breath.

He was unprepared for Kaoru's retaliation when she swung her bokken and hit him once on the head with a downward slash, and a second hit on his chest with a sword thrust. "If you can't even parry those attacks, you haven't earned your break yet."

She walked over to the south wall of the dojo, where Kenshin stood watching them. "Are you feeling all right, Kenshin?"

"Yes, I feel like I am back to my previous strength," he said, giving her a smile. "But you, Kaoru-dono, you seem to have grown stronger. Faster."

She shrugged. "There was nothing else to do on that island except practice."

Kenshin's eyes looked into hers. "That is true. But the remarkable improvement in you indicates that you have practiced with a swordsman more skilled than you."

Kaoru smiled. "You are very observant."

He nodded. "You have been practicing in this dojo every day for years. You leave for a month and your skill level improved almost exponentially."

"Yes, Enishi sparred with me a number of times."

Yahiko stopped his practice swings when he heard this. "What? He sparred with you? With his tachi?"

"Yes. He got me a bokken a few days after he had taken me there."

Kenshin's eyes grew dark. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"No, no, he was very much in control. He just used the basic strikes to help me improve my defense."

Yahiko shook his head. "You weren't scared?"

Kaoru wrinkled her nose. "No. I was more embarrassed than anything. He could see where my defenses were weak. I haven't sparred with a better swordsman than me since my father died. Those daily practices with Enishi really helped me."

Yahiko blanched. "Daily?"

"Twice daily," Kaoru confirmed. "So you better get on with your practice if you want to make something out of yourself. You still owe me five hundred swings!"

Kenshin laughed as Yahiko resumed his practice. "Did you even manage to land a hit on Enishi?" he asked.

Without realizing it, Kaoru's lips curled into a smirk. "Once," she said. "But it was a cheap shot. I hit him on the torso while he was stretching."

"Oro?" Kenshin said, his eyes growing wide. "You were very brave."

"Yes, well, he insulted my cooking."

"You cooked for him?" Sanosuke asked incredulously.

"Stop talking now, Sano," Kaoru warned him.

Sanosuke laughed. "There you go, Jo-chan. As far as revenge for kidnapping you goes, I think you've dealt him a hard enough blow."

Whatever retort Kaoru had prepared for him died on her lips as the bell at the dojo gate rang. Throwing Sanosuke a dirty look, Kaoru made her way to the gate, the two men following close behind.

It was a messenger, and he had five boxes at his feet. "Kamiya Kaoru?" he asked.

"Yes, that is me," she said.

"I have a delivery for you."

"From where? I haven't ordered anything."

"I'm sorry, but there is no return address. It's all of these five boxes here."

Kaoru looked at the boxes suspiciously. "All right. Just bring them into the dojo, please, and I'll sort it out there."

Once the messenger had left, Kaoru got a kitchen knife and pried the boxes open. She was surprised when she opened the first box. On top was one of the kimonos she had worn on Enishi's island. She unpacked the rest of the box. It was filled with five kimonos.

"It's the kimonos I had when I was on that island," she said, running her hand against the fabric of one. "Enishi got them for me."

She opened the second box, which was also filled with kimonos. "There must be about ten kimonos all in all," she murmured.

The third box was long, and when she opened it, she saw the three bokkens she had used. She picked one up and touched the tip. It had notches on the wood where it had met with Enishi's sword. Also in the box were a couple of gis and hakamas. The fourth box was small, and contained several bottles of scented oils and soaps that she had gotten used to on the island. The fifth box contained books, books she had read while she was there, except for one. She picked up the strange book. It was leather bound, and the edges were frayed. She opened it and found pictures of sword stances. The text was in Chinese, though.

"Is that what I think it it?" Sanosuke asked.

"It's the book on watoujutsu Enishi used to teach himself," Kaoru confirmed.

"Why would he be sending you these thigns?" Yahiko asked, scowling. "We should burn them. They're just a reminder of that guy."

"Burn them? Idiot, these things are expensive. We should sell them for money!" Sanosuke said.

"No," Kaoru said firmly. "These things are mine, and I'm keeping them."

"What for? They're only a reminder of when you were taken from us," Yahiko argued.

"I'm sorry that you had to go through that terrible time, Yahiko. But it's already happened and we got through it, maybe not unscathed, but we are still alive, and I am thankful for that. And when I look to that time, I do not hate Enishi. I understand him. I may not agree with him, but I understand him."

"Why are you defending him?" Yahiko asked. "Even during that battle, you went to him first before Kenshin!"

"Because he will never stop attacking until he was dead!" Kaoru asked, her voice rising to match his. "He wouldn't stop unless he was brought out of his state of insanity."

"But he is insane!"

"No he's not! He is someone that needs help, just as you, Sano, and Aoshi needed help before."

"He tried to kill you!"

"He didn't," Kaoru said, softening her voice. She reached out to ruffle Yahiko's hair, but he pulled away. "He pretended to kill me, and actually were to great lengths to achieve that, because he couldn't kill me for real. He was kind to me while I was on that island. I was never tied, or bound, or gagged. When I injured my ankle, he took care of me, and when other people from the syndicate came to stay at the house, he had taken to sleeping on the floor by the foot of my bed just to make sure I was safe."

"He did that?" Yahiko said doubtfully.

"He did. You weren't there to see all those things, just as Enishi wasn't able to see everything that night Tomoe died and he thought that Kenshin had killed her on purpose. Tomoe wasn't around to tell him it was an accident and to tell him to let go of his hatred. But I am here now, and I'm telling you, Enishi did not mistreat me on that island, he didn't even mean for Heishin's bodyguards to fight you. So let go of your hate. Otherwise you might end up like him."

Yahiko was silent, and Kaoru sat back, sighing. "That's enough practice today. Go and think about what I said."

"Let's go," Sanosuke said, punching Yahiko on the shoulder.

The pair of them walked away, leaving Kenshin and Kaoru alone. "Kaoru-dono, you have changed since you got back," he said. "You are wiser, with more self-control. I thought that would be a full-blown argument with Yahiko but you turned it around with words that couldn't be more true."

"Thank you," she said, gathering the kimonos and returning them to their boxes.

"I am glad that Enishi had been kind to you. I am not surprised that you were the one to pull him back from his insanity. You are an amazing woman."

Kaoru remembered Enishi speaking the same words and smiled. "It was too bad, though, that I wasn't able to keep him from going over the edge. He wasn't planning on fighting you anymore that time on the beach, but he got unhinged when you said Tomoe smiled at you, and when you told him you were going to take me away as well."

Kenshin was surprised. "Enishi actually thought of not finishing jinchu?"

"He thought about it."

"Why would he do that?"

"Because he thought that if he fought you, I would stop smiling, and he did not want to lose my smile either."