He bolted as soon as he heard the sirens, dropping the pan and racing passed Tae to the safety of the alleys. He slammed the door behind him, turning down the right alley, heading away from Tent City. He needed to put as much distance as he could between himself and the Akebeko.
"Wait, Kenji!" He glanced over his shoulder to see Tsubame trying to catch up with him. He stopped, allowing her to get closer. "What's going on? Is everyone alright?"
It took him several moments to find his voiceagain. "Y-yeah, everyone's fine. You should go back, Tae's waiting."
"What about you?"
"I'll be fine," he answered coldly.
"Won't you come back with me?"
"I can't."
"Why not?" she asked. He hated that question.
"It's none of your business," he snapped. "Now get going before Miss Tae gets worried about you."
"Sh-she'll be worried about you as well," she whispered, staring at the ground.
"It doesn't matter."
"Why?"
"Why do you care?"
"Because."
"That's not an answer," shot back Kenshin.
"Y-you haven't given one either."
"So?"
"Where are you going?" He didn't know anymore than she did. "Will you be back?" she asked but even before he looked away, she knew he didn't have any plan of returning. She took a deep breath, grabbing his hand, "here," she said, forcing him to take Tae's cell phone. "T-that's Tae's, you have to give it back to her, o-okay?" Before he could reply, she turned, scurrying back towards the Akebeko, smiling shyly as she waved goodbye to him.
He stood there silently, staring at the phone. Rain poured down around him, sirens still blaring through the air. Before he even realized what he was doing, his fingers began to dial a number.
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Hiko slowly pulled his police cruiser up to the restaurant, turning the car off before stepping outside. It was raining heavily still as he made his way towards the entrance.
The criminal had already been apprehended and hauled off by another officer. He stepped inside, glancing around the small diner. Only a few people were still here, giving statements to the police.
"Hey, Detective Seijuro." Hiko glanced over at the officer who'd called out, before heading over to her. He nodded at the young woman that the officer was talking to, the owner of the restaurant by Hiko's guess. "There's a couple of kids here you might recognize." The officer nodded towards the side wall. Hiko looked over, groaning as he saw the three teens, he should have known they'd be here.
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He sighed mentally, he really should have known, they always got tangled up in something dangerous. Maybe that was Kenshin's influence on them. The man shoved the thought out of his mind. Whatever the case was he was going to have to keep a better eye on them.
"So," he began, breaking the silence in the car. He'd already dropped off Sano and Megumi and was currently driving Kaoru home. "What were you doing there anyway?"
"Having lunch," she answered calmly.
"In a place like that?"
"The owner's a friend of mine."
"And you took your bokken with you."
"That's right," she replied.
"Kaoru that's not the entire story."
"You haven't given the full account either, Hiko."
He gave a weary sigh, why was he always the one who had to deal with kids? He was terrible at it. "You're as bad as Kenshin."
"Of course," she replied simply.
"So why were you there, Kaoru?"
"Don't you miss him?"
"Huh?" he replied dumbly, taken off guard by the question.
"Kenshin, don't you miss him?" she repeated, looking at him.
There was a long pause before Hiko answered. "I guess…"
"That's not true, you miss him as much as I do," she stated with confidence. "Please tell me, what happened that night when he ran away?"
"I already told you."
"Uh-huh and I take bokkens to lunch dates."
Hiko took a deep breath, he might as well tell her a bit of what happened. "I don't know what started it but… when I got home, Kenshin was trying to bolt out the door. I've never seen him so panicked. He wasn't making any sense. He… wasn't acting like himself." He fell silent, staring out at the street before him. It had stopped raining a short time ago, though the sky was still overcast. "Your turn, why were you three there?"
"We were looking for Kenshin."
"In a restaurant?"
She hesitated before speaking. "In the… Black Maze."
His voice was deadly calm when he spoke. "Why did you go there?"
"Because, we heard that Kenshin was spotted there."
"That place is dangerous."
"That's why I took my bokken. None of us wanted to repeat what happened…" she trailed off.
"Don't you get it?" question Hiko. "None of you should have been in there in the first place, not even Sano. Things could have gone horribly wrong in that restaurant today, Kaoru. That girl could have been killed."
"And you want to leave Kenshin in a place like that?"
"We're doing everything we can, Kaoru, there's no confirmation that he's even in the Black Maze. You're putting yourself into unnecessary danger. Who knows what could have happened to you in there."
"Then you want me to sit back and do nothing?"
He hated fighting with teens, he was never good at it. "Kaoru-"
"I won't sit by and do nothing Hiko."
"Kaoru listen, I know that. I don't mind you putting posters up or asking around if people of seen him, just don't go anywhere dangerous. Places like that should be left to the police-"
"What can you do in a place like that? There's no law or order in there! You have little to no power there, Hiko."
"And that's exactly why you shouldn't be in there. You have no training for situations like that. Please, I'm asking that you stay clear of there, that's all."
She was silent for a long moment. "He's been gone for almost three weeks now, Hiko," she said quietly. "Have you made any progress in finding him?"
"Kenshin's not an easy person to find, but you already know that. Kaoru you have to believe me when I say, we're doing everything we can to find him."
"I know… but you're leaving something out," replied she. Hiko gave a mental curse, he'd forgotten how perceptive Kaoru could be. "What happened that night Hiko? What happened when he disappeared?" Hiko made no reply, he didn't want to tell her that. He'd thought she'd missed the omission but clearly hadn't. She was way too perceptive. "Would you rather I find my answers in the Black Maze?"
"He attacked me."
"What?" was all she could say.
"When he ran away… I wouldn't let him out of the door so he attacked me. He was acting just like Battosai. You've never seen him like that, Kaoru, so you wouldn't know. We have no way of knowing what state of mind he's in right now. If you came across him he might end up hurting you."
Kaoru was shocked. She couldn't believe it. She couldn't-"But…" she stammered. "But… Kenshin wouldn't-"
"He was erratic, acting like a cornered beast." He paused for a moment. "I'm only asking once more Kaoru, stay clear of places like the Black Maze."
She couldn't believe it. Those rumours, what that thug from the restaurant had said, had it been true? Was Battosai back? But then… what happened to Kenshin? "And… what if I don't?" her voice trembled as she spoke.
"Then I'll be forced to tell your guardians where you've been going. I don't think they'd be too happy to know that."
"You want me to just give up?" she whispered.
"That's not what I'm saying. I just don't want you or your friends to get hurt."
"You sound like Kenshin," she whispered, staring down at her hands. "I've already been hurt… he left without saying anything… to me or anyone for that matter…" she trailed off, studying her hands. "He's probably hurting to… We have to find him."
"And the police will, I promise you that. You're not doing any good being out there."
"How do you know?"
"You do realize Kaoru how much danger you got into this afternoon, right? Next time you or someone else might not be so lucky."
"I know that," her voice shook but her words were still clear. "I know it was dumb what I did but- but- That bastard was using Kenshin's name, even if he doesn't answer to that anymore, that guy was enjoying the fear he got from claiming he knew Kenshin. I couldn't stand it. I had to say something, so many hate Kenshin or fear him, I couldn't just sit by. That's why I have to look for him. I'm one of the few people in this world who actually care about what happens to him. I won't let anything happen to Kenshin. He's in trouble and I would never abandon him or anyone else."
"What about Megumi? You didn't look for her." He cringed mentally, wishing he hadn't said that. He'd meant it as a point in his argument but hearing it aloud made him realize how stupid it was to say.
Hiko's statement came at her like a blow. She was stunned. She couldn't believe he said that. Then in a second, anger tore through her veins. "H-how dare you-"
Hiko met her gaze. " You trusted us to find her without getting involved yourself."
She bit her lip, too enraged to find words. It was true though, she had even stopped Sano from looking. Maybe things would have been different if she hadn't done that, but things had changed since then.
"You don't get it! I do trust you to find him," she yelled. "I know you're capable but I won't just sit back and do nothing! I want to help. I want to be out there helping to look for him."
"I can't let you put yourself at risk Kaoru. I'm telling your guardians where you've been going."
"Pull over," snapped Kaoru. "I'm walking the rest of the way."
Hiko obliged, pulling over. She stepped out onto the sidewalk. She regarded him stiffly, rage still burning brightly in her eyes as she stiffly pulled the bokken onto her back.
She glared at him, anger tinting every word she spoke. "Then I'll give up. I won't look for him, happy? I'll go home and rot, since that's exactly what you want me to do, right? Do nothing but sit around and waist away while you find him. You better start looking extra hard though, because everyone's saying Battosai's back and people are probably already going for his head." She raised her hand to slam the door shut but Hiko's comment stopped her.
"You've changed, Kaoru."
She was silent for a moment, thinking his words over, her hand resting on the door. The controlled anger in her voice was deadly when she answered, before slamming the door shut in his face, leaving him alone in the car.
"Well, so have you."
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Whoo, (takes a deep breath) that was a tense conversation to write. Hiko really put his foot in his mouth this time, he's probably lucky Kaoru didn't decide to kill him with her bokken. Besides the tense serious conversation I have to say my favorite line in the chapter is "Uh-huh and I take bokkens to lunch dates." I find that really amusing for some reason.
Big thanks going out to all my wonderful reviewers!
Stella-neko: Definitely meaner to the readers, characters don't know it's Kenshin that they ran into but the you readers do and I think I partly wrote that just to drive people insane. (evil grin) Well, have to wait and see what happens for Megumi and Kenshin cause I'm not going to give anything away. Good speculations though, guess it'll all come down to what Kenshin's going to do next. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Michika-chan: Thanks for the complement, I swear my heads going to swell like a balloon one of these days and I won't be able to get it through a door frame, heh. He's also cut his hair as reminder, as for his scar, well he's hiding it and half his face behind his hair so it can't be seen. Thanks for the advice, I'm usually quite lousy in the description department, my natural writing style doesn't usually have much character description or setting description so I've been mostly editing it in afterwards. I'll keep that in mind for future chapters and thanks again for the advice.
MoonFlower '93: Hee hee heee, that was a very fun chapter to write. What can I say, I love having close calls with characters brushing by each other without them even realizing it. Indeed I think I'm might actually have to do some planning ahead, I'm not use to working with two different plot lines going on at once. I've got such a relaxing time table this term, gives me all the time I need to write, now all I have to do is over come my laziness to writing / correcting a chapter and getting it posted. I think I ended up rewriting the conversation between Kaoru and Hiko about four times now. Anyway, wow, short review, conversations starters hmmm, well, what other animes do you like other then Bleach and Rurouni Kenshin? Hope you enjoyed the newest chapter and thanks for the review.
Kikazaru: (heads starts to swell with all the praise) Thank you very much. I'm honoured that you decided to review my story, means a lot to me. As for Megumi's line, I see how that is quite confusing, I'll have to do something about that… anyway, when she says "that wasn't him" to Kaoru she's referring to the laughter. Kaoru thinks it's the thug who's laughing at Battosai's name, and she doesn't realize until Megumi says it's Kenshin or 'the boy with the fry pan' who was laughing. I hope that clears that up for you. Thank you very much for the review and hope you enjoy the rest of the story.
Avidgokyfan: Your welcome for the update and also the newest one. (grins) I don't think it would fun if Kaoru found him just yet, would ruin the suspense for one thing. I have to say I really like the idea of Kenshin wheilding a fry pan, hence why I had him do it. Hope you enjoyed the newest chapter.
Reality-chan: Thanks for the 100 review on Tomorrow's Day I've been wait for ages for that! Yay! (throws more confetti) I'm glad you enjoyed Tomorrow's Day. Ghah! (grabs Kenshin back and gives him back to Kaoru) You can't have him until after I've finished writing the sequel. Thanks a lot for the reviews!
Well, that's all for now folks, see ya all next chapter, till then!