Broken Hearts

Ch. 11

Shattered Dreams

"Kyoji stop!" Kaoru said loudly, his lips just inches from hers.

"I see it in your eyes Kaoru, you long for love, for comfort. This Kenshin you seek obviously cannot give it to you. Why not then let me—"

"STOP!" she suddenly screamed. "Get away from me!"

He thrust his hand over her mouth to silence her cries. "Say nothing!" Kyoji whispered as his eyes glazed over with lustful madness.

Kaoru tried to scream for help but he only gripped her tighter. She flailed her arms and legs about in an attempt to through him off but he was young and strong. Suddenly she grabbed him around the neck and squeezed with all her might.

"Stop!" he yelled and slapped her across the face. Her cheek shown red with blood he laughed evilly at her, "Foolish woman!"

But he suddenly keeled over as Kaoru used her only options left, a good kick to the groin. After a moments pause he regained himself, but not before she had scrambled across the room. She was about to jump out the window and into the early morning twilight when he grabbed her around the middle and pulled her back, ripping her sleeve as he did so.

Kenshin sat in the warm pool of blood unable to move. He stared down at the girl transfixed, his heart beating painfully in his chest. She looked in every way exactly like Kaoru, except that her eyes were of a different color and her hair was more of a dark brown.

Kenshin tried to breath but the air seemed too thick to swallow, and his heart began to beat ever slower as if the sword was in his chest as well. He looked up at the reddening sky and let out a painful scream.

It was nothing to him when two large men grabbed him by the arms and dragged him down the road. He barely even noticed the crowd around him staring and shaking their heads with shame. He didn't even flinch when an officer spit in his face and mocked him. An hour later he sat in a cold cell on the stone floor of the town jail, starring off into space, the only thing keeping him from pure insanity was Kaoru's face in his mind and the memory of her sweet kiss still on his lips.

"Get the hell off of her you bastard!" came a cry from behind Kyoji as he ripped at her kimono.

"Sano!" Kaoru sighed with relief. "Thank goodness."

Before Kyoji could react Sano had thrust a blow of his fist into the back of his head and he fell to the ground. "He won't be waking up for awhile." Sano said as he looked down at the man's limp body.

"Are you okay Kaoru?!" He said helping her up.

"Oh thank goodness Sano—if you hadn't—I don't know what he would have—thank goodness you're here." she said crying into his shoulder.

He patted her softly on the head and tried to calm her. "It's okay now Kaoru, I won't let anything like that happen to you again."

"But how did you ever find me?" Kaoru said looking up into his face as she finally released his arm.

"I followed you here, it took me a couple of hours to catch up and then I was looking all over this town for you. Then I followed the screams—" he stopped as Kaoru shuddered. "Well I found you—and that's what's important."

"But what about the Miyazaki's?" Kaoru said looking out into the hall.

"Some nice friends you've got." he said as they left. "They up and left as soon as I arrived, there was a huge group heading in town around sunrise. I heard rumors about a murder, it's best we leave here as soon as possible."

"A murder?" Kaoru questioned.

"Yeah I heard some stranger was found right in the road in front of a bloody body."

"I wish you wouldn't say it so casually." Kaoru commented as they walked down the street.

"Can't trust anyone now-a-days…" Kaoru heard a woman mutter to her friend next to her in a whisper. The two were eying Sano and her nastily, "Strangers… you'd think they were raised by animals!"

As they got closer to town the groups got bigger and louder, everyone seemed to stick in pairs or in clusters. "Yeah I heard the guy didn't even resist arrest!" One startled man said in a passing group.

"I heard that he cried all the way there like a baby!" said another.

"What a joke!" said the first.

"Who do you suppose this man was?" Kaoru asked Sano.

"I don't know, I've heard he's some kind of wander, sort of like Kenshin, you know?" he said looking suspiciously around the street.

"…he tried to kill himself in his cell…" said a woman to another.

"No!...he wouldn't kill himself…"

"That's it! …something about an oath…what happened to his dignity1!"

Kaoru looked around her nervously, her curiosity nagging at her. Who was this man? Who had he killed? What did this all remind her of?

But her questions were soon answered as she spotted a group of policemen dragging the man out of the prison and into the street. "Kenshin Himura!" a tall policeman said to a large round one. "He's the batosai! The man that slaughtered thousands!"

The others stood in astonishment. "What?! This pathetic man is the big bag batosai?!" said the fat officer. "I could beat him to a pulp with one blow."

"You may break my body, officer, but you cannot break my spirit, that you cannot." Kenshin said angrily.

"Why don't we just break a few of your bones and see what you think then, yeh?" said the tall officer grinning widely.

"Give him a few smacks, Jiro!" he said to the large officer who joyfully obeyed. "What about know Mr. Himura? Had enough?"

"NO!" Kaoru suddenly screamed running to his side. "Leave him be!"

"Get back foolish woman!" he said slapping her across the face.

"Hey don't you touch her!" yelled Sano.

"Hey what's all this here?" asked some men passing by. "Since when are policemen aloud to slap women around! Don't we have enough crime in this place already?"

"You there!" a bulky officer yelled at the leader of the group. "You be quiet now before we teach you a lesson!"

By now a large crowd had gathered around the officers. Many were mumbling angrily and a few of the larger men rubbed their fists threateningly. But the officers did not back down and instead drew their swords on the crowd.

"Any citizen who threatens an officer shall be punished severely!" said the tall man who the other's referred to as Captain. "Now back off we've got a criminal here to punish!"

"That's the murderer!" screamed a woman in the crowd suddenly.

"That's right!" said the Captain joyfully. "And we're going to teach him a lesson for his crime."

At this he lunged at Kenshin but was blocked, once again by Kaoru. "You won't touch him!"

"Kaoru no! Please, Kaoru, please don't!" Kenshin begged her.

She turned to him and looked into his eyes. "If this is the last thing I do, I must do it Kenshin—"

But her words were interrupted as she fell to a heap on the ground, a strong blow to her head had knocked her off her feet. "I told you to leave!" the Captain yelled at her unconscious body.

"And now Mr. Himura, you get what you deserve!" he drew his sword and held it up into the air ready to strike upon his neck with a deadly blow.

TO BE CONTINUED

1 Just in case you didn't already know, when threatened with defeat or death, in Japanese culture, the honorable thing to do—is to kill yourself!