Disclaimers: I DO NOT OWN any of the characters in Rurouni Kenshin.

Chapter 24: Vengeful Spirit

"Who…What are you?"

Swiftly, the assailant jabs Takafumi behind his neck, knocking him unconscious. She then drags him out and lays him beside his unconscious wife on a horse drawn wagon.

"One more."

Meanwhile, not so far away, rurouni Soujiro once again finds himself freeloading beneath the night sky, receiving a gratis yet magnificent view of the celestials from the roof of a local house. As he reflects on his dealings with the Inspector, Soujiro becomes especially curious as to what 'truth' Katsuya wields... to be so giving yet never asking for anything in return. Suddenly, he hears the sound of a horse drawn carriage. Alert, he looks down to see a dark shadowy figure driving a wagon with what appears to be two persons, immobile but living still by the faint movement of their chest cavity. Glancing at the direction of the tracks, Soujiro quickly concludes that the wagon must have come from the Sawatari household. At first, Soujiro hesitates about interfering; but surely this shadowy figure is planning to meddle with Inspector Ayasaki's investigation.

It is decided.

The wagon moves straight towards the roadway to the local brothel. Along the way, a very drunk Miwa staggers about the streets singing to himself while a male servant holds him up. Suddenly two moist cloths cover their both mouths and noses, yet only one falls unconscious to the ground; the other is whisked away on the wagon along with his parents. The maiden drags the Sawatari family up a high cliff and thrusts them all off the wagon onto the dampened evening grass. The inhaled ether slowly wears off within the hour with Risako being the first to awaken.

"Where am I? What am I doing…" Risako mutters to herself as she strokes the side of her head. Risako looks about her only to see her husband and son lying beside her. Unaware of the dark figure standing near the edge of the cliff, Risako calls to her family and hysterically shakes them awake. Takafumi slowly stirs, and opens his eyes. Feeling the strange surroundings, he quickly gets up.

"What is going on here? Why am I…" questions Takafumi angrily.

"Aww…mom…let me sleep," mutters Miwa in a drunken tone.

"Husband…I don't know anything, last thing I remember was walking outside my room to call the maids and..."

Takafumi ignores his wife's lamentation and spots the cloaked maiden standing near the cliff under the moonlight. Before he can utter a single word, the maiden leaps over cutting the distance between them.

"You…" grumbles Takafumi trying to get a peep at the face of his assailant, which unfortunately is completely shrouded by a long dark hood, allowing for only a shadowy glimpse of her chin.

"Who are you?" asks Risako as she turns to look at the figure. "Husband, do you know…"

"Quiet!" yells Takafumi to his wife.

"It seems little has changed between you two."

"What do you want from us?"

"Vengeance."

"Vengeance? I don't understand…Whatare you talking about?"

The maiden slides her sword at Takafumi, nicking his neck, "The Yoshimitsu surely remembers clearly what you did to its true owners."

"Tell me who you are!"

"Do you remember what took place at these cliffs three years ago?"

Takafumi looks about the cliffs; his eyebrows knit, while his eyes remains focused on the blade in the maiden's hand. "Fuyue?" Takafumi mutters.

"Do you remember the words that I uttered before I leapt from these cliffs?"

"Fuyue? Has her spirit return to haunt us?" mumbles Risako to herself in fear.

Having heard Risako's words, Takafumi against his own belief rebukes, "You fool, there is no such thing as ghosts!"

Regaining some consciousness from his drunken stupor to catch a word or two of the dialogue exchanged, Miwa mumbles, "A ghost?… is it pretty, dad?" Glancing about, Miwa soon enough makes out the blurred dark figure before him. "What is that?"

"My spirit will not rest till the day you die!" Fuyue icily quotes herself from three years prior.

Frightened, Miwa instinctively scurries behind Risako, "Mom…mom…"

Cowering back also in fear of the spectral, Takafumi tactfully apologizes, "Fuyue, I am sorry! You were such a gentle hearted creature. I know you. Please forgive me."

"Fuyue? You mean she really came back to haunt us as she promised?" Miwa states surprised.

Takafumi moves to hit Miwa several times, "It was this boy's fault. Fuyue, you know that it was mostly Miwa's lust! I will revenge for you!"

Miwa returns his father's beatings, "Dad, you lusted for her too! It wasn't just me."

"Kuchi ni mitsu ari, hara ni ken ari (He has honey in his mouth but a sword in his heart.)." Disgusted Fuyue looks away. Taking advantage of this, Takafumi reaches into his jacket and pulls out a gun aiming it at Fuyue.

"We will see if you are a ghost or not!" Takafumi fires a couple of shots, which Fuyue swiftly dodges.

Fuyue knocks the gun out of Takafumi's hand, "Do you not know that gun shots do not work against spirits?"

"Fuyue, please don't kill us, we will make it up to you," pleads Risako.

"Your kind is not to be trusted. Even if I do forgive you for what you have done to me, you still owe the Ayasaki family & my mother, your lives. Prepare to die."

Fuyue is about to strike, when Soujiro leaps into the scene and holds Fuyue's arm back. Curiosity has once again taken hold of him as he wonders what this spirit Fuyue, the maiden from Inspector Ayasaki's painting, would want with the Sawatari family.

Takafumi and Risako shout in unison, "Young man, please save us!"

"Stay out of this!" yells Fuyue.

"Miss, in the end only the fittest survive."

"They are not fit to live."

"I'm sorry, I remembered the wrong phrase…um I don't exactly remember at the moment, but…I remember a friend of mine said that killing is bad."

"That is your friend and your concern!"

"There must be a better way to solve this beyond killing. I have killed people, and I have regretted it dearly."

"I assure you I will not regret."

"But…Himura-san, he fights to protect the weak…and I...I think you should too."

"I do not care who told you what…I must take my revenge."

Taking advantage of the unexpected diversion, Takafumi reaches into his pants and pulls out a second gun and shoots frantically yet again hoping that it would somehow save him. The directionless gunshots fly everywhere. With his beyond god-like speed, Soujiro easily evades; however, upon noticing several bullets heading directly towards Fuyue who appears willfully stationary, Soujiro promptly dashes over to 'protect' her. Fuyue, instinctively pushes Soujiro out of the way. "Baka, how do you expect to survive the bullets without at least a sword." Though a bit distracted by Soujiro's selfless act, Fuyue still manages to deflect all the critical ones with her Yoshimitsu. Still though, one bullet pierces through her upper right arm (Deltoideus muscle), and slightly embeds itself into Soujiro's upper chest (Pectoralis Minor) near his shoulder joint. From the force of the impact, Fuyue lunges forward and falls down on top of Soujiro to the ground. Takafumi was about to get up and approach them when, Fuyue, bearing the pain, abruptly stands upright feigning non-injury.

"Mortal weapons cannot hurt me." Fuyue pauses briefly to contemplate before continuing, "With this interference, I have lost my mood to kill tonight; therefore, you may live to see yet another day. 'Temmo kai-kai so ni shite morasazu' (Heaven's net is very great and coarse, but it does not let anything through.)." Fuyue backs away towards the cliff thinking, "I survived back then. I will survive again!"

Fuyue leaps once again down the high cliffs, just as she has done three years ago; however, the waves that crash into the cliffs three years prior has receded quite substantially. Despite that, Fuyue utilizes her long flowing cape to decrease her downfall and glide down the high cliffs. Unaware of Fuyue's mode of escape, Soujiro without more ado imprudently leaps down to try and save her somehow. The Sawatari family watches in shock and awe that the ghost of Fuyue has disappeared once again, and this time has mesmerized a fool to join her in Meifu.

Author's Notes:

'Mesmerized a fool to join her in Meifu'…Hahaha…that's my attempt at a parody! Poor Soujiro, he's so chivalrous! And because of that he got shot…! But still though, if he didn't interfere, well Fuyue would have succeeded in getting her revenge, but then again, she would have committed a crime given that revenge killing was outlawed in 1873, well Feb 2, 1873 to be exact.

Oi, I missed out on some explanations from last chapter so here we go again with more author's rambling.

Shiroi Kashii Bokken (aka Japanese Evergreen White Oak wood sword): This uniformly hard wood has much dent resistance, however, it can become unstable with changes in weather especially humid. Another negative aspect of this wood like many others is that it loses its integrity as it ages, thus Kashi wood is good for the first few years, but when it's old…it's old, and you know what happens when you use it in battle (see previous chapter)…hehehe.

Yoshimitsu Blade : Yoshimitsu, "regarded as one of the three greatest sword smiths of Japanese history", was a blacksmith during the Edo period. He was famous for his tantos, but this time I had him make a katana with a length of about two and half shaku (30 inches). Anyway, for the Tokugawa family (Japanese rulers) gifts of his works for service are viewed as extremely favorable.

That's the history tidbit for this chapter folks. Heheh…I am sneaking history in my fic…hope you like it and learn from reading my story. Anyway…Thank you thank you to my reviewers… Wish you all a very very Merry Christmas! And hopefully by New Years' day there will be another chappie rolling out for you all…Till then Please leave you mark and review :)

The one and only
Kiriakis-sama/dono