AN: I got everyone's reviews for the previous chapter (chapter 24), and I understand your confusion. Without making any excuses, I will just plainly admit that I am not talented enough to create a love story with just one chapter (look how long it took me to finally get Enishi and Koishi together). I could've made it a few chapters long, but we're already to chapter 25 and I didn't want to stretch this story out more than necessary, even though we're almost to the end. Plus, the whole time I was writing chapter 24, I was thinking how much I dislike the chapter because I knew I wouldn't be able to pull it off and be convincing, and I know it showed blatantly in my writing. And for those who decided to stay with this story after that, I very much thank you!
Twisted Fate
Chapter 25
How long had he been in this cell? A few days? Weeks? There was no window in the isolation cell so that he could count how long he had been there; count with the rising and falling cycle of the sun. His only light was the dim glowing lantern on the wall, and he knew every crack and crevice of the bricks. His true light, however, was Koishi's smile, which he saw every time he closed his eyes; the sound of her laughter, which he remembered more than any other, and the softness in those unusual eyes of hers.
All he had before him was time; time in an endless, dark cell. So, with time, all he could do was drift...
When he opened his eyes there was snow everywhere on the ground and snow weighing on every bare tree branch. The white fluff even softly fell from the sky like cold, white butterflies. There were several footsteps crunching on the snow and finally, the footsteps came to stop before him.
Enishi did not need to look up to see who it was that was standing before him; the white kimono and glances of the purple shawl gave it away, but he still raised his head to see her beautiful face staring down at him, her lips still unsmiling.
"Nee-san." He greeted with his typical low, baritone voice.
She still stared down at him with her dark, doe-like eyes, her ebony hair that framed her face, contrasting off her pale skin, and her lips were still turned downwards. Her thin eyebrows turned upwards, still frozen in the state of deep hurt since that horrible day on his island that he saw her unsmiling face.
Enishi lowered his head once again, his eyes on her feet and the snow on the ground as he softly cried, "I am trying, Nee-san."
She did not answer him for what seemed like a long time before he finally heard his sister's very soft, songbird voice ask, "What are you doing, Enishi?"
He snapped his head back up in surprise; her face was still the same, but this was the first time she had spoken to him. It was not the delusion of hearing her voice as it had been in the past, due to his mental instability, but it was truly his own sister speaking to him.
"I...I was saving Koishi." He simply answered.
While her lips were still unsmiling, her eyebrows smoothed out and her face became impassive, no longer the look of deep hurt. His eyes widened at his sister's sudden change of expression.
"Then what are you doing here?" she asked with her void face.
Enishi inhaled with a shutter, but truthfully answered, "I don't know. I don't even know what this situation is about."
"Then why do you proceed?"
"I have to save Koishi...by keeping her away from me."
"...Enishi," he looked up at his sister and she continued speaking, "What was the first reason why you left the Fallen Village?"
"...To...help those effected by the crime organizations." he answered.
"What happened since then?" Tomoe asked.
"I lost my way...again." Enishi said and added "again" to admit that he was wrong the first time he interrupted Battousai's life.
Tomoe nodded once before she explain, "Ever since that day at the Fallen Village, when you got back up to pay for your sins by helping others, you did do that. However, you decided to shorten your 'sentence' by tearing down the orginazations you once ran, and you have fulfilled your duties exceptionally.
"Without delay, you fulfilled them, but upon fulfilling them, you went back to your old self; killing mercilessly, and even though it has brought you faster results, you still took human life that was not yours to take. You are alive, Enishi, but you were living as if you had already died. You needed Koishi. She brought your soul back to you, brought your kind heart back, and gave you a happiness you had never had before."
I choose to go with you.
Koishi's words rang in his mind and the same happiness he had felt came back to him. With eyes closed, he smiled again, but he soon asked, "But why did it have to be her? Why couldn't it have been someone else who I needed? Why did it have to be…his daughter?"
"Is she the most important person to you now?"
Enishi blinked at his sister's interigation and wondered if this was really his sister he was conversing with, or if it was his own diluted mind. He had to pause to think deeply on the question presented to him.
Koishi was the daughter of the man he had hated the most in his life. Did it matter to him anymore, her relation to the redheaded demon? Would he always be reminded of him when he was with the young woman?
Enishi shook his head and muttered, "Why did it have to be her?"
"You needed her." Tomoe softly answered. "No one else but Koishi could have fulfilled the task. Her heart is pure, and can endure even the vilest of acts against her. She doesn't have a single ounce of hate in her, therefore, it could only be her.
"There was a lesson in all of this, Enishi. It had to be Koishi, not only because of her pure heart, but also because it is time to forgive him for what he had done. You no longer hate him, yes, but you never forgave him; and now that you have Koishi, you need to forgive her father."
Enishi sighed in contempt, revealing the bitterness in his heart, and said, "Koishi has her family back now. What if I just leave her be and never see her again?"
Tomoe's impassive face gazed upon her little brother as she asked, "Can you let her go?"
"…No, I can't do that." He gudgingly, and truthfully, answered. "I am already attatched, and selfish by nature. I can never let her go again."
Tomoe nodded once in understanding and said, "Then you know what you must do. Live again, Enishi...with Koishi."
"Just one thing, Nee-san," Enishi requested. "To give me strength, please smile for me just once."
"Enishi," Tomoe reasoned, although her face became more gentle. "You no longer need my smile to give you the strength to fight."
In his mind's eye, he saw a vision of Koishi's brilliant smile; kind and warm with a deep longing for him to always be near. It was the smile he knew he needed to give him strength.
"Koishi is real," Tomoe concluded. "She is alive, and what really matters. Protect the one person most important to you; the one who makes you happy."
"Nee-san…"
Before she left, Tomoe smiled at her brother once more; a kind, understanding smile. She turned around with her black geta and walked back into the snow storm...
O~O~O~O~O~O~O
Enishi opened his eyes; the snow was gone and he once again was in his jail cell. He heard the clink and clatter of the iron door being unlocked and opened. He looked to his left, and there stood the woman he had not seen in eighteen years.
She looked apprehensive, but she stepped inside and the guard closed the iron door, but not fully, so she could escape if she needed. Kaoru gave him a wobbly smile as Enishi stood to his feet and the air around them was thick with tension.
What could he possibly say to her? Hey, you were great, but I decided I wanted to diddle your daughter?
"You distroyed half my dojo." Kaoru snapped at him. "You won't believe how much it costed me to repair it, and not to mention how long it took. If it wasn't for volunteers from other dojo owners, I believe I would just now be finished with repairs."
Enishi stared as if wondering if she really said that, and he even asked, "...Did you come all this way just to tell me that?"
"It's not a long walk from my dojo to here." she informed.
"Then why're you here?"
"...Closure." Kaoru simply answered.
"Closure?"
The woman nodded and then said, "Just so you know, I didn't tell Koishi about...that."
Enishi was relieved to hear that Koishi did not know, for that would make their relationship that much more difficult, but said, "So...you need closure from that?"
Kaoru nodded once before she added, "And an apology about my dojo."
"...What...?"
"Otherwise, I'll never forgive you."
"Okay...I'm...s-sorry about your...dojo." Enishi forced himself to say before he concluded, "And don't go telling your misfit friends that I apologized, either."
Kaoru could not help but chuckle at him, but she nodded in agreement before she said, "I came here for closure...and some answers."
"Alright," he started cautiously. "Closure first?"
She once again nodded before she said, "About what happened between us. I think this is eighteen years over due."
He shifted a bit before he informed, "I didn't do it out of malicious intent...just so you know."
"And thank you for telling me that." she thanked before she carried on. "And I did it because of a number of reasons...I was lonely, for one. No offense, but you're not good for company. I just got my friend back only to realize that he was no longer there, and then I got him back again, and then lost him again. Then, the unknow state of Kenshin contributed to that...but I did do it willingly. It's in the past, though, and until now has never been brought up again. And just so you know...Koishi never knew about you."
"How has Koishi been these past few days? ...Or however long its been." he asked unabashed.
Kaoru could hear something underlining in his voice and she started, "Enishi, about Koishi...she does look very similar to me...I'm just asking that you let her go if your reasons are less than honorable."
Enishi shook his head before he replied, "I know that she looks similar to you, but she also looks similar to him." They both knew, without a name, who "him" was. "I always wondered why she looked very familiar, but I could never figure out her identity, and now I know my answer: because I never saw her as you; I always saw her as Koishi."
She nodded once to indicate understanding and Kaoru said, "However, this...relationship between you and Koishi..." She drifted off with a shaking of her head to inform him of her disaproval.
He tilted his head a tad before he asked, "And your unwillingness to give approval has nothing to do with what happened on that island?"
"NO!" she insisted. "I don't begrudge you for that. It has everything to do with the fact that you still lead a dangerous life that I don't want Koishi involved in! I don't want her involved in that, and I don't want to be constantly thinking in my mind if she's alright; if she's still alive."
Enishi pursed his lips and nodded once before he agreed, "I'm a bad influence, I'll give you that. And she was in danger because of me, but I was trying to resolve that before that stupid investgator, Hiroshi, sent a message to all the mafia in the whole of China, asking if they knew a Himura Koishi; yes, first and surname."
Kaoru's eyes widened with horror before she sputtered, "Why...didn't Kenshin...tell me that?"
He shrugged his shoulders before he guessed, "Maybe he's trying to sort everything out. He might not even know himself. I actually came here because I found out, from another mafia member, that Huang, another mafia member, was here because he received the message."
"So...you were looking for Huang?" she figured.
"Yes, but the person I saved her from a few days back was Gang, Huang's right hand man; not Huang himself."
"So Huang is still here in Tokyo with Bao?"
"Well that's a possi..." he started before his mind processed what she said. "Wait...how do you know Bao?"
She worried her lower lip and then answered, "Before you came back, we had a Hanami picnic during the Sakura festivals. Everything was fine, everyone was having a good time, until a woman recognized Koishi. They spoke in some other language, and then a Chinese man saw her, and they spoke the same language. They were about to leave, but the man turned back to Koishi and...embarrassed her in front of everyone. Soon after, she told us the woman is Bao, and the man is Huang."
"How did he embarrass her?"
"He asked her, in Japanese, if my breasts were as pretty as hers."
He stared at her for a bit before he informed, "I swear, Huang never saw her nude, so he doesn't know what he's saying." Although he, himself, knew what Koishi's perfect, beautiful, bouncy breasts looked like, but he was not going to say that aloud.
Kaoru inhaled deeply before she inquired, "Do you think that the other mafia members will leave her alone?"
"That is unclear." Enishi answered. "They do, however, know her full name and location, courtesy of that bastard."
"Then how do we, her family, protect her?"
"That's what I tried to do in the first place." Enishi answered. "I tried to push her away from me by telling him a distorted story of what happened, because I figured only he was strong enough to protect her. And who protects the daughters better than the fathers?"
With a slight frown, Kaoru asked, "Kenshin?" He nodded once to answer, but was dismayed when she shook her head, and dread started to fill him as she spoke, "He can't...Kenshin can't protect her because...he can't...Hiten Mitsurygi Ryu is useless to him now."
Enishi's eyes widened before he cussed, "Shit!"
"What?"
"If I would've known that, then I would never have lied to him and I would be finding a way out of here!" He could seriously slap himself right now.
"Why would you want to escape?" Kaoru asked, now filled with regret for exposing such vulnerable information because her husband would not be able to fight if he decided to attack.
Without missing a second, Enishi gave his answer in a tone that was irritated because the woman had obviously not paid attention to what he was saying, "To protect Koishi!"
She had to blink at that as she frowned slightly. He would bipass Kenshin's vulnerablility to protect Koishi? Perhaps her daughter was correct; maybe he did change. Eighteen years ago, he would have been thrilled at this type of information, but now he was focused only on Koishi.
"Well...our son knows Hiten Mitsurygi Ryu," she said. "He would more than likely be the one to protect her, but Kenshin doesn't want him using it too much because of his small stature, and that sword style wreaks havoc on people whose bodies are small. That's why Kenshin can't use it anymore."
"Our son?" Enishi repeated.
"Erm, mine and Kenshin's son, Kenji."
"How does the boy know Hiten?"
"Rebellious teenager that he was," Kaoru explained. "He was not satisfied with Kamiya Kasshin Ryu, and he set off to Kyoto to seek the master of Hiten. That man reluctantly taught him only a few moves, but Kenji...he's incredibly smart and he can learn a sword style just by hearing it. Finally, he settled down and he's a good son now."
"Just by hearing it, huh?" Enishi repeated almost inclined to find it disbelieving. "Something like that makes for a dangerous individual later in life."
"Well...Kenshin's patience paid off."
"So, besides your son, anyone else able to protect her?"
Kaoru very, very reluctantly agreed, "You."
"I'm stuck in here." he reminded.
"I'm sure that, if Hiroshi is really as corrupt as you say he is, Saitou-san has probably figured it out by now. You know, he's rather obsessed with weeding out corrupt individuals."
"I'm sure he is." Enishi agreed but with an air of sarcasm. "And what does it matter if that Saitou guy discovers anything about Hiroshi?"
"Saitou will find a way to correct this, and I'm sure, once he knows the truth, Kenshin will help."
"You really think Battousai would help me?" Enishi asked, skeptically.
Kaoru pursed her lips, annoyed with his distrust, and answered, "Kenshin is not unfair. Sure, you broke the 'no swords' law, and because you did it in public, Saitou had no choice but to arrest you, but I'm confident that they would both work something out for you, once Hiroshi is out of your investigation."
"So..." he began when he realized something. "If you're here, then who's protecting Koishi?"
O~O~O~O~O~O~O
The day was already half way over as Koishi made her way to Oguni clinic. Hopefully, now, she would get her wraps off her wrists. After that, she planned to wash as much laundry as possible. She did not like to feel useless, but that was how she felt when she could not wash the laundry, because she could not get her wraps wet, and her father had to compensate for her lacking chore.
She weaved through the crowd until she finally came to the very familiar building. When she entered, she sat in the waiting room to wait for the doctor to come out. As she waited, she took Tomoe's hair decor out of her hair and mindlessly played with the gold tastles.
Koishi decided to leave the dojo, unescorted, after breakfast. Her father left early with Saitou, once again, and her mother left to "visit a friend," whoever that was. Her brother was busy with the students, as was Yahiko, and Shinya was just one of the ones helping to train the students.
"Koishi-chan?" Megumi said with surprise.
"Megumi-sensei," Koishi said as she held out her wrapped wrists, and then put the hair décor back in her hair. "I'm hoping to get these off today."
The doctor nodded once and showed the young woman into a treatment room. Once she was seated across from her patient, Megumi started to unwrap the bandages from Koishi's wrists. She looked them over on both sides and gave a nod of approval.
"You don't need another treatment." the doctor announced.
"That's good to hear." Koishi responded with a sigh of relief.
"Is everything alright?" Megumi suddenly inquired.
She gazed at the other woman with her unusual eyes before she asked, "Oji-san told you, didn't he...?"
She gave a single nod at her answer before she concluded, "That stubborn rooster just wasn't thinking correctly. He didn't mean to yell at you; he was just scared."
"Scared?" Koishi repeated and found it hard to believe that such a strong fighter as her uncle would be scared.
Megumi nodded again and said, "You know you're like a niece to him, and he does care for you the way an uncle would. He was scared because he thinks you're going to be harmed in some form...or killed. The way we remember Yukishiro is not exactly positive, but as the one who brought us a period of much pain and suffering."
"So...does he have to live with that image the rest of his life?" Koishi argued. When the doctor blinked at that, she continued, "I really don't blame everyone for being so weary, especially Ottotsuan. I, however, have very positive memories of him. You won't believe how many times Enishi saved me; and no matter what anyone else thinks, I still believe he did not know who I was, nor did he purposefully put me in dangerous situations. If anything, he tried to keep me away from them."
"By exposing you to the Shanghai mafia?" Megumi said, skeptically.
Koishi sighed and agreed, "Yea, I know; but later, he tried to keep me away."
"But it was too later by then." the doctor concluded.
"Yes." the young woman reluctantly agreed. "And I don't know why he left me behind in Yokohama, but I refuse to believe he's currently as bad as everyone thinks he is."
Megumi stared at Koishi for a moment before she warned, "...Just don't get your hopes up too high."
Koishi raised an eyebrow but remained silent. As she left the clinic to go home, her mind drifted. How can she defend Enishi if the odds were against him? More importantly, why would he tell her father such a distorted story of what happened between them?
She halted, looked at the path towards the dojo; she turned around and walked towards the police station.
O~O~O~O~O~O~O
"So...if you're here, then who's protecting Koishi?"
Those words haunted Kaoru as she raced home as face as her kimono would allow her. Of all days to not wear her gi and hakama!
When she got to the dojo, she surprised everyone when she all but burst through the gates, and everyone ceased their training to glance her way.
"Has anyone seen Koishi?!" Kaoru demanded.
All the students, instructors included, looked to and fro, but there was no sign of the young woman anywhere. A sense of dread started to fill Kenji and he turned to the students and announced, "Classes are over and you're all dismissed." He turned to his mother and informed, "I think I know where she might've gone."
O~O~O~O~O~O~O
Koishi entered the police station, and even though Enishi was in jail, she had a sense of anticipation at the thought of seeing him again. Maybe she could get her questions answered and they could sort everything out together.
She did not want to go home just yet. She desperately wanted to talk to him, and if he did not want to talk, then just merely staring at him would be good enough for her. So, she walked inside the building to seek out the man she wanted to see.
Inside was chaos; policemen were shouting at suspects, people were being processed by the droves, and there was noise and paper everywhere. Koishi looked around with wide eyes and decided since everyone is too busy, she would just go to the log, see which cell he was in, and go there herself to visit him.
Koishi had been to the policestation countless times to see her father, so she knew the logbook was where the cell keys were. She went straight through the choas, no one paid any attention to her, and she made it to the logbook.
Koishi quietly grabbed the key ring from the wall, making sure none of them jingled, looked at the inmate list, and saw "Yukishiro Enishi-cell 23." She held the cell key in her hand more tightly because she was not going to talk to her former lover with iron bars between them.
Before she could even start her search for cell tweny-three, there was a voice of authority who demanded, "What're you doing here?!"
Koishi jumped and turned, with the key still in her clenched hand, and soon discovered she had been spotted by one of the police officers. She swallowed hard and sputtered as she tried to think of a good explination as to why she had a key in her hand, but all she could squeak out was, "I'm just here to visit someone."
The policeman looked her up and down, no doubt knew who she was, but only replied, "Visiting hours are almost over." He paused as if pondering his next alternative until he looked at the shiny object in her hand and asked, "What do you have there?"
Koishi's heart pounded, for she knew it looked like a very bad situation, but she held out the object and quickly stated, "I was only taking it to see him."
Once again the officer looked at her, calmly took the key while he firmly held her wrist behind her back, as if under arrest, and said, "Follow me."
She had no choice but to allow the man to guide her into an awaiting room with a simple Western table and two Western chairs; the interiogation room. Oh great; how was she going to explain this one to her family, or more importantly, to her father?
"Wait here." The policeman said before he closed the door behind him and locked it.
Koishi sat in one of the chairs and rubbed her sweaty palms on her kimono. This was definitely not how she planned this! Who was the investigating officer going to be that arrested her? She knew many policemen in the office would get a laugh if her own father arrested her for trying to help a criminal escape, which she did not try to do.
She could just imagine that, too, in iron cuffs as her father led her away to a jail cell.
Finally, after staring at the white brick walls in the room for what seemed like an eternity, the door finally opened, and in stepped a person who she was not expecting, but simultaneously, he fit the situation.
"So...Himura Koishi, you're here because you were attempting to help one Yukishiro Enishi escape."
"No, Hiroshi-san, I was just going to visit him." Koishi retorted.
"Then why were you found with his cell key in your hand?" Hiroshi interrogated.
The young woman sighed hard before she agreed, "It looks bad, yes, but I wasn't trying to help him escape. I haven't seen him once since he was put here."
"Well, staying away for a while to let everyone's guard down," Hiroshi accused. "Then coming to the policestation when it's at it's busiest peak, and then being discovered with his cell key in your hand points to attempted assistance to help a criminal escape. Plus, you are his closest assosiate; all that points to you being in very big trouble."
"I wasn't trying to help him escape." Koishi insisted.
Hiroshi's eyes never left the young woman as he walk over to the Western table and sat down in the Western chair across from her.
"This is what you're going to do," The investigator demanded. "You're going to do everything I say, and if you don't you will find yourself without a family."
Koishi's breath hitch in her throat when she heard the investigator's threat against her family. When Hiroshi was satsified that he got the young woman's undivided attention, he continued, "That stupid Fujita investigator pulled the death sentence off of Yukishiro, and just gave him 'time already served.' He will be getting out in a few days."
Koishi could not help but feel immensely relieved to hear that Enishi was not going to be sentence to death, which she did not even know about to begin with, and that he would be getting out in only a few days.
Wait...why would Saitou go so easy on Enishi?
"And because of that," Hiroshi continued. "There's some other matters that have to be dropped...Oh, you don't know what I'm talking about. Well, see, I get paid very well to take crimes that the rich commit, murder for instance, and place them on people less fortunate; but because Fujita involved himself in this case, it messed up everything planned, so I had to resort to another plan. I was going to go to your home and arrest you myself, due to Fujita and Himura being out of the office right now, for being involved in Yukishiro's 'criminal activity,' but you coming here has made it so much more easier."
Koishi was almost afraid to ask, but she inquired anyway, "...What...do you mean?"
Hiroshi smiled a cynical-type smile and answered, "I've already been paid very handsomely to deliver you to two men you already know. That's why you're going to listen very carefully and do exactly what we say."
"...Two men...?" she whispered.
As if to answer her inner questions, Hiroshi went to the door, opened it, and two men walked into the room. After the two men entered the room, the investigator quickly shut the door and locked it.
Koishi jumped to her feet in the bllink of an eye, almost stumbled over the chair she was siiting in, and backed away until her back hit the wall. The two men who entered the room were none other than Huang and Feng.
She knew better than to trust Feng anymore, especially since she saw him on the streets, conversing with Gang, and he was here, now, with Huang. She opened her mouth to release an ear-piercing scream; it was Huang who approached the young woman, and with reflexes faster than a spider pouncing on its prey, he wrapped one arm firmly around her waist, pinning her arms to her sides, and the other arm came around to place his hand firmly over her mouth.
Koishi, of course stuggled while her screams remained in her throat. She even stomped her geta-wearing heal on his foot, to which Huang simply moved his foot away and held her tighter to him.
"Don't make this more difficult, Koishi." Feng warned, and then he turned to Hiroshi. "Which way out?"
Before the investigator could lead the trio away, Koishi bit down hard on Huang's hand. The man hissed in pain, but did not remove his hand. It made the young woman sick to have the man's blood flow into her mouth, and the salty, matalic taste made her gag, but still he did not remove his hand.
Ignoring the young woman, Hiroshi led Feng, Huang, and a kidnapped Koishi out, through the interigation room, and out the back door. It amazed Koishi the level of unawareness that the policemen had as she was picked up and carried by a Chinese man, who still held on firmly, even with her kicking and struggling, and out the back door they went.
O~O~O~O~O~O~O
"When was the last time you saw her?" an amber-eyed investigator asked as he glared down at the officer who caught the young woman.
After searching for Koishi, the entire Himura family and their friends ended up at the police station where, surprsingly, she was spotted by another investigator who just came into town from finishing another assignment.
"I don't know what time!" the officer stated.
"So," the whistle-blower started as he rubbed his chin with his right hand. "How much're you being paid to hand the girl over to the corrupt investigator?"
The officer glared up at the man who called in the kidnapping of Himura Koishi, and snapped, "How much candle wax do you use to make your hair stand up like that?"
"You're funny." Chou said with a chuckle. "We should make this guy do stand up comedy in the middle of townsquare."
"Do you know where they took the girl?" Saitou interiogated, ignoring his lacky's comment.
"No..." the officer answered. "The only one who would have answers for you would be Hiroshi-san."
"What do you propose?" Saitou asked after he turned to the redhead behind him.
Kenshin could only think of one resolution. He turned to Kaoru, who was still weeping, and her husband walked over to her and tightly embraced her. The woman's sapphire-blue eyes widened as she felt a familiar foreboding from his arms. It was just like the time he hugged her and then left to fight Shishio in Kyoto.
"Don't leave!" she begged. "You can't fight—"
Kenshin gently lowered his arms and smiled sadly at Kaoru. He shook his head and replied, "I know my sword style is useless to me now. I won't leave, I won't fight, but I know someone who can."
She looked up at him questioningly, but he did not explain himself as he turned to walk deeper into the building. Saitou puffed on his cigarette before he cussed and tossed it aside.
"You know we don't know where she is," the senior officer stated to the former assassin. "I might not be able to help you if this backfires."
"I understand." Was all Kenshin said before he walked directly to the "evidence" room.
He looked about through the labels very quickly as Saitou walked up behind him and asked, "What're you doing?"
The redhead did not answer as he saw the two items he had been looking for, took them and exited the room with his former enemy in tow.
"You can't be serious, Battousai." Saitou said with a deep frown.
"If you don't think I'm serious," Kenshin stated as he grabbed a key from the key rack. "Then watch me, Saitou."
They walked down through the maze of the cellblock until the former assassin stopped at cell twenty-three. The white-haired man had been sitting in the same position he always took, propped up against the brick wall with his legs stretched out, his arms folded, and his eyes closed.
He opened his eyes and looked to his left; amethyst and topaz-blue locked together for the first time in eighteen years. The younger man's eyebrow rose at the haggard appearance of his once hated enemy and the amber-eyed posy beside him.
Kenshin inhaled deeply and said, "She had faith in you. I don't know why, and I know I'll never understand why. Even when I insisted you had been manipulating her, she never believed it. Koishi is the only one left in this world that still thinks highly of you."
He unlocked the iron door and swung it open as he stepped to the side.
"I'm crazy for doing this, for trusting you with this task, but I have no option left." He continued. "She's been kidnapped and has been missing for at least an hour. Hiten Mitsurygi Ryuu is useless to me now, so I can't go and rescue her. Apparently, this is a situation between you and those two Chinese men, with my daughter in the middle. Please, rise once again, and save Koishi."
Kenshin finished his statement by holding out the wattou with the sunglasses. Enishi stared at his once hated enemy for a brief moment before he stood on his feet. He walked over to him, making sure he stood a distance away, and took his wattou sword as well as his spectacles.
"This is only for her." the white-haired man clarified. "Is there any lead to where she might've been taken?"
"No, there is not." Saitou finally spoke. "We only know that two Chinese men, one looked Japanese, kidnapped her, and Hiroshi is involved, but we haven't done anything about him yet. The girl is the first priority."
Enishi's face was very passive as he calmly answered, "Alright." And he walked away.
"Where are you going?" Kenshin asked.
"To find out where she is." Came the answer.
"You really are crazy for trusting him." Saitou said. "How do you know he won't run away?"
"I don't know." Kenshin answered. "I can only hope that Koishi was right about him since he is the only hope she has left."
To Be Continued…
AN: Yes, Koishi was kidnapped...again. In the next chapter she will express her annoyance at being kidnapped so often. lol Kenshin releasing Enishi from jail is basically a turning point, and we're almost at the end of this story (two more chapters, I think). I'm both saddened and happy to bring you, my readers, to the end of this story...
I hope this chapter made up for the previous chapter, and as always, I love reviews (hint hint).