Chichanz: The intensity isn't over yet! Yea, Kaoru is frustrated for a million reasons. If she doesn't get some letup soon, she might dive over the crazycliff with Enishi.
Guest: Thank you so much for that! I'm truly happy you're enjoying it!
Stormraven: Yea, crazy sick puppy, and getting crazier! There's more on how Enishi pulled this off in the next chapter, and not too much Tomoe action here. I have my fingers crossed for her. But man, your guesses of vengeance were bru-u-utal! I don't think I have it in me to do that to Kenshin… but Enishi might. Thanks again!
SesshaTetsuko: I really loved Shinta so that part hurt to write… that being said, the story isn't over yet. :) Please don't throw your cat. Lol!
Author's Notes: Enishi is going crazy so, his skills aren't quite up to par to what we're familiar with.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kenshin
CHAPTER 37
Suddenly, Kenshin's face was there, filling my view. I don't know what I expected when I saw him, but it wasn't this. He was angry, lividly so. The eyes staring at me through the sweat-soaked points of his bangs were shining so gold it made me think of honey being poured through sunlight.
Even if he looked violently dangerous, the way he touched me and spoke to me was just what my gentle rurouni would do. Tenderly cupping my face in his hands, I heard his quiet words, "I'm right here, sweetheart."
It was at that moment I realized with excruciating clarity, just how unfair I had been when Kenshin lost me in the past. "I'm right here," I had said, as if my past-self had been disposable to him simply because I still existed. Even if we were the same person, that didn't take any of my past self's value away, not to him.
And Shinta was… not disposable to me.
"Why have I been calling you Kenshin this whole time?" I posed the question very quietly, not entirely sure if the words made it past my lips. Tilting my head to the side, I peeked over Kenshin's shoulder. Someone else had walked over, and by the look of their heavy black boots, I expected it was Saito, even though I couldn't drag my eyes away from the way his sudden presence lightly ruffled the bangs on Shinta's pale forehead.
"What was that, Kaoru?"
Kenshin's fingers at my chin, gently prodding me back to him, made me blink. He had asked me a question. Slowly, my eyes slid back to him, focusing on those fiercely golden eyes as if I had been plunged into darkness and they were the light I needed to follow to the end of a pitch-black tunnel.
"I should have called you Himura," I said, my voice oddly steady and calm. Kenshin was always Kenshin when he held a sword… but it disturbed me that I had habitually called him by that name when they were blended. I didn't know what made that so important at that particular moment, but it felt significant somehow, as if I had thrown a blanket over Shinta's bright light, covering him with the name Hiko made up for him, in both lifetimes. A name he didn't accept in this one. He'd made it clear that he would easily respond to either, and I doubted he truly minded, but for some reason now… it mattered to me.
"This isn't real," I whispered, staring up into Kenshin's steady eyes. That face, those eyes, the hands touching my cheeks, they were warm and solid and tangible. My mind simply rebelled against the idea that he was dead in this time, even as the evidence lay with crippling clarity right in front of me. Though Kenshin's eyes screamed Battousai, he was watching me in the way I recognized first on Shinta's face, the day I met him in Tomoe's office. That acute glint in his eyes that told me he was examining me like a weatherman trying to decide which direction a hurricane might drift. I wondered if he saw choppy waters looking back at him through my eyes.
Kenshin blinked very softly, undermining the steely look in his blazing eyes, and reached up to gently tuck the hair falling from my ponytail back behind both of my ears. His throat worked as he swallowed down the storm I could plainly see raging inside of him. He was tender with me, all the while reserving lightning for the tall man sneering at us from his black corner.
Kenshin leaned forward until his forehead touched mine, damp and feverish from fighting. "Let me bring you back."
Something inside of me jolted, just once but violently, like the shock of touching metal after dragging your feet across carpet on a cold day.
Let me bring you back…
Two low thumps shook the floor beneath my knees, and those golden eyes still didn't move from my face. He reminded me of an angel at that moment. Avenging and Powerful and infinitely comforting, constantly guarding. His eyes like two small halos circling those deep irises. Only, he wasn't immortal…
"Hey, what gives?" It took a moment for me to register Misao's shrill voice. Vaguely, I realized she and Aoshi must have dropped through another trap door. I was suddenly hyper-aware of my friend straining from her crouch to see over my shoulder, and the immediate gasp once she succeeded. "Oh my god," Misao whispered, placing her hand softly on my shoulder. "Kaoru, no."
Her touch kicked me out of my hypnosis. I slammed my eyes shut, suddenly remembering Okina. I had to tell Misao that Enishi had killed her gramps.
"Hiko?" Yahiko's voice filtered into my muddled thoughts and my eyes cracked open.
Yahiko glanced around, wiping his eyes furiously. "Hiko!" He spun around in a full circle before taking his bokken and throwing it angrily to the floor. "Grandpa!"
I slammed my eyes shut again. If Hiko hid away after all this, my heart couldn't take it.
"I'm here, Yahiko." Hiko appeared from the blackness where current Enishi had vanished moments earlier. Enishi must have freed the others, I thought impassively. And Hiko moved so swiftly I hadn't even noticed he was missing. I hadn't noticed anything. Absently, I was sorry to have missed seeing Hiko storming after the younger man like a colossal, raging bull.
Shinta would have thought that was hilarious.
I watched with numb, detached calm as Hiko passed by, swooping forward to touch his motionless son's chest.
All I could think about was his stunning eyes, the way his nerdy glasses sat on the tip of his nose when he was staring at his computer in concentration. How he absently pushed them up with those long fingers and smiled to himself, under the full awareness that I was watching him. Now his fingers were splayed upwards, gently curled and relaxed, as if he were sleeping. When I ignored the blood soaking his fingertips, maybe I could pretend.
But that wasn't possible. It was everywhere. It was all I could see.
His hair was wild against the white floor, a pool of blood slowly growing beneath him and spreading out until I thought it might drown us all. Had I thought it would help, I would have frantically pressed against the wound, given him CPR, whatever it might take, but it was clear as day that Shinta was… gone.
This isn't real.
"Where is current Enishi?" I found myself asking. My gaze went to Hiko's large hands as they pressed gently on Shinta's chest. His expression remained carefully controlled, even as the full awareness of his son's missing breath was clear, but I could see the slight tremor in his hands.
"In that hole," Hiko responded, his eyes determinedly fixed on his own hands. He paused for a long moment before adding druggingly, "He's not dead." By the downcast fury on Hiko's face that seemed to be the extent of what he could promise. Which meant, current Enishi was in really bad shape.
Not thirty seconds later a low groan echoed from the shadows. I observed detachedly that current Enishi was moving, crawling out of the darkness with sweat plastered to his indignant face, like a rat emerging from a toilet drain. His arm was bent in a distorted angle, drooping horrifically and sliding against the floor.
In front of me, Hiko stood, uncurling from his position next to his son with a low rumble rippling from his throat. "You should have stayed in your hole."
Tomoe made a distressing noise from the corner of the room, and Kenshin's eyes snapped towards her and Enishi.
"Sister?" Current Enishi demanded, holding his hand out towards her as if in supplication. He wanted her forgiveness.
Had it not been for past Enishi's show of sighing dramatically, I might have forgotten that torturously delusional man even existed. But he did. He was the reason all of this was happening.
"I'm such a disappointment in this lifetime," he grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose so his small glasses tipped precariously forward. Tomoe moved towards her brother but past Enishi snatched her hand, yanking her back against his chest. He shook his greying head and tsked her.
Current Enishi slumped to the floor, his head slamming with a low thud, and briskly passed out cold.
Enishi frowned at his counterpart before focusing his attention back on the rest of us, most of whom were standing tight as a bow, waiting for what was coming next. Frustrated and exhilarated all at once, he took Tomoe's hand and dragged her forward with him. "Shinta Himura is dead!" Enishi screamed, making my entire body jump.
For my sake, Kenshin wore a mask of stable gentleness, and I watched as it bled into Battousai's calm fury at the sound of Enishi's voice. Kenshin's hands dropped from my face, down to the hilt of his katana. Slowly, he stood. I wanted to grab him, pull him back to me, but my limbs were frozen, as if I had sprouted roots that drove deep, winding and tangling around the floor beams. Enishi might as well have been shouting in a foreign language for all the attention I was paying him. Because once Kenshin moved, nothing blocked me from Shinta's stone-still body.
When life leaves a body, the animation that makes them who they are is gone, leaving behind a shell that appears almost alien. Not that he wasn't always inhumanly beautiful, but now Shinta just looked wrong. How had he landed just right that his face was tilted upwards, as if his arrow-straight nose aimed at a bullseye on the ceiling? He was the wrong color, there was the wrong tilt to his pale lips. It was such a huge contrast to the man I'd come to know, playing video games and laughing on the sofa together, that I simply couldn't accept it.
It was several moments later when a sudden loud slam yanked me from my stupor and I glanced over in surprise to find a glass wall separating Kenshin from me. In fact, I felt a nick of alarm when I discovered that wall divided me from all of them, except Tomoe and Enishi.
Enishi was laughing as he coddled a new injury at his side. Barely breathing, I met Kenshin's eyes, praying internally that he was uninjured. Kenshin's eyes were and insane yellow gleam of pure rage, all the calmness evaporated like dew beneath a hot sun. I jumped when those eyes tilted up dangerously and he appeared to scream with such unadulterated dread and hatred that the glass seemed to vibrate. The others fell to their knees, holding their hands to the ears. But he was like a caged animal, unable to defend when something beloved was ripped away from him and threatened. The look on Kenshin's chilling expression was enough to make every ounce of fear drain from me with a vengeance. The energy that evaporated from my limbs bled back into them, achingly slow at first, and then all at once. Anger and pain were just as motivating as love, but much more dangerous in its absolute wildness.
Enishi would not win. My family was counting on me to stay alive.
"Oh," Enishi exclaimed, "I believe your Kenshin is upset with me." His eyes were wild with excitement as he approached me, and with each step he took something inside of me uncoiled like a snake.
Slowly, I dragged my hot eyes away from Kenshin to glare at him. But I said nothing. Enishi knew exactly how I felt at that moment.
So, was this his plan? Was he going to slaughter me while Kenshin helplessly watched?
"It doesn't matter if I win this fight or not," he taunted. "Do you know why?"
I reached to the side, never taking my eyes off his, and picked up a discarded Katana whose previous owner lie bleeding and breathless on the floor. It was warm and seeped in blood, making my fingers stick to the hilt. The slivers of glass dug deeper into my hands, but the pain was apart of my anger now, a calm, dull thudding of flesh and heartbeat.
"It doesn't matter because I've already won," he answered himself, smiling madly. Tomoe's nails dug into her brother's arm and he winced, gently pushing her away so she stood on the sidelines to watch. His untamed eyes met mine, taunting. "Have you figured it out yet, dear Kamiya Kaoru?"
I reached behind my head to tighten my messy ponytail, and then calmly stood, taking the katana with me. I had figured it out. I'd figured it all out the second Shinta's body hit the blood-stained floor. Still, he told me.
"How long has Kenshin Himura been in this time, Kaoru?" Enishi asked provokingly. "How many months?"
A calm settled over me like a soft mist. I closed my eyes, taking in a deep breath. At that moment, I understood the Battousai's strange quiet rage, and it scared me how I could feel as if he were a completely separate being from Kenshin; one not only capable of killing but skilled enough to do it by the dozens without pause, and at times, completely without any perceptible emotion. That's where the calm came from, and that's what I was feeling right now; Completely separate from Kamiya Kaoru. It was as if all the intense anger and sadness I felt had been locked up in a box somewhere deep inside of me, leaving behind only the intense will to stop this madness. Later, I would open that box up and have a mad breakdown. I lost my Shinta. For now, I had no plan or coherent thought beyond a deep, instinctive need to protect the rest of them.
Enishi was still talking, his voice circling around me like the utterings of a swift little ghost. "Okina lasted two, maybe three weeks before he completely vanished back to his time."
Everyone has a breaking point, Sanosuke had said. I wondered if I had reached mine. Even without looking at him, I knew Kenshin had reached his.
I felt Enishi beside me, but I didn't recoil, or even flinch as he moved the fallen wisps of hair behind my ear and his hot breath touched my cheek. "His counterpart was dead too."
The glass wall behind me was solid and thick, but at that moment it moved, as if the person behind it had punched it hard.
When I opened my eyes again, I found Enishi watching Kenshin with that penetrating stare. He jumped up and down in small leaps like a joyous child. I didn't dare turn around to see Kenshin's face at that moment because I knew it would break my concentration. Right now, I was ready to give Enishi everything I had in this fight.
I stepped to the side, and Enishi's wild eyes cut to mine, following me as I circled him. He was right. In a way, he had won. As I passed in front of him Enishi's eyes cut over to where Shina lie motionlessly on the hard floor. He hadn't moved once. If he was dead, Enishi was right. Kenshin would fade back, and without Okina or the blueprints to build another time machine, I couldn't go with him.
I couldn't think of a more effective way to torture us than that; divided by centuries of time, unable to get to one another.
I took my stance, bending all the way down, one palm pressed flat to the floor as the other tightened around the swords hilt. I didn't have a sheath, but it didn't matter. If I held the sword back far enough, the force of my swipe should be enough to do some damage.
Watching me, Enishi bit his lip in anticipation, like a child ready to play his favorite game. "I see you've been practicing."
I gave him just enough time to take ahold of his hilt. "Barely."
And then I sprang forward, swinging the sword from my side. Enishi swung forward as well, surprising me when he stopped my attack with his hilt. My sword dug into the thick material, and I glanced up to find Enishi's wide smile greeting me, only inches from my face. "Surprise!" He ducked suddenly, making a quick turn, and thrust the point of his sword forward. I leapt back, but not before it penetrated my side. Stumbling backwards, I clenched my teeth as I grabbed the fiery hot wound. It wasn't very deep, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell.
Pain was not something I was used to yet, and it didn't seem Enishi shared his toleration of it with me. Tears filled my eyes and I was breathing heavily. Behind me, the glass vibrated again, and still I refused to look.
"Stop Enishi!" Tomoe screamed from the sideline. She had fallen to her knees, looking small and broken.
Enishi's smile fell from his face as he turned to watch her. "I'm sorry sister, but she cannot replace me!"
Replace him? Me?
I peered at him through a wisp of hairs that had fallen in my eyes. "You're sick, Enishi."
His eyes cut to mine, this time slanted with anger. "You're steeling her affection away from me. Don't think I cannot see it!"
Enishi attacked, throwing his sword over his head. He swept it down so swiftly, that I didn't have time to do anything except throw my sword in front of me. I fell on my back with the force of his attack, pushing up with both hands against the dull side of my blade. And still Enishi came, his sword unrelenting against mine. As I tried to catch my breath, his blade pressed closer and closer, the muscles in his arms bulging.
"I love my sister!" He screamed, a blue vein popping in his forehead. "You cannot have her!"
"What you feel is obsession, not love." I spoke through clenched teeth, my muscles straining agonizingly under the force of his. "When you love someone, you desire their happiness. You don't take it away from them!"
The wounds on my hands had begun to bleed again and I was aware of the warm stickiness dripping down my forearms. There was no way I was getting out of this attack alive like this. I wasn't nearly strong enough. The best I could hope for was being clipped by the blade instead of being slashed in half by it. So, I rolled to the side. Enishi's blade slipped from mine, slashing the skin of my upper arm.
I screamed, and suddenly his arms were around me, lifting me completely off my feet. He threw me aside, and my back slammed into the glass with a violence that knocked all breath from my body. For a few moments, I was too dazed to move.
Enishi approached me, eyes wild with fury, ignoring the low sounds of Tomoe's crying. I lay very still, watching him with guarded hostility, when suddenly I became aware that we were no longer the only ones in the room.
A short form teetered out of the darkness. Yes, I understood Battousai's strange calm, but I certainly hadn't mastered it. Gein had come to take Shinta's body away.
As if someone has shot me with a needle filled with adrenalin, I bolted off the floor. "NO!"
Enishi had already raised his sword to attack me. Just as Hiko and I had practiced in the woods, I planted my sword into the floor, using the force to leap into the air. It was surprisingly easy this time, with the motivation to stop Gein from taking Shinta away. With a scream I lifted the sword and slashed down, cutting Enishi in the shoulder before landing in a crouch behind him.
He stumbled backwards into the glass and grasped his shoulder.
Gein was yanking Shinta by the arms when I pointed my blade to his throat, the breath heaving through my teeth. He turned slowly, looking up at me with those dark, rat-like eyes. "Leave him," I hissed, "you can't have him."
Gein blinked, and slowly stood. A low chuckle sprang from his throat in such quick succession it matched the pattering sound of the rain outside. "I would my dear, but you see, I'm in need of some more ingredients."
"No, Gein." Tomoe had moved forward, blocking the miniature man from Shinta's body. "You will not take him away from Kaoru."
I thought that box was tightly sealed away, keeping my emotions hidden. But I was too new, too inexperienced, too emotionally wounded. Hearing those words, my heart went on an instant rampage. Furious and terrible tears spilled suddenly over my cheeks. Shinta was dead. Who knew what Gein was planning to do with him now.
You can't take him away from me!
Enishi laughed, and when I glanced back at him, he was looking at me with a mixture of defiance and gratification. "Already sister, you do more for her than me." When his eyes met mine, the humor bled into fury as quickly as one could snap a finger. "I dream about Kenshin Himura killing my sister every night! And now you're taking her away from me! How dare you!"
Blood and adrenalin pounded in my veins. Enishi had a will of iron, which I could not bend, and a spectacularly quick temper which both confused and fascinated me. Now I knew why Tomoe had become a therapist.
"I'm not taking her away from you! You're pushing her away! Don't you understand?" I'd lost a hold of that necessary calm, and suddenly I found myself wanting to haphazardly swing the sword in a tornado until Enishi was swept up and simply disappeared in it's vortex.
Don't, Kaoru!
He advanced on me swiftly and I surged to the side. I barely had time to register the hiss of his sword as it slashed beside my ear, clipping several strands of my hair in it's descent. That would have killed me, but it also provided me an opening. Pivoting on my heel, I slashed the sword horizontally. I was both elated and terrified when I felt the steel sink into flesh, cutting it open like soft butter.
Enishi hissed in a harsh breath. For a brief moment a flash of terror cut through my belly, but Enishi was holding his arm. I hadn't dealt a deadly blow, but it did knock the sword from his long fingers.
"STOP ENISHI!" I screamed, picking up his discarded sword and angling it to his throat.
Enishi sagged heavily against the wall, emptying his lungs in one hard breath. From the corner of my eyes, I saw movement behind the glass, but still I refused to look, refused the distraction, the empty helplessness. Enishi's shoulders began to quake heavily. For a moment, I thought I had broken him. Finally, this insane man had reached his limit. But they weren't sobs wracking his body, rather, he was laughing. Laughing so hard, in fact, that the glasses slipped off his nose and cracked in several pieces on the floor. He let out a loud sigh and cornered his beady eyes to me. "How high can you jump, dear Kaoru?"
Blood and adrenaline pounded in my veins at the first click I heard. Without a thought, I leapt, just as I'd seen Kenshin do earlier. The blades punched through the floor. Tomoe screamed, but they seemed to focus solely on the tile beneath me. They slipped back into the floor just as quickly.
I landed on my side after, slipping on something wet on the floor. A dull throbbing started in my left thigh that got heavier and more agonizing with each passing second. I grasped the area, unsure if the stickiness I felt there was the bleeding from my hands or from the new wound. But panic set in quickly when I glanced down at the gaping laceration in my thigh. It took me a moment to realize I had slipped on a puddle of my own blood. In and of itself, it wasn't a fatal injury, but as I scrambled to get up, scorching pain struck through my body like a lightening bolt.
I could handle to small cuts on my arm and stomach, but without the ability to stand upright, and nowhere to flee, I was entirely at Enishi's mercy.
He stalked towards me with a look of joyful rage in his wide eyes, swooping his sword down before bringing it up in an arch above his head.
Yahiko can't watch me die!
My heart gave a loud responding thump. "Let Tomoe kill me!"
It was enough. He paused, mid-swing. For a moment I wondered if he had forgotten Tomoe was even there, he had been so blatantly fixated on killing me. But at the sound of her name, his bewildered eyes cleared and immediately snapped to where his sister still guarded Shinta's body from Gein.
Tomoe let out a strangled sound, watching me with a look of pure incredulity. I hadn't really thought anything before I yelled it out, nothing beyond, your life matters and don't die.
Why that came out, I had no idea, but in the back of my mind now, I thought I might congratulate Tomoe for showing such expressive reactions. At least I knew she didn't want me to die.
Slowly, Enishi brought his sword down. "A very interesting concept, dear girl, but I know you're trying to manipulate me," he accused, looking amused once again.
I let out a bitter laugh. "Well, it worked, didn't it?"
"Touché! I fear I should thank you. It would have spoiled everything had I killed you now." The sharp tip of his katana drug out a terrible noise as it scratched across the floor. "You are a funny one."
My feet flexed against the hard floor, warm blood seeping sickly between my toes. What did he mean by it would have spoiled everything? "And you are insane."
Twisting carefully, I winced, letting out a high-groan as I managed to lean to one side and stand up, heavily supporting my weight on one foot. My other leg bled with alarming swiftness, even though I was almost certain the cut had missed the artery.
I was upright for a heartbeat before sagging heavily against the wall, emptying my lungs in one hard breath. I'd imagined what it would feel like to be stabbed, especially after finding Kenshin the first time at Riverside Park, watching the shining blade sink deep in my belly, but it was a far cry from numbness now. The pain was hot, like metal laid out in solid sun, and it throbbed with every thudding heartbeat.
When I regained my composure, I found Enishi was watching me with his hand half outstretched, his eyes wide and pleading.
It was just like in the room, when he slapped me and then apologized like a sinner begging forgiveness from a higher power. Only this time he seemed to catch himself before he gave in to the strange inclination. With a loud groan, he quickly snatched his hand back. I blinked and opened my eyes with a gasp, finding him inches away from my face.
"Stop doing that," he demanded. There was a hard, accusing look in his eyes as he stared at me.
I hadn't done anything, but I something told me saying so would only make him revert to lashing out again. For the second time today I kept my mouth shut. It was a new record.
Enishi's eye twitched. He let out a hard breath and turned to walk away from me. He was losing his mind too swiftly for his revenge plans to keep up. That much was clear. His emotions swung like a dunny door in a windstorm.
It didn't take more than a hard breath from me for him to whirl around again, faster than my eyes could follow, and suddenly I jerked up when his lips touched my ear. I had just enough time to distinguish the swell of tears in his eyes before he gripped my wrists. The glass dug further into my flesh and I screamed in pain, struggling wildly against him.
"I've won! Shinta is dead!" he hissed, his lips moving against my earlobe like the kiss from a lover. I jerked away, but that only made him press in closer. "Say it! Say, Shinta Himura is dead!"
Unable to summon the words from my clouded mind, I answered with my elbow instead. Enishi let go of me for just a moment and I grabbed his arm, sinking my teeth into his wound like a ravenous animal. Blood poured into my mouth like warm metal.
Enishi didn't even seem to feel it.
So I spat in his eyes, and Enishi stumbled back with a yell that made my ears throb, rubbing at them furiously. Heart hammering, I stumbled away, spitting twice more to wrench the taste of his blood from my mouth, and glanced from side to side. Where can I go? I was jailed in this room. Fated to live out the rest of my short life fighting with insanity incarnate.
Enishi caught up with me. He grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked me down, my back hit the floor so hard I felt something crack, whether a bone or a tile, I wasn't sure at first. And then there was a sound, sharp and heavy, and Enishi's head whipped around.
I felt each individual finger as he released his hold on my scalp and took in a shaking breath as he stood. The second he let go, I scrambled away in a backward crabwalk, but he was too focused on the glass wall separating us from the others to even notice I had gotten away.
Enishi's eyes narrowed. "Where is he?"
It took me a minute to see the broken tile littering the floor next to Yahiko's foot, his tearstained face pressed anxiously against the glass, the smirk on Hiko's stern lips, the utter stillness settling over everyone behind the glass as they simply watched. And then I glanced up to discover a giant hole in the ceiling.
That's when the sharp tip of Kenshin's katana slid through the tiled ceiling above us like a steel lightning bolt, making fiberglass and white dust rain down. I covered my head with my arms, just as the ceiling opened and Kenshin plunged through, landing in a crouch in front of me, blocking my body like an avenging angel.
TO BE CONTINUED…