Disclaimer: Nope…Not mine…I only own a bunch of plushies that only exist on my computer…:: Hugs her Aoshi and Kenshin dolls :: …and on Ebay, but those aren't mine *g* Oh yeah…speaking of Ebay, there's also those keychains, which aren't mine either. And all the DVDS. Still not mine…
A/N: I'm reeeaaaalllly sorry this is so late!! I'm in the middle of trying to make a new website, find somewhere that will host it, learn Javascript and FTP, upload and code more than twenty poems to my current site…ect., ect., ect. Actually, that's not really the beginning. All that junk just kind of got thrown in. Homework was the main thing.
I hate to say this as well, but I'm probably not going to be able to update as often. The thing is, I don't have a lot of extra time at the moment, and I really don't want to rush through each chapter and just end up writing every single plot line that goes through my head. Trust me. It would be awful. I like getting it beta read before I post it up here, but I will try to get a new chapter up at least every 2 weeks. I know, bad CB!
(About a week later..) Okay, I'll quit making excuses. Exams are over and it's Christmas break!
Chapter 7
When Battousai walked through the house, an odd silence hung in the air. He could hear Kaoru's nervous breathing behind him, though she kept her face straight. Nothing around him looked wrong at all, but he sensed otherwise.
And then there was the fact that he could feel someone else, obviously not Sano, near them as well.
She still stayed behind him as they walked through a dimly-lit hallway. Memories of playing there as a child flashed in her mind. Really, she had only been here just last week. And only three weeks ago, she and Misao had both sat there, cramming in everything they could learn in a day for their finals. She closed her eyes in reminescence. Why did this seem so long ago?
When she paused in midstep, Battousai turned around again, staring. Reopening her eyes, she could tell he was thinking. Other than that, his expression was unreadable. Typical, she thought.
"It's through here," Kaoru's voice sounded flat. She went into what she recognized to be her uncle's office. She was scanning the room for a door when her attention jerked back to Battousai. He was standing completely still, katana half drawn, and his amber eyes glaring at another figure in the back of the room.
"What now?" she questioned. He didn't reply, and she saw the other figure re-sheathe his own katana.
"Battousai?" he said.
"Soujiro. Why are you here?" Battousai still glared at him, but he now loosened his grip on his sword. Kaoru frowned. She had a feeling that they knew each other somehow from before.
"Probably the same reason you are," The way he kept smiling struck her as a bit odd. Along with the fact that he was the second person she had seen over the past few days who fought with a katana.
As if to break the awkward silence that had set in, footsteps could now be heard in the hallway. Both Kenshin and Soujiro now redrew their swords, Kaoru backing up.
But Kenshin, focussing on something not in the room, sighed exasperately and re-sheathed his for the second time.
"It's Sano," he muttered. "Now," he said, turning to Kaoru, "You said they were downstairs. Why are we in here?"
"Because directly downstairs is just the basement. But over here," She walked around a large desk and yanked a curtain away that was covering the back wall, "there's another way down,"
She looked searchingly at the wall for a moment, and then, finding a small and barely noticeable latch, she started to pull. The panel moved easily, revealing a small stairway. She didn't explain to him how exactly she knew this.
But when she started to go down, she begun to hear broken parts of a conversation, gradually getting louder. When they were in mid-sentence, before she had time to resist, a strong pair of hands jerked her up from the room in the wall and back out onto the office floor.
Most of her was slung against the floor rather painfully, the rest hitting Kenshin.
"Oww," she mumbled.
"What do you think you're doing?" he hissed rather quietly as he pulled her off, knowing they couldn't afford to be found over this.
"It looked like going down the stairs!" retorted Kaoru, rolling her eyes.
He snapped back, "What were you going to do? Just walk in and ask for your cousin?"
"I wasn't going all the way down, just far enough to hear what they were saying!"
Kenshin had started to say something else, but was cut off by Sano. "They're getting closer!" As their conversation was becoming more and more audible, Kaoru instantly figured out something rather important then- that from below, the panel moved away would be very, very obvious.
Battousai was thinking about the same thing. Nearly effortlessly, he rushed to it and had it back on the wall in a matter of seconds. The voices downstairs could still be heard then, and Kaoru froze when she heard the name 'Takani'.
Megumi Takani?
* * *
The dark-haired woman glared down at the test tubes in front of her. The dim lighting made them impossibly hard to be accurate with, and now any mistake would kill whoever it happened to be used on. She had made a dye that would color them a bit, but it still didn't help in mixing them. And having a gun pointed at the back of her head sure didn't either.
Megumi pretended to be looking at one of the bottles on her desk when she heard her name whispered a few feet away. Misao's wrists were still tied, but now she was awake again. Giving Misao small nod, she turned back to her work so that the man behind her wouldn't ask questions. Picking up a test tube and holding it up toward the only light in the room, she stole another glance at Misao, and figured out what the girl was trying to do.
//Megumi?// She could hear Misao's voice in her head. //They're here.//
Megumi quickly hid the confusion on her face. Who? She hoped Misao had read that. Even after four days of the two of them talking this way, it still seemed completely odd. She never was really sure if Misao ever 'heard' her or not.
But she was reassured immediately as she felt Misao's wave of shock as the girl scrambled to tell her what she found.
//Megumi! Kaoru's here, and so is Sano. Soujiro, the one I told you about, is with them. But get this! That guy who took Kaoru is here too!!// After getting this out, Misao now struggled to stay awake. Using her telepathy like this drained much of her energy.
Megumi would have responded to her, but the man behind her noticed her staring off and growled a warning to get back to work. If only I had something to dilute this with…The mixture she was working on was both illegal and potentially lethal. She didn't know if someone else could make it if she didn't. So maybe they wouldn't kill her. But this wasn't something she wanted to bet her life on…
Mostly out of reflex, her head turned toward the ceiling as soon as she heard the noise. What was that, she thought, noting the tense expression on her 'guard's' face.
* * *
Kaoru didn't have long to think on it, because only a few moments later, her head began to throb and she knew she was about to have a vision. Slowly, everything around her faded to black and she was plunged into an icy world of illusions and memories.
She didn't feel herself fall against the wall or being helped down by Kenshin and Sano. She couldn't see them anyway.
But when the dream was over, she was in a state of numb shock.
For once, it hadn't been about someone else. It had been about her.
___________________________________________________
Not a very good cliffhanger, I know. It's kind of late right now.
Now, on to the reviews! I know I've already said this but seriously, I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!
Unique-starfish~ Thankies!! Sorry I didn't do the last part :-/
aglaia102 ~ Thank you!!!
ReinaQueen ~ Seriously?!? Wow, thank you!! ^_^
Crystal Renee ~ hehehehe, we have our own little subplot going, don't we?
:: CB watches in shock as Sireta chases down Battousai, before getting pounded again by Misao ::
CB: Eeee! Aoshi-sama, help!!
Aoshi: ….
Sano: :: still staring at Battousai and Sireta ::
Kenshin: :: watches his alter-ego get pounded ::
CB: :: manages to get away from Misao :: She could always order another one off Ebay….? :: starts to glomp Aoshi but gets an evil look from Misao and hides behind him instead :: Yup, Battousai's definitely gonna regret killing Crystal's plushie by the looks of things…. :: evil laugh ::
Thank you Crystal!! *g*
Catrina3 ~ Hehe, thanks! Ooh, Halloween candy sounds really good right now ^_^ With something from Starbucks… *g* Yup, I'm hyper too, lol!
Crasyducky~ Lol, thanks! I've done that several times typing +_+
Cirya~ Long-time-no-see, eh? Er, not really, considering we see each other every day at school….Anyway, thank you!! (And BTW, that's why I called you Miss Thing-chan ^_~) Hmm…bokkens keep magically appearing for me *g* maybe it's a sign… :: heavenly music plays ::
CB: Misao'd better be nice to Sou-chan or Cirya won't let her have him back ^_^
::Both authors have evil grins ::
CB: Hey, since she has Soujiro now, Aoshi's free!
Cirya: …..
Lol, we have too much fun! Hey, wait a min., that isn't possible! ^_^ More like too much caffeine……and sugar…..
SilverLightning177 ~ Thank you! Hope ya liked them too ^_^
Arigatou!