A.N: Gomen nasai for taking forever before posting this next chapter. Too much work at school and of course the holidays took up most of my time. But I will not leave this fic even if it takes me forever. (I hope not). Thank you very much for those people who still stayed reading my fic.

Joey – Thanks for the email about Tomoe. I really love your ideas and well, thanks for the support! ^_^

Kamimura Kaoru – This is definitely kxk and thanks for following my story!

Sky fire – I'm glad you like it when Kaoru kicks vampire ass. I like those parts too.

Dark fairy – Thanks! Sorry if I didn't update sooner.

Omochi – haven't thought of that burning Tomoe thing. Oh well… ^_^

Deadlyangel – I glad you found it after asking me for about five times how to find it.

Dragowolf – sessha doesn't want dragowolf to be mad at her and she thanks dragowolf for liking her fic.

Red – I will keep writing. Promise.

Chapter 6: Kill me

Kaoru was too stunned to do anything. Tomoe. Kenshin's wife. Kenshin's DEAD wife. But still, here she is. Kaoru looked at Kenshin's face, looking straight at the woman.

"What's going on here?" Kaoru found herself asking aloud.

Taka smirked, and then turned to Tomoe. The other vampires released their hold on their Kenshin, Sano, and Aoshi to fall on their knees like the others.

"Come, my queen. I'll introduce you to our guests." Taka said, but when he held out his hand, Tomoe ran to Kenshin.

Kenshin felt like he finally lost his mind. He doesn't know what to do as his scared ex-wife hid behind him. His mind was a jumble of questions, memories and emotions. It's too much. It's just too much.

Everyone was taken aback by Tomoe's reaction, even Taka.

"Something is very wrong." Taka hissed, looking at Tomoe suspiciously.

"I guess you lost your queen, vampire." Sano growled, cracking his knuckles. "Now, it's payback time."

Megumi ran to him when he was about to attack the nearest vampire from him. "Be careful Sano! You can't kill them remember?"

Aoshi was at Misao's side the moment he's been freed. "I bet the people who could kill them are the three of you, right?"

"Well, yes." Misao said. "But only Kaoru has a dagger now. The things that we need to kill the vampires."

Aoshi took out the dagger and gave it to Misao. "I thought you might need it."

Taka suddenly spoke. "You are not the queen. It is not the queen's spirit that's in the body. But it would not be long until the real queen would come to take over." He turned to the other vampires. "Get the queen's body back and kill them all." He ordered then turned back to the cave.

"Jou-chan! We'll help you fight these vampires." Sano yelled, already punching the nearest vampire.

Misao and Aoshi joined in the fight, while Sano protected Megumi behind him.

Kaoru nodded and bolt into action. The first thing in her mind is to protect Kenshin because the so-called queen is clinging to him. She'll deal with this Tomoe thing later. She has to fight now.

Kenshin pulled out his sword. Although his mind was till not working properly, his fighting instincts kicked in by the time he saw the vampires start to attack. And even if he still doesn't believe it, Tomoe is behind him and needs protecting.

A fairly large vampire was coming their way, his sharp fangs showing. When he was at the sakabatou's reach Kenshin slashed him. The vampire moaned in pain but it was short lived. The mark made by Kenshin's sword was healing quickly and he was on then again. Having no other choice, Kenshin flipped his sword to use the sharper edge but it was till useless.

"Only the Vampire Slayer could kill the vampires." Tomoe whispered behind him.

Kenshin was startled to hear Tomoe's voice again after almost twelve years. The vampire that was attacking them suddenly froze and then his body turned to duat and disappeared in thin air. With that he saw Kaoru, still holding the dagger she used to kill the vampire. Their eyes met. Then something caught his eyes.

"Kaoru! Behind you!" he yelled.

Kaoru felt someone grabbed her arms from behind. Breaking free of his lame grip took only minimal effort. She shot her leg out to his face with a lightning-swift side kick, sending the vampire to smack at a nearby tree. When he dizzily walked back to Kaoru, she struck the dagger at his gut and he disappeared  into dust. Another one came running at her. He lunged for her hips, she swiftly grabbing him by the collar of his gi and slamming his head down on her knee. He let out a whimper as she ended his existence with her dagger. The next vampire surprised her with a good uppercut on her chin that snapped back her neck. Pain surged through her body. But she was not that easy to take down. She grabbed his wrist and twisted it in an inhuman direction. He cried in pain. She flipped his entire body on its back, sending his fat frame crashing against the ground. And she ended it with a thrust of her dagger.

Kenshin watched Kaoru fight. The idea of her being the Slayer was already sinking n. He can't believe that the girl he was seeing right now is the same Kaoru he met a couple of years ago, his cheerful, kind, strong, insightful and most of the time hot-tempered Kaoru. But there are still questions left unanswered like, how could he not know the she could fight like that? Why didn't she use that skill when they were dealing with their past enemies? And what about Tomoe? Kenshin felt suddenly guilt creep in. Here is his scared wife, hiding behind him while he's thinking about another woman. But how could he ignore the emotions he saw in Kaoru's eyes just for a few seconds? Fear, love and sadness…

The walk back to the dojo was a quiet one. Kenshin was in the lead, gently guiding Tomoe beside him. They're followed by Aoshi and Misao and then by Kaoru, Sano and Megumi. Kaoru tried not to look at Kenshin for it hurts to see him holding another woman, even though it is his wife.

They found Yahiko, Tsubame and Chris waiting for them at the front porch.

Sano growled and lunged at Chris. "This is your entire fault! Why didn't you tell us your true intentions! They could've been killed!"

Megumi was quick to grabbed Sano's arm before he reached the man. "Sano, please!"

Chris took a step back to be out of Sano's reach but is fully aware of the other two dangerous men glaring at him. "I'm sorry, but the council's order is not to let anyone else know about this. No one should know the Slayer's identity."

"Council?" Aoshi asked his icy blue eyes still glaring at Chris.

Kenshin took a deep breath to bring back his senses. "Let's go inside so everyone could explain better."

When they all settled in, Chris started to explain his purpose to find and train the Vampire Slayers because of the rise of the vampires. The council is an organization in England which takes control of the vampires to stop any outbreaks but this situation calls for the slayers.

Tomoe was the next to explain her sudden appearance. "My soul was disturbed by these evil forces. I don't know how they got my body but they're going to use it to bring back Yue, the Queen of Vampires. You see, Yue is a useless vampire spirit if she doesn't have a body , so they preserved mine for her to take after she gathered enough power. I will never be at peace when this happens so I asked the authorities who has the power to bring me back to at least delay Yue's coming."

"Delay?" Misao asked.

"Yue, cannot be stopped. She's too powerful. Only the Slayer," she looked at Kaoru. "could defeat her."      

"I-I can't." Kaoru whispered. "I can't even defeat Taka."

"Not without the Slayer's Sword, right?" Yahiko suddenly said, startling everyone except Chris and Tsubame.

"H-How did you know?" Megumi asked.

Yahiko tuned to Tsubame. She took something behind her and showed them a sword with weird writings on the sheath.

Tsubame shyly spoke. "When I heard about the vampires at the Akabeko, I remembered my mother's story about this sword being passed in our family for generations. She told me that it is not used for killing people but killing evil particularly vampires. I thought that maybe you could use it since Yahiko told me that you've been hunting vampires. And then Chris-san came up and told us that this is the Slayer's Sword that they've been looking for."

Kenshin took the sword, aware of its slight heaviness than his sakabatou. He took it out of its sheath and admired the gleaming blade of it. He put it back in its sheath and handed it to Kaoru, who's been being quiet for quite a while. "I think this belongs to you."

With shaking fingers, Kaoru took the Slayer's Sword from Kenshin. By the moment she held it, she felt warmth seeped through her body from the sword. She touched the foreign writings of the sheath. Unlike Kenshin, the sword didn't felt heavy which was weird since she only have her bokken when training and fighting but this sword felt just right.

The following morning Kenshin found Tomoe making breakfast at the kitchen. Even after the events last night, when he woke up that day he has the mind to think that it was just some weird dream, but seeing Tomoe here the dream was very real.

"Good morning, Kenshin." Tomoe greeted.

"Good morning." Kenshin quietly answered.

Tomoe put Kenshin's tray before him for breakfast and then kneeled in front of him. "Kenshin, I know you have a lot in your mind and I've wanted to talk to you privately."

"Tomoe…" Kenshin started but the bitter memories made speaking difficult. "I-I know after everything that I did to you I do not deserve your forgiveness. I took your happiness… your life…"

"Kenshin…"

"No, please let me finish." Kenshin choked feeling his eyes sting as tears threatens to fall. "You gave me a glimpse of peace. How it is to be happy and to be loved. And what did I give you? Sufferings, pain. I'm so sorry Tomoe. If I've known…"

"But you didn't know." Tomoe said softly. "It wasn't your fault. I was the one who betrayed you, didn't I? It should be me asking for forgiveness."

Kenshin looked up to see Tomoe's watery eyes. "I should hate you for killing my fiancée then but I can't. You know why? Because you're not the monster I thought you to be. You're human, who can fell pain and deserves to be happy and the peace you have fought for. You didn't have the heart of a hitokiri, you have a kind heart. Don't put yourself down, because the more you hurt yourself, the people who loves you feels the pain too. Including me."

"I don't want to hurt everyone I love." Kenshin whispered.

"Then don't. Start by loving yourself." Then there was a long silence between them. There are still subjects left unspoken, like the certain Kamiya Kasshin Ryu instructor.

"Tomoe, there' something I want to tell you.—" Kenshin started but Tomoe cut in.

"It's Kaoru, isn't it?" she asked, smiling. "I know that you love her Kenshin. Probably more than you loved me. Why are you hesitating? It's time to move on. It's not good to dwell on the past, when you still have your future. She will not wait forever you know."

Kenshin started to smile. It feels like a heavy load was finally taken off his shoulder. But it changed when he noticed Tomoe frowned a bit.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"It's this situation. I didn't tell you all my real mission here why I came back and what I should do." Tomoe said.

"What should you do?"

Tomoe met Kenshin's eyes. "I have to convince the Vampire Slayer, Kaoru, to kill me now before the real queen comes back."

Kenshin gasped. Kill her? By Kaoru? Kaoru would never do such a thing. The vampires are different, but killing Tomoe would be unbearable. "I-I don't know if that's possible."

"You have to convince her to kill me." Tomoe said grabbing Kenshin's gi.

"Good morning, Ke-" Kaoru suddenly walked in the kitchen startled of seeing Tomoe and Kenshin alone. Together. "I'm sorry for barging in. I'll come back later." Kaoru walked away from the scene.

"Kaoru!" Kenshin called back but Kaoru was already gone.

"I'm sorry. It seems like I'm causing some trouble here." Tomoe apologized. "Don't worry I'll talk to her later. I have to tell her my real purpose."

Tomoe was on her way outside when Sano and Yahiko came in.

"Tomoe."  Kenshin called. Tomoe turned to him. "Thank you." He said sincerely. Tomoe just smiled and bowed.

Kaoru went straight to the dojo after the scene she saw at the kitchen. She sat at the corner, hugged her knees and cried quietly. Is Kenshin going to leave her now that Tomoe is here again? Will she loose the man she loves more than anything? "Kenshin…"

She heard someone entered the dojo. Quickly, she dried her tears and look up at the person. It was Tomoe. "Tomoe-san," she forced a smile. "What can I do for you?"

Tomoe sat beside her. They sat there for a few minutes without anyone talking. Kaoru was dreading if Tomoe's here to tell her that she and Kenshin will be leaving soon. Until, suddenly Tomoe spoke.

"Kenshin loves you so much, you know." Tomoe said.

"You don't know that."

"I know. You're just not sure. Kenshin needs you, he sees the reason of his existence in you." Tomoe said. "You're his reason to continue living."

And now you've come to take him away. He loves you Tomoe. Please, don't try to make things easy for me cause it won't. Kaoru thought.

"Kaoru-san –"

"Just say what you really need to say and leave me alone." Kaoru snapped. Just say you have to leave… and Kenshin is coming with you. I don't want to hear anymore.

Tomoe stopped talking for a few minutes. Taken aback by what Kaoru said. She lowered her head and told her real purpose of coming back. "You have to kill me before the real queen comes back."

 The sound of bokken falling on the wooden floor of the dojo came. Both women saw Yahiko standing at the entrance of the dojo. It looks like he heard the last sentence of Tomoe.

Kaoru wasn't expecting Tomoe's request but she already know the answer to that and she was filled with rage that Tomoe even suggested a thing like that. She was a little pissed at Tomoe for taking Kenshin but that doesn't mean she would kill her. She has only one answer to Tomoe's request.

"Never."

To be continued…

Reviews are very much appreciated, de gozaru.