Disclaimer: Watsuki Nobuhiro and a whole lot of other people that do not include myself own Rurouni Kenshin. I'm just borrowing them because a character I came up with when I was nine started to jump up and down in my head insisting to be allowed to play with them. So please don't sue me. I'm broke. I am also repeating myself, again.

Summary: Kenshin's past comes back to haunt him and a new danger starts to hunt in Tokyo.

Rating: R.

Info: I'm sorry that this one was a little longer getting out and I'm afraid the next one will be even longer. I am trying to write action and I'm afraid that I am not all that good at it. My brain just seems to freeze up or shy away for it when I try to do it. Gomen.

A KILLING MOVE

By COLLEEN

Chapter 14a

Saitou Hajime arrived at the meeting place described in the letter, wondering if its writer would appear as promised. If so then tonight should see the murders game playing come to an end. Assuming, of course, that this wasn't more of a trap than it appeared to be.

Of course, Saitou had no intention of playing by the killer's rules. About the only one he would follow was the instruction to come alone. He had no fear of the murderer (or any man for that matter) and while the game player was proficient it was obvious that he had never gone up against a truly skilled fighter. Taking the man down shouldn't be a problem.

Saitou's mind swept the area for what his eyes could not see. *There he is,* he thought. The policeman pinpointed the presence of a very strong ki coming from the shadows on the other side of the open space.

"Let's get this over with," he said as he stepped out of the darkness and into the moonlight. He felt the other's ki flare at the same time he saw the shadow of a man jerk and step towards him.

Saitou had his hand on the hilt of his sword, preparing to draw, when his opponent stepped completely into the light. The wolf froze and although he didn't physically react internally Saitou's mouth dropped open and his eye's bugged out to three times their normal size. Standing there, looking as shocked as the policeman felt, stood Himura Battousai. For one impossible moment the wolf eyed samurai actually believed that the former hitokiri had completely lost it and was running around slicing up innocent citizens.

He dismissed the idea (regretfully), but he didn't relax his posture. Just because he suspected that the killer had decided increase the game's ante by including both of them in the contest didn't mean that Battousai had figured it out. He hoped he wouldn't have to beat some sense into the rurouni's skull. As much as he wanted a rematch against the smaller man he would be damned if he would do it for someone else's pleasure.

************

It took him a few moments of stunned silence but once Kenshin's mind started to work again he rejected any idea that Saitou was the killer. As much as the older man tended to rub him the wrong way the rurouni knew that he would never be the instigator of something as dishonourable as these games.

Besides, Kenshin had fought Saitou enough times to know the weight and feel of his ki. While the policeman was shielding a large part of it at the moment, so as not to give his true abilities away, compared to the killer's dark emptiness Saitou was a rush of heat and life.

"Saitou," Kenshin said, nodding to the other man as he did.

Battousai," Saitou said, nodding back.

Anou, did you receive the same letter I did?" Kenshin asked him.

"No doubt," Saitou told him, relaxing the smallest of bits. He swept the area with his mind again before continuing. "However, it appears our host is either late or not coming."

"I would not be to sure of that, that I would not." Kenshin told him. "When he left me my letter I didn't feel anything from him until he was a few feet from me and even then it still didn't feel like there was anything there."

Saitou cast a wary eye over the silent buildings again. "He was like Soujiro then?"

"Worse."

Saitou's eyebrows made for his hairline. "And his skill?"

Kenshin sighed, not really sure how to explain what had happened without including the ghost. If he described the scene without the attack against her then he would be giving Saitou an incomplete picture of the murderer's skills. That lack of information could be deadly, for both of them.

Choosing his words carefully he told Saitou that the killer had appeared, attacked a woman that Kenshin had been talking to, left a letter pinned to one of the dojo's support posts and disappeared, all before Kenshin could react. He also re-emphasised the fact that through it all he had not even felt a breath of the other man's ki, just emptiness.

"The woman, who was she and what happened to her? "Saitou asked him, curious that the rurouni hadn't mentioned her by name.

Kenshin hesitated a moment then said with all honesty, "She was the woman Hana saw standing over the body and.... she is dead."

Saitou nodded, hardly surprised. "Well, so much for that witness." He looked around again. "If this coward doesn't show up soon I'm going to go home like I plan erk......"

Both Kenshin's and Saitou's eyes went wide as a thin wire noose dropped over the lanky policeman's head. Saitou moved, managing to get his right hand between his neck and the wire before it could tighten completely. He was yanked off his feet and suspended a few inches above the ground.

Kenshin shifted into motion, reaching to draw his sword to cut the man down.

He didn't make it.

Instead he jerked back suddenly, needing the extra space to finish drawing his sakabatou in time to deflect the sword that came at him. The others blade did little more that caress his and then it was gone, laughter floating the air in it's wake. The killer came and went so fast that Kenshin, once again, couldn't even say what he looked like.

During this Saitou, not being someone who would wait to be saved, reached for the hilt of his sword with his left hand. Being a left handed swordsman who wore his weapon on a side made for a right-handed pull he had long ago learned to draw swiftly, even from such a poor angle.

Blade free it was but a moment's work to slash through the slender wire holding him up. He dropped the few inches to the ground and pulling the wire off over his head, flung the thin trap away from himself.

Saitou stared down at the band of blood that ran across his right hand where the wire had bit into his skin. A low growl rumbled in his throat, directed as much at himself for getting caught by such an attack as the attack itself. He flexed his hand to check its movement before looking up to see Battousai staring at him in concern.

Saitou snorted and waved off the other man's worry. "He's playing with us," the wolf said.

"Aa, well it is a game to him, that it is."

Saitou fought the urge to growl again. Much as he disliked the rurouni's words the man was right. Actually, now that he thought of it the fact that the killer wasn't really taking any of this seriously could work in their favour. It would hopefully make the man more prone to errors than someone who was determined to kill them.

"Did you receive a map to follow with your letter as I did?" Kenshin asked the police officer.

"Hn, no," Saitou said, his eyes narrowing as he realized what that implied. Obviously the killer hadn't expected him to survive long enough to need the map.

His mistake.

Kenshin handed his map to Saitou and kept an eye on their surroundings while the older man looked it over and committed it to memory.

"What's the prize for reaching the finish? He asked.

"Kaoru's safety."

Saitou shook his head. "You mean someone has taken your woman again?"

Kenshin felt anger spike through him and he found he was torn between the need to dispute the 'your woman' line and the desire to lay into Saitou with his sakabatou. The last image lighted his mood for a moment, but he shook it off. Right now was not the time for light moods or policeman thumping. "Iie, he merely threatened her with the same fate as the woman he attacked earlier."

"Good, then she won't be yelling out your name when we're trying to concentrate." Saitou said.

Kenshin glared at him and added another item to his 'pound on Saitou list'.

************

The watcher had been angry. No, he had been furious. How dare they. His meticulous plans had been destroyed and now lay in shredded ruin around him.

They were supposed to fight.

By now the Inspector should have been several bloody pieces of meat rather than the walking, talking annoyance that he still was. The only good thing that had happened was that he now knew for sure that the witness, the woman in the blue green kimono, was dead.

It was all their fault.

How was he supposed to know that the two men knew each other well enough not to fall into his trap? And how is it that a police inspector knows someone like Battousai that well anyway?

And why does Battousai keep calling Fugita Saitou?

The watcher shook off the inconvenient question. He wouldn't let this get to him. It was just a minor setback, one that he could use to his advantage. Testing that thought he set off one of the game's new traps.

It was beautiful.

He caught the inspector completely by surprise. The man who had dared to call him a coward ended up hanging in the air, gasping like a fish out of water. He would have liked to have sat back and enjoyed the man's struggles but Battousai actually raced to save him. The watcher put an end to that move but Fugita still managed to cut himself down before he took any serious damage.

Too bad.

Still, this would work out very well. If he couldn't have the two men fighting each other he could have them fighting to save each other. The watcher's face lit up in joy. Even if his opening gambit had fallen through he still had dozens of moves left to play.

So, which trap should he set off next?

************************************************************************

Chapter 14b

"Will you tell me how to touch him?" Zenko asked the ghost who ran at his side.

"Huh?" The Sea Green Lady blinked at the dead gangster in surprise. She had been rerunning the last conversation between her and Battousai and was now certain that the small swordsman had been lying to her. The killer had left something, most likely a letter, and Kenshin was obviously his latest prey.

"Will you tell me how to touch him?" Zenko asked again.

"You mean kill him, don't you?"

Zenko nodded. "Yeah, I guess I do. However, I think the others deserve to take a few chunks out of the guy first."

The dead gangster sped past the Sea Green Lady when she came to a sudden stop. He screeched to a halt a few steps later and looked back at her.

"What others?" She asked him, her voice almost deadly.

"Uh, ghosts," he said, sounding unsure of himself. "They've been trying to kill the guy for sometime now. I was able to talk to a couple of them, even though most of them are kind of black and smudgy." He paused in thought for a moment. "I guess they're kind of losing it."

The Sea Green Lady nodded, thinking that even talking in such a powerless form would take a lot out of a ghost. Unless of course they pooled their power and picked someone as spokesman. "How many of them were there? She asked this, figuring that there were probably a few kills that the police hadn't found.

"Um, I think they said forty-seven." Zenko told her.

The dead girl stared at him in stunned silence. Zenko just shrugged his shoulders and stared back at her sadly.

"We should get going before that asshole manages to add to that number." Zenko said as he moved past her. The Sea Green Lady stared at his departing back for a few moments before moving to follow him.

"Zenko," she said as she pulled abreast of him.

"Yeah?"

"Listen carefully," and as they moved towards their destination she explained to the gangster what he would need to know.

End of Chapter 14

Authors note: You know I really had intended for Kenshin and Saitou to mistake each other as the killer and fight it out a little. However, I suddenly found two blade points at my throat and two ticked off people with yellow eyes explaining all the reasons why they would not be that stupid (such as Kenshin would know Saitou's ki, some of the murders happened while they where busy in Kyoto etc.). So, realizing that they were right (and valuing my head) that's the way I wrote it (so please put away those swords guys).