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.

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

Spoiler alert: Spoilers for the Kyoto arc and Revenge arc. Possibly spoilers for other stories as well.

Rating: R, swearing, death, murder, blood and all around nastiness.

Authors note: Here, finally, is the next chapter to A Killing Move. It was written over such a long period of time that I hope it's alright.

A KILLING MOVE

By COLLEEN

Chapter 18

The tall policeman violently yanked open the same door to the same warehouse that Kenshin had recently cut the lock from. Saitou was, to say the least, pissed. Not only had splitting up not gotten him anything more than a mere brush of contact with the killer but he'd picked up some unwanted baggage in the process.

"Inspector Fujita san?" A timid voice from behind him asked when the policeman didn't immediately enter after opening the door.

Saitou closed his eyes against the headache that lurked in the recesses of his skull and answered the young man. "Yes Constable Yoshitomi?" The older man looked back at the boy who had been following him puppy dog like for the last few minutes.

"Ah, nothing."

Saitou narrowed his eyes at the look of trust that bordered on hero worship stamped on the young man's face. The lanky policeman suppressed a sigh. While it was good to see that level of faith amongst his men the boy gave his far too blindly. Even worse he had apparently lost the fear and caution he'd once had of his commanding officer. It was a wonder he had managed to last in the police force as long as he had. Saitou gave a little mental shake of his head and decided to worry about the constable another time. He had more important things to trouble his mind with at the moment.

The wolf could feel that Battousai had beaten him to the site but that hardly mattered, unless of course he had already set off another trap. Saitou smirked at the thought but upon entered the warehouse found Battousai standing in the middle of the cavernous room, safe and sound. The policeman was just about to signal to the other samurai when a blast of ki rocked him back hard enough that he banged into the constable behind him, knocking the boy to the ground.

Saitou blinked and shook his head to free it from the after images that the release of battle ki had induced and looked up to find Battousai still standing in the middle of the storage building. For the first time the wolf noticed that the hitokiri was staring at a piece of blue material that he held in his hands as if were about to shape shift into something truly terrifying. Saitou assumed that the material was the last flag to be collected in this psycho's excuse for a game but why the hell was he reacting to it like that?

"Where is she?" Himura asked, still staring at the cloth. The policeman cocked an eyebrow towards the younger man.

"Where is who?"

"Kaoru, this ribbon is hers, she was wearing it tonight," Kenshin said, lifting the piece of blue cloth for emphasis.

Saitou shook his head. So the tanuki had gotten herself in the middle of this after all. "How the hell should I know where she is?"

Himura blinked and looked directly at Saitou, startled. "Saitou move, I wasn't talking to you," he yelled while looking off to the side and slightly behind the other samurai.

Saitou was about to ask him just who the hell he thought he was talking to when he heard a wry chuckle from behind him as the young constable stood up. The fluttering ki that had identified the nervous but trusting officer dissolved, giving way to an emptiness so dark and complete that it seemed to pull at what little heat and light there was to be had in the building. Saitou's eyes shot wide and he turned, reaching for his sword as he did.

It was one of the few times in his life he was too slow.

A flash of movement preceded a blinding pain to one temple that darkened his world and dropped him to the ground like an improperly secured bed sheet falling from a drying pole.

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

In the moments before Saitou entered the warehouse Kenshin fought a battle with himself that he thought he had won weeks ago in Kyoto.

Battousai wanted out.

Ever since he'd come back to Tokyo to the combined problems of the ghost of a young woman he'd killed by accident during the Bakumatsu and a killer that hunted for sport he had suspected that the part of him he'd hoped never to see again was still with him. Even though he'd learned how to fight without becoming Battousai it was obvious that the piece of him that had lived balanced on a sword blade was not willing to step aside and let the rurouni handle some things.

And apparently Kaoru being placed in danger because of him was one of them.

As Kenshin fought to keep his other nature from overwhelming him the struggle released a blast of battle ki that blew through the building hitting the two men that had just entered. The discharge bounced back from their ki to his. One was familiar and was probably Saitou but he ignored it when he recognised the emptiness that lurked behind the shell of the other and identified him as the man who had attacked The Sea Green Lady earlier this evening. The man who now had Kaoru in his clutches.

Himura, placing his attention on the killer didn't even realize that Saitou was in danger until it was too late and had stood frozen for the moment that it took the policeman to fall. Then he burst into movement. He drew his blade and travelled the distance between the killer and where he had stood in the time that it usually took him just to draw. It still wasn't fast enough.

The killer met his strike with a block that seemed to taunt Kenshin with its ease. This close the young man's once pleasant continence had twisted into its true form and Kenshin felt almost physically ill just looking at him. He had never seen delight made into something at once so perverted and yet so empty.

The two swordsmen pushed away from each other, one covering his worry with a glare, the other seemingly amused. "I am impressed. Not only are you fast but you even saw through to the real me, even he didn't manage to do that," the killer said, giving a nod towards Saitou's body on the ground.

"Where is she?" Kenshin asked again, this time through gritted teeth.

"Ah, ah, ah, you only get the prize if you win the game."

Himura snarled. "This isn't a game."

The killer's smile seemed to falter for a moment as if at something he saw in Kenshin's eyes but whatever it was he quickly shook it off and his surface amusement seemed to double in volume. "Of course it's a game, you don't think that you're here for any other reason do you?"

Kenshin looked at him with a mixture of repulsion and shock, realizing that the boy didn't mean that he was here in the warehouse for the game. The player's mind was so twisted that he truly believed that the people he had fought and killed had been created just for his own amusement. To him the lives that he destroyed were nothing more than little jade pieces on a board for him to move and lose at his whim.

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

He had been having so much fun following Inspector Fujita around that he really ought to be angry with Battousai. Knowing that he could have struck down and killed his commanding officer at any moment had kept him amused the entire way over here. Still, he was impressed that the manslayer had known him for who he was and besides he had wanted to save the inspector for later.

Battousai's speed was astounding; he'd actually had to work to make the block look effortless. No, this fight wasn't to be missed and Battousai's reactions were wonderful. The anger, the snarling....

The violet of his eyes being eaten away at by a vicious yellow?

No, he must have imagined that for in the next moment they snapped back to a dark blue. Not quite the colour they usually were, but then they did seem to shift with strong emotion.

Nice to know he was the cause of it.

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

Zenko launched himself at the little shit that had killed him, not wanting to wait around for the redhead to try his luck against him. The shrimp wouldn't have much of a chance anyway, especially as the larger guy had already fallen. Unfortunately for all involved the gangster's attack was undisciplined, his lessons forgotten in the heat of the moment. He wasted his energy taking a few swings at the killer, swearing when his fists passed through the psycho without so much as displacing a hair on his head.

Backing off he let his anger rage through him as he worked to focus his emotions and thoughts as a tangible force.

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

The Sea Green Lady stood in stunned horror as the two swordsmen crossed blades. Shocked she continued to watch as they pulled back, talked and then clashed again, swords straining against each other, determination etched onto one swordsman's face, and a glee so dark it made her sick to look at it on the other's.

She was so dazed at the sudden turn of events she didn't even have the presence of mind to move out of their way when the fight brought them up against and then through her. She shook herself, the feeling of hot human flesh disconcerting enough to snap her back to reality and turn her from the fight to the body of the policeman on the floor.

The low powered ghosts that usually followed the game player were acting strangely. Instead of surrounding their killer they swarmed around the fallen policeman in an angry cloud. She approached them carefully and was thankful when they quickly backed away from him at her arrival. She bent over him, expecting by their actions to find him dead only to give a surprised sigh of relief at the regular rise and fall of the policeman's chest as he breathed. The killer had merely used the hilt of his sword to stun Saitou with a blow to the head. For some reason he wanted to keep the police officer alive, which was lucky for the cop.

But that didn't explain why the other ghosts were so angry.

********

Trapped between the thin layer that separates a person from being conscious and unconscious, Saitou's first incomplete thought was that he must have been hit harder than he'd ever been hit before in his life. At least he hoped it was the head wound that was producing the auditory hallucinations and the start of what would no doubt be a blinding headache once he woke up completely. Of the two problems the voices were the more worrisome as he had expected the headache.

They were hard to hold onto, those voices. The sounds of two swords locked in tortuous battle would occasionally drowned them out even though the fight was several metres away from him and the voices (of which there were many) were closer. In fact their owners appeared to be standing over him. Still, it was if they were two steps out of his reality and in truth if he hadn't been their current subject of discussion he might have stopped listening to them all together.

Unable to do anything but give them his full attention it didn't take long for the voices to annoy him. That all of them were lamenting the fact that he wasn't dead probably had something to do with it, especially after they started to wail in unison at the unfairness of his being alive. The noise rose and soon reached a peak where it threatened to drown out the fight across the room.

Which was why it was so surprising when it stopped.

He had the sensation of many people moving around him and then someone bent over him. There was a quick, almost surprised sigh of relief from the person before all the voices started up again. Impossible to follow they seemed to rail at the air, all of them trying to say different things at the same time.

The second silence wasn't as surprising as the first.

"What were you doing?"

Saitou wasn't sure why but he would have sworn on his life that the female voice that had just asked the question was the same one that had sighed in relief at finding him alive. He was also certain that the voice wasn't talking to him.

The other voices all tried to answer at once, falling silent again after a moment. During the latest quiet Saitou had the feeling that they were choosing a spokesman from amongst themselves. Then a single answering voice proved him right.

"We need him, or the other one, but we need one of them soon."

The voice was high pitched, but unlike the questioner it was not female. Saitou was certain that if he could have opened his eye to see the speakers that he would have found one of them to be a young male, not yet of age.

"Why do you need one of them?"

"One more death at his hands and we will have enough power to stop him."

Saitou snorted to himself. As much as he wanted to stop the young constable, preferably by wringing his neck, he wasn't prepared to die for the chance to do so. He was quiet certain that he could do that and continue to be alive as well.

********

If Kenshin hadn't been worried for Kaoru, if he didn't need to keep this idiot alive to find her, then this fight would have ended long ago.

Startled, Kenshin roughly shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind. If he was already thinking about, even preparing to kill then Battousai was closer to the surface then he had realized.

And he didn't need him for this fight. Despite his fear for Kaoru and his inability to use Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu to reliably read the killers moves he was just able to keep up with the young man. The boy was good but nothing like Soujiro had been. Unlike the Tenken the constable obviously hadn't left much of his strength in reserve and what Kenshin was fighting was about all the killer could muster. The constable was a remarkable swordsman in short bursts which would normally be all he needed but the longer he had to fight the more likely he would be to make a mistake out of either arrogance or exhaustion.

Once that happened Kenshin would drop the killer to the floor and get him to tell him where Kaoru was.

Even if he had to cut the location out of him.

End of Chapter 18