A/N: Well I hope you enjoy this chapter and I hope you come back on Saturday for my next update, since that's the only day I really get to go on the internet. I got five others to share it with, and I can't wait for cable internet so that I can be on when ever I want.

Chapter Ten: The Past

Kirei charged at Kenshin first but found out that his speed was just as fast as her own and blocked the attack before vanishing from sight.

She jumped back trying to locate her target but it was too late when she heard his battle cry and came down on her. Bringing up her sword before he sliced through her, she was pushed back into the roof concrete from the impact.

Before her legs slipped Kenshin jumped back and sheathed his sword.

"How did you do that? I didn't even sense your ki," said Kirei as she walked over.

"You're too slow. Well you lasted longer than most with that technique. Now let's work on your speed," said Kenshin.

Kirei nodded and waited for Kenshin to charge at her.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

There was a large thud sound in Aoshi's office.

"Calm down Soujiro, our men are searching the whole area that Kaoru was in," said Misao.

"Shishio has my cousin and you expect me to be calm? They can use her against us," said Soujiro angrily; his smiles were long gone.

"Well you need to calm down first. You can't think straight if you're angry. I'm sure that she's all right. Kaoru is a strong girl," said Misao placing a hand on her childhood friend.

Soujiro calmed down a bit and nodded.

"Well at least let me go out there and help find her. My shoulder is fine, Dr. Genzai said that I could start practicing again," said Soujiro looking at his twin who was sitting in his seat in silence.

Aoshi only nodded, he was worried as well.

"Have Saitoh and Jineh found anything?" Asked Misao hopefully.

Aoshi only shook his head in dismay.

"Then what was the point of joining up with them again?" Asked Soujiro angrily, he really didn't like those two.

"But they have seen movement of Shishio's men. They said that his men were indeed spotted in Midnight Street. So at least we know that part of what that drug addict was true. The J.A.B. are also helping," said Aoshi as he closed his eyes.

"Then why don't we go there and find them, beat them to a pulp, and wait for one of them to spill the beans" said Soujiro.

"Aren't you usually the good one?" Asked Misao cocking an eyebrow at him.

Soujiro rolled his eyes at her.

"If you two really want to go, then get out of here," said Aoshi with a sigh, he had enough of their bickering for the last few days.

The two grinned before grabbing their swords and leaving their leader alone.

Sighing Aoshi went back to his paperwork.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kirei groaned as she fell onto the couch, she swore that he was going to kill her with that so-called training he was giving her. The last time she checked training wasn't so painful.

Kenshin came in with a grin as he locked the door behind him.

She had bruises all over that was healing quickly but the pain still lingered there.

"What did you do to Missy?" Asked Sano as he looked up from his bowl of Trix.

"Training," said Kenshin as he sat down in his favorite armchair.

"Training my ass. When did training involve beating up your students?" asked Kirei angrily as she sat up, but immediately regretted it as the pain came back.

She slumped back into her seat messaging her aching shoulders and the rest of her body.

"Go easy on the girl, she is only a novice after all," said Takasugi.

The other three assassins looked at him as if he had a lizard up his nose. Kirei was no novice.

Kirei was too busy trying to help ease her cramps to go and hit him for his insult.

"Well you better eat up Missy, you're going to go back up there and train with Kenshin again," said Sano with a sheepish grin.

"What!? I thought I was suppose to go with you," said Kirei, she didn't think that she could handle another session with the Battousai.

"Well you're pretty beat up right now and I don't want Cho all over you again. You're safer with him," said Sano as he pointed to Kenshin who was sitting in his chair with his eyes closed.

"I'd rather go up against him than him," said Kirei as she eyed Kenshin.

"It'll help you," said Sano.

Kirei's eye twitched.

"He won't kill you," said Sanosuke.

"Might as well with the way he's training me," whispered Kirei.

"You'll get use to it," said Takasugi who happened to be seated nearby.

"Stop eavesdropping," yelled Sano.

"Well you're talking so loud that who can't but hear it. We're all trained assassins here you know, do you think that the best of the assassins can't hear you?" asked Takasugi angrily.

Kirei paled at that but forced herself to look at Battousai who met her eyes with his cold amber ones. She was surprised they weren't burning like the color that they were showing. Then again there was a lot about him that she didn't understand.

"Well then you better eat up," said Enishi after making dinner and setting up.

Sano and Takasugi stopped arguing and rushed over to the food and practically inhaling it all.

Kirei sat to Kenshin's left as usual and hoped that he would forget what she said earlier and go easy on her.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kenshin walked on to the roof but didn't go into a stance like before, he walked over to the edge and leaned on it as his skilled eyes roamed the streets.

"...About that conversation with Sano... I" began Kirei but Kenshin cut her off with a hand signal for her to come over.

Kirei walked over and was awed by the sight of Tokyo. The lights, the sounds, the yells, and the people getting around.

"See that blue Toyota down there? How fast is it going?" asked Kenshin.

"...I would say 50-60 miles per hour," said Kirei.

"53 to be exact," said Kenshin as he moved back to the middle of the roof.

Kirei cocked a quizzical eyebrow at him before rushing over to him.

"How..." began Kirei.

"You need to train your eyes to see speed otherwise you won't be able to fight a powerful person that is truly trained to fight and eliminate. To do one thing, you must learn to do another," said Kenshin, his back to her.

"So how in the world do you see speed?" asked Kirei as she stood beside him.

"Humans you can sense it with their ki, while with objects like a car, you have to observe the cars around it and the objects too. That car was going below the 55 speed limit, and the car beside it was going right on it. They were apart by so much. You have to be able to focus on everything around the target. It'll come in handy," said Kenshin still not looking at her.

Kirei followed his amber gaze and found out that he was looking at a metal wall. She walked over to it and saw something that made her gasp. On it was a heart shape with some woman's name and his. Though there was a red cross between them in a darker blood like color.

She looked back at Kenshin who turned toward the city again.

Her curiosity was getting to her, but she knew that it was best not to ask.

Let me talk to him. Said Kanna from inside of her head.

Nodding Kirei closed her eyes and opened them to jade green ones.

Kanna walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. She closed her eyes and saw vague memories of the Tomoe character and of how he killed her.

She pulled away as if it burned her as she saw another scene, she stepped backwards away from him as tears filled her eyes, she desperately tried to blink them away.

Kenshin turned to her and was surprised to see that she was Kanna, but what made him angry was that she was crying; trying to hold it in.

He held onto her arms and forced her to look into his eyes.

"What's wrong? If you don't want to train then we can go back down to the apartment," said Kenshin, he didn't want to see her cry.

Kanna sniffled and wrapped her arms around his neck for a hug and cried into his shoulder, she cried for him and his cruel past.

Kenshin was in shock and didn't understand why she was crying, trying to comfort her he wrapped his arms around her as well. He moved his head to her neck as he took in her peaceful jasmine scent that seemed to calm his nerves.

She then pulled away and wiped away her tears with the back of her hand.

"I'm sorry," said Kanna as she tried to push away her tears to no prevail.

Kenshin smiled weakly at her as he cupped her face with his hands and wiped away her tears with his thumbs.

"Tell me what's wrong," said Kenshin coaxingly as he looked into her emerald eyes.

Kanna shook her head as more tears fell. She couldn't let him know, he'd get mad at her.

"You can tell me," said Kenshin as he kissed away her salty tears on her cheeks.

Her eyes fell to the metal wall, when he saw it he bent his head and stepped away.

The night breeze played with his hair as the moon cast a shining glow on him. Making him look even more handsome than before if that was possible.

His back was to her as he looked out into Tokyo again.

Kanna closed her eyes she felt terrible and then reopened them to an angry Kirei. She was mad that fate would give him such a cruel past and that the one person that he loved would go and betray him like that. He shouldn't feel bad for killing her, she deserved it for having an affair with the man that Kenshin was suppose to kill.

That Tomoe character didn't deserve his tears, she didn't deserve such a great person.

Kirei walked over as silently as she could and wrapped her arms around his neck from behind as her cheek brushed against his scar. The scar that Tomoe carved. She would do what she could to mend his soul again; that woman had made a bigger dent in him than any wound.

Kenshin held Kirei's hands, he looked up when blue spheres fell onto his hands. He stood up and faced an amber eyed Kirei with tears in her eyes.

"Why are you crying?" asked Kenshin carefully, he still had no clue that Kirei knew.

"For you," said Kirei in a whisper as she hugged him by his waist.

Her tears fell onto his chest as she let them fall for once in over 15 years. All that she kept in from her parents death to this. She let it all out as silently as she could.

Kenshin hugged her to him before pulling away and looking into her eyes.

"I'm not worth your tears. A warrior doesn't cry," said Kenshin with a weak smile as he brushed away her tears with his hands.

"She wasn't worth your tears," said Kirei as she felt her anger go up from the thought.

Kenshin was shocked, how did she know? Then he remembered Kanna, she had touched him earlier. Kanna had ESP. He lowered his head until his eyes were covered by his bangs.

"You shouldn't dig up the past," said Kenshin in a cold voice as he turned away from her.

"You shouldn't drown yourself in it," said Kirei as she moved to touch his shoulder but he moved away from her touch as if it burned.

"You've done enough today. Just go back in," said Kenshin not turning around.

"I'm not going to leave you alone. No one deserves to be alone," said Kirei defiantly.

"I said go back in," said Kenshin as he turned around and looked her in the eyes.

Kirei took a step back, not from his tone but from his eyes. His pupils had turned red.

"Kenshin... you're like me," said Kirei as she touched his face.

He slapped it away.

"I'm not Kenshin. I'm the Battousai. I was created after her death, like you were created after your parent's death. Now leave me alone," said Battousai as his red eyes bore into hers but she didn't move, she stared into their depths angrily.

"So that's why you hide behind that mask? Kaoru was able to over come it, why can't you do the same? So who's your other half, the half that I know has the same innocence as Kanna. I know that you're stronger than that, so why do you hide into the past? That happened in the past. So you lost two people that you loved, third time's a charm. You need to dust yourself off and try and again.

"I know that it hurt, but you have to know that you need to move on," said Kirei as she looked into his eyes but his emotions were hidden and guarded.

(A/N: His high school love was Enishi's sister, who in this fic wasn't Tomoe. I'll go into that later on in the future when Enishi goes after Shishio for revenge.)

He looked into her eyes that she gladly showed her emotions to him, hoping that he took the meaning more than one way.

"Just go back down there," said Battousai as he turned his back to her.

"I will not be ignored that easily," said Kirei angrily, she wasn't getting through to him and she would if it was the last thing she did.

"Can you not be difficult and just leave me alone?" asked Battousai angrily as he turned to her.

"No," said Kirei as she stared straight into his eyes defiantly.

"Don't make me change you back," said Battousai dangerously.

"She knows too, and I'm sure Kaoru won't give up that easily. You must know that she's the heart of the three of us. She has the stronger will to help others. You'll only make it harder for yourself," said Kirei.

"Then maybe I should end it now," said Battousai as he unsheathed his sword.

"You wouldn't," said Kirei as she faced him.

"Oh wouldn't I?" asked Battousai as he raised his sword above her.

Kirei stood there and looked into his red flames as his sword came down.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A/N: Cliffy! ^_^ I know I'm evil. It was short since I had to go school shopping and I wanted to get this done. So that will tell you that I'll be writing shorter chapters from now on, but I'll try to write longer ones. Though I'm trying to juggle three stories and only one week to write it all, then I have my own life to deal with. Well it isn't much of a life, but it's still makes me busy. So do forgive me now for short and weird chapters.

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