A.N: Gomen nasai minna…sorry for not being to write this story for a long time…but…BEHOLD! I HAVE UPDATED!
Arashi: You got what you want with Sano…read carefully…props to you for the idea!
*Chibi-Sano* Make it go BOOM!
Chapter Nine
Kaoru desperately attempted to cover the sounds coming from Megumi's room. Her stereo was turned up loud, blasting out sounds from L'arc en ciel. She was glad all the rooms were more soundproof than a usual house, or else Saitou would have had her neck in an instant. However, as loud as her music was, they still failed to cover the sounds coming from the other room.
"Sano…" a moan came through the wall again. Kaoru growled in frustration and threw her pen down. Attempting to do an outline for her paper was not working under this kind of environment. Checking the clock, she found it to be a bit after nine. She needed to get out of the house…now. Megumi and Sanosuke were driving her insane.
Grabbing her coat, she left the house and walked towards the closest street with a coffee shop. Kaoru was one of those odd types of people who were not too affected by coffee. Every since she was twelve, one cup of coffee, and in fifteen minutes she could be fast a sleep. Then again, it was probably because she was not a heavy coffee drinker, opting for the light mochas and frappachino's instead. Outside, the night air was chilled. Kaoru slipped her bare hands inside her lined pockets. "Damnit, I should have bought gloves."
She reached a main street and found Starbucks still open. She opened the door and was greeted by the warm smell of brewing coffee.
"Hi, how can I help you miss?" the woman at the counter asked with a smile.
"Tall white mocha."
"That will be three dollars and seventy-four cents."
"I'll get that for her," a smooth voice answered behind her, "Cappuccino please, grande."
"Kenshin?" Kaoru asked as she turned her head slightly to see the mysterious person who had just paid for her drink.
"Good evening Kaoru," he replied as he pulled out his wallet, paying for the two drinks. "What brings you here so late at night?"
"Couldn't concentrate."
"I see. I hope it wasn't because a colleague of mine has been too disruptive," the red-head replied with a knowing smile.
"Umm…that too," the girl replied sheepishly as she retrieved her drink.
Kenshin placed a lid on his cappuccino and turned around. "Would you like to join me tonight for coffee? I'm sorry it's a bit late to ask."
"It's all right, I would love to."
Since it was late, the seats in the coffee shop were fairly empty. The couple opted for the couch close to the fireplace. Kaoru wrapped both hands around the cup, in an effort to warm her hands as she stared into the fire.
"It's getting quite cold around here isn't it?" Kenshin murmured to no one in particular. "Though not as cold as the East Coast though."
"You lived there before?" Kaoru asked.
He smiled softly, "A long time ago."
The two were silent again, both just content to sip their coffee in peace. Fifteen minutes passed by, and the coffee had been finished. The fire was still roaring, and had warmed the two young adults completely. Not a word had been said, just the two enjoying each other's quiet warm. "I think I should go now," Kaoru whispered, moments later, "thank you for your company."
"I wasn't much company though," the red-head replied with a soft smile, warmth dancing in his violet eyes.
"No, you were more than I've had in a long time."
"Would you like me to walk you home? I could pick up Sano so he won't disturb the rest of your house for the night."
"That would be appreciated," Kaoru replied as she got up to throw both their coffee cups away. Kenshin helped put on her coat, and then the two walked out of the coffee store.
The air was once again bitter cold in the night. Kaoru shivered slightly as she shoved her hands into her pockets once again. "Cold?" Kenshin murmured, watching the girl.
The raven-haired girl turned her head. "I'm okay, thanks."
"You sure?" he asked before unwrapping the scarf around his neck, and then wrapping it around hers. "Don't want you to catch a cold. Shishou wouldn't be too happy for a bright student to miss his class."
"The man is a dictator."
"Hey, I live with that man."
"You do?" Kaoru stopped and thought to herself for a moment. "Of course you do…sorry, I'm pretty much an idiot when I don't sleep."
"Sort of not really. We work for whoever you work for."
She nodded as they turned a corner and began to enter the neighbourhood. "So…tell me, what's it like doing your job?"
"Which one? T.A? Or…"
"The other one."
"Don't you do the same thing?"
"No. Apparently you do the dirty work. We just gather the information for you, or somehow hurt someone to obtain the information. We are the intelligence team that works along side you, just never have been introduced until now."
"Ahhh…I see."
"You guys get all the fun with blowing stuff up…"
"Oh no…demolition expert is Sano, he has fun with his explosives and what not." Kenshin paused for a moment. "Actually our work is not that fun," he continued in a softer hushed tone, "Sometimes it's difficult…"
Suddenly the assassin froze in his spot, cutting off his sentence and grabbing Kaoru's hand to make her stay. Something just changed drastically in the air to the right. Kenshin looked towards the direction and found himself staring into a pitch black alleyway. Kaoru tugged on his sleeve. "Your grip is too tight."
"Sorry," he mumbled as he continued to stare into the dark street, however he did not let go of her wrist. Kenshin turned his head slightly, straining to hear any sound coming from the path, but he heard nothing. Then a sudden clatter emitted from the darkness, the distinct sound of metal hitting the floor.
Kaoru's eyes widened as she realized what had just happened. "Kenshin…"
Grabbing his cell phone he quickly dialled a few numbers, then he flipped his phone shut.
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A buzzing was felt in Aoshi's khaki pocket, and the man unwound an arm around the younger girl was holding. He flipped open the phone and scanned the screen.
"Aoshi…what…" Misao tried to say, but she was cut off.
"Something just came up," he gently picked her up and put her back on her seat next to him. "I'm driving you home."
"What's going on?"
"Kenshin's found something. He needs backup."
"It's fine I can go with you."
"No you won't, it's too dangerous."
"I have been through worse."
"You are going home."
"But…"
"You are not accustomed to such work. I know what you girls do. It is quite different from ours. I don't want you to fall into any form of danger."
"But Aoshi…"
"Don't argue with me, this is not the time."
Misao glared at the man through the corner of her eyes. "You're treating me like a child."
Pulling over to her house he turned his head and looked at her. "I don't want to put you into any danger."
"You won't."
"No," he replied firmly.
"Stop being over protective!"
"There is no such thing as being over protective when you are working in this field," the raven-haired man said softly. "Now be good and go."
"What about what happened earlier? What if that guy shows up?"
Aoshi inwardly smiled at her concern. "I will be fine. Now go." Casting one last glance at the man, Misao got out of the car.
The girl watched the car speed off in another direction and sighed to herself. Shinomori Aoshi, such an intriguing man. She remembered him well from the past as her Okashira. He was tall and always seemed so graceful, but only when he was wielding his twin kodachis. Other times he seemed awkward, and too serious for his young age. Who would have thought this boy would have grown to be so beautiful. She found herself to be attracted to this stoic and cold person during their first mission together, and today's encounter only strengthened this attraction.
"Mysterious and gorgeous, what a nice combination," Misao thought dreamily. Then her mind wondered to what had happened after he received his message on his phone, and she stared down the street that Aoshi had quickly departed on.
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Silent footsteps to others were not nearly silent enough to be missed by the red-head that stood at the opening of a dark alley, one hand firmly clasped around a girl's delicate wrist.
"Catch," a soft voice replied.
A sword was thrown to Kenshin and he caught it smoothly with his free hand. "Kaoru, I want you to go to Aoshi's car and stay there, have the lights off and the doors locked." He pressed a small object into her hand. "When we arrive near the car I will give you a call. Anyone else that knocks or tries to get in, just drive away."
"Are you going to be okay?"
"Hai, I'll be fine, do not worry about me," he whispered before letting her hand go. She walked past Aoshi who handed her the car keys. Seeing she was a good distance off, Kenshin nodded his head once towards the alley.
The atmosphere was dead silent as the two men proceeded into the dark alley. The two assassins were used to lurking around in the shadows, thus their eyes easily getting use to having the half moon as the only source of light. They reached a dead end and found two paths branching out. The two men stood completely still, until a few seconds the sound of soft footsteps were coming towards them. Aoshi's head turned to the left and he moved himself closer to the darkened area, grabbing Kenshin's shoulder to quickly pull him back as well.
Strangely enough, an area on that path had distinct moonlight streaming down to meet the cement pavement, as if acting like a spotlight. There seemed to be an object lying just behind, in the shadows of that beam of light. More footsteps were heard as Aoshi and Kenshin waited to see if a person would come into visibly view. It seems that the person was walking around in circles, around the object lying on the ground.
Soon a tall figure came into the light. Dressed in dark, elegant evening men's wear was Daylin Locke.
Somehow the raven-haired man was not surprised.
The perfectly built film star took out a sword that he was holding behind his back with one hand. Blood could be seen on the cutting edge of the blade. Daylin brought the sword up and licked the crimson liquid once. Looking up, a strange small smile graced his graceful features. "Come out wherever you are, my beautiful dark angel. I know you're there. Your pretty little red-headed friend as well."
The two men did not move from their spot.
"My angel, I have a present for you lying here."
Aoshi and Kenshin glanced at each other. The smaller man shook his head, keeping a hand on Aoshi to keep him at bay. They knew that Daylin had probably killed something, or someone.
The blond hair man licked his lips slowly, to get rid of the small amount of blood at the corner of his mouth. "I'm pretty your present wants to see you…she's quite anxious. She tastes quite lovely as well."
Aoshi stepped into view with Kenshin beside him.
"Aoshi…you're here, just as a thought," the man said in a sickly sweet voice. "I think you're attracted to me, since we keep meeting so frequently."
The raven-haired man ignored the comment, "What the hell did you do this time?"
"Oh nothing, just got rid of a piece of
trash that has been bothering me for some time, that's all," Daylin replied
with a haphazard shrug. He stepped
aside and swept a hand towards the figure lying on the ground. "Would you like to see?"
Kenshin was the first to step closer. His eyes were now amber as he carefully walked over. Just standing outside of the streaming moonlight, he was able to see what was lying on the ground. Unfortunately, it was not something he needed to see. There, strewn on the floor was a young woman's mutilated body. Blood pooled around her, soaking into her clothes and dying them a deep red.
"She was truly an annoying woman. Yes, all powerful and quite pretty, but there is no one that is my equal match," Daylin said. "So you see Aoshi, you should not run from me either. She tried to, stupid girl. But at the end I got what I wanted, and she got what she deserved from running. And the book you stole from her Aoshi, I can guarantee you that every single one of those people will be dead by sunrise."
The two assassins looked at each other. The girl lying on the ground was Micaela Lavender, the one that the government had been after for the past half a year. Yet it seems that they were just looking at a pawn.
"People are so unreliable these days you know."
"Are you truly stupid enough to tell us that you are behind this?" Kenshin asked, his voice low and cold.
Daylin smiled and laughed softly. "Perhaps. What? Am I supposed to be afraid that you will hunt me down? Like you have with all your other targets?"
"You should be afraid," Aoshi murmured before he unsheathed his blades and suddenly attacked the blond man. However by the time he got there, Daylin had disappeared and re-appeared behind him.
The red-head observing the battle from the outside was puzzled as he found that Daylin did seem to disappear into thin air, and appear somewhere else suddenly. Kenshin realized that they were not dealing with a normal human being.
Aoshi straightened as he felt the tip of a sword pressed gently against the back of his neck. "Too slow angel darling," the other man drawled before throwing his blade away. "It is a waste of time battling here if this is the competition I get. I could have killed you in a second."
"Don't bet on it the second time," he hissed glaring at the blond.
"Well, I need to get going. I will see you later." The man walked into moonlight, and they vanished.
The two assassins watched the man walk away and disappear. Both of them noticing a strange design that looked tattooed on to the lower back of his neck. A blanket of silence shrouded the two, but was broken by Kenshin finally speaking up, "He's not normal."
"I don't think he's even human," Aoshi breathed.
"We have no clue what we are up against," Kenshin murmured, "with Micaela Lavender's death, this throws everything off. The rapes and murders could even be a cover up for Daylin."
The raven-haired man nodded, still staring into the dark alley.
The true fight had finally began.