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Corrupter Innocence: Chapter 5
by white seraph
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Important note:
I know this is an alternate timeline fic, and all the character's ages are like…fuct, lemme just make a note here.
Kenshin/Battousai: 19, going through (weather he knows it or no) his final stage of his hitokiri life.
Kaoru: 17 (with a mysterious past that I have yet to make up about)
Enishi: 20 (deals with the black market, sorta like a triad leader of some sort)
Tomoe: 24 (mature geisha)..not sure if I would want to develop a little K/T from there as someone mentioned…
Who else of importance have I not mentioned?
Anyway, back to the story…
Kaoru stared up at his golden eyes. "I have no gratitude for murderers" She spat back.
Kenshin's grip on her hand weakened for a brief moment, but quickly strengthened again. He would never let the girl know how the words stung his heart, how it hurt him. Instead, he resumed back to his confident self "Then I suppose you would rather have the men rape you, than me come to your rescue?"
"It is hypocritical of you to save me from those men, since you yourself are not any better." Kaoru replied in the polite, eloquent way a geisha was trained to speak like, which was rather paradoxical, as she saw no reason as to why he should treat this man the same way as her other well respected customers.
As the words came out, Kenshin finally came to realization, how right the girl was. He wasn't any better, in fact, those men were probably far better off, at least their hands were probably still clean from the stains of blood, from the guilt of murder. Kenshin's gaze dropped, as the cynical thoughts rolled through his mind. This girl, this perfect angel of innocence was so pure, so ignorant, and he was, here, about to ruin her everything, to pollute her innocent soul with his tainted one already.
As his own thoughts occupied Kenshin's attention, Kaoru seemed to be going through another sort of revelation. Pieces of fragmented information started to form, as Kaoru recalled how Mama Okina used to tell her stories about the dangers of the outside world, people were killing each other over power, and there was news that a new deadly assassin who was as heartless as a demon, called "battousai" has appeared on the outskirts of Kyoto. It was more than half a year ago, but Kaoru could still visualize the old lady's soft voice, telling her about the man's distinguishing red hair, and cold yellow eyes with a scar on the left of his cheek.
"The man was said to have hair with the colour of red flames from hell, and eyes, as cold and yellow as the moon. If you ever see customers with those features, remember you must report it to me." Those were her words, the words Kaoru took so lightly.
But now, as it all came back to her, Kaoru's face quite impassively reflected the immense fear she was feeling, with eyebrows furrowed, and lips pursed tight. He just killed a man, maybe he wasn't satistfied, and wanted to kill her too! At that thought, Kaoru tried to extricate her small cold hand from his rough calloused one to escape.
Clearly, her thoughts were blatant when facing Kenshin, but he did not understand, did not know the origin of her fear, and only made an assumption. "The rest of the road home is indeed dangerous, I suppose you would not want to journey home yourself." His voice was much more gentle than before, and there wasn't one bit of aggressiveness in it anymore. The fact that she was too good for him, too farfetched for him did not dampen his feelings or desires for her, unfortunately or not, but it did bring him to understand that no matter how he felt, it was just wrong and sinful to break this beautiful, fragile creature just for the sake of his own good.
However, Kaoru's reply really caught Kenshin off guard. "You…you're going to kill me, aren't you?" She choked as fearful tears started rolling down her cheek. Truly taken aback, Kenshin never expected this question, coming from her. It was ironic that for the first time, he felt the genuine need to protect a girl from the dangers of the world around, the danger of him, yet she utterly misunderstands his goodwill.
"No" He replied firmly, then bringing his hands up, Kenshin and cupped Kaoru's face gently. "I can't afford to hurt you." He breathed close to her. "Not ever"
"The words of a hitokiri has no value because they are all lies." Kaoru didn't know why she dared challenge him, but there, she did it, and with no regrets, since there was no escape anyway.
Of course, she had assumed, all the way, the worst of the worst to happen, and was quite surprised, when she heard his reply.
"I will not deny that I am an assassin because I do not lie." He removed his hands from her face "There is nothing I can do to prove to you that I genuinely meant it when I said I could not afford to hurt you, but to let you go on the hope that you will encounter no more danger on your journey home." With that, he stepped backwards, away from the walls.
Kaoru was relieved, and quickly took her chance before he would change his mind. "Good night then." She bowed to him, and quickly scurried off down the cold, dark street.
* * * * * *
A week has passed after the incident. Kenshin's feelings for the girl was still unsettled, it was getting rather frustrating, like he was unable to solve an enigma, unable to untangle the knot of thoughts and feelings.
Ikumatsu was the only person who came by his room often to relieve him from his boredom, and according to her experience, she put the situation nicely in an analogy. Kenshin was now, like a little boy, craving for a sweet in a glass jar on the very top of the shelf, he wants to eat the sweet, but don't want to break the jar.
Kenshin personally did not like the way she put it, making Kaoru like some disposable sweet of some sort, and it somehow didn't seem right, there was something missing, but simply could not tap on to it.
But all these thoughts and muses were pushed aside when Katsura returned the following morning, with new recruits for the group. They were mainly spies and assisting assassins, all of which ranked below Kenshin, and as an old member, he ought to teach them the rules within the group, and set good examples for them.
[sorry writer's block…err think I'll skip this bit]
Tomoe briefly glanced at the side of the stage, and saw her brother, busying himself in a conversation with Kaoru, and smiled, genuinely happy that he had finally set his eyes one a decent girl like her. Ever since their parents died during the early Bakumatsu, the poor lad was always very introverted, and cold to the rest of the world, and it pained her heart deeply to learn that he had hooked himself up with the leaders of the black market behind the allies, because she knew, his lonely, wounded heart was the drive that pushed him to the black corners of life.
Actually, she had never seen Enishi so eager to talk and befriend another, other than herself, and the attraction between them was blatant. She sighed and turned her attention back to the stage, Tomoe only hoped that her brother's attraction for the girl would be genuine this time, unlike the past few times, because Kaoru simply, wasn't like the others, she was nice, friendly and a wonderful person and she'd really love to see her with her brother.
Enishi took Kaoru's hand, and took her to the make up room, where they got some tea and Kaoru took a break from the dances. It couldn't any more plain, anymore obvious that he was pursing her, never failing to make an appearance at the rehearsal hall when Kaoru or his sister was performing, never missing the chance to talk to Kaoru.
Kaoru, being the innocent, naïve, ignorant girl she is, had no idea who this guy really is, all she saw, was his kindness, friendliness, and humor, all she knew was that this guy is Tomoe's brother, and deals with businesses in China, or did she know how dangerous it was t hang out with this man….or at last before.
At the very beginning Enishi did intend to toy around with this innocent, naïve looking girl and find some fun playing around with her before he got tired. Just by the looking at her ignorant, confused little face, Enishi knew, from the first time his sister introduced the girl to him, that she'd be a good catch.
But somehow, things weren't going the way he intended, the girl, apparently, was not as easy to get as it seemed, and although he had managed, quite successfully form a friendship with her, whenever Enishi tried to move on with their relationship, it was as if there was an invisible wall that forbade him from entering. But somehow, he did not want to give up, just yet.
Maybe he could talk to the mother of her house later.
* * * * * *
Kenshin tied the sheath of his sword down to his waist. The sky was getting dark, and the time for him to attack was approaching, nearer and nearer. The reason why he did not want to take part in this particular mission was because the victim is located in the geisha's district, and he did not want himself to be seen by Kaoru or any of her acquaintances. Unfortunately, his role was crucial, and there was no way he could withdraw himself from any mission of this kind, there was no ay he could tell Katsura the true reason why he did not want to take part either.
"It's time to go." Iizuka said as the others beckoned him to join them at the main gate.
Kenshin jogged up to them, and the mission began. There were only five men going along this time, since the man they needed to pull down tonight was not some dangerous person of somekind, he was just a normal business man who possessed a little too much information for anyone's good. "Where is the he?" He asked one of the men from behind, who was one of the new spies.
"The Blue House" Then he added "turn left, to the 17th district."
Kenshin froze as they turned around the corner. It was the rehearsal hall, right down at the very end of this street, and Kenshin immediately recognized its large, brown roof.
"Himura!" Iizuka called from behind. "What's wrong?"
Kenshin tore his eyes away from the building, and looked at the man. "No, nothing." He nodded, as if reassuring himself. "Lets get going, there's not much time." With that, he took the lead and ran down the street, and across to the other side.
"Himura, it's that one the one with a chimney." The spy said, when he finally catched up with the hitokiri. He had thought himself one of the quickest of the spies already, but when working with this dangerous assassin, he was no where as energetic, and quick as him.
They ran up to the gates of the tea house, that seemed busy with guests and geishas, and at that, Kenshin was rather reluctant in entering, for he didn't know who would be in there.
"Wow, are you sure this is the right place?" Iizuka asked the spy. The group always tried to locate ad kill their victims when they were with the fewest people, since they did not want an innocent witnesses to be killed as well.
Despite Iizuka's doubt, the spy seemed to know what he was doing. "Do not be decived by the lights. This is not a tea house. At least no after the cunning man bought it and used it as his new hiding place." He explained to the rest of the group.
At that, Kenshin sighed, with relief. "Alright, so what are we waiting for?" He kicked open the door, and went into the house, with the rest following behind him.
Sure enough, the house was deserted, and was as empty as it did not look. They all dispersed around the house, looking for the man as if playing hide and seek.
"I've found him!" Kenhin heard one of the spies call loudly from the ground floor, and immediately dropped the things he was scrambling through, and ran down to meet the caught man.
The man was indeed horrified, when the hitokiri appeared from the shadows of the staircase, the distinctive looking assassin was indeed, famed or his flaming red hair, and crossed scar on his cheek. "P…Please spare me my life!" He sputtered with fear as Battousai walked step by step neared to him. But he was unable to escape, not when two men had him pinned on the floor like that.
His pleas were futile, despite the effort, and before he could say anymore, the painful feeling of his flesh tearing apart took over. And then another slash, then another and another. . [I've never experienced death so I wouldn't know.]
Blood splayed all over the body, the man finally stopped struggling. "He's dead." Iizka bent to the dead man's nose and felt no warmth.
"If only he did not attempt to struggle, then he'd have had a much nicer death." Kenshin said coldly as he wiped the blood off his sword with the dead man's clothes.
But he immediately stopped when he heard a feminine gasp from the corridor. All five men shot a look at the owner of the voice. It was the geisha whom Kenshin immediately recognized as the beautiful, helpful one he talked to at the dance rehearsal the other day, and was also a friend of Ikumatsu's.
Kenshin's eyes widened when another figure appeared from the hallway, "What's wrong, Tomoe?" The familiar voice asked before she came to light and Kenshin met her breathtaking sapphire eyes.
A/N: oh crrappp, I left myself in this mess…how am I going to fix this up now..grrr pfft…erm…erm…ideas anyway? Lol don't I just ask for ideas for every chapter I write? -_-..actually would you guys prefer Enishi truly falling for Kaoru, or ave him as a tool to make kenshin jealous?