So, it will be a while before I can work on the fourth part. I told you all this would be short. There will be either four or five parts total. Don't count on a quick update, is all I'm warning. Possibly next weekend.
The reason this part was needful to this little twisted fairy tale was that I always hated how the princess met the prince and then oh! Hey! Suddenly they are in love and completely devoted to one another without a second thought. That may seem well and good for those stories, but I didn't want either of my darling protagonists to be that shallow. Hence, you all get more fic then you thought you would!
Good? Maybe. But bad for my homework situation. Heh. Be sure to tell me if there is anything about this story that you really want to see explained more in detail and I'll think about including it. I'm serious. And to everyone who reviewed, thank you so much. You make my humble self feel all warm and fuzzy. Thank you! ^___^
As usual, excuse mistakes please. I was a bit rushed this time around.
Disclaimer: (see first part)
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Part III
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"I can't thank you enough for taking me in. I was accosted so suddenly by this thief, all I remember is pulling my sword and then it's all just a blank. I was sure I was going to die." Enishi shoved some overly salted eggs and burnt toast into his mouth and tried not to grimace. Apparently, his angel from the night before was not exactly a wiz in the kitchen.
"You were lucky Kaoru found you when she did, especially since she isn't supposed to go that far into the forest alone." Jiro tried to make conversation. Aoshi was out in the orchards trying to keep himself from doing something drastic to their visitor, while Sano was in the kitchen with Kaoru and stealing food as she cooked.
Enishi chatted some more with this smiling youth, but although he smiled in return he couldn't match the cheerful tones of the boy. Acting the part of an honest and nice person was not something that the fearsome dark magician had ever been obliged to do. He was already getting tired of it. What he needed was to be left alone for an hour or two so that he could heal himself enough to be functional.
Then he was going to find Kenshin Himura, get the location of the princess, carry out his plan, and then once the princess was dead then he was going to slowly kill that little Manslayer and his father both in the most painful way possible. He would start with the eyelids. . .
"Jiro! Come get Sano away from the bacon! No one will get any at this rate! Our patient needs rest, not company while he's in that condition."
Enishi wondered if the little wench was reading his mind. Jiro waved a goodbye and sauntered off, but inside his heart he was reluctant to leave the invalid. From the malice that practically poured off of the sorcerer's body he knew that leaving him alone was the last thing they should do, and he turned to Sano in the kitchen as soon as he felt the beginnings of a spell being worked. It had been a long time since they had felt magic, and their senses were only more acute for its workings. Jiro even sneezed.
This magic did not have its origins in anything they knew how to do. The dark magician's magic felt like nails scratched down the chalkboard of their senses. It was a travesty and any of them would have given anything to rush in with their wands and put an end to this usurper's presence.
"Look, I know my cooking isn't exactly the best, but you two don't have to make those faces. Think of how much worse it was when I was first starting out."
Sano shoved the terrible feeling into the back of his mind. "Hey kiddo, I'm just giving you a bad time. It's just fine. I know you're trying hard, especially to impress our houseguest. . ."
He had just meant to tease her, but her blush alarmed the large man. "Stupid rooster head. Why would I want to impress anyone with cooking like this?"
Aoshi ran in, eyes blazing, first examining Kaoru for any signs of ill effects and then dashing out of the kitchen again. No doubt he had felt it too and had thought something was wrong. They had to try to seem as normal as possible. As soon as it became apparent that he had no idea he was in the company of the person he sought, they had silently assented to try to be as typical a farm family as they could be. Kaoru, who was used to their odd comments and eccentricities, was already beginning to see the unnatural flavor their actions held. Thankfully, she was staying silent so far.
"Jiro, do you think you could go with me to try to get the sword I left on the road yesterday. I didn't think to bring it when we carried the stranger here. It would be a shame for him to loose anything so carelessly after all of this."
He and Sano exchanged another pregnant glance. "Of course I will."
"I mean right now."
"Do we have to?" Another glance.
"Yes." This was almost a growl.
Kaoru smiled fiercely as she led her cousin down the path towards the woods and away from their carefully planted orchards. They got about halfway there when she pounced.
"So, mind telling me what all of that was about?"
"All of what?"
"Those. . . looks. The way you all treat that poor man like he was some sort of wounded animal rather than a hapless traveler. And of course you aren't letting me in on why. I've never known you all to be so prickly."
Jiro wondered how much he should say. "It's complicated. He's a stranger, and you are rather too trusting, Kaoru, you must admit. . ."
"Pshaw! I have yet to be disappointed. I like this man. He has been nothing but nice to me, though I admit we've only exchanged a few words. And I suppose I don't even know his name yet. And for someone attacked by bandits I don't know why he had all his stuff. . . but there must be a reasonable explanation. You all are just being overprotective as always. Admit it, if it was a woman you all would never have started acting like this."
That was true enough, but not for the reasons she thought it was for. Jiro decided not to comment. They picked up the sword and Kaoru also found some tinted glasses which they carried back in a silent procession on the way home. Kaoru was silent because she was worried about her patient's condition, whereas Jiro was wondering exactly what did happen to the sorcerer on his way through these lands. It wasn't every day that a random person got the drop on someone so powerful. Some wandering hero perhaps? Those happened every so often, but these days legends had a hard time of it.
No one believed in magic anymore.
And that's why the magician could do anything he wanted whereas he, Sano, and Aoshi were nearly crippled. It was truly unfair. Maybe it was time for the old days to be put to rest, and Jiro knew just where he wanted to start—by burying a sword in the dark magician's chest. It clanked with a sort of finality slung across his shoulder. Yes, he would do anything he had to so Kaoru, who was like a little sister to him, could live.
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"Is it. . . Satoshi?"
"Try again!"
"Hmmmm." Kaoru bit her bottom lip in intense concentration. From her curled position on the porch she rocked back and then forwards as if it helped job her memory. "Yuya maybe? Or Kyo?"
"Not even close." Enishi pushed his glasses up further onto his nose to escape the glaring sunshine. Even though he could adjust to the light, it took too long and he preferred the gentleness of darkness. It was a miracle his glasses were intact but for a crack running along the edge of the left lens.
Kaoru pouted, sticking out the lip she had been chewing on moments before. "Can't you just tell me your name?"
"What will you give me in return? You already gave away your own name."
"Look around you, I have very little to give." Enishi actually took the time to examine the space around him. There were trees on either side of the house, leading off in either direction as far as he could see. The fruit on the trees was varied by each row, and the fruit itself was still ripening. As for the front yard, it simply contained a little vegetable garden and some flowers. Whereas he had always thought of people who lived like this with scorn, Kaoru's beaming face almost gave it a sort of simplistic nobility. It was true; she didn't have much to give.
Then Enishi's mouth curled into a sadistic smile. He knew what he wanted.
"Then I demand a kiss."
Kaoru colored and shrunk into herself, looking from side to side as if to check for one of her male family members. Her paranoia was warranted, for at least one of them walked by every ten minutes or so and she was well aware they were checking up on her. On an impulse, she decided to go with her gut and be daring.
"Ok." She stood and walked over to where Enishi had been positioned on a chair, bundled in the blanket Kaoru insisted he remain in due to his continued cold body temperature.
With charming innocence, she leaned forward and tried to give him a peck on the cheek but was foiled as Enishi turned his head suddenly and caught her lips with his own. It only lasted a moment, and as chaste as it was it still managed to leave them both flustered.
"Enishi." He whispered against her lips that still had yet to draw away. "My name is Enishi." It had been so long since he spoke it aloud, he was afraid for a moment he had given her the wrong name. He reassured himself. Of course that was his name; the one Tomoe had given to him.
Kaoru straightened up again, stiff and quite startled at the intensity of emotion she had experienced. "I like it. It's very elegant." When she said his name this time he got a chill that made him want to shed his useless blanket and hold her to him. "Enishi."
"Kaaaoooooooooruuuuuuuuuu!!!" Yahiko came barreling down the path, Tae at his heels. They both looked flushed and excited. When Yahiko got close enough to get a good look at the man on the porch, he came to a full stop and seemed struck oddly silent. Tae came at a slower pace and greeted Enishi politely; he merely inclined his head in acknowledgement.
Tae, not at all off put by the stranger's brisk dismissal, turned to Kaoru and told her what happened to Yahiko yesterday (trying to get to the point without what she considered to be Yahiko's "embellishments"). Yahiko, instead of adding things, simply stared at Enishi with eyes like dinner plates making him look even younger than his twelve years.
Kaoru, when she heard about this sudden windfall, was so happy for her friend that tears came to her eyes. They embraced and laughed, but soon stopped as they finally noticed Yahiko's sudden bout of paralysis. Tae asked him what was wrong, in her usual soft spoken matter. Yahiko just pointed at Enishi and stammered.
"Enishi, were you one of those men yesterday?" Kaoru's eyes searched his but were blocked by the glasses. Enishi just nodded.
This time, Tae walked right up and curtseyed in front of him. "My family thanks you for your generosity, sir."
He waved her away. "Think nothing of it. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need to go back inside." Expressions of gratitude happened to him very rarely and he was not comfortable with them. Not willing to admit to the discomfort, instead he got irritated. As Kaoru helped him inside (for even much recovered, he was still in bad condition) Enishi saw Aoshi come round the side of the house and give him a withering glance before speaking to Tae and the slowly unfreezing Yahiko.
"Was it that other man who did this to you?" Kaoru spoke softly as she helped him back into bed. "Or is that a bad question to ask?"
"Yes, he did this to me." Aching and irritated, Enishi spoke before he thought. "His only mistake was leaving me alive. I won't be caught unaware again."
She was thoughtful a moment, searching for the right way to say it. In the end she just blurted it out. "Why did you lie to us?" Kaoru turned away from him. "About the bandits, I mean."
Enishi grew angry. He didn't owe any country girl or her family an explanation, and he had never been accountable for anything he had ever done or said to another person. Oddly, even as he was annoyed he felt compelled to tell her about everything. Everything. As if that would bleed the poison from his heart and ease his burden.
"He had something I desperately needed, a matter of life and death actually, but if I got you involved it would only endanger you. I don't want any more people in the know than need to be." That was as much of the truth as he wanted to say. The life and death part he liked especially.
"Is there any way I can help you?" She clasped his hand in hers and looked him in the eyes. He felt like he was drowning.
Why? He had just told her it would endanger her. He had not even given her any details, and still she was offering her help to him. Enishi had spent enough time around people to guess at their motives, but he didn't know what motivated her. The money he had offered to her before for taking care of him, she had refused. There was no way she knew how powerful he was. . . so what did she want? Why did she offer herself so readily?
With strength he shouldn't have had, he pulled Kaoru in towards his face drawing in their clasped hands like fishing line. "Just being you is help enough." This kiss was less chaste, filled with the longing that was smothering his urgency to continue his vengeance. Kaoru's hands shook but she didn't pull away as she slowly softened to this assault. Taking the opportunity while he still had it, Enishi wound a hand into Kaoru's thick hair and pushed her crushingly against his mouth while his tongue pushed past lips and teeth to taste her.
After a moment of bliss the two broke apart. Kaoru's hand flew to her lips and she ran out the door, heedless of direction or destination. The door slammed shut behind her. Enishi simply cursed. He hadn't wanted to spook her, but she was so hard to resist with those tempting ripe lips and the sweet words which poured from them. . .
Ouch.
His body still hurt and he could tell that he had reopened at least one wound with that little show of activity. The fact was he was wasting time when what he really needed was to set up something proper. It would have been nice to take care of things earlier, but he always had a backup plan and his had been lying in wait for quite some time now. After that little encounter with Kenshin, old Goro probably had the princess removed right away. By now she was probably shaking in her glass slippers, or whatever it was princesses wore, thinking about how close she had come to death.
The sorcerer was no fool, he knew very well about the softening of the curse. The fairies at the ill fated christening may have alleviated the worst of Tomoe's efforts, but a well placed dagger in a sleeping heart would end a life as well as if it were awake. If he was lucky, she'd even still be a virgin. The blood of a virgin was at a premium these days and it would be a shame to waste it when there were so many lovely rituals he could use it for.
Since he was thinking of all of this. . . he picked the small hand mirror from his things and waved over it three times with his palm.
"Himura." He said clearly into it as the reflective surface became milky. It didn't take long for the nervous face of Lord Himura to form itself, maybe a few minutes.
"Your Excellency. What a surprise. . ."
"I'll bet it is. You think your son could do away with me so easily? You're lucky I'm feeling forgiving or else I would have struck you both down with a plague. Do you know why I didn't?" Enishi's voice was falsely sweet as he spoke in low tones so as not to be heard by anyone outside of the room.
Wisely, Himura stayed silent.
"You can still be of use to me. I imagine by this time you have been cut off from all supply lines and are effectively considered a traitor of the realm. . ."
"How did you know?" Himura's eyes were bugged in shock and worry.
It was no great leap to think that the goody goody Kenshin informed his king first off of the battle with the feared dark magician so close to the location of Goro's precious daughter as well as his father's suspicious actions.
"Look, so long as you can go through with your part in the emergency plan then I will still avail my legions to your use. I'd assume you need them now more then ever. Can you do this simple task?" He rubbed the bridge of his nose after removing his glasses.
Himura seemed to jump and fidget, eyes rolling. "I can do it, Your Excellency, nothing will stop me."
Enishi smiled, his blue-green eyes glowing under the force of his anticipation. "Remember, her birthday is only five days away. Do not disappoint me, or you will be the first to feel my displeasure." He cut the connection before Himura could snivel any more.
It was terrible that he had to rely on help such as that to finish what he had started, but it was so difficult to find good help. Goro was pickier about his castle staff and retainers than Enishi had ever counted on. It took years to put all the pieces in place, and quite a lot of luck. The plan essentially would run on its own. Once it was all over, he just had to get into the castle and let his dagger bite at that silly princess' throat and then. . .
What then? He wasn't sure.
"You'll smile for me again, dear sister." But all he could picture in his mind was Kaoru with eyes wide and lips full from the kiss they shared.
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She was sitting in her thinking spot, poking at the ground in a lackluster series of jabs with the branch she had broken from an apple tree. At first she had been rather confused and even a little pleased at the liberties their guest had taken, but the more she thought about what he did the less she liked it. Kaoru didn't blame Enishi, she blamed herself for allowing it to happen and then acting like a child after it finished. Running from any situation was not like her at all.
It had just been too real, she decided, filling in the little hole she had been working into the earth at her feet by pushing loose dirt around. Most of her dreams had been somewhat rosy and a little too much like one of Sano's stories.
She would be wandering through the forest and meet a man on a tall white horse. He would be lost and she would tell him how to get out, but first she would invite him back to have dinner with her family (who would love him naturally). Then, after coming back every day for weeks to visit her, they would realize they were in love and. . .
It was just stupid to think that way. Sano's stories must have corrupted her mind. Already, the faceless knight was being replaced by a man with turquoise eyes and wild white hair. Romance was well and good, but he didn't seem like the kind of man who bought into that sort of behavior. Frankly, Kaoru thought that if she did come across someone as romantic as the man she had dreamed up, she would be cynical of the sappiness of it all. Enishi had filled the waiting spot in her expectations a little too well. What was there left for her to do but hope that he might even feel a little bit of the same way about her? This whole affection business seemed like it was going to be so wonderful, but now that she had some it just seemed embarrassing and awkward.
She didn't want to call it love just yet. She wasn't sure it was love. Somehow pining after someone you love seemed worse than pining after someone you had affection for. It was a fine distinction, but she allowed that much of an emotional buffer for protection.
Tae found her friend sulkily torturing the tree roots. Her uncles had continued to question Yahiko intensely for particulars of his adventure yesterday, and they hadn't seemed to notice Kaoru's flight. Tae knew she wouldn't be missed and slipped off with a quick excuse. Kaoru looked more ill at ease than Tae had seen her in quite some time. Not since Kaoru had seen Aoshi kill a chicken for dinner, and had been so traumatized by it that she refused to let them eat anything she had named ever again. Poor Henny McCluck.
"You don't look too good."
"Thanks a lot." Kaoru was sarcastic. That was good, it meant she wasn't in too bad of a state.
"Really, when was the last time you felt the need to run away? If it's something you can't tell me I totally under—"
"Hekissedme." It was all one word, breathed out in a sigh. Tae beamed at her friend once she translated it all out.
"Your guest?" She sat down across from Kaoru and took the stick from her grasp. "The handsome, young, rich one?"
Kaoru made a face. "Don't say it that way, Tae. It makes me feel like such a schemer. I wouldn't care if he didn't have a thing."
"But obviously being young and handsome are perks." Kaoru was beginning to huff. "I'm just teasing you. Really, Kaoru, sometimes I think you have no sense of humor. Do you know anything about him besides the obvious?"
With an even deeper sigh than before Kaoru practically sunk into the ground. "No. I don't know anything. In fact, everything he's told me has been highly suspicious. But I just can shake the feeling in my gut that I can trust him. You know how I get. I trust my instincts on that sort of thing."
"And you haven't been wrong yet so far as I know." Tae bent the supple branch as she sat, thinking and worrying about the friend in front of her. "But your uncles and cousin don't seem to be very fond of him, though I could be wrong. . ."
"Actually, you just hit the nail on the head. That does worry me. No man has made it through their gauntlet yet, and if Enishi is just playing around with me then he might as well just give up and save himself the trouble."
Tae stood quickly, breaking the stick on the way up. "Do you like this man?" Kaoru nodded in wonder at this aggressive incarnation of her normally docile friend. "Then it doesn't matter what your uncles think. You have to fight for him, and I know how well the Kaoru I know can fight."
Now laughing and feeling more like her usual self, brooding aside for the moment, Kaoru too stood and brushed herself off. "That's right! If I like him then I should just go for it. If he backs down, then he didn't deserve me anyway and my uncles were right. If he didn't like me in the first place, then I'll let my uncles kick him out of here as soon as he's healthy enough to walk." Kaoru grabbed half of the broken stick from Tae. "Thanks Tae. Sulking doesn't suit me, does it?"
They linked arms and made their way back towards the house.
"So," Tae said with a surreptitious element to her tone. "How was this kiss?" Kaoru's highly colored cheeks simply sent her friend into gales of laughter.
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Two days until that princess' birthday, and still Enishi had failed to locate her. It would have made him mad enough to run off and destroy something in a blaze of energy if he hadn't been so very tired from just trying to get his body working like it used to again. He was barely sleeping so that he could use the night to heal his body magically, which left him fatigued during the day from the mental stress. After days of this he was able to exercise lightly without opening up his wounds again and the strength in his muscles was as pleasing as his constant headache was awful. To be so weak in front of witnesses was just that added bit of embarrassment that might have set him off on a murderous rampage but for the presence of Kaoru. . .
She was his balm of Gilead. Not in the literal sense, of course, though that would have been very convenient. What Kaoru gave him was attention and reassurance as every day he got healthier. He had toned down his attentions to her, content to just discuss with her whatever she brought up in those long hours she spent doing laundry, or baking bread, or sewing clothes while Enishi was stationed wrapped up in his usual blanket on a chair. He had tried to convince her that he was just naturally colder than most people, but she refused to listen to him. She was stubborn like that, and so long as she personally wrapped him up in the blanket then he wouldn't complain. Enishi had even managed to sneak a few surreptitious hugs that way.
The first thing he learned from talking with her was that they agreed on nearly nothing when it came to people, and the world. He blamed it on her upbringing.
Whenever she talked about the inherent goodness and nobility of people, he would laugh at her and say she was simply far too sheltered. Kaoru said that maybe he just knew the wrong people. How did he know that the ones he talked to were the majority? She knew four good people for every single rotten one. Enishi told her those weren't very good odds; she simply said that it was good enough for her.
When she said it, with a wave of a soapy hand and fire behind her eyes, it was almost enough to make him believe it. Maybe there was goodness in others he couldn't see. Maybe it was just his evil blotting out any chance they had to be good. No matter what she said, he knew well enough that he was as rotten as any other villain she had met if not more so. Hell, his life was devoted to the killing of a girl he had never really met and who probably didn't deserve her fate.
But it was still her fate. His sister could not be wrong. The princess would die for the sins of her class, and to pay for every common person who had suffered for the power plays of the nobility. Common people, like Kaoru and her family, who just worked for a living and didn't try to kill or dominate except over the bugs that attacked their plants. It wasn't the life he wanted, but at least he had gained a measure of respect for this lifestyle on the whole. Everyone had a place in the system.
Enishi thought those things now and actually believed them, but they contained the distinctive touch of Kaoru as well. She had a lot to say about farming and farm communities, but she was surprisingly well learned for a commoner. The night before last, when he had sat with the rest of her family at dinner, he had witnessed some of the answer to that. At first the table had been silent and tense, but after a while Kaoru had coaxed her two uncles into a debate on the benefits and downfalls of the city comparative to the country. She and her cousin had added in bits as the arguments collided and changed. The one called Aoshi obviously did not like cities, feeling the simply encouraged a concentration of everything bad about a society whereas the one called Sano led the pro argument for cities as an inevitable end to progress. Despite himself, Enishi was impressed.
It was coming up more and more, these mentions of the city, and Kaoru often would stare off into space when spoke about her wish to visit the city for her birthday. Enishi wanted to give that to her. He wanted to take her to the beautiful foreign cities beyond the mountains that isolated this kingdom, and show her the tropical waters that matched his eyes or the dark wintry waters to the north that resembled her hair. He recalled those icy waters and how they flowed with great blocks of ice for miles. Instead of telling her this, he simply let her talk. This country life was obviously something that she enjoyed but which would not always contain her ambitions.
The only questions Enishi asked were the occasional ones about a rich girl in the neighborhood. Someone out of place maybe, who had arrived here suddenly about twenty years ago. Neither Kaoru nor her uncles seemed to have any information. Enishi was starting to think that the cunning Wolf of a king had fed that sappy Kenshin the wrong information. He wouldn't put it past old Goro. The man was strong enough to hold the country together this long without too much struggle, so Enishi had to give him a fair amount of credit. Admiration was not enough to keep the magician from killing the king's daughter, but it wasn't anything personal really so much as a matter of duty.
"I'm going!" Kaoru burst into the bedroom, holding Enishi's nearly patched up pants. He had a bunch just like them, but he wasn't going to stop her from her stubborn wish to fix his. It would be nice to be back in his own clothes and out of the worn ones he was borrowing from her highly displeased uncles and cousin. He carefully set down the book he had been perusing.
"Going where?"
"To the city! Uncle Aoshi just told me that they talked it over and they'll let me go, but they all get to escort me there and I have to promise not to run off or do anything stupid."
Enishi frowned. This sounded like activity that excluded him, and he was afraid that once her uncles had gotten Kaoru out of his sight he'd never be able to find her again. It was an unreasonable thing to think, but then his emotions had been clouding just about all his thoughts lately.
"The capital is at least four days on a fast horse. . ."
Kaoru laughed. "The capital? I can only dream of that. No, I'm going to the port to the south. They said there should be enough adventure there to last me a lifetime. We'll see about that, though." She flopped onto the bottom of the bed, narrowly missing his feet. "I can't believe it. I thought for sure they were going to say no."
"I'll stop imposing on you all and finish the business I came here for then."
"Will I see you again?" She sat up, looking to the side as if she were embarrassed to even ask the question.
Enishi smiled, it was reassuring to know that he wasn't the only one troubled by their separation. Maybe this time away was for the best. He would have a room prepared in the Western Spire for her. Something tasteful. Then he could come back and take her away, just as he had been picturing in his mind for the past few days. The business with the princess would be resolved, and suddenly a life with Kaoru seemed to stretch in front of him to fill in the void of his imagination. It was only right. They fit one another in a way that was complementary as it was opposite.
"I'll always come for you." Enishi took her hand in his, feeling the bonds of his words promise just as much as he was willing to give as his fingers stroked hers slowly and deliberately. "That is, if you want me to come for you."
Kaoru didn't look back to check for anyone listening. There was no point. She was honest enough about her feelings to not be ashamed of them and even if her uncles heard she wouldn't take it back.
"I love you Enishi. I'll wait for you as long as it takes."
They leaned in to kiss once, briefly, for the first time since the day she had run from the room. Kaoru brushed away a tear from her eye, hoping Enishi hadn't seen it. There was just too much happiness for her to contain herself. Never had she counted on being this lucky in her lifetime.
Enishi felt his heart beat faster than normal and an unusual heady drunk feeling make the world seem coated with a gloss. Colors were brighter, sounds were louder, and he for a second he even forgot where he was or what he was doing. This could be love. . . he finally acknowledged to himself. And no one can take this from me.
Outside of the room there was no movement and only the sound of Jiro's uneven breathing. Holding up a pile of wood with straining muscles, he tried not to let his presence be known. He had watched Kaoru run in to Enishi's room and had eavesdropped as Aoshi had advised whenever they noted them being alone together. Up until today the topic of conversation had been largely benign. The tears that burned behind Jiro's eyes were unstoppable. Despite their best efforts to save Kaoru from Enishi's plots, still he had managed to sign her death warrant through chance and blunder. Kaoru could not be saved by love if her love was for a man who wanted her dead.
They had failed her. Now all that was left was to make sure Enishi could not get to their charge at any cost. Even if she remained sleeping for a thousand years, there was always the chance that maybe there was someone else out there for her. They had to have faith.
Jiro inched away to go tell the other two fairies about this new development, but still his eyes and heart burned in anguish.
Their little Kaoru. She had grown up much too fast.
