Sorry readers for not updating this story for the longest time.  Many of you were also astonished to see that I updated Dark Gold as well.  I am so sorry for taking months to update these stories.  You know I will never leave these stories half way done.  I hope many of you guys are not mad at me, and I hope you could understand I have a really busy life.  However, since I have this whole week off and next week, I will work on all my other stories that need to be updated.  Please, be so kind as to leave a review.  Any questions, comments, and suggestions will gladly be accepted.  Though… I will not like any flames.  Constructive reviews are much better.  Those who can't write leave flames.

Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin.  I wish I did but I don't.  : (

Once a Manslayer, Always a Manslayer

Chapter Three

                Misao looked at Kaoru and Soujiro with disbelief.  Her ears must have heard wrong.  Kaoru couldn't have been saying what she just said.  Misao had known Kaoru her whole life.  Never did she know Kaoru to be superstitious, to believe in something that wasn't real.

                Turning her head away, she rubbed her aching temples, trying to comprehend the complicated situation she was in.  From school to here, she was missing her first couple of periods because of her maniac friends.  Slowly she breathed fresh air into her lungs, to clear her throat before speaking to her two best friends.  "Kaoru, just be real, these things can't be true."

                "I believe they are.  I believe whatever Kaoru said," stated Soujiro seriously.  He turned his once warm blue eyes to Misao emerald eyes.  Never once did Misao remember ever seeing a serious expression coming from the childish Soujiro.

                "Oh come on," said Misao desperately.  She got up from the couch she was sitting on and now turned her full attention to Soujiro.  "You can't believe that.  What proof is there?  We can't be reincarnated souls from the past."

                "Then again we can.  Don't you remember when you first went to Kyoto.  You said it was strange how you knew the back streets, when you were never there.  Yet being there in Kyoto, you felt like you were there before.  Explain that?"

                "I have nothing to explain really.  It was all by chance."

                "Yeah, and me knowing how to use a sword naturally and coming up with moves I never before used, happened all by chance."

                "Please, stop it," said Kaoru quietly.  She got up from her position on the couch and walked over to coffee table.  Smoothing her hands out on the sides of her legs, she brought her head up to look at her both over reactive friends, who were arguing because of her stupid topic.  "Maybe I shouldn't have brought up the topic in the first place.  My beliefs are my beliefs and this is where it's going to end."

                "No, it's not going to end there," said Soujiro stubbornly.  He looked from Kaoru to glare at Misao.  Never before did he ever get mad at Misao.  He refused to end the topic, where Kaoru tried to end it.  He wanted to make it clear to Misao of the weird things that happened to them lately.  He wanted to open her eyes to see the real truth.  "You always spoke of vampires existing when they are not real."

                "I do believe that they are real.  So many bodies have been found, with their blood all dried up.  Vampire bats don't take that much blood, plus there are none here.  Mosquitoes can't take that much blood, and leaches aren't anywhere around to suck a person dry," said Misao defensively.

                "Yeah, you believe in the most ridiculous things, yet with something like this, you don't believe in it," said Soujiro calmly.  His voice may have sounded normal, but the dark look he gave Misao spoke of something different, something Kaoru didn't want to know about.

                "I can believe in whatever I want to believe in.  Vampires are true.  With the weird things you talk about happening, I think they are all behind it!" yelled Misao, finally losing her temper.

                "Please stop it!" Kaoru shrieked.  Her hands closed over her ears as she shook her head violently.  She tried so hard to stop both her best friends from consuming each other alive.  She felt totally responsible for this complete outbreak in an argument.  If anything happened, it would be all her fault.

                Finally throwing her body on the ground, from all the exhaustion for one morning, she let her sobs take over.  She was completely worn out, tired from her friends fighting, and most of all hungry for something to eat.  She barely ate anything before leaving her home.

                Soujiro and Misao stopped their argument immediately when they both heard Kaoru shouting and then falling onto the floor crying.  They looked horrified at Kaoru's reaction toward them.  They were so engrossed with proving their points right, that they forgot who they were, and what their friendship meant.  If it weren't for Kaoru's hard work to keep the friendship organized, then they would have turned on each other a long time ago.

                Quietly, Soujiro left his place to kneel down next to his friend.  His hand rubbed her back in a soothing gesture to comfort her, and to let her know that they stopped arguing.  After what seemed like forever, Kaoru looked up at her friends.  Soujiro tenderly wiped the remaining tears from her tear-streaked face.  Misao lowered herself to the floor to apologize to Kaoru.  Her emerald eyes never once wavered from Kaoru's sapphire eyes.

                "We're so sorry.  We never meant to let an outbreak happen like that Kaoru," said Misao gently.

                "If it weren't for you Kaoru, we would have never been the best friends we are today," added Soujiro.

                Kaoru nodded her head gracefully, glad that her friends were once back in order.  Her family was never like this, but her friends were like this.  She considered her closest friends, her family.  They treated her as an equal, listened to her whenever she needed someone to talk too.  Without them, she would never have made it far to where she was.

                Now that everything was normal, Soujiro helped Kaoru up from the floor.  Her small form leaned against his larger frame, as he helped carried her to the kitchen to get something to eat.

                "You know, it's not to late to hit a next couple of classes before school ends.  I think we better hurry, if we want to make it in time," called Misao as she hurried behind the two who entered the kitchen.  All she heard as a response was a grumble.

()

                Battousai walked toward his home on Jamaica Avenue.  He ignored the scents of his prey, their low voices, the strong steady rhythm of their hearts.  It annoyed him as the years went by, how much he seemed to approach to the darker side.  Once upon a time he was willing to give himself to the lighter side of things until she came.  That was what pissed him off.  The moment the woman came to his life, and shared her idealistic, her beliefs with him, he changed.  He wanted to give himself for to her.  He was willing to leave the dark for her light, to bathe in her ocean of hope.  Yet with everything, despite the fact what life gave him, never did he have an option.

                As he got home, he opened the door into a dark room.  The only light came from the flickering candle across the room on his desk.  Laid out on the desk were books, the author made on his life, the one whom he claimed to kill.  Walking toward the desk, he opened the first couple of pages to read about his life.

                Unaware of the time that passed by, Battousai fully lost himself in the woman's description.  Her words made him do something, he thought he could never do, that was to feel again.  Her words etched to the depths of his heart.  The words in which the author used to describe the past, made him think everything was for real.  The time frame was exact, as if she had been in that time.  The way she portrayed him, felt so like him.  But what really got to him was… Kaoru.  The author portrayed her exactly like her.  It was like the author really was in her shoes.  The words were real, the thoughts so much alike, the description of physical appearance so precise.  How did the author get such information?  From where did the author come up with exact information about his life?  Before he kills her, he decided to make sure she revealed this information to him, for it was very important.

                Just thinking about this, made Kenshin uneasy.  Never before had he gave something all of his undivided attention.  Nothing never got him so engrossed as this author did.  Closing his eyes, he let his past come to him, as it did numerous times.

Past

                He edged closer to his home, closer to the woman he loved so much.  His wife waited for him all this time.  How could he forget her?  How could he forget her smile, her beautiful sapphire eyes, or the tender way she looked at him?  He was almost there.  The woman he loved, his precious wife was running to him, while he stumbled to reach her.  He could feel her warmth around him, enfolding him one last time, before leaving the world.  The once strong hitokiri was now a weakling, who struggled to see the one thing that kept him at peace.  The woman was what he lived for.

                Stumbling over the small rocks, his senses alerted him of someone near by.  The presence seemed ever so familiar.  It was something of his, yet a part of him could not sense what it was.  He wondered, trying to see if he could remember anything in his past of the calm, reserved presence he sensed.  If he was going to die, he did not want to die like this.  He wanted to die in his wife's arms, he wanted to see Kaoru before he went off to a different world, yet with something stopping him, he could never make it in time to see her.

                Struggling to stand up, his wary body stumbled once more.  His arms gave away, as he tried not to cry out from the pain of his sickness, the sickness he tried so hard to keep away from his wife.  Only in the end, she made love to him, knowing what she was going to get herself into.  Her love was so strong for him that she was willing to bare his soul, willing to go through his pains just for him.  She made his life so much easier.  Never did she have to prove her love for him.

                Finally, he let his eyes closed, as his breathing grew more ragged, much shorter then the last.  His heart rate increased as it thundered throughout the forest.  The presence in which he sensed before, came closer to him, until it was standing right before him.

                "Is this the great Hitokiri Battousai?" asked the womanly voice from the distance.  "Never before did I ever think you would turn out to be like this.  I thought if you were going to go down, you would go down by a sword, after all that was how you were created."  The woman moved closer to him.  Her serene, angelic face reminded him so much of someone from his past, but who?

                "The great Hitokiri Battousai was something I once were, but throughout the years I have changed," Kenshin whispered harshly.  His words came out like a croak, while he struggled to work on his breathing.

                "Yes, you have changed.  You tried to atone for all the lives you took in the past, to achieve what?  From the death of one precious person, the person you thought you failed to protect, you made a vast change to try to protect all the innocents, until you met her," the womanly voice said quietly.  Gracefully she walked closer to him.  Her small, pale hands reached down to caress his face.  Her body crouched before him, as she cradled his face.  Then she forced his violet eyes to look at her brown eyes.

                "How… do you… know these… things?" he barely asked.

                "I know so many things.  I've been watching you over the years, cause after all, I do believe I owe you a special gift."

                "What… gift?"

                "A gift of life, a gift that you deserve for trying so hard to atone for your crimes.  Though, have you forgotten, once a manslayer, always a manslayer?  You were born by the sword, and that is how Battousai shall die.  Rurouni on the other hand should die from pure innocence.  In the hands of one is where, you shall die, and wake with a new life, you never dreamed you could have.  A life with new sins, yet with unbelievable powers, a life in which you could create anew.  I will meet you once again my beloved."

                "…When…?"

                "When you must choose your faith?"  She bent her head toward him.  Closing his eyes, he could feel the warmth of him fading, while his blood flowed hotly from his veins to the mysterious woman.  Flashes of images were passing his mind.  But one in particular caught him off guard.  A memory of a dead woman lying lifeless in his arms, his cheek bleeding from the mark she engraved on him forever, that changed him forever.  For the fleeting moment, he could smell white plums from his… first wife, the one he thought died that night. 

At the ending of the transfusion, he warily got up on his feet.  With a little energy he walked the remaining distance to Kaoru, yet his first love stayed on his mind… wondering if he truly ever met his beloved…Tomoe.

Present

                From the time Battousai woke up from his deep slumber, he awoke to discover a new him, a side in which he thought he could never have.  His senses were like something he never came across.  He could hear things from miles away, moved faster then his godlike speed, smell both rotten and erotic things, feel things higher then a lower human could feel etc.  The gift of which his beloved Tomoe gave him, was truly, undeniably something he thought he could ever asked for.  From the time in receiving the remarkable gift, he killed and reveled in it.  People's pains, were his signs of malice.  Learning to be a vampire became an easy job.  All he regretted from the past was giving up his time on atoning when he should have realized he could never atone.  As Tomoe said, he died in the hands on an innocent… Kaoru.  Now if he were to die, he would have to die in the hands of a sword.  Once a manslayer, always a manslayer.