Lately I have been taking a long time in updating a lot of my stories.  I know there are a lot of stories in which I am finally updating like months later.  For that I apologize, but I have been keeping to my promises in continuing them.  I have been reading many books, watching many movies to gain ideas and learn to improve my style in writing.  I hope you guys like this chapter and enjoy it, because I can't guarantee that I would update immediately.  Please at least leave a review.  Any suggestions, comments, and questions are accepted.  I can't stand flames.  Those who can't write leave flames.

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

The Shades of the Seducing

Chapter Four

                Kaoru brought her brush, to brush her long raven hair.  Then swiftly, she braided her long hair, to keep her strands away from her face.  Today was a normal day like every other day, except today Misao got the day off from her work as a maid.  In ways Kaoru wished to be like the other woman, but faith was never too kind.

                "You almost done getting ready.  Your step mother would be needing you very soon," said Misao quietly as she entered Kaoru's room.

                "Yes, she'll be needing me to only nag me and make me act like another servant girl," Kaoru retorted back to Misao, snapping at her best friend for no reason in general.

                "I'm sorry.  I was only doing what I was being asked to do."

                "I'm sorry for unleashing my temper on you, when you did no wrong."

                Kaoru and Misao just looked at each other.  Then with general understanding of the situation, they both broke down into laughter.  If anyone else was in the room, conversing with them, they would have remarked them as crazy, but basically they were women who tried to turn their situation light as best as they could.  As servants, they were always working hard for such little salary.  The job was needed, the shelter really good, and the food wasn't bad.  They only had to work for their share.  To make time the best for them, they found several ways in laughing.  This was one of those moments.

                Finally their laughter died down, and they were struggling for breath.  Kaoru, who was very interested on how Misao was going to spend her free day, couldn't help to ask her plans.  "So how are going to spend your free day today Misao?"

                Misao turned away from Kaoru to look at dresser across from Kaoru's room.  She originally turned away from Kaoru, because she wanted to hide her crimson face from the innocent girl.  There were many things Kaoru didn't understand.  In ways Misao hoped for Kaoru to remain the way she was.

                "Well, aren't you going to tell me how you will spend your free day today?" asked Kaoru once more, getting up from her small bed and walking to her best friend, who turned away from her seconds ago.

                "I was…," Misao spoke incoherently, trying to find the right words in which she could say to Kaoru.

                "You were trying to what?"  Kaoru moved closer to her best friend.  As soon as she was close enough to see her best friend's facial expression, she turned away, as if trying to hide a secret from her.  "Please do tell me.  You don't know how much I envy you for having a day off, when I must work hard everyday."

                "Okay, okay, since you persist in knowing my business so much, I will tell you how I plan to spend my day."  Misao turned toward Kaoru once more and walked in the direction of Kaoru's bed.  She patted a place next to her on the bed, telling Kaoru without words to come and sit next to her.

                Kaoru on the other hand took out her maid's turbo and was struggling to put it on.  Her struggles only failed her attempts to prove herself worthy as dressing independently without any servants there to help her.

                "Stop acting like a little child and come here so I can help you," said Misao generously as she saw Kaoru's attempts were futile. In ways Misao wanted to laugh, but laughing was the last thing she wanted to do, since she didn't want Kaoru feeling so bad.

                "Fine, I will come over there, but you must promise to tell me your plans for today," said Kaoru, hesitating to make her way to her own bed, to sit next to Misao.

                "Fine, I promise."  Misao raised her right hand as she promised her friend to tell her on her future plans.  Then after what seemed like forever in waiting, Kaoru walked up to her best friend and let her finish tying up her turbo in the back.

                "Do you remember Aoshi-sama?" asked Misao.  She gently intertwined the turbo ribbons in her hands.  Gracefully she made bows and wrapped the loose ends of the ribbons around the bows.

                "Yes, we use to help solve mysterious cases with him, until he went to Boston."

                "Yes he did go to Boston for a little while, but only recently he came back because of a new case.  I heard this case is much more complicated to solve then the last other cases.  It may have something to do with supernatural you know what."

                "I wonder… is that the same case that Mr. Saito comes here to notify us about?"

                "How I am suppose to know?  You are the one who senses his presence.  You are the one to know when abduction occurs.  I am just the person on the sideline."

                Kaoru stopped talking to Misao for a moment.  Could the abductions have a connection to his return?  Why are these abductions happening and what for?  How do they link to her?  Someway, somehow, she had to find a way of solving the case, and with Aoshi back in town, she could use him as a resource to help solve the mysterious case. 

                Finally breaking from her thoughts, she remembered Misao mentioned Aoshi.  "What are you going to do with Aoshi-sama?"

                "Well," Misao blushed as she thought of him once more.  "I thought we could spend the day together.  You know, we could talk and certain stuff."

                "Oh!" exclaimed Kaoru now fully comprehending her best friend's weird way of acting.  "You want to pursue him don't you?"

                "Kaoru!" Misao shrieked, totally not believing her ears.  The innocent Kaoru fully understood the intention in which Misao was talking about.  "How could you think of something like that?"

                "I never did, you are thinking the way you are thinking," said Kaoru nefariously.  Her cheeks also turned into a crimson color from thinking what she really meant, what she said to Misao.  Before Misao could get up from her seat to playfully strangle Kaoru, another woman entered the bedroom.  Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the beautiful Megumi looking at them totally shocked.

                "I came to tell you Kaoru, that father is coming home again.  Mother wanted you to change from your dress and wear something decent for his incoming occasion," replied Megumi, never taking her eyes off her sister.  "While you are changing, maybe you could change your attitude to how a proper lady should address others."  With that Megumi walked away.

                "I guess you are going to have your day off after all," remarked Misao as she helped untie the back of Kaoru's turbo.

()

                Battousai entered the Kamiya residence late in the evening.  Though he wanted to get there earlier, he got caught up in Katsura's office, speaking about the mysterious case that summoned him back to New York once again.  Who ever thought he was ever going to come back home once again?  He thought when he left; he left permanently, yet he was here.  To make things more intriguing then they already are, last night he met a woman that caught his attention.  Any woman, who was capable of such a great feat, was special someway.  But what really got him coming to the Kamiya residence was the fact Saito shared personal information about the case to the young woman.  To make a great excuse to both see her and talk to her again, he decided to use Saito to talking to her.  There he could find useful information as to why Saito was interested in giving away personal information to the young woman.

                Upon him entering the grand mansion, awaited inside were servants.  They gave him their undivided attention as they swiftly served his every need, except for the need of seeing one woman.

                Down the entry hallway, a tall elegant woman appeared, dressed in the finest dress he'd ever seen.  From the distance he could have mistaken her to be Kaoru, but it was Lady Sagara, the woman who mentioned to be the sister of Kaoru.  Swearing to himself, he walked gracefully up to the woman, and lightly took her hand up to his mouth.  Gently, and quickly he kissed her hand, as a regular gentleman would to a lady, then stepped back to greet her politely.

                "It is a pleasure to see you this evening Lady Sagara," greeted Battousai as best as he could muster.  "I see you are dressed beautifully tonight.  What is the occasion if I may ask?"

                "The occasion is my father's arrival tonight from one of his important businesses.  He had been gone for a long time you see," replied Megumi lightly.  Her hands gracefully went to her sides, while she kept Battousai her full focus.

                "That is good to hear.  I will like to meet your father, if you don't mind," said Battousai gently as he could mustered once again.  If this woman were good enough to read people, she would be able to tell how hard he tried to act so polite.

                Then from across the room, Kaoru flung herself away from the other servants.  Hastily, she tried to fix up herself, unaware that Battousai was even in the room.  Only when her sapphire eyes raised, her eyes met with his strange amber eyes.  It caused her breath to cease.  Her mind wondered that if she was seeing the same man she met last night.  He looked so different, more dangerous looking then a gentleman; his aura talked of manly like, attractive to any woman who fell under his spell.  The worst thing for a woman to do was make eye contact with a man.  That alone spoke of the dangers between a man and a woman.

                "I apologize for my rude encounter," said Kaoru quietly as she bowed before Battousai and her older sister.  She felt so impetuous, like a child compared to her older, beautiful sister.  Her cheeks were red from embarrassment.  To keep some sanity in her, she kept her head bowed.  After waiting for consent from her older sister, Kaoru left the room, to go off to the other room.

"I apologize for her rude behavior.  Sometimes she forgets she from a noble class.  It is from hanging out too much with servants; she learned her behavior from.  I will make sure in the future, she will learn her rightful place," said Megumi with an awkward smile.  Battousai could tell she felt embarrassed by the situation.

                "That is fine," answered Battousai.  "I have some questions I need to ask.  You see earlier on today, a young girl was kidnapped.  She failed to come home.  I know Mr. Haijme reports to you about this information.  I was wondering if I could ask some questions to Kaoru."

                "Do go ahead.  She went into the family room.  After all that is where we meet father."  Megumi pointed to the room, Battousai saw Kaoru disappeared in.  When he turned his head to thank her, he saw a tinge look of disappointment in her eyes while she moved away, her fullness of skirts flowing after her.

                As Battousai reached the entrance of the family room, he watched Kaoru in interest.  He saw Kaoru inspecting the room, taking her pointer finger and running it through the mantle pieces, inspecting to see if dust existed.  Her eyes seemed so focused on her task, her mind concentrating on keeping everything neat, that she never noticed his arrival in the room.  Only when she turned expecting to meet her father, she found him.  An astonishing look appeared on her face, to be replaced by disappointment.  Pretending that he was never there, she turned around, continuing with her tasks once more.

                "Is something on your mind?" asked Battousai pleasantly, enjoying the way she jerked in front of him.

                Kaoru jerked, she told herself to say, "No," and instead said, "Yes."

                He seemed amused.  "Do tell."

                "Um…um… You looked rather interested in my sister," Kaoru said carefully, not wanting to alarm anything precarious from the man standing before her.

                He didn't seem to understand what she was saying.  "Your sister greeted me and was telling me of the arrival of your father."  Then he stopped and stared at her as if seeing her for the first time.  "I think I understand where you are coming from."

                Kaoru raised her hands defensively as to ward him off.  "It is not you."

                He gave her a look of question, as if not fully understanding her this time.

                "I mean you acted in a way you were not use to around her, but she looked so interested in you.  She was quite furious when you were not taken smitten with her last night.  After all she is use to a lot of attention from many admirers."

                "And you are use to none?" Battousai counter attacked in verbal phrase.

                "I am use to admirers, though I have my mind in different places at times," Kaoru said feeling a little temper erupting from her.  She clenched her small hands in fists at the back of her, to help keep her under control.

                "I see you are not use to conversing with people," Battousai observed diligently.

                It only furthered Kaoru's short temper.  "Well, sorry for disappointing you.  I have other things to deal with at the moment."

                Kaoru shifted her direction toward the china.  Her eyes scanned every inch of them, making sure dust did not exist.  She froze as a soft drawl washed seductively over the nape of her neck, and then her heart thundered with alarm and fear.  Here she was located in her family room, the family in which betrayed her, yet she was willing to devote her life for them, with a man she just met and was doing weird things to her.   Slowly she turned face him again.

                Her thoughts automatically went to how much this man affected her.  His lager frame covered her smaller frame making her feel so vulnerable, so exposed to his amber eyes.  He was darkly, disturbingly handsome, his long blood red hair only enhanced his looks.  Somehow he was dangerously seductive, more like a woman's magnet.  She didn't want to get herself caught up with this kind of man.  He couldn't be considered a gentleman.

                He was smiling at her, but his smile did not reach his eyes.  It was the first thing she noticed about him.  She inhaled to make sure her breathing wasn't ragged.  He made a sound; one of his long callused fingers tenderly stroked her cheek.

                "If only you know how amazing you are, how beautiful you are.  Any man would be damned if he did not see the natural beauty you possess.  Any woman would be so envious, that they would make you low, so that you could think low.  In my eyes, however I see the true you," Battousai said gently.

                Kaoru backed away, as he slowly began to advance on her.  A man she only met last night was now making moves on her.  She knew how to get herself out of situations, but this situation was the hardest things she ever came across.  Her mind began to spin, while her vision became blurry.  Her body felt a little tingling sensation at the pit of her stomach.  How can a man get her to respond to him, like the way she did with him?

                "Do not bother to reply," he drawled out, but before he could lower his head to hers, she flung herself away and outside the room.  A shout for her father could be heard from the distance.