Chapter 6: Sleep of the Slowly Dying
A/N: I should write about Kaoru in this chapter. Maybe I will. Maybe I won't. I don't always do what I should. I do have some ideas I would like to pour into this one, full of darkness, angst, pain, and misery. I'm just glad that I'm able to get it all out in writing. It is hard to remain cheerful when such dier thoughts consume your mind. But, I like being cheerful. I like making people laugh, as you might have gathered from my last story. It's just that sometimes the emotion shown on the outside can be the most deceiving emotion of all.
Kenshin: AAA---MEN!
HCT: *EEP!* Where'd you come from?
Kenshin: What, surprised that you aren't the only one that hides from your emotion? HELLO, EX--ASSASSIN HERE!!! Sessha thinks you think wrong, that he does.
HCT: Yeah well then why don't you stop badgering me and go DO something about your emotions?
Kenshin: Do YOU push YOUR inner demons?
HCT:.....fine. But you still need to go talk to Kaoru.
Kenshin: -_-;;; *thinks* Did she listen at all to anything sessha said?
HCT: YES I LISTENED YOU UNGRATEFUL RUROUNI! ^-^ I'm the authoress, I always listen! And you know what's really cool about it? I CAN READ YOUR MIND! *Waves hands mystically* Woooooo...Here's the disclaimer.
Disclaimer: I don't own RK. I don't even really own myself. The government owns me, because they own everybody. Which means, if they own everybody, that they own all his or her possessions. Which means, indirectly, that the government owns RK, since the government owns everything. I don't think Battousai would like that very much. Hm...that would be interesting to see.
HCT: Hey Battousai! George Bush owns you!
Battousai: HELL no, tell him I said he's a *@$%^& &@#^@$*!!!!!
HCT: O.O Oh my...
~^~^~
Battousai stormed down the hall, hand itching at his sword's sheathe. He longed for someone to challenge him, a small diversion would be a welcome outlet for his boiling frustration. Finally he could take it no more, he had to do something. Drawing his sword he prepared to dampen his anger, for if it grew much more he would lose control.
He stewed sullenly in the fact that no one dared attack him. Maybe he'd done too good a job in frightening them. But at the time, his goal had been to frighten them so they WOULDN'T attack him. He had wanted to get to Kaoru. Who wouldv'e guessed he'd get so lost? He glanced to his right, staring at the soft white wall.
This room had a child on the inside, he could feel her ki. Badly injured she was, and barely clinging to life. This room would do no good. Growling and mumbling quietly about being a softie, Battousai kept walking until he found a room vacant of human ki. There was something inside, but whatever it was, it wasn't human.
Grappling with the force he sought to investigate. It was...nothing he'd ever felt before. 'Oh well, it doesn't matter. This is the last ROOM in the hallway.' He could see the end of the hallway less than 5 feet away. How could he have missed Kaoru?
He'd followed her ki, all the way to...wait a minute...when had her ki disappeared?!
Surely that didn't mean that...! No, he refused to think that. His anger exploded within him at the young doctor, and everyone else here. Letting loose a coarse, gutteral cry he swung his sword against the cold brick wall, causing a mini Do Ryu Sen and collapsing the wall inward. A still small form lay motionless on the examining table, barely alive.
"Kaoru..." Battousai breathed.
For a long time, Kaoru really didn't FEEL anything. She knew she was lying prone, she knew that something was wrong. For a while, she was alone. VERY alone. It was dark, and it seemed that evil loomed above her, though she could see nothing. 'Kenshin...' she thought. What was wrong with her?!
She struggled to bring herself out of the darkness, Kenshin might be trying to talk to her at that very minute! She didn't want him to worry, God knew she'd worried over him enough times to know that it was a living hell. The despair she felt pushed her towards a steady conclusion: She wasn't coming out of it.
Kenshin would either die or get over her, everyone would leave her by herself, she'd be alone again. Like she was now.
The deepness of her prison alarmed her, and she knew she wasn't thinking rationally. 'If I could calm down, and just breathe for a minute, I'd be just fine.' Kaoru thought to herself. She inhaled sharply to taste the cool...nothing. No air came into her lungs. She hadn't even inhaled. What was wrong?! She couldn't move, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't do anything now that she stopped to think about it.
Thinking was all she could do. Her body simply wouldn't listen to her! Something was holding her in deep darkness, drowning her in the turbid waters of her own mind. She wanted to scream, to lash out and cry and thrash and yell and struggle, but when she did, nothing happened except the drowning feeling increases, and she was already desperately treading water far over her head. A loud rumble echoed through her mind, followed by a huge crash.
She knew she should flinch, her body tried and failed. Then the incredible pain collapsed around her. Lancing, searing spears of pain shot through her mind, leaving what part of her was still there very weak. Her blood-curling mental shriek reverberated through her mind, unspoken but felt to an extreme extent. The sharp barbs continued to plague her; her mind felt as if it were expanding to phenominal proportions in a pint-sized jar.
Her arms, legs and all her other extremeties pulsed with similar agony. It was as if someone had taken all her blood, her tears, her life-essential fluids, and replaced them all with brutal blatant pain. She sought to scream again, memories of her first outburst and how much better she'd felt came flooding back. But this mental shriek brought only more pain instead of providing an outlet for the extraordinary stress. She was trapped, unable to run, hide, or even cower, her secure mental castle beseiged by the angry rebel, Pain.
Kaoru's face showed none of this inner horror. It remained as beautifully angelic as always, yet the absence of the sapphire jewels made it seem incomplete. Battousai stared at the porcelain manniquin before him. This couldn't be his Kaoru. This shell seemed so lifeless, so totally stripped of animation. He longed to see her eyes, anxious to know if the dull grayish blue remained or if the insightful oceans were back. It was that moment he knew: He'd do anything for this girl. He was madly, helplessly in love.
Sure, before he'd known he liked her, maybe even loved her to a certain point, but never had he felt this. He felt completely and utterly defenseless without her, and should she die he knew he would soon follow. His love for Tomoe...that was a simple joke compared to this...this...overwhelming...He didn't even know how to describe it. He just knew he was long gone. He would follow Kaoru to the ends of the earth, and beyond to whatever afterlife there was.
He glanced again at the slight form of the comatose Kaoru. The only sign that something was indeed wrong was the irregularity of her breathing. It came in short, shallow gasps, or sometimes long shuddering draws. Battousai noted this as he drew near. 'She looks peaceful, but something tells me she's not.' He'd long ago sheathed his sword, caring only about Kaoru. She looked so defenseless, exactly like he felt on the inside. 'She's afraid of being lonely...well...she'll never worry of that again.' He never expected what came next.
~^~^~
A/N: Sorry about the shortness of this chapter, but I just had to leave you hanging. The next chapter will be horribly morbid(lol, I'm a poet) but hopefully good. I know you guys despise cliffhangers. I know I sure do...when I'm reading a story that is. You get right to the exciting part and you're all exhilarated and you need to know what happens and you look and...it's not there. Then you yell and scream and flame the horrible authoress that so incosiderately left you guessing. *Cringes* Geez, if there weren't so much fun to write I might just have to quit.
/\(;-;)/\
^Follow Firkin. He'll never lead you astray!
A/N: I should write about Kaoru in this chapter. Maybe I will. Maybe I won't. I don't always do what I should. I do have some ideas I would like to pour into this one, full of darkness, angst, pain, and misery. I'm just glad that I'm able to get it all out in writing. It is hard to remain cheerful when such dier thoughts consume your mind. But, I like being cheerful. I like making people laugh, as you might have gathered from my last story. It's just that sometimes the emotion shown on the outside can be the most deceiving emotion of all.
Kenshin: AAA---MEN!
HCT: *EEP!* Where'd you come from?
Kenshin: What, surprised that you aren't the only one that hides from your emotion? HELLO, EX--ASSASSIN HERE!!! Sessha thinks you think wrong, that he does.
HCT: Yeah well then why don't you stop badgering me and go DO something about your emotions?
Kenshin: Do YOU push YOUR inner demons?
HCT:.....fine. But you still need to go talk to Kaoru.
Kenshin: -_-;;; *thinks* Did she listen at all to anything sessha said?
HCT: YES I LISTENED YOU UNGRATEFUL RUROUNI! ^-^ I'm the authoress, I always listen! And you know what's really cool about it? I CAN READ YOUR MIND! *Waves hands mystically* Woooooo...Here's the disclaimer.
Disclaimer: I don't own RK. I don't even really own myself. The government owns me, because they own everybody. Which means, if they own everybody, that they own all his or her possessions. Which means, indirectly, that the government owns RK, since the government owns everything. I don't think Battousai would like that very much. Hm...that would be interesting to see.
HCT: Hey Battousai! George Bush owns you!
Battousai: HELL no, tell him I said he's a *@$%^& &@#^@$*!!!!!
HCT: O.O Oh my...
~^~^~
Battousai stormed down the hall, hand itching at his sword's sheathe. He longed for someone to challenge him, a small diversion would be a welcome outlet for his boiling frustration. Finally he could take it no more, he had to do something. Drawing his sword he prepared to dampen his anger, for if it grew much more he would lose control.
He stewed sullenly in the fact that no one dared attack him. Maybe he'd done too good a job in frightening them. But at the time, his goal had been to frighten them so they WOULDN'T attack him. He had wanted to get to Kaoru. Who wouldv'e guessed he'd get so lost? He glanced to his right, staring at the soft white wall.
This room had a child on the inside, he could feel her ki. Badly injured she was, and barely clinging to life. This room would do no good. Growling and mumbling quietly about being a softie, Battousai kept walking until he found a room vacant of human ki. There was something inside, but whatever it was, it wasn't human.
Grappling with the force he sought to investigate. It was...nothing he'd ever felt before. 'Oh well, it doesn't matter. This is the last ROOM in the hallway.' He could see the end of the hallway less than 5 feet away. How could he have missed Kaoru?
He'd followed her ki, all the way to...wait a minute...when had her ki disappeared?!
Surely that didn't mean that...! No, he refused to think that. His anger exploded within him at the young doctor, and everyone else here. Letting loose a coarse, gutteral cry he swung his sword against the cold brick wall, causing a mini Do Ryu Sen and collapsing the wall inward. A still small form lay motionless on the examining table, barely alive.
"Kaoru..." Battousai breathed.
For a long time, Kaoru really didn't FEEL anything. She knew she was lying prone, she knew that something was wrong. For a while, she was alone. VERY alone. It was dark, and it seemed that evil loomed above her, though she could see nothing. 'Kenshin...' she thought. What was wrong with her?!
She struggled to bring herself out of the darkness, Kenshin might be trying to talk to her at that very minute! She didn't want him to worry, God knew she'd worried over him enough times to know that it was a living hell. The despair she felt pushed her towards a steady conclusion: She wasn't coming out of it.
Kenshin would either die or get over her, everyone would leave her by herself, she'd be alone again. Like she was now.
The deepness of her prison alarmed her, and she knew she wasn't thinking rationally. 'If I could calm down, and just breathe for a minute, I'd be just fine.' Kaoru thought to herself. She inhaled sharply to taste the cool...nothing. No air came into her lungs. She hadn't even inhaled. What was wrong?! She couldn't move, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't do anything now that she stopped to think about it.
Thinking was all she could do. Her body simply wouldn't listen to her! Something was holding her in deep darkness, drowning her in the turbid waters of her own mind. She wanted to scream, to lash out and cry and thrash and yell and struggle, but when she did, nothing happened except the drowning feeling increases, and she was already desperately treading water far over her head. A loud rumble echoed through her mind, followed by a huge crash.
She knew she should flinch, her body tried and failed. Then the incredible pain collapsed around her. Lancing, searing spears of pain shot through her mind, leaving what part of her was still there very weak. Her blood-curling mental shriek reverberated through her mind, unspoken but felt to an extreme extent. The sharp barbs continued to plague her; her mind felt as if it were expanding to phenominal proportions in a pint-sized jar.
Her arms, legs and all her other extremeties pulsed with similar agony. It was as if someone had taken all her blood, her tears, her life-essential fluids, and replaced them all with brutal blatant pain. She sought to scream again, memories of her first outburst and how much better she'd felt came flooding back. But this mental shriek brought only more pain instead of providing an outlet for the extraordinary stress. She was trapped, unable to run, hide, or even cower, her secure mental castle beseiged by the angry rebel, Pain.
Kaoru's face showed none of this inner horror. It remained as beautifully angelic as always, yet the absence of the sapphire jewels made it seem incomplete. Battousai stared at the porcelain manniquin before him. This couldn't be his Kaoru. This shell seemed so lifeless, so totally stripped of animation. He longed to see her eyes, anxious to know if the dull grayish blue remained or if the insightful oceans were back. It was that moment he knew: He'd do anything for this girl. He was madly, helplessly in love.
Sure, before he'd known he liked her, maybe even loved her to a certain point, but never had he felt this. He felt completely and utterly defenseless without her, and should she die he knew he would soon follow. His love for Tomoe...that was a simple joke compared to this...this...overwhelming...He didn't even know how to describe it. He just knew he was long gone. He would follow Kaoru to the ends of the earth, and beyond to whatever afterlife there was.
He glanced again at the slight form of the comatose Kaoru. The only sign that something was indeed wrong was the irregularity of her breathing. It came in short, shallow gasps, or sometimes long shuddering draws. Battousai noted this as he drew near. 'She looks peaceful, but something tells me she's not.' He'd long ago sheathed his sword, caring only about Kaoru. She looked so defenseless, exactly like he felt on the inside. 'She's afraid of being lonely...well...she'll never worry of that again.' He never expected what came next.
~^~^~
A/N: Sorry about the shortness of this chapter, but I just had to leave you hanging. The next chapter will be horribly morbid(lol, I'm a poet) but hopefully good. I know you guys despise cliffhangers. I know I sure do...when I'm reading a story that is. You get right to the exciting part and you're all exhilarated and you need to know what happens and you look and...it's not there. Then you yell and scream and flame the horrible authoress that so incosiderately left you guessing. *Cringes* Geez, if there weren't so much fun to write I might just have to quit.
/\(;-;)/\
^Follow Firkin. He'll never lead you astray!