(A/N) Hmmmm... this updating thing just isn't going very well lately. I really need to get a better system especially if I plan on starting another fic soon. sigh Time really is so expensive. I'm gonna try to keep this short.
Disclaimer: "Hey, Brain? What are we goin ta do today?" "The same thing we do ever day, Pinky: try to take over Rurouni Kenshin!!'' (Sadly, this little ploy doesn't even belong to me either, I found it in another story and I thought it was so cute I had to use it too, sorry)
A Bittersweet Elegy
Chapter 6: Melancholy Joy
"In my heart's sequestered chamber lies truths stripped of poet's gloss; words alone are vain and vacant and my heart is mute."
-"Sing Me to Heaven"
A slight ring accompanied her immediate awareness blunting her senses and causing an unwarranted stir in her abilities to take in her surroundings. A deep throb pulsated at the corner of Kaoru's temple but besides the aggravating feeling she felt sorely rested and fairly satiated despite the slight discomfort. Confusion slowly settled upon her as the feel of her bedding and her position on the futon refused to correlate with her usual habits as she stretched minimally on her spot.
Generous traces of light seeped from behind a pair of crimson curtains thwarting the day's bright rays and tenderly stinging at her eyes when they eventually opened and groped in accordance with her fingers for something substantial and familiar to settle on in her growing haze and awareness. A quiet knock sounded behind her introducing the presence of another at the foreign styled door before it was slowly opened and a young maid stepped gingerly in with a small tray graced with a cup and a kettle of brewed tea. When the girl caught sight of her stirring mistress, she smiled before advancing forward and placing the tray beside the rumpled futon.
"Afternoon miss," she gently said, her eyes averted but her smile still genuinely plastered on her face.
"Afternoon?" Kaoru managed as she struggled to grasp any references as to where she was or why for that matter.
"Mhm. You've slept yourself far past morning," the maid continued setting about the room to find the garnments Kaoru would be wearing that day.
Kaoru groaned to herself still grasping for the strength to fight her wearing fatigue and remain postrate. She glanced at the girl as she laid a kimono casually at the foot of the futon with a matching obi before gesturing towards Kaoru to call her over.
"Let me help you change," she softly said kneeling beside the elder girl and helping to remove her disshevelled yukata. "You had quite a night, miss. I'm surprised you woke up even this late. I might have expected you about a few hours later." She folded the yukata and reached for the kimono, helping Kaoru to her knees so that she could properly fasten the obi. "You gave us all quite a scare."
Before Kaoru could comment, another knock from the door interrupted her thoughts as a head cautiously peeked through looking for someone. Soon the man spotted the pair on the floor, the maid gently brushing Kaoru's hair into a ponytail, and stepped further into the room, his light brown eyes alighted as they met the bright, bewildered ones of his friend and his smile widened.
"Good, you're awake. I was afraid you might sleep right through the next night as well," he said jocularly making his way closer to the girls. "May I have a word alone?" he implied to the maid politely as the girl relinquished her spot with a nod and stepped out of the room.
"Iwasaki-san?" Kaoru moaned when the girl had left. "Where am I?" She couldn't help but hold her head as that rhythmic pounding continued fully in her head.
"The Kyoto General Defenses building," he replied smoothly fully expecting the question and answering it accordingly. He drew the tea tray closer and poured the liquid carefully into the awaiting cup. "Sit up," he gently commanded as he saw her slowly lagging back on the futon and moved to assist her mindfully into a sitting position, her feet swept to the side as she sat on her thigh and held herself up by her accompanying arm.
"When did I get here? Why am I here?" she accepted the tea he offered her and sipped it slowly confiding herself in the warmth it gave her.
Iwasaki set the teapot down giving her a startled look. "Last night, don't you remember?" He searched her face for some comprehension. "You were attacked on the road."
She narrowed her gaze at him a moment in disbelief before realization struck her and her brow settled. "Yes, I remember now, the assassin."
He nodded in approval and reached to fill her cup again seeing that it was empty. "Yes, me and my men came and retrieved you just before anything severe could happen."
"But Natsuo, he didn't make it... did he?" she stated more than asked.
He hesitated a moment before confirming her suspicions with a nod. "No, he was slain on the spot."
With a short, pained sigh she nodded drawing her gaze from his to rest plainly in her lap. "And it's my fault. Many people would die and it would all be my fault."
"Why would you say that?"
"The night we camped, the entire battalion, that was when he first came," she began glancing briefly between the door and the shuttered window. "He left before he could kill Natsuo and I."
Iwasaki listened diligently assessing her story. "And that man, when did you meet up with him?"
She turned her head sharply to him giving him a perplexed look, "What man?"
"The man we found you two with," he answered gesturing toward the window and the road that lay beyond it. "You told us that he saved you."
Quickly, Kaoru masked the horror she felt at hearing his words and covered glaring at the ceiling in mock thought. "Ano, it was just after nightfall I think."
"And what made you agree to travel with him?"
She shrugged. "He said he was a rurouni, a wanderer by fate heading to old haunts in Kyoto," she replied mentally slapping herself when she realized how much her story reminded her of Kenshin and her reasons for sheltering the assassin. "Besides, Natsuo said it would be wiser to travel with greater numbers to ward off animals and protect ourselves against would-be attackers. I guess he was right." She added the last part with a nostalgic vagueness that left Iwasaki slightly put out.
"Aa."
"Gomen, Iwasaki-san," she caught herself day-dreaming, her companion gazing confusedly at her.
He waved her off offering her instead a congenial grin and rising to his feet. "Don't be, you had a traumatic night."
She nodded raising herself stiffly to her knees and placing her cup on the tray so that she could engage her fingers in her hair. "Whatever happened to that man?" she asked quietly.
"Who? The wanderer?" he thought for a moment. "A few of my men carried him back and placed him in a separate room upstairs since he was still unconscious and needed a bit of medical attention." At her anxious look he expounded, "He had a fair sized gash on his leg and a few other minor wounds including a bump on the back of the head which we think was what knocked him out in the first place. He should be fine in a few days if not tomorrow."
She nodded in satisfaction. "Can I see him?"
"I'm afraid not right now," Iwasaki replied giving her a placating expression.
"Mou!" she said under her breath without thinking causing a short chuckle from the man standing at the door. "Why not?"
"It's already past noon and you have many engagements to attend to today and tonight."
"Like what?" she asked glaring immaturely at him. "I just got here."
"You got here hours ago and the Kyoto board has yet to meet you. You agreed to come meet the committee on my behalf, remember?"
She nodded after a moment and her glare softened melting into a concerned frown. "I still don't understand why I'm so important to these people. There are far more influential women in Japan."
"But none that did what you did," he consoled her. "Katsura-san wants to meet you personally since you were such an important part of Himura's life. He wants to thank you for what you did for him."
"I only did what any other compassionate person would do."
"No, you did what few other people of any sense would do. You opened yourself to a complete stranger and befriended him even after knowing who he was. Few would have had the courage to make a dangerous hitokiri part of their family and make him feel welcome in their home. He wants to thank you for that on his uncle's behalf."
Again she nodded having already heard the speech before. "I'm just nervous."
"I know," he said giving her one last smile as he opened the western door and began to step out. "You won't have to meet him though until tomorrow, today it's just the general officers, all of whom I know and can personally introduce you to."
Kaoru returned his smile slowly relinquishing the strand of hair she had been playing with and resting her hands on her thighs. "I suppose I can deal with that. I just wanted to talk to my savior before the day was through, you know, thank him and all."
"I know," he returned stepping further out the door with only a foot left in the room. "I'll have him invited to dinner tonight. We are having a smaller gathering at the meal and he may be more comfortable there than at a greater convention."
"Thank you," she said, a genuinely pleased smile stretching the corners of her mouth causing his own to grow in proportion.
"Then I'll see you in an hour after you've eaten and we'll begin conversing with the public, ne?" He waited for her to acknowledge his plan before nodding his head singularly and continuing, "Great, then I'll see you soon." With that he stepped from the room and closed the door softly behind him with a short click leaving Kaoru alone to finish with her preparations for the day.
"So we've established that they originated from Hokkaido? Is that all?"
"Aa, we've yet to find the leader of this rebellion. Apparently they've been able to keep the lowest of profiles while all this mayhem happened."
"Mm. And the militia stationed at that town outside Edo?"
"Dead; completely destroyed by the rebels, all one hundred of them."
The elder man gave a sigh as he assessed the ill report and massaged a hand roughly against his brow before dropping the hand haplessly into his lap. "No leads, no traces? What kind of rebellion is so calculated that they employ stealth as their major priority? I thought this was supposed to be a legion of farmers, ranchers, and artisans, not a militant group."
"They are normal working class specimens, the only matter is that most of them probably served in the Bakumatsu under the Shinsengumi or the Ishin Shishi. Anyone who survived battle during that era is a skilled enough swordsman to take down a portion of our forces. Our young men are hardly trained and lack the ability to commence a veritable power against these experienced swordsmen." The younger paused analyzing his companion with unwavering eyes, the gravity in his voice emphasizing each word, "We need to employ better men. We need to bring Battousai into direct battle."
"You don't know what you're suggesting," the elder compromised matching the other's serious fervor. "By bringing him into war you risk his sanity. He's currently content to let people believe him dead. If his friends hear of his revival they'll come for him regardless and he will lose his mind. I can't allow you to do that to him, he's suffered enough."
"Yamagata-san, I know about the girl," the younger continued, his tone softening by degrees. "But it can't be helped; she died and he's learned to accept that. Besides, she was the only lasting link he had between his other friends in Tokyo. With her gone they would find no reason to risk bothering him. They've all moved on since her de..."
"She isn't dead, Matsuyo."
The younger man stopped in his speech to turn confused eyes toward his commanding officer. "But the fire..."
"She survived," Yamagata said simply standing from his seat to glance out the window at the small crowd of politians gathered there. "She was always strong like that. I just regret that I found out about it too late to help the both of them."
Katsura nodded sagely briefly glancing out the window from his own seat. "What's become of her then?"
"That," Yamagata began giving his associate a small, warm smile, "is what I intend to find out today."
"I'm afraid I don't understand," the younger man said relinquishing his own chair to follow Yamagata to the door.
"I haven't seen her in years," he smiled opening the door and stalling there a moment to answer. "She's come to Kyoto with a friend though and I intend to catch up with her now that she's here. It seems life hasn't been all that kind to our Kamiya-san. She was attacked on her journey up and narrowly missed being killed. Last night Iwasaki found her before any more harm could pass her or the man she had been traveling with whom supposedly saved the girl from her assailant."
So it was true, Katsura thought to himself. The girl was still alive. He could only imagine how Himura would react to the news.
"Now," Yamagata continued on traversing through the open door and calling over his shoulder, "I believe I've kept her waiting long enough."
He awoke with a jolt, his muscles instinctively protesting from their strain though he paid them no mind instead opting to glance about at his surroundings with disoriented eyes. A quiver passed just below his skin as he felt the chill of the early winter breezes nip his exposed chest. Shifting slightly on his spot he noticed the dull numbness of his left leg inspiring a new curiosity within him before realization set in causing him to both mentally and physically flinch where he sat despite having not moved.
Last night he'd nearly killed her just when he realized she was alive again. He'd nearly killed her.
Folding his legs he sat his elbows upon his knees and drew his firey bangs from his forehead contenting himself to stare into his lap for the moment. Another sound breeze drew his loose hair across his shoulder tickling the skin there and prickling at his sore face, yet he didn't move to tame the fluttering strands and instead released a heavy, shuddering sigh that he'd felt building within himself for the past few moments of recollection.
She was alive, and he'd nearly killed her.
A friendly knock called from the room's door alerting him to a visitor and for an instant he entertained the idea of vanishing before he was found lazing within this comfortable room. The notion was quickly disregarded however when the heavy door eased open and a young man stepped through closing the door diligently behind him as he merely stood rooted to his last placement.
"Good morning," the man said with the smallest hint of a smile. "I trust you slept well."
"Aa," Kenshin affirmed straightening his posture in the presence of this stranger. "Thank you."
"No; thank you," the man countered taking a few brazen steps forward, his hands linked behind his back. "I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been there last night to save my friend."
Kenshin looked away inconspicuously to avoid the other's eyes. "I've done nothing."
"Modesty isn't important you know. Most men would be demanding a reward for their actions by now and I would have gladly obliged. Will you not do the same?"
"There is no price I can consciously put on my actions," he answered evasively.
His reply only seemed to make the young man's smile grow immensely as a faint twinkle edged at the corners of his light brown eyes. "I suppose not, ne? But all the same, my friend would like to invite you to dinner with us tonight so she can personally thank you." He glanced at the man sitting on his futon curiously noting the way he slightly favored his injured leg. "I'll have the surgeon come back to examine that for you before then, though."
Following the man's stare, Kenshin glanced at his wound indifferently before turning his eyes to half-way stare at him. "Thank you, I appreciate the service." He saw the man's strained smile slide into a contented smirk before proceding, "I'm sorry, but what did you say your name was?"
Iwasaki's grin faltered for an instant before he caught himself, "Iwasaki, statesman Iwasaki. I apologize for not introducing myself earlier. May I ask your name? My friend was unable to disclose that when we last talked."
Panic arose in Kenshin though he outwardly showed no signs of dismay, instead he inclined his head to the side and issued the first name that came to mind, "Kiyosato, Kiyosato Akira."
Iwasaki nodded satisfied with the former's answer before continuing, "Feel free to come and go as you please. We owe you much for your services and I imagine it will be awhile before you'll be able to properly walk on that leg of yours." He waited for the older, shaggier looking man to accept his terms before going on, "I do hope you join us for dinner as well, it'll be at seven-thirty in the common's dining room. My friend would be very pleased if you were to join us."
"Your friend," Kenshin began glancing toward the window where the faint clatter of several conversing voices could be heard from outside. "What is her name?"
A perplexed looked crossed Iwasaki's handsome features before he answered, "Kaoru, Kamiya Kaoru. Why, didn't you know?"
"It slipped me for a minute. I almost forgot what happened last night, too," he countered smoothly covering his trail and concealing his lies easily. "I suppose it's all this excitement that has me forgetting things."
"Aa," Iwasaki agreed moving towards the door once more and beginning his departure. "You should rest. I'll have a chamber maid inform you when dinner is almost prepared."
"Arigato," Kenshin said trying his own slight smile for the sake of convincing the young man of his sincerity.
With a nod, Iwasaki exited the room leaving Kenshin to himself and his thoughts of a raven haired ghost that had arisen to haunt him from beyond her caustic grave.
Kaoru held her breath as she balanced the dinner tray precariously in her arms just outside the guest room. Her heart pounded audibly into her throat and her knees trembled anxiously while she debated the cleanest approach to advancing upon the room and meeting her assailant face to face for the first time. How should she address him? Would he think her vulgar and audacious for calling upon him late at night alone? More so, would he be offended by her tendencies to speak unhindered and out of turn?
She knew nothing if little of this man and the repercussions of surprising or offending him in his own, distant space could very well be perilous for her should she not protect her personal guard with a wary eye. If the worst should come about, at least a single scream from her would send dozens of sentries rushing to her aid at a moment's notice to apprehend the man. She breathed a shaken sigh and straightened her posture readying herself to enter the room with one last thought. He may very well just be almost exactly like Kenshin; and she would risk everything for that possibility. Using her left arm to support the tray against the wall, Kaoru slowly, carefully opened the wooden door before advancing into the room tray in hand.
The room was grayed and dark in the absence of the sun's light leaving only the outside lamp-posts to dimly illuminate the room's silent corners. Despite the lack of direction, she made her way as gracefully as possible to a short table situated between two tatamis beside the window. Laying the tray down on the table, she allowed herself to kneel on the closer tatami, head averted to her lap awaiting her guest in quiet gestures. A minute passed and the shuffle of linen and feet failed to rustle the interest of her hearing just as her company failed to take their place across the table from her.
With confused eyes, she bravely took a sweep of the area postulating that her guest was not even in the room to begin with and she had made an entire polite show in vain. The bed was empty as was the chair in front of the small fireplace in the corner. She glanced quickly at the armoir and the desk placed neatly along the wall all the while expecting to see a lone figure waiting patiently there for her to find him, but he was not there. Instead, the faintest clank of sifting metal drew her attention to the hazy corner behind her where the reposed form of a hunched, shadowed figure sat stringing a small chain around his neck and dangling a round trinket from its hold. Kaoru watched him a moment out of confusion before calling upon her most amicable smile.
"Anou," she began reaching for something to say to gain his attention simply. "Good evening."
She waited for his reaction and was slightly perturbed when he decided to ignore her and continue with his monotonous actions of fidgetting with his necklace. Instead of riling her anger as the disinterest was likely to do in her case, she felt sheepish as she quickly began to reach across the table and arrange the foods she had brought.
"I thought you might be hungry," she quickly said filling in the gap of silence that would settle upon the room should she remain quiet. "I brought you some miso, fish, and tea from the kitchen."
She looked to him for a reaction but found none issuing a sense of displacement within her that unsettled her nerves and caused her to wring her hands. She glanced as mildly as she could toward the corner every now and again until her patience had become worn and she accepted the fact that she was not wanted within the small room. Just as she was making to lift herself from her seat, a voice tore her back to the corner and gained her undivided attention.
"Why?" the voice asked low and deliberately barely taking any direction toward being a question or a statement.
Kaoru glanced back to the food waiting on the tray and then once again at his sullen form hidden within the shadow. "You weren't at dinner tonight so I guessed that you might have been feeling too ill to attend or that you were..."
"No," he cut her off briskly again. "Why?"
Bewilderment replaced Kaoru's frenzied speech as she fully turned to face him from her place on the tatami. In the vague light she could scarcely make out anything more from him than the dull, gray outline of his glowing eyes as they watched from behind the hooded gaze of his countenance. "Why what?"
His heavy bangs swayed with a low gravity. Head rising a fraction from its perch against his chest, he gazed distantly at her across the room. "Just that, why?"
Her demure attitude fell slightly as she allowed her shoulders to hunch in the barest of visible degrees forward as she looked away out the window. "Why not? You're a person too, and even if you did kill over twenty people in the past two days alone, that dosn't mean I want you to die as well." She glanced at him with half a genuine smile. "I don't know you so I can't judge why you did what you did, and that's reason enough for me to help you."
"I might have killed you in your foolishness. Just as you said, you don't know me."
"Hai, but it doesn't matter much to me. Besides, I don't think you will kill me."
"But my orders thus far are just that."
"Is that so?" she asked watching the stillness of his figure nod in the dimness. "Then I suppose I'll have to remember my guard while you're around."
"I won't be around long," he stated brusquely turning to gaze nonchalantly out the window. "Don't bother concerning yourself with me."
"Why?" she blurted innocently, her eyes wide in confusion. "Where are you going to go? Your leg is still injured, surely you can't expect to get anywhere with a wound like that?"
"I'll be able to manage," he told her coldly only offering a glance in her general direction. "I've failed my mission and now I must confess so to my superiors here in Kyoto. Purely business." He turned his head fractionally towards her and offered a few white teeth through the darkness of the room in a smirk aimed to disrupt her composure and give himself a dangerous appeal that may very well ward her away from his private motives. "I'm sure you understand."
But her calmness remained unperturbed as she silently stared back at him with pleading, inquisitive eyes festering slowly with a burning indignation. "I understand completely, Kiyosato-san." He started at the name barely remembering it to be the one he had issued to Iwasaki earlier. Luckily she hadn't noticed his folly and continued on with her speech. "Your life is dedicated to duty, and your duty is to cleanse the world of sinners." She glared at him through the darkness masking his features and imagined a face for him, uniforming it into the one she could see his voice serving in her mind. The undaunted gleam in his hazy eyes never moved, never wavered as she continued, her hands clutching at the soft material covering her knees. "Your duty is murder."
"So then you've figured me all out then I suppose?"
Her frown suddenly softened and her lips nearly curled into a weak smile as she answered, "Not in the slightest really." She looked away from his heated gaze to watch the folds in her lap with mild interest.
"What else is there to know?" he shrugged, his husky voice losing its vigor. "I'm a killer."
"I don't know why, though." She briefly glanced at him beneath the curtain of her raven hair cascading about her shoulders as she sat. "Bloodlust would be the obvious answer, but it doesn't seem to suit you."
"And why's that?"
"Because you didn't kill me." This time she held his gaze stiffly within her own analyzing the dance of colors she could vividly see shining through his hood of bangs and thick lashes. She turned to him fully repositioning her stature on the tatami so that she no longer looked over her shoulder to him but was instead facing him fully. "Why do you kill?"
"To protect," he answered vaguely meeting the small challenge in her eyes defiantly.
"Protect who or what?"
"The innocent, structure, honor..."
"Honor?"
Kenshin nodded almost imperceptibly.
"Whose honor?" she asked softly, her curiosity gaining the advantage over her self-control and upsetting the balance of power in the conversational exchange.
Their eyes battled for an instant, one warding the other away as the other strove to inquire further until he conceded and turned away out the window with a single word lingering faintly on his lips and barely drifting into sound, "Hers."
Kaoru almost failed to hear it as she leaned forward fascinated on her knees. "A woman?"
A faint nod of acknowledgement.
"A lover?"
"I did love her if that's what you mean." He sighed and traced an anxious hand across his face, the unusual atmosphere clinging to his collar and making him feel heady and nostalgic as the irony of the circumstances began to weigh steadily in his mind.
The room grew quiet as the pair sat in contemplative silence each deliberating with themselves over the actions to be taken next concerning the other and their own thoughts. A lone raven cawed from its perch outside drawing both occupant's attention to the window before they returned once more to the problem at hand.
"What happened to her?" Kaoru finally asking breaking the stony silence and solemnity that had previously occupied the room.
"She died," he answered with a tight throat willing himself to not look at the ghost that sat across from him watching his every move with compassionate, sympathetic eyes even after all the trauma he had caused her. "A long time ago."
The ghost merely nodded and finally averted her eyes to the floor relieving him of her daunting stare. "I understand," she whispered keeping a close watch over the movement of her folded hands. "I lost someone too. It hurts. I understand your loss."
"Yes it does hurt, but you don't understand my loss; not in the slightest." He turned his eyes to glare angrily at her though his chin remained against his chest.
"And why not?" she asked meeting his glare with a heated look of her own.
"Because you don't know what it is to kill someone," he paused only for a moment to gauge her reaction before continuing. "You don't know what it is to kill someone you love."
She gasped, a delicate hand raising to cover her agape mouth, and while he knew he was lying under the terms of her own death, he still felt as though he had carried her blood upon his soiled hands through the valley of death on a toiling journey. She was still dead to him despite being only meters away.
"You killed her?" Kaoru whimpered, her eyes filling with pity for the man across from her.
"Does it matter anymore?"
"Of course it does, you loved her."
"I avenge her daily," he broke out interupting her spiel before she could gain any real ground.
"With death?" she broke out all the same. She drew herself to her feet as quickly as she could manage staggering slightly from her impediments and noticing quietly how he flinched his hands everytime she was close to falling as though he would rush to her assistance should she need his help and attentions. Interesting, but she still needed to finish. "No respectable woman wishes for her death to be morned and revered in bloodshed." She held her head high as she gazed at him from her recent height advantage. A small smile graced her eyes as she added, "Kenshin could have told you all about that. I'm sure he would have too."
"Kenshin?" he whispered to himself in awe as she nodded proudly down to him.
"Aa, Kenshin," she agreed, her smile growing each moment. "He was a friend of mine, but I loved him." He listened intently to her each word registering and recording itself permanently into his memory. Her smile suddenly dropped however. "He died... a couple years ago. It was my fault."
A stray tear traced down the contours of her cheek and he resisted the urge to surge to his feet and hold her telling her everything would be alright because he was alive and so was she and now they could be together again. But they couldn't, because he wasn't alive. He had been dead for the past two years and he refused to offer such information unbidden to her now. It was best she believe he had always been dead and save her the devastation of knowing his real fate.
So he settled to stare at her as she gazed fondly yet sadly into the opposite corner folding the crease of her kimono between her thin fingers in memory of lighter days. "I wish you could have met him, you would have had a world in common."
Oh, she didn't know the half of it.
"I suppose I should just settle then for myself." She graced him with another one of her small smiles. "I do hope you stay, Kiyosato-san. I've been lonely, and I wouldn't mind harboring another assassin under the alias of 'friend'." She walked as elegantly as she could manage to the door despite the ache in her scarred foot and looked back at him with a short nod. "Oyasumi, Kiyosato-san."
He waited silently until the door had closed behind her before throwing his head back against the wall with a soft thud and grazing his hands roughly over his face to bid his tension, unease, and indecision away. In the end, he couldn't suppress the tiny smile that quirked from the edge of his mouth.
"Oyasumi... Kaoru-dono."
Next Chapter:
The Truth About Sparrows
(A/N) Ok, maybe the next chapter will come out sooner b/c I'm already working on it. Once more, if you want to be informed of updates, just leave your email addy in a review and I'll be sure to contact you on every update!! Thanks everyone and please, please, please, please, please REVIEW!! A lack of reviews a lack of updates.
REVIEWER RESPONSES:
- Ariel - Funny you should ask about Kenshin meeting up with Sano and Yahiko... cuz it's quite likely to happen sometime soon, like... next chapter maybe. lol. Thanks for reviewing.
- Linay - Oh please I hate to say it, but stop reviewing because you're making me cry!! I really am star-struck by you reviewing my story, it's awesome and I really appreciate it!! Thank you so much!! (and I was kidding before, please keep reviewing ) And Cat (one of my reviewers) says "Hi!" She also wants you to continue your story (as does everyone, lol, we love you!!)
- kouri - Oh thank you so much for all the cookies, they're truly what keeps me going!! Not too too much emotional torture in this chapter, but I suppose it'll have to do for now since next chapter may get a bit... rough.
- The Girl Who Cried Oro- Thanks so much for the email, it warmed me to know that even though was messing up, you still wanted to get your review to me. I REALLY appreciate that. Next chappie we will explore quite a few things including the question, "What is Iwasaki to Kaoru?" I hope you enjoy it. Thank you so much once again.
- Curls of Serenity, Amber, Cat, Psyche, Angrybee, Vegeta26, Inygodusk - Thank you all so much for reviewing!! I appreciate the support and I hope to hear from you all again!!