Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin so chill. BTW, I'm not sure but the characters may be OOC… I'm not really sure if I've captured their personalities.

Icy Heaven – Chapter Eight – By Cherry Chibi

Aoshi hid a grin. He had never thought that she would be so adorable when she has a serious look on her face. It wasn't suitable for her personality and that was why he found it very cute.

"Aoshi, what are you looking at?" Misao asked mischievously while glancing over her shoulder. "Ao shi no su ke be!" She sung teasingly and laughed when she noticed Aoshi's eyes flickered with embarrassment. Since when did she suddenly play those kind of jokes?

- - - -

The sun was just over the mid way mark in the sky that wasn't even smeared by any sight of a cloud. The air was crisp and cool and the only source of warmth was the welcomed sunshine the showered upon them. "Ha!" Misao shot two of her kunai towards her red marked target. A blade plunged into the wood of the tree and the one following it pierced through the handle and straight into the hole that the first one had pierced. She slowly tried to capture her breath. A droplet of perspiration slid from her temples and fell from her chin. "That was too weak…"

Aoshi had watched her train throughout the morning well into the afternoon and he was amused at how harsh she was being on herself. Usually with training, she would treat it lightly. If she was able to pull off a strong attack, then she would believe that it was adequate enough. But today… he would've thought that she was someone else. She was pulling off strong, life threatening maneuvers and even those weren't considered good enough in her books. He had an urge to step in and tell her to take a rest for a while since she had been training non-stop.

"I'll have to do another twenty at least…" Misao said as she pulled the kunai blades out of the blistered tree. She sighed, "Even with all of the training I've done in the past, it isn't even anywhere near as strong as Tora's technique…" Her looked at her bruised fingers and noticed that blistered were beginning to form in the gaps. The reddened skin proved to be some sort of sign to her that she was making some sort of progress – that she was working hard. "At least twenty more…"

Misao stopped her movements when Aoshi's placed a hand on her shoulder, signaling for her attention. She smiled and looked up to him. "Is there something wrong Aoshi?"

"I believe that you should give Mother Nature a rest…" Aoshi said gently. Misao smiled and shook her head slowly in a soft defiance but Aoshi persisted. "You need a rest too, you've been training for at least 8 hours consecutively."

Misao sighed and looked around the scenery. Tree trunks were splintered and blistered by her powerful attacks. Then she felt guilty. She had done so much damage to the trees around the area… maybe she shouldn't have trained so hard. After a moment, Misao accepted her defeat. "Okay… I think that I'll take a quick break…" She noticed a small smile had touched Aoshi's lips for only the most unsatisfying short moments of a second. "But only if you would spar one more round with me!"

Aoshi controlled the temptation to turn around and leave. He had already sparred with her in over five rounds – winning four and tying one. He didn't want Misao to die of exhaustion. Then the usual question came to mind, 'Where does she get all her energy from?' Misao continued her puppy-like and nagging pleas. Eventually Aoshi gave in. "Only one more and you'll have to take the rest of the day off." He eyed her coldly as she considered his proposal, eventually she nodded. Agreeing with him reluctantly.

Both assumed their positions. Misao stood with her arms crossed, each hand grasping onto a handful of kunai while Aoshi unsheathed his twin kodachi and took up a stance. There was a short silence before dust flew in the air and the two charged forward at each other. Misao shot her kunai and soon several blades were darting towards Aoshi in all directions. With a swipe of his kodachi, he intercepted the small blades, breaking their journey. But soon after he did that, a strong impact struck him from behind in his lower back.

Misao's fist dug in but she had held back just before it made impact. She didn't want to hurt her Aoshi. She prepared for a low kick but Aoshi countered her attack with a low kick of his own. Misao broke away and flipped backwards, landing a distance away from Aoshi with a sinister smile.

Aoshi met her eyes with a cold glow. Soon enough, the two charged at each other again. Misao threw a punch straight towards Aoshi's chest, he clasped his hand over her fist to block but only to have her kick him across the loin. He quickly recovered and managed to dodge a couple of Misao's quick successive attacks. In less than two minutes, he landed his first hit and managed to trip her over.

She landed on her back with a thump and rolled over just in a nick of time to avoid his punch. She flipped onto her feet and countered Aoshi's next few attacks. Moving back and forth across the field, the two sparred. Aoshi was impressed at how much Misao was improving from her usual skills. She was actually making him work up. He had expected her to lose within half an hour but the spar had gone on for almost an hour.

Eventually Aoshi had to use his kodachi again to intercept the flying kunai that had darted through the air like tiny birds. He charged forward at Misao. Caught slightly off guard, Misao jumped back but collided against the tree trunk. She pulled out another handful of kunai and point the blades against his neck. The edge of Aoshi's blade only millimeters from her flesh.

Chests rising and falling, catching breath. Silence taking over the moment. Their faces so close yet so far. "You've improved…" Aoshi said quietly.

"I've been holding back…" Misao replied. Removing the kunai blades and dropping her arm beside her body. Aoshi leaned forward slowly, at the same time lowering his kodachi from her neck. Misao felt his breath on her lips. It was going to be their first… "Watch out!" She through her kunai, the blades darted through the air and pierced through the chests of Tsunami members – killing them instantly.

Aoshi reacted quickly feeling agitated. More and more members appeared, all with their weapons drawn and with sinister expressions plastered on their faces. "Misao, be careful…" Aoshi said as he took up a stance.

Misao nodded slowly. She had a bad feeling about all of this. That she did. A second went by and soon a full on assault took place. Misao did a quick calculation counting thirty men attacking. There were too many of them attacking at the one time that she was having difficulty keeping track of all of their moves.

She blocked one attack and kicked one of the members across the face sending him flying onto the ground. She took a quick glance and found Aoshi also having difficulty fighting them off. 'This isn't good…' She thought as she warded off several attacks.

Once she had eliminated one member, another took his place and it felt as if nothing had changed. Misao could feel her muscles cramp from overexertion. 'Aoshi, I hope you're alright…' Misao thought. Suddenly a cloud of white dust flew into her face. She coughed. An attack from behind caused her to fall onto her hands and knees. 'I feel… sleepy.'

Her surroundings were blurring and she stumbled trying to stand. Another explosion of pain struck on in her stomach. Blood sprayed past her lips. She doubled over and crashed onto the black ground.

- - - -

Aoshi stirred up and moved a bit. His arms and legs were sore. His clothing was marked with little nicks and cuts from the earlier fight. Looking around in his dark scenery he couldn't help but question, 'Where am I?' He tried to stand but his legs were bound together but thick rope and so were his wrists.

The shouji door slid open and a ray of light blinded his eyes. "Aoshi-san, long time no see…" A feminine voice cooed as she entered taking slow easy steps towards him. "Remember who I am or has the drug taken effect?" Her blue eyes glazed into his with a burning calm rage. Aoshi didn't respond. When the woman realised that he wasn't going to talk, she laughed menacingly. "Oh, so playing coy now?" She knelt beside him and leaned closer.

Aoshi gave her a cold stare before turning his head away towards the doors. "Tora, what have you done to Misao?" He questioned.

"Oh… you shouldn't have to worry. She's far away… long gone." Tora said with a menacing tone. She saw the doubt in his eyes and laughed, "These days… drugs are so popular… and they have so many types to kill someone… slowly." She grinned. "I'm sure that Misao had a fun time."

"What are you talking about?" Aoshi questioned. He felt his blood turn to ice. If something had happened to Misao, he wouldn't know what he'd do. Worries flooded in like a tidal wave. He had an urge to run out and find her.

"It really isn't any of your concern." Tora said, then she pulled something from the sash of her outfit by a black cord. She held it out for Aoshi to see. The jade bird hanging off the black cord, it was stained with dried blood. She held it there, in front of Aoshi's face for a moment before pulling it closer to her eyes. "It's a very beautiful piece of jewellery. It's such a shame that Misao wouldn't be able to wear it… it would have really brought out her personality."

Aoshi's eyes narrowed. He didn't like what she was telling him and it angered him that the gift that he had given to Misao was in her possession. Tora noticed Aoshi's body tense and chuckled.

"Why don't you just forget about Misao hm? It'll do you good." With that, Tora stood up and careless dropped the jade bird pendant onto the floor. The pendant skid across the wooden floor and halted beside him. Tora walked slowly towards the door, "It's pitiful that you chose her over me. Not that I care anymore. Lord Shinji is in a coma… and for that…" She sneered at him, "I'll make sure that you'll suffer for however long Lord Shinji sleeps… Misao's soul better pray that Lord Shinji would wake up very, very soon. I'm sure that she wouldn't like having the Tsunami mutate her body piece by piece." With that she stepped out of the room and slammed the shouji door shut.

Darkness shaded over Aoshi's face once more. He glanced down at the pendant with pained eyes. 'Misao…'

- - - -

AN: Hello everyone! Sorry for the late update… I've been really busy with my studies. I hope that you guys liked this chappy. - Thank you all for supporting me and reading this too! I really appreciate it! Until next time!

Cherry Chibi.