Disclaimer: Soujiro is not mine =**( neither is Kenshin ..
A/N: If you didn't already know, the words in italics are people's thoughts. ^_^ and if there are flashbacks, they will be in their own respective sections and be written in italics.
Warning: Some bad language ahead, but nothing that you haven't heard before .. hehe =x
~ A Memory Forgotten ~
Chapter 7
"Stop squirming bitch and be good!" the man who was holding her commanded. He brought his hand up and slapped her hard across her face.
The sound resonated throughout the entire room. It was deafening. Unable to control his anger anymore, Soujiro put his hand on the hilt of his katana and was about to strike.
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Kaoru stood there stunned from both her emotional and physical pain. The stinging feeling on her cheek was beginning to bleed. The redness of the blood stood out against her pale face. Her sapphire eyes were quivering at the sight of the man who had struck her so fiercely. She wanted to hit him back, she wanted to punch him in the gut, kick him, do anything! But she couldn't.
So she just stood there and gaped at the figure before her.
A loud tear was heard in the room. Everyone turned his head to look for the source of the noise. To their shock, they saw that the door was torn open.
The guards scanned the room to look for the intruder. But they saw nothing immediately. The feeling of panic was rising and suffocating each one in the room.
Kaoru herself was in a state of shock. What is going on?, she thought in panic. As she turned her head back to see the guard who had slapped her in the face, she saw a flash of blue and a gleam of light.
THUMP!
The man was sprawled on the floor before her knocked unconscious.
Everyone around her was in a state of shock. The intruder was moving at a speed so fast that they couldn't follow his movement with their naked eye. All they could see were skid marks on the floor and all they could hear was the harsh pounding on the floors and walls. Instinctively all the guards flocked near their boss to protect him.
Swish!, doors from all sides of the rooms were opened. About fifteen more people stumbled inside the room in a flash once they heard the commotion.
"GET THE GIRL!" the boss yelled over the chaos. The boss himself was running towards the door with about three bodyguards protecting him. Soujiro looked over his side and saw them running away, but he was having trouble holding off the twenty odd people that were attacking him.
Kaoru crouched down in her position, unable to scream or move much because of the bindings that they had put on her. She looked up and saw in the corner of her eye one of the guards spotting her in the corner. She held her breath as he grinned and made himself ready to attack her. She shut her eyes tightly as she braced herself for the oncoming impact.
Soujiro looked over to the corner of the extensive room that held Kaoru and saw a guard getting ready to attack her. He rushed over to her side using his god speed and stepped protectively in front of the girl with his sword in front of them shielding her from any of the attacks.
The guard was stunned to see the man standing right in front of him. His eyes were wide with shock. Where the hell did he come from? He panicked. He just remembered seeing the girl in the corner and getting ready to attack her. That's impossible. He just appeared out of thin air. The guard was now coming out of his shock and his mind was now registering fear. Shit! And metal clanged against metal.
Kaoru waited an excruciatingly couple of minutes as she readied herself for the blow. However, she felt nothing. She slowly opened her eyes and looked up from her crouching position. Her eyes were wide with shock. The man in the blue gi was standing in front of her and defending the both of them from the guards. She was trying to register who was protecting her.
I'll get the man in charge of this later, Soujiro thought with determination as he saw the boss's retreating figure in the distance. He looked behind him to make sure that the girl was okay and saw that she was shivering. He gave her a very warm smile.
"I'll take care of this problem don't worry. If you would be so kind to just stay here a few moments while I finish dealing with these people. I'll protect you, Kamiya-san," the boy said with reassurance and unconditional warmth.
Then he turned back to face his oncoming attackers.
Soujiro!!!, she thought. Even though she was not able to create any sound through her mouth because of the cloth around it, the way that her eyes lit up showed that she was relieved. The way that Soujiro had smiled at her made her feel at ease.
Thank you, Soujiro. You've saved my life, she thought gratefully.
One by one, fifteen of the guards had fallen down onto the ground in a matter of seconds. As Kaoru looked around, she found herself looking at a floor littered with unconscious bodies. Some of the arms and legs of the guards were twisted in awkward positions. There were only about five or seven guards left standing and they were shaking so badly from fear that they might as well have surrendered. To her right, she saw her savior, Soujiro. His eyes showed such harsh determination as it gauged each one of the attackers. She was in awe at the boy's speed and flawless ability with the katana as it hit its target. The sight was mesmerizing and yet so familiar. She shook her head as she tried to remember where else that she had seen this scene before.
Mou! If only I could remember, she thought in desperation.
Kaoru continued to watch as she saw Soujiro face his last opponent. As the guard rushed toward the boy in front of him, the boy disappeared and then quickly reappeared behind him. With a hard blow, Soujiro knocked the attacker unconscious with the hilt of his sword. Once he fell down, the boy scanned the room to see if there was anyone else and once content that all the attackers were unconscious, he quickly hurried to Kaoru's side so that he could untie her.
As the man clad in the blue gi started to approach the girl, she saw out of the corner of her eyes, something bright and shiny. The man had a wicked grin on his face as he stood some twenty feet behind Soujiro with his weapon. Kaoru's eyes grew wide. It was a gun! She tried to yell out to Soujiro, but couldn't because of the cloth around her mouth and her hands being tied. Then, a distinct click was heard.
Before Soujiro could turn around, the gun went off.
It was too late.
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"Who the fuck was that guy?" the boss, Fujimoto Akane, demanded while panting out of breath. He and his three bodyguards had run out of the building when they saw that boy attacking. They ran until they found their carriage and high-tailed it out of there. The clip-clopping of the horses hooves' and the harsh breathing of the four people were deafening.
"I . . I thought Battousai was gone," stated one of the guards while trying to catch his breath.
"He is gone, you numskull," Fujimoto answered curtly. "That's why I fucking asked who that guy was."
No one replied.
"Well, somehow that girl has connections with him seeing how he protected her," the boss said thoughtfully.
"Hai," another guard said, then paused in thought. He looked back up at the boss and commented, "But there's no way that he could fend off all of our guards! There are twenty-five guys back there!"
Fujimoto glared at him. The man shrunk back in his seat, sweating at his boss's reaction. Fujimoto stated, "I haven't seen those skills since the Bakumatsu when I was in the Shinsengumi. He could easily take down all of our men. We were lucky he was distracted at the time, or we would be lying dead on the ground right now."
All three bodyguards sweatdropped.
Fujimoto took out a cigarette from his coat pocket and one of the guards lit it for him. He took a long puff and sighed.
One of the guards then asked, "How did he find us?"
Fujimoto growled in response. Everyone held his breath. Seeing that the boss wasn't going to respond they relaxed a little and exhaled.
The boss's eyes narrowed as he looked out the window and thought, Now that I've found you, Higurashi Kaoru, I will not let you out of my grasps. I'll get what's owed to me.
He took another drag of the cigarette and flicked it out of the carriage window.
"Oi!!!"
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"Oi!!!" Sanosuke yelled in fury with his fists clenched in the air waving at the passing carriage. "Shiksho! Who the hell does that guy think he is!" Apparently, the cigarette end had landed on top of Sano's head and had singed his spiky hair.
Yahiko laughed and pointed. "Hahahaha!"
Sano, in no mood to get into another argument, just hit the kid over the head. "We're here," he said.
Yahiko stopped and looked at the building in front of him. He was out of breath and found them standing in front of a doctor's office.
"Hey Sano! Why are we here in this doctor's office? . . If you wanted to see a doctor, you could go see Megumi," Yahiko stated while panting. He was perplexed as to why they were there in the first place since Sano had run off without even telling him where he was going and why.
"I found a piece of paper that had the words Dr. Shiraku scribbled on it. And that's why we're here." Sano stated. He took out the scrap of paper and Yahiko examined it, then nodded.
Once they went into the building, they knew something was wrong.
"Why is it so quiet?" Yahiko questioned as he looked around.
"Come on, let's check the rooms. You take the rooms on the left side while I take the ones on the right side," Sano replied. Yahiko grunted in agreement while both ran down the hallways checking each of the rooms.
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What kind of doctor's office is this? No patients and no doctors, Sano thought in confusion. Something's not right.
Sano approached one of the doors and slid it open. It was as usual, empty. He had already gone through five rooms and he was getting really aggravated to say the least. As he approached the seventh room, he smelt something. Blood?
Without thinking, he kicked open the door and to his shock, saw papers scattered all along the floor. There was splattered blood was all over them.
What the hell?
He quickly turned to his left and saw the body. He ran over to the corpse's side and was relieved a bit to see that it was some man. Not Jou-chan, he thought with a relief.
He scanned the room and started gathering up the papers that were strewn all over the place. As he shuffled the papers around looking for clues he found some papers dated that same day and the day before. Interested, Sano looked at what was written.
His face paled considerably.
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As Sanosuke was examining the rooms on the right side, Yahiko took the rooms on the left side. Like Sano, Yahiko had come up empty handed with each room he had looked in. They were mostly empty, nothing was out of the ordinary. As he approached the last two rooms, his feeling of dread grew.
All this looking around and we've come up with nothing so far. Kami-sama. I hope Kaoru is all right. Yahiko was becoming depressed. He thought that they'd be able to find Kaoru since Sano had found that piece of paper in the group's old hide out.
I can't give up hope, Yahiko thought as he opened to check in on the last two rooms.
As he slid open the door of one of them, he smelled something comforting. Jasmine, he thought. It reminds me of Kaoru, he thought with a shadow of a smile on his face. He looked around the room and saw that someone had stayed here. However, the futon and blankets were in a disarray.
What if Kaoru had stayed here? .. . . Shiksho! That means someone must have kidnapped her. Knowing Kaoru, she wouldn't leave a mess like this without cleaning up the area. Even though it's a small possibility, I still gotta tell Sano what I found.
He ran back out into the hallways and yelled to Sano, "Oi!!! I think Kaoru's been here already!"
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Sano rushed out of the room once he heard Yahiko and came face to face with him. Yahiko noticed something was wrong because Sano's face was all pale. As Yahiko looked inside the room, he found a dead body with blood all over it.
Yahiko's face paled and he looked up at Sano questioningly. Don't tell me it's Kaoru, his eyes said pleadingly to the ex-gangster.
"It's the doctor," Sano responded grimly.
"Oh," Yahiko responded in a small voice with his head down. Thank god it's not Kaoru. Even though it was upsetting that someone had killed the doctor so brutally, the little boy couldn't help but feel relieved that it wasn't his busu.
Sano looked at Yahiko thoughtfully and put one of his hands on the boy's shoulders. Yahiko looked up at Sano as he began to speak. "You're right. I think Kaoru was here before."
Sanosuke handed the papers that he had found earlier over to young boy.
Yahiko gasped.
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- To be continued
Author's Notes:
Please read and review!!!! Thanks so much for all of your reviews so far. Sorry I haven't updated in the last couple of days. I had finished the chapter before earlier, but I had changed it around. ^_^ The next couple of chapters will probably take awhile before I finish because I want them to be good and I'm still thinking about what I want to happen next.
Hehe. . sorry about the cliffhangers there. ^_^ I know I'm evil.
Author imitating Megumi's laugh – "Ohohohoho."
I'm now reiterating the fact that this is a K/K fic ^_^ Gomenasai SxK fans.
Readers throw old fruit at the author
Author ducks
But as I have said earlier, Soujiro fans won't be disappointed =D Hehe .. I love the guy.
Anyway, I plan to write a Soujiro/Kaoru fic sometime in the future. Maybe an Enishi/Kaoru one also ^_^
Special Thanks to all the Readers. Please review! =D Suggestions and such will be highly appreciated!! =D Hmm.. like what do you want to happen between Soujiro and Kaoru. Nothing racy please! Just innocent stuff. And also I'm not sure of whether I want to incorporate Misao and Aoshi into the story. I think it'll only drag it on much much longer. Also I don't plan to put in any Sano/Megumi or Misao/Aoshi (if I put them in this story) get together scenes. I'd rather just focus on the relationship between Kenshin/Kaoru/Soujiro. ^_^
Thanks to all my reviewers:
Nicky, wolfpack, Uenki, Princess of Darkness, Tsugoi Kakarlena, kenshinfan, kato, Souryusen, chibi, Briar, shippo, beriath, Luna Angel, kaoru-no-tanuki, Ana, CurlsofSerenity, Jouchano8, Moonwind, and Sanosuke Sagara for your support!