Me: KENSHIN! Do I own you!
Kenshin: Sessha thinks not, that he does!
Me: But I own my clones, right?
Kenshin: Sessha is scared of them, so yes, you do!
Authors Notes: God I'm slow. I needed a break so I didn't write in either of my stories for the whole weekend. But I ended up writing anyway. The life I live is sad. But I played Mortal Kombat (and some of you may know this, some may not) but in the Deadly Alliance version there is a fighter named Kenshi (Oh my god!) and he's a swordsman and he carries a katana. I thought that was freaky. Nope, he doesn't have red hair (he wears red, though!) so IT'S NOT A CLONE. But I thought it was weird. But one dude I was fighting, I think his name was Kano or something like that, he defeated me and he decided to kill me and he tore my heart and other organs out of my chest with his hands! I was reminded of my other story 'Coming of the Dawn' with the part when Kenshin killed Shishio and I was like 'so THAT'S what it looked like...'. I just thought I'd share that with you. Now that you're all throughly disgusted, read on!
Breaking Through
Chapter 4- Intertwining Fates
Kaoru sat quietly, trying vainly to clean her dislocated, bleeding shoulder with her good hand. It wasn't working well for her, pain searing through her body each time she touched the tender wound. She was sitting blankly in a dark corner; her eyes flew up to gaze at the man who had saved her life most selflessly.
The crimson hair flowed around him, matching uncannily with the blood he had shed that day in her dojo. Oddly he didn't seem affected by his onslaught upon the enemy, slicing them into the darkness no one could tell of. After a long argument she had convinced him to clean the death in the room.
The body of the man moved slowly but quickly, easily lifting up the bodies of the deceased as if the blood that slipped down his arms and over his body didn't affect him in the slightest. One by one he had carried the cold, lifeless corpses outside, and piled them idly in the field he had been practicing in the first day she had met him. He would come back for another body, shielding his eyes with the blood hair that sprouted like flowers from his head. He was silent, and even as her curious cerulean eyes followed him he took no heed to it.
Once it took him a while to come back, and she momentarily wondered why. A sickening stench reached her obstinate senses, pleading with her to heave. She had never experienced something so vile mixed with smoke. She silently wondered what was burning, and then it hit her roughly, her eyes widening in revelation. He was burning the bodies.
She slowly began to tear, her body heaving in convulsions as she leaned off to the side, the scent still assaulting her nostrils. She cried, her tears mixing with the new mess on the floor as she tried to clean up her face instead of her arm.
Battousai walked back into the building, admitting to himself that the scent of burning flesh was too grotesque for even his contentment. He began to scrub the blood religiously from the tainted walls, finding it easy to remove since it was fresh and had yet to sink into the wood around the room. He could hear the young, enchanting warrioress crying from her final amazement with the ways in which the men had died, and their final fates.
In nearly an hour he had been lucky enough to finish scrubbing the blood away from the wood, and he stood in relief. He could finally leave.
The woman, Kaoru, looked at him questioningly. "Can you help me?"
He glanced at her unexpectedly, his amber eyes wide in shock as to why she would ask him to help her after watching how he had retained himself. And this time, he had been aware of his deeds yet he oddly felt no remorse for it. The thought of being so cold didn't sit well with his conscience but he shoved the thought back.
"No." was the curt response.
"I can't clean my arm... I can barely move." she tried to convince him. "I need help."
"Why would you want my help?" he asked, voice low and icy.
She glared. "Because I need help and you've already given me your assistance once today!"
Kenshin growled. Despite her young and naïve appearance, she truly was intelligent and clever, and her point had been most truthful. Sighing he slumped next to her and pulled the bloodied gi away from her injured shoulder with a little force to show his protest. She winced and smacked him with her good hand, not thinking about the fact that he could kill her with one swipe with his brilliant blade.
He washed the wounded arm slowly, gently tracing circles around the blood to scrape it off without offering her too much damage to the dislocated limb. Oddly he felt refreshed with this small gesture of humanity towards her. Cleaning a wound instead of inflicting one was a new thing for him.
He moved away from her arm and began the same ministrations to the bruising cut on her skull. Slow and delicate, he reminded himself. Her eyes closed and she let the man hover over her, despite the fact that the only thing truly covering her from the waist up was her white breast bindings. He moved away from her, reaching amiably for a bandage she had collected from a cupboard in the dojo. Slowly Kenshin unfolded the cloth and began to wrap it tightly but still loosely around her throbbing head, tying it securely with he was done.
She opened her eyes, slightly surprised to see his eyes were not the sappy amber you would find on pine trees, but a gentler shade of navy blue. He took a hold of the limb that hung limply out of its now lonely socket.
"This is going to hurt," he warned her before pushed up with her arm, until it clicked back into the socket like a sword in its sheath.
"Ouch!" she cried, pulling her arm away instantly.
Busy making a makeshift sling for her arm, he side glanced at her momentarily.
"Your shoulder is back in place." he told her coldly. "Don't move it too much yet, or it will come back out again and someone will have to push it back in again."
She nodded response fully to him, cradling her pain-inflicted arm against her chest.
"Where did you learn to fight?"
He stiffened slightly, the question being one he had not expected from her. He had not expected this Kaoru to speak to him after all the carnage he had instigated in her dojo, which taught a nonkilling form of kenjutsu. Her words rang in his mind wildly as he thought.
What had possessed her wonder to surf to that of where he had been taught to fight? She already knew of the technique, for he had named it to her and it's virtues before. Hadn't that been enough to quench her fountain of curiosity? Or had he only added a spark to the flame of knowledge she craved? He cursed himself for explaining anything to her in the first place. Now she would ask questions, and even if he vehemently opposed to answering them, something told him that the vivacious woman would force him to eventually. But being the stubborn hitokiri he was, he still stuck it out.
"Why do you want to know, Kamiya-san?" he questioned, gently placing her ailing arm into the sling and placing one strap across her neck.
She cringed. "Don't call me Kamiya-san. My name is Kaoru. I was wondering because you don't see speed that awesome very often, if at all."
He simply averted his gaze away and shook his head. "It does not matter where I learned or who I learned from. There is only one heir to this technique, and only one use."
"You can at least tell me. And any technique can be used to protect, like you just did. But you don't have to kill. It would have been just as efficient with a bokken or shinai and I'm not looking into learning it, I have my own style." she explained, standing so she could walk out of the room. "Come with me so we can talk."
"No." he stated. "I cannot participate in idle chat."
Feigning her anger she took a tight grip on his arm and glared at him with mock rage. "You will. I deserve answers."
Despite the hitokiri instincts, Kenshin was forced to go with Kaoru to where ever she was leading him.
She only let go of him momentarily to open a shoji door and then she again took a tight hold of his midnight gi and pulled him into the room. By the looks of it he decided it was a bedroom, although no personal possessions were out in plain sight. He found that to be extremely smart of her. She pushed him onto a mat and then sat on one across from him, pulling her gi sleeve over her arm.
"You should change. There is no reason to walk around with a bloodied gi on." he told her, coming up with his best excuses to escape her chat.
Kaoru grinned. "Then you should be changing too. I'm not the only one stained with access blood."
She stood and threw a green gi and gray hakama at him. He struggled under the clothing, very much unlike his usually well-coordinated self. She turned and smiled at him.
"I'll leave you in here to change. That is too big on me so it should fit you at least a little bit. I'll go change somewhere else but I expect you to be back here when I come back. I'll search for you if you aren't."
She left and he was slightly disturbed. It was not because of the forcefulness of her voice, or the cheerfulness that seemed to seep off of her. It was the fact that he didn't doubt her threat. So he did diligently as he was told, peeling off the blood soaked clothing that were now soiled beyond help, and slipped into the new, cleaner outfit she had pulled out for him.
Surprisingly, it fit him fine, he realized. He took his place on the mat again, fighting with himself. He wanted to take a better look around the room. He knew it was hers, even if all her worldly possessions were hidden from view. The scent of jasmine in there was intoxicating, and he now knew it was her scent. That meant this was her room.
Finally deciding she wouldn't be back for a while and preparing to feign innocence with his lavender eyes should she return, he walked near a chest to the left of the room, farthest away from the shoji. Feet dragging him onward and his hands moving upon their own accord, the chest was unlocked in a few seconds. All he had to do now was open it. He did so quietly, repressing any possible creaking the aged piece of furniture could emit.
He lifted the lid and tore his gaze away from the rising lid to the contents inside. He never got a chance to spy into the container when a sharp, blade-like pain rang in his fingers. He pulled them back to himself quickly, the blood pulsing rapidly toward the injury as small cuts bled from his knuckles.
"Hentai!" Kaoru screamed vehemently. "I give you clothes and you get into my undergarments?"
Holding his hands close to his chest, he tried to bring out the violet in his eyes, but found the attempt futile. He glared back at her with golden orbs of a lava-like magic. "Why are you allowing a stranger in your room, unattended at that? Do you do this often? If so it doesn't show much for your dignity and honor."
Her mouth dropped as she stared. How could he even fathom that out of her? Within instinct, she slapped him, roughly, against his left cheek, ignoring how hard she hit him. It left a ringing in his ears and a sharp sting in the cross marring his skin.
"I would never stoop to that level! How could even think of that in the first place? Never in my whole life has anyone even suggested that! I am a woman of honor and strength who teaches knouts, not a geisha from some brotheral!" she cried.
Kenshin immediately regretted what he had instigated; biting his lip nervously and from the pain that still pierced his scar. His hand flew over the scar, checking momentarily to see if she had opened the never healing wound by accident. He felt like a small child within her angry presence, being scolded for misbehaving.
"Hai, gomen nasai." he told her. "I never should have been prying and I never should have said that."
She warmed to him. "I'm sorry I slapped you."
He glanced up at her, his eyes melding back to steel blue as he did. He followed the flow of her kimono with his critical eyes. It was a pale yellow color with white cranes and pearl like fans encrested around it. He watched, mesmerized, as she sat. His first thought was a simple 'how did she tie the obi?'.
"Now, were did you learn?"
Blinking a few times, Kenshin decided he should answer her question. "In Kyoto, up in the mountains."
She nodded slowly. "I see. Secluded."
He nodded back.
Then a silence followed, which made him nervous. Was she trying to form a new question? Trying to trick him into something? He was Battousai, he reminded himself, and he couldn't be tricked very easily, especially by a woman.
"Why did you help me?" Kaoru asked him, her blue gaze clueless and curious.
His eyes widened momentarily, trying to comprehend the question. After grasping what she asked, his eyes momentarily flashed violet.
"I..." he began, trying to hard to come up with a plausible answer, one that could be used by a hitokiri and not truly taint his mission in life- to kill. After a long wait, he realized, there wasn't a good answer.
"I really don't know." he responded curtly.
She nodded, understanding his dilemma. "Reason or no, I thank you for your help. I don't know what I was thinking, taking him on like that when I can't..."
"Your technique is strong, your will is great, but your ideals are what set you back. You and I, we both fight to protect, but you are held back with the ideal of not killing."
"And you are haunted by the death you spread." she inquired quietly.
Inside his shock was strong at how quickly she had picked up on his remorse for killing, but outside he kept his cool mask upon his face, refusing to back down to the woman. He couldn't let her into his mind and alert her to his confusing emotions, drown her in his grief and suffocate her with his torment. That would only complicate things for him more than they had been since he had helped her. But he wasn't going to lie to her.
"Yes." he answered simply, staring down at his hands in fear his emotions would splay across his face.
She scooted closer to him slowly, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "It's not good to keeps those kinds of things inside. They eat you soulless."
He kept his gaze averted. "Will you be able to stay alone with your injury?"
"I can get around fine." she responded full heartedly. She smiled at his obvious worry, but part of her didn't believe the way he was treating her.
Kaoru couldn't exactly put her finger on it, but he didn't appear to be what he was showing her, like there was something deeper. Maybe he didn't just killmaybe there was some root to the reason he could wield a blade the way he did. But she wasn't going to wait for him to answer her on his own.
"You are one with your blade, yet you hide so much behind it's sheath." she began. "Who are you, behind that mask you put up?"
He blinked in shock.
What should he tell her? Kenshin didn't think it was smart to tell her he was the Battousai. 'That would only scare her more, and then she could go give a description to the police. No. I can' t tell her I'm Kenshin Himura, for then she will know the true name of the Battousai. And I cannot tell her I am Shintafor Shinta truly died when Hiko brought me in under his training. What do I tell her?'
"I am an assassin under the Ishin Shishi." he responded finally, deciding to stay vague but still try and answer her question. "Names are not important during that job. You kill and go back for more instructions, and kill again."
"No exchange of words?"
He glanced at her. "You don't seem fazed by my identity."
"Because you haven't told me your true identity, just the one you show." Kaoru answered.
"But that is what I am, it's who I am. I am an assassin, I live by my blade." he defended himself.
Kaoru was silent as she stared towards the floor. So he was an assassin. For some reason she knew she should be scared of him, that she should be trembling and begging for her life. But he hadn't made any advances toward her, and she had been able to surprise him in the field yesterday. He had protected her for no true reason that day.
"Sword for the Innocent." she recited. "That's why you helped me. Sword for the innocent, your Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu. You follow its ideals. You think I'm an innocent in all this, don't you?"
Battousai glanced up wearily toward her. Her eyes were alive with a sharp blue fire, one he had noticed during the beginning of her battle.
"Is it?" she persisted.
He looked at her, attempting to answer her question but was interrupted by her.
"I'm not. My father died because of this war, my mother was killed by a group of bandits. They were innocents in this. Because of their deaths I have to carry this all on my own, which means I've had to make sacrifices. I have housed troops, cooked for Shisengumi and Ishin Shishi alike." she exploded, her eyes splaying her emotions rapidly.
Kenshin suddenly felt a lot of dread. "How did your father die? In a battle or by assassination?"
"Assassination. He refused to teach the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu for the use of war." she answered. "I never found out who killed him. It could have been Shisengumi. Or, perhaps it was Ishin Shishi. Maybe it was you. I can't say. But that left me adjacent master of this dojo."
Kenshin took pity on her, even though he knew the pity of an assassin who could have very well sent that deathblow was not worth having. Her spirit seemed to fade when she mentioned her parents. But he reminded himself that she was old enough to know them when she lost them, unlike him. He had been so young, that he barely even remembered what his parents were like, if he remembered at all.
"How old are you, Kamiya-san?" he asked her.
"I told you to call me Kaoru, didn't I? I'm seventeen." she answered him truthfully. "I'm on my own here at the dojo."
"Do you need someone to fix it up for you?" he asked, eyes suddenly flashing a violet/blue. "I could fix it for you. I did put the hole in the floor."
"No, Gohei did. You just helped him do it." she responded.
"Your not completely the vicious woman you strive to be when you train and battle, are you?" he asked, a slight smile spreading across his features.
She grinned. "And you're not completely in control of hiding your emotions, are you? All assassins have to hide their emotions, this I know. But you want to let yours known."
He shook his head. "I am not permitted to show emotion, therefore I don't. It hides the fact of death. Now, tell me, why did Gohei Hiruma, right," she nodded and he continued, "attack you in the first place?"
"My father used to be his sensei. Gohei killed a fellow student with the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu ideals, and since it is meant to protect without killing, my father kicked him out of the school. He was mad, and he wanted revenge."
Kenshin nodded. "He wanted to use the technique to kill."
"I know you agree with that. Kenjutsu does not have to kill, though." she told him. "Any sword has the potential to kill, I know this, but most attacks are not deadly with a bokken or shinai, no matter how roughly you place them."
"Or a sakabatou." he added as an afterthought.
"What was that?"
"A sakabatou, reverse bladed sword. Blunt side out, sharp edge in. I've seen them around." he answered.
She smiled. "Yes, that would work to."
"Can I tell you something, KamI mean Kaoru-dono?" he asked her.
She nodded to him.
"Sometimes I wish that your ideals were the truth." he told her. "But I am an assassin, I am made to kill, trained to kill, taught to kill, bred to kill. Therefore all I can ever do is cause slaughter and chaos."
She shook her head. "Anyone has the power to stop."
He looked at her, his amber eyes sharp. "But, I am not everyone. I have a title I cannot shed."
She decided to let that slip and she averted her gaze away from him momentarily.
"Do you have any students?"
She glanced back at him. "I lost all my students after mother died, when Gohei was saying he was the Battousai."
Kenshin's eyes shot up. "He is not Battousai."
"How do you know?" she questioned him. "For all you know he could have been."
"The Kamiya Kasshin Ryu is not strong enough to be the technique that Battousai uses." he answered her shortly. "I know Battousai first hand. He works for the Ishin Shishi, he is an assassin. Have you forgotten that is also what I am?"
Sireta dropped her gaze. "Oh. I'm sorry."
"Tell me, when you hear Battousai, what do you think?" Kenshin asked unceremoniously.
"Me? I don't think of anything, truthfully. I am supposed to fear Battousai, but unlike most, I don't think he kills for the pleasure. There is not pleasure in causing death." she informed him. "I don't think anyone can be that evil."
Part of Kenshin was glad to hear that. So at least one person believed that he was not the monster that even he had begun to see himself as. Battousai that manslayer was a monster, he told himself, but the man he was, was not.
"I will go fix your dojo floor now."
"No! Sano can fix it!" she cried suddenly, jumping up the instant he tried to escape.
"Who is Sano?"
"My friend, Sanosuke Sagara, fighter for hire." she explained. "He comes by sometimes, and I feed him even though he hates my cooking."
"Sagara... that sounds familiar." he answered. "But Sanosuke doesn't. Souz Sagara, that's who I'm thinking of."
"His late captain, killed by the Imperialists. He has a deep hatred for them." she explained.
He nodded. "I'm still fixing the dojo."
"No you are not! I demand you not to! No! Stop! Get back in here!" she cried as he continued to walk out the door. "Don't you even listen? Hello I'm speaking to you!"
He grinned at how agitated she sounded.
"I'm fixing the dojo."
She stopped momentarily, then grabbed a bokken and smashed it into his head from behind. "No! I told you know and that's that!"
Reflexively he held his head and spun around, sending her a death glare from beneath his blood red hair.
"Go home, Sano will back later and I'll have him fix it then. I will see you around." she told him, shooing him out the door. "If you ever need company or again, if you wish to practice, just come up here and knock, I guarantee I'll be here."
His mind was swimming. Why? Why was he heading back towards that dojo again, where the scent of jasmine was so strong? He already had the scent lingering in his room and on all of his clothing, it even coated the hilt of his sword, he had noticed. Yet he was still heading back to the dojo with a bucket of cooked tofu.
Trying to convince himself it was nothing was working. The food was an excuse, and he knew it. She needed something to eat; he had tried to trick himself into believing. And even if that was true, that wasn't why he was going back.
'You're growing attached to that woman. Ever since she attacked you, you've grown attached to her. You want to help her. You want her to help you. You're doing something you swore on Tomoe's grave never to do again.' his mind taunted him. He shook his head.
He didn't want to think of Tomoe now. That was too much pain, and at the moment he was in too light of spirits, or at least as light of spirits as Battousai could be, to have it ruined with brooding over his dead wife. He cursed himself for thinking about her so negatively, but for once he wanted to do something without being reminded of his true status, like he could when he was with Kaoru.
Again he mentally scolded himself. He had grown attached. Placing another innocent in danger of himself. But he promised himself that after delivering this tofu, he would never again set foot near the dojo. Ever. To protect her.
Upon looking up he saw that he was indeed, in front of that very dojo for the very last time. Sighing he entered, and saw that the floor was still in ruins. He walked past it to where he heard loud screaming and saw someone run out.
"Kami I didn't mean to do that!" came the familiar female voice as the person stomped back into the kitchen area. "I guess I'm not having rice and tofu tonight. Sano will just have to make due with whatever I can scrap together."
He snuck into the room and watched as she struggled to move things around. Shaking his head in slight amusement he spoke up.
"I brought you some food." he told her.
Kaoru spun around, a hand over her heart. She smiled when she saw him.
"Thank you."
He set it down on the low table and then turned to leave.
"You're not going to eat with me?" she asked him. "I don't like to eat alone."
"I thought Sanosuke was coming." he told her, glancing at her from the side.
She nodded. "He is but if you don't eat now then there will be no food left. Please."
Giving in with the reminder that his was, after all, his last chance to spend any time here, he sat across from her. She sat and futilely attempted to use her chopsticks. She laughed at herself.
"I'll get this eventually."
He glanced and watched as she again tried to eat and failed.
"Why don't you try to use the hand in the sling?" he asked her. "I don't think it would hurt you."
Deciding to try it, she did, and was happy to see it didn't send any more pain shooting throughout her arm when she did. "I was afraid it would hurt."
The gate opened and Kaoru grinned. "Sano's here."
The door opened, and Kenshin felt out for his ki. He could tell it was strong, another great battle ki much like Kaoru's, only stronger like his own.
"Hey Jou-chan, did you actually fix something edible today?"
"Shut up Sanosuke or you'll be withering on the floor begging for forgiveness!" she shot back with a giant grin.
"You wouldn't hurt little old me! You'd take pity before you could land a punch." he told her as he entered the room.
"Yeah right." she grinned.
In an instant almost too quick for her to realize it, Sano had pulled her up by her good arm and behind him. She fell somewhat ungraciously to the floor.
"Sano! What are you doing?"
Kenshin knew what he was doing. Maybe she didn't recognize him, but Sano did. Kenshin had recognized him, too.
"Zanza." he stated.
"Jou-chan, what the HELL is Battousai doing in your HOUSE! I swear to god if you hurt her..."he began.
"Battousai?" she whispered.
Author's Notes: Ahhhhh... I have completed chapter 4 and I do believe that it longer than all the rest! A whole 13 pages! YOU SHOULD BE PROUD! Ah yes... But I have been writing so much I got to lazy to respond to your reviews, but I will in the next chapter for this chapter, okay? Well.. Until then!
Luv and hugs,
Crystal Renee