Author's Notes: I WOULDN'T KILL KAORU: tries to look innocent but it's hard with the devil horns : And I didn't expect people to think Kaoru is the damsel in distress. I think I've made her out to be a lot stronger than the series does. She got to land a lot of blows on Gohei, she snuck up on Battousai, she HURT Battousai, and then she followed him to the Inn WITH an injured arm. Ya gotta be careful with how you place her. She has to have some moments where she needs Kenshin. But don't worry, I wasn't going to let her give up that easily, anyway. Hehehhehehehehehehe. Who knows? Maybe she will have beaten 'the abductor' before our hero even gets there! Oh, and D-CHAN3 gave me an idea. I think it's a good idea. So full credit to them, it will be introduced next chapter, but the idea will be in the final few lines of this one. Discover it on your own. Bless my reviewers, guess what? REVIEW RESPONSES AT THE END: hears unenthusiac applause :
Breaking Through
Chapter 9- Promises and Oaths
"What do you think you're doing!" Sano asked, watching Kenshin stand up on shaky legs. "You can't go anywhere in that condition! Jou-chan'll kill me if I let you! How do you even know that they have her? It's just a sword!"
Leaning heavily on the wall, Kenshin turned. "Just give me some sake so I can drink enough to numb the pain. I know because those are the messages a manslayer sends to another."
Sano nodded and ran into the hall. "Yahiko, get me some sake."
"Why do I have to feed your drunk" Yahiko began.
"Do not question me." Sano stated. "Just do it, okay? It's important!
Grudgingly Yahiko did as he was told. If he didn't do what his brother said to do now, then he'd be regretting it later. He shuffled off to Kaoru's kitchen, searching around for the infamous sake. Normally there wouldn't be any at her homeshe didn't mix well with alcohol. But amazingly, he found some, hidden.
Sano shook his head. "Kenshin, you're really going to be regretting this. Even if you think you know who has her, you have to find her first. And if you do beat them, you'll have to put up with her wrath afterward for moving around with those injuries."
"I'll take that chance."
"I never expected you to stay around as long as you have. You must have soft spot for Jou-chan, huh?" Sano questioned.
Kenshin glared, amber eyes burning brightly. "It's not that as much as it is she won't let me go."
Yahiko came padding back into the room, handing the sake jug to Sano.
"I really hope you're not planning on getting yourself drunk again, Sanosuke. I'm not dragging your sorry butt all the way back to Ruffian Row. You'll just have to stay here and listen to busu hammer on you." Yahiko warned.
Sano hit him over the head, feeling much better after the violent act upon his brother. "I don't plan on being the one drinking. Here you go Kenshin."
Yahiko stumbled, and then notice that KenshinBattousaiwas barely standing, using the wall as a support. He took the jug from Sano quickly, sucking the warm liquid down. He drank faster than Yahiko had even seen Sano chug the alcoholic beverage. The container went rolling across the floor soon after.
Yahiko picked it up.
"Now go finish those chores Jou-chan gave you." Sano told him, waving his hand around. "Maybe I'll come help you later."
"What? You expect me to cook, clean the dojo, the bathhouse, and the kitchen all on my own? Plus the laundry and the dishes?" Yahiko complained. "I'm not doing that all on my own!"
Sano shoved Yahiko out of the room and listened to his strain of curses as he walked the rest of the way down the hall. Then he turned back to Kenshin, who was leaning against the wall in a sitting position, waiting for the liquid to take the desired affects. He shook his head, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"I'm warning you, this isn't going to be pretty when Jou-chan gets a hold of you. I'd say just let her get herself out of this. You're more injured than she is."
"You don't understand." Kenshin stated. "We're dealing with another hitokiri. If she fights on her own, she'll get herself killed. It's better for them to get what they want. I've protected her once before. Oddly enough, I find that I like protecting life more than I like to dispose of it. And since she's the first person I've been able to protect without accidentally killing them, I'm not giving up on this. I have to do this to prove to myself that I can. It's not just to save her. It's to prove that I can do something besides kill."
Sano looked down. "I still say you're going to regret this."
"I would expect that you would be more worried about her than I am."
"Unlike you, I know Jou-chan's got a few tricks up her sleeve. She could really surprise you one of these days. You don't give her enough credit." Sano explained, leaning against the wall next to him. "I just have more faith in her than you."
"Well, to top this off, I made a promise to Kaoru-dono." Kenshin explained. "I promised her I wouldn't let the war get within ten feet of her dojo, and I would keep it away from her. And if it happened to get to her, I would personally beat anyone and everyone who endangered her. I intend to keep this promise."
"Don't make promises you can't keep."
"What was I supposed to do, she followed me all the way back to the Inn I stay in with the rest of the Ishin Shishi members!" Kenshin complained.
Sano laughed. "She never gives up."
"I see this."
"But I think you have a big problem with her fighting. You really do underestimate her skills; you don't realize it though. Everyone does. It upsets her a lot, too." Sano explained.
Kenshin let his head hit the wall. "I've seen her fight. She's held her ground against me. I know she's strong, I'm not saying I doubt her skills. I didn't jump in and help her when Gohei attacked until after she needed me to. The fight began in her favorshe was the only one landing hits. But she made one mistake, and that's why I had to come in. I know she could handle a lot, but still. This is a hitokiri, and the ones from the Shisengumi are more out for bloodlust than because they're assigned to."
"I guess there's no convincing you either way, is there Kenshin? Well, listen to me. If Jou-chan's been keeping you around this long, when you get her back, you'd better not leave without at least telling me where you're going, ya got that?"
He shook his head, a slight smirk enlightening his features. "Sure Sanosuke."
He stood, the alcohol finally numbing his body.
"Well, I'm leaving. Just so you know." Kenshin said, just to humor him.
"Hey, I wasn't joking around." Sano shot back at him. "You know what, you can be pretty annoying sometimes. But I still like you, so I guess you're okay by me."
Kenshin shook his head. "It wouldn't matter if I was okay in your book or not. Because I don't think Kaoru-dono's letting me get anywhere anytime soon."
Kenshin stepped out of the room, carrying his katana with him. He felt no pain anymore, but Sano's words resounded in his head. He told himself inwardly that Sano had nothing to worry about with him leavinghe didn't plan on abandoning the first place and the first people who accepted him. It meant a lot to him, to feel like there was someplace he could go to get away.
That was, of course, unless worse came to worse. If he posed more of a threat than he felt was more than they could handle on their own, then he'd have to leave. But for now, he figured Kaoru's attack was probably done because she was in the territory, on her own, without a weapon. That made her an ideal target, so in all truth, she brought this one upon herself.
He couldn't feel his body move, he had numbed so much from the pain and the sake. All he did was move, trying to figure out exactly where she could have gotten off to. The hitokiri who had attacked her couldn't have gotten far after leaving his messageit hadn't been long enough yet.
He followed the trail he could tell she had taken to get to the Inn. He figured she had made it there and was on her way when she was attacked. He stopped when he saw the way the footprints were going. They went in both directions.
And then suddenly they slurred together in a messy way, followed by completely disappearing. This had to be the place that she had been taken. All he could do was hope for more clues to lead him to where ever she was. He stepped around a tree, looking at the ground for any indication that could tell him of her attacker. Hitokiri were hard to trace, as they preferred to leave everything clean, to keep their crimes from being connected to themselves.
But the thing that this particular hitokiri forgotor purposely remembered to leave behindwas a simple thing that could make a mans blood boil.
It hadn't been easy to find, but it was there, hidden amongst a branch and some bushes. An indigo ribbon, exactly like the one Kaoru had been wearing before she left. It was slightly torn and battered now, though.
And it was drenched in blood.
She stirred, waking from the unexpected blow to the back of her head. She could still feel the blood trickling down her neck from the fresh wound. She decided not to moan in painshe could tell she was being carried off. Her hands and feet were bound, but somehow, she had to get out of this. The binds on her feet weren't tied very tightlyif anything, they were extremely loose. The ones on her hands though, were burning her skin they were so tight.
Kaoru remained limp, trying to fake her captor out. There was no way they could know she was up. She concentrated on getting her feet out of their confines. She moved very slowly and very carefully, so as to keep awakening to herself. After a moment, one of her feet was loose.
The ropes fell of her of her feet and Kaoru waited. She knew what she had to do to get out of this guys grip. Her hands weren't far from his head; she just had to be fast. She braced herself, and with an inaudible deep breath, she pulled her arms over his head, the rope on her hand keeping them from being pulled apart. She yanked backwards, the ropes and her hands causing the chokehold.
His hands fell of her, and she slipped, her feet hitting the ground at the precise moment she slammed him down to the ground. She removed her wrists from around her neck, staring at the man that was now lying motionless on the ground. She knew she hadn't killed himif anything he was only knocked out.
Stepping away, Kaoru kept her eyes on the man. She didn't trust himsomething wasn't right.
Then came the laugh. It scared her at first, and she stumbled backward, tripping over a log.
She landed roughly on the ground, and forced herself into a sitting position against a tree. Attempting to stand using the tree, Kaoru kept looking at the man who was still lying on the forest floor, laughing at something invisible, she supposed. She didn't have a good view of his face, because it was hidden behind a large round hat that concealed it from view.
"I should have expected as much from Battousai's woman. You're not going to give up that easy, now are you?" he grinned, standing up. "You can' do much though, I'm afraid, without the use of your hands."
She glared at him. "What do you know? And I'll have you understand that I am not Battousai's woman, nor am I any other mans woman. No one owns me, and I intend to keep it that way."
He grinned. "Oh, you're his woman. I can see straight through you."
Kaoru continued leaning against the tree, her eyes trained to glaring at the man before her as he stood. "What makes you so sure of that? He's just a friend of mine, if you must know."
"No, you're his woman. He's already branded you, I can see. Not many people get to see him kill. The last one was a woman to. I just hope you have a happier ending than she had." he sneered. "Oh, I almost forgot. You won't, because I'm going to kill you anyway. At least this time Battousai won't have to feel the guilt of killing his woman on his own."
"Shut up." Kaoru screamed. "I'm not his woman. Why would it matter anyway? He can't fight. He's injured right now and it wouldn't be fair! There are rules to war, you know."
"And you would know, how?"
She stepped back as he began to advance toward her.
"You're afraid of me."
"I am not." she stated. "I'm not afraid of you, I'm not afraid of the Battousai and I'm not afraid of the war that raging outside my home. But I am afraid of being used in some plot to get at someone else. I'm not a little toy like that! And sneaking up on me when I wasn't armed and injuring me, that was dirty. I didn't even get a chance to defend myself."
He glanced at her, withdrawing his wakizashi quickly and moving closer to her. Kaoru backed farther away, ramming her back into a tree in the process. She winced but kept her glare straight on him.
"Did you want a chance to fight back? Because I'll give it to you, although I had been hoping to have Battousai watch you die in your agony. You don't seem to possess much of a fighting spirit, but you're strong for a woman, I'll give you that."
Kaoru stared deftly at the man. "How can I fight back? You have a wakizashi and all I'm equipped with is my kimono and my legs, which isn't much for my part. My hands are tied and I don't have my bokken. That would be suicide, which I don't plan on participating in."
He sheathed his wakizashi. "You do realize, you have a lot of nerve. But that's nothing. I think I'll do you a favor. Since you seem so adamant on me not using you to get to the Battousai, how about this. I'll leave him a parting gift and hope he can figure out who I am from it."
"What kind of gift?" she asked. "I can already see you're not one who cares about humanity."
The man spun around, a menacing smirk crossing his lips as he did. She retaliated against the tree, not expecting that look of self-assurance he had. Her eyes flew to his in a momentsomething drew her to them. By the time she knew why, it was too late.
"You attack your opponents weaknesses." he grinned, staring at her. "And you are the Battousai's weakness."
Kaoru wasn't positive about what had just occurred. On moment his eyes were glowing, and the next, she was unable to breathe. She brought her bound hands up to her throat, the pain she was feeling from her lungs was intense. Her throat went dry almost immediately.
He turned and smirked that same exact, evil grin he had given her before along with that irritating laugh of his. "And since you are his weakness, you will be the first to die. I hope you enjoyed your last breath of air. You have five minutes to break that version of the Shino no Ippou, but I doubt you could. You don't possess a strong enough fighting spirit. So I'll give you this message for the Battousai. When he gets here, which I believe will be soon, tell him it was Jineh Udo who did this to you, and that I'll be waiting for him."
He turned to leave, the dim light of the night that had transpired since he had taken her hiding his body well. Kaoru began to feel dizzy from the extreme lack of oxygen, her throat and mind screaming at her to breathe. She almost began clawing at her throat in an attempt, which proved fruitless, to regain her ability of inhaling and exhaling. Her skull throbbed from the pain of the adding up of carbon dioxide, her eyes watering and her body trembling and sweating. She felt faint, yet, she couldn't close her eyes.
Kaoru supposed she was already down to three minutes left. Her heart began to pound against her chest in rapid movements so intense she couldn't keep up with counting them. The sounds around her amplified to extreme amounts in her ears, causing her migraine to rise.
But she could make something out. Footsteps. Someone was running towards her doomed body.
She craned her head over to the side to looks, with her blurred vision, at what or who was coming toward her. At first all she could make out was red and blue, everything was slurring together as she swayed from lack of oxygen. She knew she was down to two minutes now.
'No', she commanded herself. 'No, I cannot die here, not like this, not now! He said I didn't have a strong enough swordsmans spirit to get past this... I have to prove him wrong, I have to show Kenshin that I'm stronger than Jineh's Shino no Ippou... or else I'll die here, in the forest, without moving a finger to protect myself, or Kenshin.'
Kaoru drew deep within herself, the thing she had seen and heard running at her slowly starting to move more. Everything was in slow motion, causing her to become confused. She closed her eyes tightly with all her strength.
She had to break this.
One more minute.
She couldn't do it. She put all of her strength, her anger, her worry and her determination into it. But Kaoru couldn't get herself to break through the attack upon her body. She felt more faint than before and could feel the thing that had been running stop before her drooping figure. She opened her eyes, and behind the hazy sight she had now that was dotted with black, she saw Kenshin.
"And you call me thickheaded. Look what your thickhead ness got you! What happened?" came his voice. "Come on, you got to hold on. I didn't run out here to bring you back dead, you know!"
That was it. She lurched forward, knowing her final minute was up, but her anger at him, for what he had just said, drew in a breath from somewhere she didn't know.
"Thickheaded!" she exploded.
He grinned, apparently satisfied. "Yes. Thickheaded."
The extremity of the pain she had gone through, and the fact that she was just getting accustomed to breathing again, caused Kaoru to fall face first into Kenshin's chest, heaving for air and slowly gaining it back little by little.
Unnoticed by either of them because of the seriousness of the situation, he had began to rub calming circles along her back, trying to get her stop hacking so bad and stop the trembling in her body. And, his eyes were violet.
"What happened? Who did this?" he asked, his voice extremely serious now upon finding the wound on her skull that caused the blood on her ribbon.
After catching somemore breath, Kaoru raised her head. "Jineh Udo. He put his... Shino no Ippou spell on me."
"Damn!" Kenshin cursed. "Why weren't you breathing?"
"Because, it was an advanced version of the Shino no Ippou I have only recently learned since I was banished from the Shisengumi." came a voice. "I'm surprised she broke through it. I believe I had to do with the emotional intensity of the moment that made her break it. I paralyzed her lungs, causing her to suffocate to death. You seemed shocked, Battousai."
Kenshin placed a hand on his katana's hilt, glaring before spinning around and looking at Kaoru's attacker. Anyone could feel the anger seeping off of Kenshin's aura, even if they hadn't seen the look on his face.
"Ah, so you're angry, aren't you Battousai?"
"Why did you have to involve Kaoru-dono in this? If you wanted to fight me..."
"Because, she is your weakness. I wanted to fight Battousai at the edge, angrier than he'd ever been before. I think I succeeded in that." Jineh stated. "Now will you fight, or do I need to put the Shino no Ippou on her again?"
Kenshin stood, withdrawing his sheathed sword from the ties of his hakama. He made sure he stood before Kaoru, shielding her from any other attacks Jineh might have up his sleeve. The man only fought in order to see the blood of others. He didn't care who's it was, as long as it was blood and he was the reason I had been shed.
"I made a promise to Kaoru-dono, that I'd keep the war away from her. Seems I have failed." Kenshin muttered. "But, if it's a fight you want, fine. Prepare to die."
He prepared to step forward, but hands on the bottom of his hakama caused him to stop immediately. Kenshin turned and faced Kaoru.
"I can't tell you who to fight with, but don't fight him, at least not now. You're injuries are too serious to be fighting so soon. You'll only stress your body, and even if you are the Battousai, that doesn't mean this will be an easy fight. Especially with those injuries, you'll be slowed down now and that's not fair to your ability to fight." Kaoru told him, her eyes grave. "Don't fight him, please."
Jineh grinned. "Don't let her distract you, Battousai."
"Shut up Jineh." Kenshin barked. "I have to fight him now, he won't fight me later."
"Fine! But any injuries you get here, even if you've fallen, I won't treat them and I'll leave you here! Don't think that I won't! I told you I don't care if you fight him, just not now!"
He gave her one withering look before turning back to Jineh.
"Jineh." Kenshin stated. "Would you be willing to fight me another time? You said you wanted to fight a Battousai on the edge. If I have to protect Kaoru-dono and with these injuries, you won't even be getting the half of me. My fight won't be as strong as it normally would, because my attention won't fully be on the battle. You drew this one upon yourself. Are you willing to wait for my injuries to heal before we fight?"
Jineh stood and stared at him. "If I wait, that will give you a chance to come up with some plan to kill me. No. If you're what they make you out to be, you should be able to defeat now just as easily."
"You beast!" Kaoru shot back. "You don't fight with an injured opponent! All this is going to say about you is how weak you were in the end."
"Why, my sweet, what makes you so sure he's going to win?" Jineh asked, annoyed.
"Leave her out of this Jineh." Kenshin growled. "I'll fight you. Attack."
Kaoru felt herself get jerked back with the force of backlash from the speed with which Kenshin took off with to defend himself against Jineh's attack. They both flew apart almost upon the instant of connecting, and then they were both in new stances.
"Battou-jutsu." she heard Jineh whisper in his concentration of the fight.
Jineh's appearance had changed from belief in himself to worry since the fight began. Kaoru took note of this and kept her eyes glued to the fight, her bound hands on top of the log that she had originally tripped over.
"What's wrong? Scared?" Kenshin asked, his voice much harsher than before.
Jineh shook his head, that annoying grin splaying across his face once again. "No. I'm not afraid of you. You're just different now. You're angry and defensive for that woman over there, so much so that you want to slay me as quickly as you can."
"Don't waste my time, then. Lets get this over with."
Before she could pick up on what was going on, Kenshin had disappeared with his godlike speed. Kaoru tried desperately to see what was going on, but all she could hear was the sounds of the metal clashing again, and then the two men jumped apart. Kenshin disappeared again, and Kaoru listened and watched carefully.
The next thing she knew, Jineh was headless. Blood spurted from his neck like a fountain before his corpse landed with a thud to the forest floor. The dirt became polluted with his blood as it drank it up with an unquenchable thirst. Kaoru's eyes remained wide.
Kenshin stood, not facing the dead corpse behind him, breathing heavily.
"Hiten Mitsurugi, Ryu-Kan-Sen-Tsumuji." he muttered to himself, flicking the blood from his blade quickly. "I'm sorry you had to see that, Kaoru-dono."
Kaoru stood, and looked at Kenshin. Her body wanted to faint, but she was too stubborn to show that kind of weakness to him. She stepped over the log she had been behind and shuffled over to him, turning so she was facing him.
"Come on. Lets go... I don't want to be here any longer, and we need to get you back again to be sure you didn't open any wounds."
It was then that Kenshin noticed her wrists were still tied. Trying not to get any blood on her, he untied the rope.
When he finished, Kaoru pulled her wrists back and rubbed them gently. Kenshin hadn't looked her in the eye yet, so she stood there defiantly next to him, not looking over his shoulder at the dead body of Jineh.
"I'm not going back with you." he told her, his voice gentle to her. "You can see what it causes, to have me around. I'm endangering you, and you've seen me kill... I can't make you harbor this for me."
Kaoru's eyes softened and she placed a hand on his shoulder. "It isn't the first time I've seen you kill, Kenshin. I know you don't want to do this. But someday, this bloodshed will stop. And even then, I'll still open my home to you. But for now, forget this happened, all right? You didn't have to kill him, yes, butyou did. It's over with. It's my fault you had to anyway, so don't blame yourself."
He shrugged her hand off his shoulder. "It's not, and I can't."
"Kenshin, listen to me. It doesn't matter to me what you do." she said softly. "One day, this war will end and you won't have to kill anymore. It won't be long, just wait. I'll be waiting with you, whether you like it or not." Kaoru bowed her head, and her eyes began watering. "Because I'm not going to let you take this all on on your own. And yes, this was my fault because I wasn't strong enough to get myself out of here on my own. If only I was stronger than I am, you wouldn't have to have done that."
He looked down at her head, her blonde all he could see with her head bowed. "You're strong, but in a different way. But, I don't want this to happen again."
"You're not leaving." she told him. "I'll follow you wherever you go, and you know that. You can't stop me."
"I know. That's why, I'm going to help you become stronger." he informed her. "Lets go now."
Author's Notes: THERE! New chapter ALL DONE: is proud of herself : There. SO MUCH BETTER. It's 3:06 in the morning, but hey! When I get in the mood, I get in the mood. Overall, I think I've worked on this chapter about a total of four or five hours, SO YOU BETTER LIKE IT. I hope. : pleads to the gods : Okay.
Love and hugs,
Crystal Renee
PS- I ACCEPT ANOYMUS REVIEWS. So don't let that small thing push you away from reviewing me, okay: puppy dog eyes :