Disclaimer- life sucks when you don't own Rurouni Kenshin, and I don't own
it, which means my life sucks.
Chapter 1
A scream and cry of pain as a little boy is thrown against the wall roughly, sliding down leaving a thin line of blood as a marking where he slid.
Darkness filled the room as the paint gently made a stroke of black on the canvas, "stupid boy get back up!" came the cry of an angry father as another stroke of black paint made it's marking on the canvas. Blood falling from the boy's cuts and bruises as more paint struck the canvas. Darkness, tears, pain, and anger as a fist slammed into the boy's right eye and another stroke of paint hit the cold hard canvass. Finally came the slam of a door and whimpers and tears and blood stained the new wooden floor as the tears fell and the boy slipped slowly and painfully into his bed. The brush was placed down, the eyelids closed and the night slept with a new moon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The sun rose the next day and the painting was packed as Kaoru Kamiya walked her younger brother Yahiko to school. She waved good-bye and went on her was to her own school ready for the art competition to begin. She looked around at all the paintings hat sat there in awe, but one stood out the most 'Rin' by Rain Well. Placing down her own painting on a vacant easel, Kaoru walked to her class ready to be called for the competition to begin. She sat at her desk waiting for the announcements to come on. The teacher looked up from his desk at Kaoru who sat there quietly as usual, his face filled with its usual strictness. He held her back as the class left for the auditorium; the contest was taking place during school so that way everyone could see the paintings and the winner.
"Hai, Cano-sensei?" Kaoru asked him once everyone was gone. "Kaoru I hope your hopes at winning the contest aren't to high" Kaoru looked at him in wonder before she was dismissed.
As she took her seat with the other student's who had decided to take part in the contest she listened and watched as each kid was called up one by one to show off their paintings. Finally came "Kamiya, Kaoru" Kaoru got up slowly and walked up the steps to the stage ignoring all of the boo's and cries she was being given. "This is my painting" Kaoru said pointing to the canvas with her strikes of black, there was silence in the auditorium before laughter broke out. "What kind of painting is it supposed to be?" cried out a brown haired boy from the second row "yeah it looks like something a five year old would draw" cried a girl with short black hair that stopped at her shoulder bone. She and the other's continued to laugh just as Kaoru continued to ignore them "I have named the painting 'Pain'" Kaoru told them. "What kind of panting I ask again is it supposed to be?" called out the boy once more, "all I see are a bunch of black lines."
"You must look beyond the black lines, you must see and understand what they mean, each one has it's own meaning" Kaoru told them. "And those meaning's are?" cried Rain Well "each stands for the pain that a family feels each day," Kaoru explained, "one stands for each and every tear that falls from the children's eyes, one stands for the blood that falls from their hurt and broken bodies, one stands for the death of a member, one stands for the harshness and roughness someone feels each day no matter how much they try to deny it" Kaoru finished. Everyone laughed even harder now, they didn't understand, how could they understand? After all they didn't have abusive parents, they didn't live a life of pure living hell, they didn't live a life where everyday you feel happy, that happiness only stays for so little a time that it seems almost as if it never was there.
Kaoru sighed as she walked back down to her seat, they wouldn't understand anymore, they wouldn't so she might as well just let them laugh "now please remain calm as the judges begin their decision" said Haruna- sensei. If only things were different, if only they could see and understand what it was like at her home for her brother and herself. She sighed deeply as she thought of what would happen to her once she got home, the voice of the teacher drove her back to reality "and the winner has been decided," cried out the teacher, "the winner of this years art competition is Rain Well."
'It figures' Kaoru thought as she watched Rain step up onto the stage next to her painting, her painting was indeed breath taking, and colorful, it could defiantly surpass anyone's painting here except it showed no truth, no hope, no compassion. Rain's picture had a purple blue sky, trees stood on each side of the painting blowing in a fake wind. A lake was set in the backround just behind patches of golden green grass. Small dots of pink and light blue sparkled around the painting above the lake making reflections. They were small fairies flying around laughing and dancing 'Rin' was the name of the painting, no truth, no hope, no compassion was in it.
Kaoru zoned in and out of her lessons, since she had class with Rain she had to listen to her gloat about her winning, and watch her show off her trophy, "I just want to go home, but not to my home, to a home where me and Yahiko won't be abused, where we'd be loved." Finally the bell rang and Kaoru packed up her books and placed them into her little suitcase/backpack. Her uniform was a white top with a blue sailor collar and a blue skirt. She as all the other girls were forced to where these while the boys wore black pants and shirts, she had placed her hair in a ponytail as usual only she placed it up with a green bow instead of her usual pink or blue one.
She walked back over to Yahiko's middle school where she picked him up and dropped him off everyday, "hey Busu," Yahiko greeted her, "did you win the competition?" he asked his sister who looked down. Her face looked as if it had been dropped in the dirt and she hadn't gotten any sleep in at least two weeks. "No" Kaoru sighed as she and Yahiko finally reached their home, Yahiko hid behind Kaoru when they saw their father standing there at the door waiting for them to come close enough to grab them and get his anger out of them. Kaoru stopped just before she and Yahiko were in their father's reach "come on in I want you to meet someone" said Mr. Kamiya cheerfully, Yahiko being as old as he was still immature trusted his father and ran out from behind his older sister "we really have a guest?" he asked. "Hai," Mr. Kamiya said "if you want to know who it is come on," he said to them with a smile that would have made anyone who didn't know him trust him immediately.
Kaoru growled and sniffed the air, her father smelled like alcohol 'he's been drinking again' she thought to herself, then she saw Yahiko reach out his hand to his fathers she threw out her own to take his hand back but her father already had Yahiko in his grip and had flung him into the house. He grabbed Kaoru's hand next and threw her in ran after her brother.
Kaoru landed on her back but quickly stood up grabbing Yahiko, she held his hand and they ran into the drill hall where Kaoru grabbed one of the bokken's that lay there. Her father had, before her mother died taught Kaoru the style that he had learned from his own father, it was known as the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu. Their father glared at her as he grabbed one of his own bokken, they stood in a stance and Kaoru pushed Yahiko to the wall so he wouldn't be harmed.
Standing still for awhile the two family member's charged, Kaoru was able to get a swing at her father's shoulder, but he quickly dodged and hit her in the gut with his own attack. "You are still not skilled enough to defeat me Kaoru" said Mr. Kamiya as Kaoru blocked a swing for her neck. "Yahiko listen to me," Kaoru said while she continued to block her attacks, "I'm going to say this once and only once so you must listen and understand" "what is it?" Yahiko asked frantically as he watched his sister fight with her father. "Yahiko run down to the police station, get some police and," she paused as her fathers sword slammed into her shoulder, "and run and don't come back without help." Kaoru wasn't going to listen to an argument and Yahiko knew that so he unwillingly ran out the door and down to the station like Kaoru had told him, he sighed.
"Their at the Kamiya home," Yahiko told the officer that sat at the desk, "their fighting each other with bokkens" "right" the officer replied as he called for some of his fellow policeman to follow Yahiko him. Yahiko then ran to the phone and called the hospital telling them exactly the same thing, he finally hung up and ran back to the Kamiya household.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kaoru fell to the ground as her father's bokken slammed her right shoulder once more. She screamed in pain and slashed her father's side with the wooden sword when the familiar sound of sirens came. Kaoru fell onto the wooden floor holding her wounded shoulder as the police ran in followed quickly by Yahiko. "Are you okay?" he asked her as she was looked over by the paramedics who had come. "Yeah just a few scratches here and there but nothing serious" she lied. In fact the truth was her father had hit her pretty hard and had seriously hurt her, she kept holding her shoulder trying to stop the blood. "I never knew he had such strength" Kaoru said as she watched him be hand-cuffed by the policemen.
Kaoru looked at her brother and smiled weakly at her younger brother before she slowly closed her eyes. She felt hands pick her up and she felt herself being placed on one of those strange moving beds 'what are they called again?' she asked herself, before she heard the door slam shut and then her sense's went blank.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kaoru woke up to the feeling of a warm trusting hand holding hers, however she also woke up to a sharp crucial pain in her right shoulder. She opened her eyes slowly quickly shutting them again. "Kaoru" came a voice making her open her eyes, letting her vision come back to normal before talking she realized that it was Yahiko that had called out her name. "Yahiko" she cried as she slowly tried to sit up, but Yahiko quickly pushed her back down "you've been out for three days, you still need to rest" he told her "you just said it yourself though Yahiko," Kaoru said back, "I've been in this rotten bed for three days, I need exercise." Yahiko sighed but refused to let his sister sit up.
"I can at least sit up can't I?" Kaoru asked annoyed, Yahiko sighed but let her sit up, "I feel like I've been through hell and back again" Kaoru told him "it looks like that" he replied. Kaoru grunted but couldn't disagree, she felt like crap right now and she didn't want to stay here. She moved around trying to get in a comfortable position but her a painful jolt shot through her body making her flinch.
A doctor walked in the room then carrying a folder under his arm. He stopped by Kaoru's bed next to Yahiko and said "well we have the results" "great what are they?" Yahiko asked so quickly that the words seemed to jumble out all at once. "Well Kaoru you did get hit quite hard, and you had some pretty bad injuries, however the x-ray shows us that if you get some exercise then you should be fine."
Yahiko smiled "that's great!" he cried. "However there's a downside to it," the doctor said his voice slow and sad, "you see...you have to rest some more since your body is still having trouble functioning without hurting you, but if you don't start getting exercise in at least the next month you may be paralyzed for life or even worse...." his voice trailed off and he said quietly, "die."
Kaoru shifted in her position on the bed once more feeling pain fly through her entire body. She saw Yahiko who had a shocked expression and was obviously on the verge of tears "I understand" Kaoru said quietly. She was ready to accept this terrible fate of hers, she would die anyway so what was the point in waiting?
She sighed "but Miss Kamiya there's one more thing there" "hai?" Kaoru asked looking up at the ceiling "if you don't get enough exercise in that one month then you will...die." "Nani?!" Yahiko cried running over to the doctor and looking at him square in the eye with absolute hatred and evil "if Kaoru doesn't get exercise in that week then she has six days to live...at the most" the doctor said. "Yahiko?" Kaoru asked as she watched her brother place a hand on his chest, he stumbled back in shock, his face held no expression on it what so ever. He then turned and ran out of the room "YAHIKO!!" Kaoru cried reaching out one of her hands using the other to support herself.
However Yahiko didn't stop, he didn't turn around, he only ran 'this has to be a nightmare,' he thought, 'a horrible nightmare about Kaoru dying, and in a few minutes I'll wakeup to find myself being shaken by Kaoru who was worried for me.' 'Yeah that's defiantly the answer any moment now' Yahiko thought, but he never woke up, he didn't open his eyes to find a worried Kaoru shaking him, no it was real, Kaoru really was injured and badly wounded. It was real.
Chapter 1
A scream and cry of pain as a little boy is thrown against the wall roughly, sliding down leaving a thin line of blood as a marking where he slid.
Darkness filled the room as the paint gently made a stroke of black on the canvas, "stupid boy get back up!" came the cry of an angry father as another stroke of black paint made it's marking on the canvas. Blood falling from the boy's cuts and bruises as more paint struck the canvas. Darkness, tears, pain, and anger as a fist slammed into the boy's right eye and another stroke of paint hit the cold hard canvass. Finally came the slam of a door and whimpers and tears and blood stained the new wooden floor as the tears fell and the boy slipped slowly and painfully into his bed. The brush was placed down, the eyelids closed and the night slept with a new moon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The sun rose the next day and the painting was packed as Kaoru Kamiya walked her younger brother Yahiko to school. She waved good-bye and went on her was to her own school ready for the art competition to begin. She looked around at all the paintings hat sat there in awe, but one stood out the most 'Rin' by Rain Well. Placing down her own painting on a vacant easel, Kaoru walked to her class ready to be called for the competition to begin. She sat at her desk waiting for the announcements to come on. The teacher looked up from his desk at Kaoru who sat there quietly as usual, his face filled with its usual strictness. He held her back as the class left for the auditorium; the contest was taking place during school so that way everyone could see the paintings and the winner.
"Hai, Cano-sensei?" Kaoru asked him once everyone was gone. "Kaoru I hope your hopes at winning the contest aren't to high" Kaoru looked at him in wonder before she was dismissed.
As she took her seat with the other student's who had decided to take part in the contest she listened and watched as each kid was called up one by one to show off their paintings. Finally came "Kamiya, Kaoru" Kaoru got up slowly and walked up the steps to the stage ignoring all of the boo's and cries she was being given. "This is my painting" Kaoru said pointing to the canvas with her strikes of black, there was silence in the auditorium before laughter broke out. "What kind of painting is it supposed to be?" cried out a brown haired boy from the second row "yeah it looks like something a five year old would draw" cried a girl with short black hair that stopped at her shoulder bone. She and the other's continued to laugh just as Kaoru continued to ignore them "I have named the painting 'Pain'" Kaoru told them. "What kind of panting I ask again is it supposed to be?" called out the boy once more, "all I see are a bunch of black lines."
"You must look beyond the black lines, you must see and understand what they mean, each one has it's own meaning" Kaoru told them. "And those meaning's are?" cried Rain Well "each stands for the pain that a family feels each day," Kaoru explained, "one stands for each and every tear that falls from the children's eyes, one stands for the blood that falls from their hurt and broken bodies, one stands for the death of a member, one stands for the harshness and roughness someone feels each day no matter how much they try to deny it" Kaoru finished. Everyone laughed even harder now, they didn't understand, how could they understand? After all they didn't have abusive parents, they didn't live a life of pure living hell, they didn't live a life where everyday you feel happy, that happiness only stays for so little a time that it seems almost as if it never was there.
Kaoru sighed as she walked back down to her seat, they wouldn't understand anymore, they wouldn't so she might as well just let them laugh "now please remain calm as the judges begin their decision" said Haruna- sensei. If only things were different, if only they could see and understand what it was like at her home for her brother and herself. She sighed deeply as she thought of what would happen to her once she got home, the voice of the teacher drove her back to reality "and the winner has been decided," cried out the teacher, "the winner of this years art competition is Rain Well."
'It figures' Kaoru thought as she watched Rain step up onto the stage next to her painting, her painting was indeed breath taking, and colorful, it could defiantly surpass anyone's painting here except it showed no truth, no hope, no compassion. Rain's picture had a purple blue sky, trees stood on each side of the painting blowing in a fake wind. A lake was set in the backround just behind patches of golden green grass. Small dots of pink and light blue sparkled around the painting above the lake making reflections. They were small fairies flying around laughing and dancing 'Rin' was the name of the painting, no truth, no hope, no compassion was in it.
Kaoru zoned in and out of her lessons, since she had class with Rain she had to listen to her gloat about her winning, and watch her show off her trophy, "I just want to go home, but not to my home, to a home where me and Yahiko won't be abused, where we'd be loved." Finally the bell rang and Kaoru packed up her books and placed them into her little suitcase/backpack. Her uniform was a white top with a blue sailor collar and a blue skirt. She as all the other girls were forced to where these while the boys wore black pants and shirts, she had placed her hair in a ponytail as usual only she placed it up with a green bow instead of her usual pink or blue one.
She walked back over to Yahiko's middle school where she picked him up and dropped him off everyday, "hey Busu," Yahiko greeted her, "did you win the competition?" he asked his sister who looked down. Her face looked as if it had been dropped in the dirt and she hadn't gotten any sleep in at least two weeks. "No" Kaoru sighed as she and Yahiko finally reached their home, Yahiko hid behind Kaoru when they saw their father standing there at the door waiting for them to come close enough to grab them and get his anger out of them. Kaoru stopped just before she and Yahiko were in their father's reach "come on in I want you to meet someone" said Mr. Kamiya cheerfully, Yahiko being as old as he was still immature trusted his father and ran out from behind his older sister "we really have a guest?" he asked. "Hai," Mr. Kamiya said "if you want to know who it is come on," he said to them with a smile that would have made anyone who didn't know him trust him immediately.
Kaoru growled and sniffed the air, her father smelled like alcohol 'he's been drinking again' she thought to herself, then she saw Yahiko reach out his hand to his fathers she threw out her own to take his hand back but her father already had Yahiko in his grip and had flung him into the house. He grabbed Kaoru's hand next and threw her in ran after her brother.
Kaoru landed on her back but quickly stood up grabbing Yahiko, she held his hand and they ran into the drill hall where Kaoru grabbed one of the bokken's that lay there. Her father had, before her mother died taught Kaoru the style that he had learned from his own father, it was known as the Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu. Their father glared at her as he grabbed one of his own bokken, they stood in a stance and Kaoru pushed Yahiko to the wall so he wouldn't be harmed.
Standing still for awhile the two family member's charged, Kaoru was able to get a swing at her father's shoulder, but he quickly dodged and hit her in the gut with his own attack. "You are still not skilled enough to defeat me Kaoru" said Mr. Kamiya as Kaoru blocked a swing for her neck. "Yahiko listen to me," Kaoru said while she continued to block her attacks, "I'm going to say this once and only once so you must listen and understand" "what is it?" Yahiko asked frantically as he watched his sister fight with her father. "Yahiko run down to the police station, get some police and," she paused as her fathers sword slammed into her shoulder, "and run and don't come back without help." Kaoru wasn't going to listen to an argument and Yahiko knew that so he unwillingly ran out the door and down to the station like Kaoru had told him, he sighed.
"Their at the Kamiya home," Yahiko told the officer that sat at the desk, "their fighting each other with bokkens" "right" the officer replied as he called for some of his fellow policeman to follow Yahiko him. Yahiko then ran to the phone and called the hospital telling them exactly the same thing, he finally hung up and ran back to the Kamiya household.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kaoru fell to the ground as her father's bokken slammed her right shoulder once more. She screamed in pain and slashed her father's side with the wooden sword when the familiar sound of sirens came. Kaoru fell onto the wooden floor holding her wounded shoulder as the police ran in followed quickly by Yahiko. "Are you okay?" he asked her as she was looked over by the paramedics who had come. "Yeah just a few scratches here and there but nothing serious" she lied. In fact the truth was her father had hit her pretty hard and had seriously hurt her, she kept holding her shoulder trying to stop the blood. "I never knew he had such strength" Kaoru said as she watched him be hand-cuffed by the policemen.
Kaoru looked at her brother and smiled weakly at her younger brother before she slowly closed her eyes. She felt hands pick her up and she felt herself being placed on one of those strange moving beds 'what are they called again?' she asked herself, before she heard the door slam shut and then her sense's went blank.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kaoru woke up to the feeling of a warm trusting hand holding hers, however she also woke up to a sharp crucial pain in her right shoulder. She opened her eyes slowly quickly shutting them again. "Kaoru" came a voice making her open her eyes, letting her vision come back to normal before talking she realized that it was Yahiko that had called out her name. "Yahiko" she cried as she slowly tried to sit up, but Yahiko quickly pushed her back down "you've been out for three days, you still need to rest" he told her "you just said it yourself though Yahiko," Kaoru said back, "I've been in this rotten bed for three days, I need exercise." Yahiko sighed but refused to let his sister sit up.
"I can at least sit up can't I?" Kaoru asked annoyed, Yahiko sighed but let her sit up, "I feel like I've been through hell and back again" Kaoru told him "it looks like that" he replied. Kaoru grunted but couldn't disagree, she felt like crap right now and she didn't want to stay here. She moved around trying to get in a comfortable position but her a painful jolt shot through her body making her flinch.
A doctor walked in the room then carrying a folder under his arm. He stopped by Kaoru's bed next to Yahiko and said "well we have the results" "great what are they?" Yahiko asked so quickly that the words seemed to jumble out all at once. "Well Kaoru you did get hit quite hard, and you had some pretty bad injuries, however the x-ray shows us that if you get some exercise then you should be fine."
Yahiko smiled "that's great!" he cried. "However there's a downside to it," the doctor said his voice slow and sad, "you see...you have to rest some more since your body is still having trouble functioning without hurting you, but if you don't start getting exercise in at least the next month you may be paralyzed for life or even worse...." his voice trailed off and he said quietly, "die."
Kaoru shifted in her position on the bed once more feeling pain fly through her entire body. She saw Yahiko who had a shocked expression and was obviously on the verge of tears "I understand" Kaoru said quietly. She was ready to accept this terrible fate of hers, she would die anyway so what was the point in waiting?
She sighed "but Miss Kamiya there's one more thing there" "hai?" Kaoru asked looking up at the ceiling "if you don't get enough exercise in that one month then you will...die." "Nani?!" Yahiko cried running over to the doctor and looking at him square in the eye with absolute hatred and evil "if Kaoru doesn't get exercise in that week then she has six days to live...at the most" the doctor said. "Yahiko?" Kaoru asked as she watched her brother place a hand on his chest, he stumbled back in shock, his face held no expression on it what so ever. He then turned and ran out of the room "YAHIKO!!" Kaoru cried reaching out one of her hands using the other to support herself.
However Yahiko didn't stop, he didn't turn around, he only ran 'this has to be a nightmare,' he thought, 'a horrible nightmare about Kaoru dying, and in a few minutes I'll wakeup to find myself being shaken by Kaoru who was worried for me.' 'Yeah that's defiantly the answer any moment now' Yahiko thought, but he never woke up, he didn't open his eyes to find a worried Kaoru shaking him, no it was real, Kaoru really was injured and badly wounded. It was real.