Letter of Marque
Sequel to Between the Devil and the Deep
A Rurouni Kenshin AU Fic
by Gemini

Rated R: For cursing and other naughty things

Disclaimer: This Rurouni Kenshin franchise is owned and operated by Earl "Nobuhiro" Watsuki,
Tim "Shonen" Jump and "Sony" Jones. There are also a few silent partners I can't recall.

The events in this story take place one year after the end of 'Between the Devil and the Deep'


Chapter 8: No Regrets


Misao, clad in her dark green silk dressing gown and with her hair still in its loose sleeping braid, leaned against the wood paneled wall outside of Kaoru's room, a slight frown on her face as she strained her ears to hear what was going on between her friend and lover. She heard murmurs, occasionally punctuated with angry exclamations, which led her to worry that perhaps things weren't going well. She gnawed on her lower lip, her frown deepening. Aoshi had gone in an hour earlier, just as the sun had risen, determined to apologize for his behavior during the past weeks. Kaoru hadn't been at all pleased to see him, not that Misao blamed her friend one bit. Aoshi had truly crossed the line the night before.

'Why did he have to be such an asshole to her?' Misao thought unhappily. Of course, she knew why, it was more of a rhetorical question. Aoshi, she had discovered, was almost incapable of having normal personal relationships. Having spent a good part of his childhood as a slave aboard Niimi's pirate ship being abused, he had learned to completely shut down his emotions and to avoid the company of others. He was very bad at relating to people. Their own relationship was one of near constant reassurance on Misao's part. She was always telling him that she loved him, that she understood him, that she would never leave him. It could be exhausting at times, but entirely worth it as far as she was concerned, visions of the night before flashing before her eyes.

Their voices dropped lower, preventing her from even being able to pick out a few words here and there. Hoping to hear them better, she tiptoed closer to the door and focused on all her attention on the rising and falling sounds of their voices, trying to understand what they were saying. Kaoru no longer sounded angry, just tired, but Misao couldn't quite make out her words. Then suddenly, there was silence and she frowned. What was going on?

She was completely unprepared for the door opening. She found herself staring straight at Aoshi's chest instead of the polished wooden panels of the door.

"Misao?" He asked, slightly puzzled.

"Um, hi." She straightened, her face bright red. "I was just…" She trailed off as she got a good look at his face. A small trickle of blood leaked from one corner of his mouth and one side of his face was slightly bruised. "Aoshi." She whispered, reaching up to wipe the blood off with her fingers. "Are you okay?"

He grabbed her hand. "Fine." He replied in his usual monotone.

"But, you're bleeding…" She wiggled her hand out of his grip, wiping away the final traces of blood.

His eyes darkened. "Nothing that I didn't deserve." He said quietly. "Kaoru has decided to allow me to remain on the Kami Kaze."

Misao dropped her hand and sighed. "Oh, Aoshi." She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest. "I'm relieved for you."

Gingerly, he returned her embrace. "Thank you."

"Misao, I need your help." Kaoru's slightly irritated voice cut through their moment. "I can't get this corset and dress on without you."

Misao pulled away from Aoshi and peered around him to where Kaoru stood by the end of the four poster bed, holding the aforementioned garments in her hands. "Sure."

Forty minutes later, Kaoru was transformed from the tired, slightly rumpled pirate captain to a flawless society belle. The sapphire blue dress, delicately embroidered with silvery flowers, matched and enhanced her eyes and, thanks to a rather painful and tightly laced whale bone corset, her breasts heaved appealingly above the lacy neckline of her dress and her waist was a fashionable eighteen inches.

"Wow, Kaoru." Misao stepped back and eyed her friend from her ornate slippers to her elaborately braided and styled hair. "You look fabulous. There is no doubt in my mind that the Admiral will fall to his knees and worship you the minute you step out of the carriage."

Kaoru tried to laugh, but her corset didn't allow it. Instead, she only got out a breathy chuckle. "Thanks, Misao. Now, get me my pendant, it's on the dressing table."

Misao carefully lifted the pendant from its open box and studied its intricate filigreed gold work. "This is the pendant that Megumi gave you?" she asked incredulously. "I can't tell where it's supposed to open."

Kaoru held her hand out for it. "The filigree hides the hinges." She explained, taking the pendant from her friend. "If I pressed down on this opal here, the top would flip open." She lightly tapped on a milky white opal embedded in the center of the pendant.

"And Megumi's powder is in there?" Misao peered at the pendant in Kaoru's hand.

Kaoru nodded and put the necklace around her neck. Its chain was just long enough to nestle in her cleavage in a way that was carefully calculated to be as appealing as possible, just like the rest of her appearance.

Misao shook her head and laughed. "You look like you're on the hunt, Kaoru."

Kaoru grinned. "That's the point. The Admiral thinks I'm looking for a rich husband." She turned and regarded herself critically in the room's lone gilt mirror. With a look of amazement, she lightly touched her hair, her hand drifting down to smooth the front panel of the dress. She had never particularly considered herself beautiful before, but it was almost impossible to deny that she really did look quite attractive.

"What if the Admiral tries something before you can drug him?" Misao asked, a worried frown tugging at her mouth, dragging Kaoru away from her personal inspection.

"I've got a knife strapped to my thigh. If he so much as looks at me funny, I'll turn him from a tenor to a soprano." Kaoru said nonchalantly. She glanced at Misao's reflection in the mirror. "You remember what to do, right?"

Misao nodded. "If you're not back by sun down, then I go find Sano and Aoshi goes to the Admiral's home."

Kaoru patted her hair a final time. "Right. Call my carriage, will you, Misao? I want to get this over with."


The Admiral made a noise, causing Kaoru to stop her searching and glance over at his prone form with concern. He was still lying in a heap on the floor of his office, a line of drool leaking down his chin and darkening the carpet beneath his head. The noise had been a snore. She pulled a disgusted face and turned back to her task.

'He should be out for about five more minutes.' She reassured herself as she flipped through another pile of documents, scanning each one briefly for content before moving on. It had been disgustingly easy to slip the powder into his drink while he fawned over her and it had been an even simpler matter to convince him to take her away from the watchful eyes of his servants and into the privacy of his personal office. The lecher had only just begun to paw at her when the opiate had kicked in, sparing her from having to do something unpleasant to him. Misao would not have been happy if Kaoru had returned the expensive silk dress covered in blood.

'Nothing, nothing, nothing!' She was beginning to get irritated. The Admiral had a copious amount of paper piled haphazardly on his desk, in no particular order. And, while some of the papers were rather incriminating, none of them pointed to Katsu's whereabouts. She slapped down another piece of paper and scanned the desktop, looking for something, anything. Then, she saw it: the corner of a sheet of cheap newsprint with a very familiar border. She eagerly pulled the paper out and had to stifle a shout of triumph. It was a copy of Katsu's newsletter, 'The People's Voice'. The front story was a very unflattering article on the Admiral, and the man himself had written things in the margins, the harsh scribble, the numerous ink blots and the rather rude epithets scrawled along the edges all spoke of his anger.

She read all the notes and let out a little grunt of disappointment. While entertaining, there was nothing that pointed to Katsu. Dropping the paper, she went through the rest of the stack, finding several more copies of the newsletter, all of them with articles about the Admiral. Just as she was about to give up, she reached the bottom of the pile and a poorly written note, not in the Admiral's handwriting.

"We have Tsukioika. South Pier. Awaiting your instructions.-Kanryuu." Kaoru read aloud, a knot growing in her belly. From the research she had already done on the Admiral, she knew that he owned a building in the warehouse district, the south pier. That had to be where Katsu was. She took a deep breath and put everything back where she had found it. The Admiral was going to awaken at any moment and she had to be by his side when he did.


Both Aoshi and Misao were waiting for her when the carriage drew up to the front door. Not bothering to wait for the footman to open her door and help her out, she jumped out, her face flushed with excitement.

"Everything went well, I take it." Aoshi remarked with a raised eyebrow.

Kaoru grinned. "I should quit being a pirate and join a theatre troupe, I swear."

"What did you find out?" Misao asked eagerly.

"I'll tell you in a minute, but first, Misao you have to help me get out of this dress. I'm going to die." Kaoru pressed her hand against her chest and scowled. "And Aoshi, you go get Sano from the Kami Kaze. We have some planning to do."

"That won't be necessary. He's been here since lunch." Aoshi replied. "He's currently in the kitchen, eating everything in sight."

Kaoru rolled her eyes. "Why am I not surprised? All right, tell him to quit stuffing his face and the two of you come up to my room in about ten minutes." She gestured for Misao to follow her and the two went up the stairs, Kaoru having to stop every once in a while to catch her breath.

By the time Aoshi and Sano met up at Kaoru's door, she was quite happily clad in her usual loose and comfortable clothing. "God, what a relief." She muttered as she sat down on her bed. Misao shook her head and laughed as she hung up the dress.

"Honestly, Kaoru, it wasn't that bad." She admonished.

"Speak for yourself. I don't see you walking around in those things everyday." Kaoru replied archly.

Misao made a face at her friend.

"All right, Kaoru, tell us what you found." Sano plopped down heavily into a large comfortable chair, a fish bone sticking out of his mouth. Aoshi eschewed a chair and instead leaned against the doorway, his arms crossed, his expression expectant.

"The Admiral had Niimi's men kidnap Katsu. They're holding him at Serizawa's south pier warehouse. Or at least, they were. I have no idea if he's still there, or even if he's still alive, but it's more information than we've had in a long time." Kaoru replied, rubbing her waist to massage out some of the lingering stiffness from the corset.
"So Niimi is definitely involved." Sano glanced over at Aoshi, who's face was dark.

Kaoru nodded and followed Sano's gaze to the other man. "Aoshi, I once promised you that if the opportunity ever arose, you could deal with Niimi and Kanryuu as you saw fit. I would say that the opportunity has just presented itself. What do you want to do?"

The navigator shifted slightly, his hands curling into fists. "Katsu is our first priority. We find him, then we deal with those two. If I'm able, I'd like to kill them both with my bare hands, but I wouldn't be disappointed if one of you were to take them out. Just as long as they suffer first."

"I have no problem with that." Sano grunted, cracking his knuckles.

"Neither do I." Kaoru smiled slightly. "All right, listen up, here's what we are going to do. Sano, you go back to the ship and gather the crew, but leave Kamatari and a few others. Meet us at the warehouse tomorrow morning, just before the sun rises. Have Kamatari get the ship to the south pier and get some of the men to row long boats to the pier so we can escape. If all goes well, then we'll grab Katsu and escape on the longboats to the Kami Kaze. After that, we'll get the hell out of here. Make sure everyone is heavily armed and ready to fight."

"What if things don't go well?" Aoshi asked quietly.

"Then we die." Kaoru replied evenly.

Misao whimpered, drawing her friend's attention to her. "Misao, you go back with Sano. Tell Megumi to be ready to deal with injuries. I have no idea what kind of shape Katsu will be in when or if we find him, and some of us may get injured if Niimi is there."

Misao nodded, her face pinched with worry.

"Don't worry so much, Misao. We're pirates, it's what we do." Kaoru said with a smile. "Now, Aoshi, you can go back to the ship or you can stay here, it's up to you. You might want to go with Misao, since she's so worried."

Aoshi nodded, his eyes on Misao. "I'll go with them."

Kaoru abruptly stood up. "Okay, then. Go back to the ship. I'll see you all in the morning."

Aoshi took Misao's arm and escorted her from the room. Sano hefted himself out of the chair and made to leave as well, but paused at the door. "No matter what happens tomorrow, we won't be coming back here, right?" he asked in a low voice.

"Right." Kaoru's voice sounded strained.

"Meaning you won't ever see him again, right?"

"Right."

Sano turned and regarded his captain with a long, measuring look. "I'm not like Aoshi, so I'm not going to be an asshole about this. I know how you feel about him and I'm fine with it. He's proven himself to be a good man. So, Kaoru, if you want to stay…"

She cut him off. "Of course not. My father's ship is everything to me, Sano. And my crew, they're my family."

Sano sighed and ran a rough hand through his hair. "It's complicated, isn't it? Normally, I avoid complications, but this one time, I'm gonna stick my nose in. You should do what makes you happy. Ever since Tetsuro died, you've been putting everyone else's wants and needs ahead of your own. It's made you a good captain, but at the same time, you're fucking miserable."

"Sano…" Kaoru tried to interrupt him but he wouldn't let her.

"I know you were thinking about leaving the ship before all that shit with Jineh happened. I know that even now you still think about it, from time to time. You can't stand there and tell me that you don't crave a normal life. A house, a husband, shit, maybe even a few kids…"

She laughed, bitterly. "A normal life? Sano, I have no idea how to live a normal life. Nor do I like the idea of popping out dozens of kids while baking bread, cleaning house and waiting hand and foot on a man. Maybe once I thought about that sort of stuff, but now, it doesn't hold much temptation for me."

"Even a normal life with Captain Himura?" Sano countered.

Kaoru shook her head. "No. Even with him, I'd be miserable cooped up in some drafty old house with a bunch of kids and servants to deal with while he sailed all over the world, coming home for a month or two at a time. My life has always been my own and I have no urge to hand it over to anyone."

Sano frowned. "Then I think you should at least say goodbye to him. End it, once and for all. No regrets."

She smiled sadly. "I've been trying to do that practically since we dragged his body out of the ocean. I have to admit that I'm a bit of a coward where he is concerned."

"You're not a fucking coward, Kaoru. Not the girl who stood up and defeated the man who killed her father." Sano said vehemently. "It'll eat you up if you don't end it properly."

Kaoru eyed her second in command. "When did you get so fucking smart, Sano?"

Sano grinned. "I've always been smart. You've just been too stupid to notice." He waved at her as he walked out the door.

Kaoru chuckled for a moment, but her laughter quickly died. She glanced at the clock on her mantle. It was seven o'clock. If she left now, she could be at Kenshin's by nine at the latest.

She ran through at least a dozen arguments as to why she shouldn't go, but they all lacked conviction. She really wanted to see him, just one last time. With a sigh, she gave in. She would go to him and say goodbye. It would kill her, but she had no choice. She hastily strapped on her sword and guns and ferreted out her jacket from the large closet. Without a glance back, she slammed the door behind her and headed down to Maiko's stables to see about procuring a horse. Hopefully, by the time she got to his house, she'd have something coherent to say. Hopefully.

A/N: Did I say Valentine's Day? Er... I meant, um, March the Seventh Day. Yeah, that's the ticket. Sorry about that. I had a whole 'nother chapter written, but I just wasn't happy with it. I've rewritten the dang thing about five times. Thanks for your patience and please do let me know if there are problems with this chapter as I am still beta-reader-less. (Moonspark has to come up for air sometime, I guess.)

Next chapter will be lime-ish. Eh heh heh heh!