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'
So, last time...
It
took Kaoru a long while to find her men once she arrived at the docks
an hour later, but she finally located them, hiding in the shadows of a
dilapidated warehouse that stood a stone's throw away from Admiral
Serizawa's equally decrepit building. Aoshi and Sano were there, along
with Chou, Soujiro, Hannya, Shikijo and Beshimi. Her best fighters; all
of them, especially Chou, were armed to the teeth. Then again, Chou was
always armed to the teeth.
She slipped into the alleyway and greeted them warmly, almost as though
there was nothing out of the ordinary going on, as though they weren't
heavily armed and about to take on a dangerous enemy. Sano waited until
she was within reach, then grabbed her arm and steered her away from
the others, ignoring their curious looks.
"Did everything go okay?" He whispered, clearly concerned for her.
"Fine." She replied lightly. "All taken care of." She pulled her arm
from his grip and turned to her men. "Are all of you ready?"
They nodded silently.
"Good. I have no idea what we're going to find in there. Maybe nothing,
maybe Niimi's entire crew, I don't know. But Katsu might be in there
and we're going to save his stupid ass even if it kills us." Kaoru
checked her two pistols to make sure they were loaded and gave her
sword a pat. "Let's go.
...end of snip...now on to the next chapter...
Chapter 11: Dire Straits
"Okay, Sano, why don't you knock on the door and see if anyone's home?" Kaoru said, keeping her tone light as she pulled one of her pistols out of her belt and cocked the hammer. Her hands and voice were steady; if she was nervous or afraid, it was not obvious, even to her crew who knew her best.
At her command, Sano marched up to the door and with an extremely powerful kick, knocked it right off the hinges with a deafening crash. Dust and bits of the door rained down onto the ground just inside the doorway, light seeped into the darkened space illuminating it just enough to see the dark outlines of crates and other warehouse odds and ends.
"Subtle." Kaoru said with a roll of her bright blue eyes. As was her right as Captain, she was determined to go in first, although Sano was reluctant to allow it, much to her irritation. She pushed past him with a warning scowl and, with her gun in front of her, carefully stepped into the cavernous and musty smelling old building. "Anyone home?"
"Welcome Keiko, or should I say Kaoru?" A voice she knew very well boomed out of the darkness, catching her by surprise. She hated to be caught by surprise.
Kaoru cursed under her breath and waved her crew members in behind her with her free hand, her gun still held steady in the other. "Admiral, I hardly expected to find you here, you didn't seem like the type to get your hands dirty."
The Admiral stepped into the weak light cast by the open door, pushing a half-unconscious and bloody Katsu in front of him. The moment the Admiral let go of Katsu's arm, the younger man slumped to the ground, unable to stand up on his own.
Kaoru instinctively took a step forward to help her old friend, but the Admiral shook his head. "Don't, Captain Kamiya. We need to talk, you see." He paused and looked behind her at her men. "But first, I think I should even out the odds a bit." He waved his hand lazily, cuing the men who had been waiting for the command to emerge.
Figures stepped out of the shadows: the Admiral's pirate henchmen, the men who called Niimi captain. The pirate captain himself, looking like the fop he was rumored to be in a dark sapphire blue velvet coat, lacy white shirt and embroidered black breeches, took his place beside the Admiral, a smile on his face that no one would ever believe to be friendly.
"Niimi." Kaoru murmured, her face impassive. "I have to admit that I was quite surprised when I discovered that you had stooped to being the Admiral's dog."
Niimi spat at Kaoru's feet, shattering his carefully maintained façade of a gentleman. "The Admiral pays well, that's all." He growled, his smile vanishing at her accusation.
The Admiral waved the foppish pirate off and drew Kaoru's attention back to the matter at hand. "Now, Kaoru, there is a reason for me being here. I could have left you in the hands of Niimi here, but I really don't trust him to get the information I need. So, let's get this out of the way. What do you know?" The Admiral kicked aside Katsu and stepped closer to Kaoru, his eyes flat and hard.
Katsu moaned, curling up into a ball of pain, a line of blood trickling down his chin and dribbling onto the hard packed dirt floor.
Kaoru fought the urge to shoot the Admiral in the head, all his little armed henchmen be damned. She swallowed and got her anger under control instead. "Know what?" she asked, feigning innocence.
"About me, you stupid whore. What do you know and who have you told?" The Admiral spat.
Kaoru raised an eyebrow at his insult. Behind her, a threatening murmur ran through her men. They didn't take kindly to people talking badly about their captain, especially a man like the Admiral.
"You mean about you and all your little illegal activities? Well, I know a lot, actually. And so do a lot of people." Kaoru said smugly, her relaxed attitude indicating to her crew that she wasn't offended. The murmurs died down.
The Admiral's face paled. "Who?" He roared, stepping closer to her, ignoring the danger of being within her reach. "Who knows?"
Kaoru smiled. "Why don't I just let you find out?"
He reached out and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, hauling her up to his face. "Tell me, you bitch!" He snarled.
"Not a good idea, Admiral." Niimi said, sounding slightly amused, his warning punctuated by the sound of swords being unsheathed and guns cocked.
Admiral Serizawa looked down at Kaoru only to find her gun wedged up under his chin. "I would agree with Niimi on that, Admiral." she murmured.
He let her go and stepped back a few paces, smoothing out his uniform with a shaking hand. "Well, perhaps we can come to some sort of arrangement, Captain Kamiya." he said nervously, eyeing her men who all had guns and swords pointed in his direction.
"Perhaps." She knelt down next to Katsu and placed her hand on his shoulder, gently whispering him to relax so she could examine his injuries in the weak light. He was bloody and beaten almost beyond recognition. She didn't even want to imagine what sort of internal injuries he had. She needed to get him to Megumi as soon as possible. "Katsu, you idiot, are you okay?" She whispered.
He let out a hoarse, dry chuckle. "No."
She smiled and laid a hand on his forehead. "We'll get you to Megumi, Katsu, so hold on."
"I don't think I'll be going anywhere, Kaoru." He managed weakly.
Kaoru stood up and faced Admiral Serizawa with grim determination. "I think that we'll be taking Katsu with us now, Admiral."
"No, I can't let you." The Admiral had regained his composure. "All of you know too much. If you won't tell me who else you have told, then I'll just have to figure it out on my own, starting with your friend Maiko Hamaguchi." He gestured for Niimi to come forward. "Kill them all and you'll get twice your normal fee."
Niimi grinned, his dark eyes shining. "Aye, sir!" he said with a laugh.
Kaoru gritted her teeth and aimed her pistol at the Admiral. "You'll be the first to die, you bastard."
Niimi pointed his gun at Kaoru. Kaoru's men pointed their guns at Niimi's men. It was a stand-off. Admiral Serizawa reached down and hauled Katsu to his feet, ignoring the man's pained cry.
"Will you shoot the man you came to rescue, Kamiya?" He held Katsu in front of him and began to step backwards, edging towards another exit.
"Dammit." Kaoru ground her teeth, her mind running through a thousand different plans, hoping a way out of this situation would occur to her. Niimi had at least two dozen men in the warehouse, compared to her seven. Eight, if she included herself. If there ever was a near impossible situation, this would be it. Then again, she and her men specialized in near impossible situations.
"Sano," She growled low under her breath. "Do you remember when we went after Megumi?"
"Yeah." He growled back, understanding in his voice as he made a few subtle gestures to the other men.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm going."
"Good luck." Sano murmured, catching Aoshi's eye and nodding slightly.
Aoshi fired first, aiming for Niimi and not a second later, the sound of gunshots echoed in the nearly empty warehouse.
A bullet impacted on the hard packed dirt where Karou had been standing, but she had started moving the moment Sano had gotten Aoshi's attention. Before anyone could react, she was out of sight, moving between wooden crates, following the Admiral, who was beating a hasty retreat towards a rear door, Katsu acting as a human shield.
"Oh
no you don't." She muttered, ducking behind an empty crate, barely
dodging a well-aimed bullet. She had to catch the Admiral before he
decided Katsu's usefulness had ended.
She followed the Admiral, staying
out of sight until he disappeared through a door into an alley that ran
behind the warehouse. Kaoru made a mad dash for the door, managing to
avoid catching anyone's attention, grateful that her men were keeping
Niimi's boys occupied. She kicked open the door and was immediately
blinded by the bright morning sun. She moved to shield her eyes so that
she could see properly again, but it was too late.
The click of a gun hammer alerted her to the fact that she was no longer the hunter in this little game. The Admiral had used her momentary blindness to his advantage and pressed the barrel of his gun roughly into the side of her head. Katsu was lying on the ground near her feet, discarded like trash now that the Admiral had no further use for him; after all, he had a new hostage now, a better one.
Kaoru closed her eyes, a litany of curses going through her mind. She hated being the damned damsel in distress.
A/N: Well, this chapter is actually much longer, but I decided to cut it in half. If I had waited to post the entire thing, then who knows when it would be done. I'm stuck on something right now. I've been stuck on it for a while, so...grr. But I didn't want to keep you guys waiting too long, so here you go, and a cliffhanger to boot.
Here's a snippet from the next chapter...I'll probably end up changing it a bit more before I'm done, I always do. Hell, I make changes even as I'm posting.
Snip from chapter 12...
"Toss your gun over by that puddle." The Admiral snarled, pressing the gun harder into her head. He indicated a dirty brown puddle a few feet away from them both.
Cursing her stupidity, Kaoru complied, her gun splashing into the foul water.
"And your other one. The sword, too."
Her hands trembled slightly as she removed her other two weapons and tossed them away.
He moved close to her, his hot breath stirring her hair. "We never got a chance to finish our little meeting, you know." He ran a finger down her neck and over her bound breasts.
"I might be willing to be…lenient in my punishment if you cooperate. Maybe we could even work out some sort of deal."
She wanted to hurt this man very, very badly. She still had her hunting knife securely tucked into one of her boots, but she didn't think there was any way she could get to it without getting shot.
Kaoru forced herself to take a deep breath and calm down. Her mind was going in too many directions and she couldn't think straight.
"So tell me Captain, what's it going to be?" Admiral Serizawa asked, still pressed too close to her for comfort.
End of snip.So what is it going to be, indeed? And where's Kenshin, damn it?