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 12: Promises
"Toss your gun over by that puddle." The Admiral snarled, pressing the gun harder into the side of her head. He indicated a dirty brown puddle a few feet away from them both with his free hand and a jerk of his head in its general direction.
Cursing her stupidity, the Admiral's venality and the whole damned situation, Kaoru reluctantly complied, her gun splashing into the foul water.
"And your other one. The sword, too." Clearly the Admiral didn't trust her, and rightly so, since she would hurt him badly at the first opportunity.
Her hands trembled slightly, betraying her current state of mind as she threw away any hope of escaping along with her two weapons.
She was distracted from her dark mood when Admiral Serizawa moved closer to her, his hot breath stirring her hair. When Kenshin had done something similar, it had been erotic, but the Admiral's foul smelling breath was only serving to turn her stomach and stoke her anger. She hated being touched without her permission.
"We never got a chance to finish our little meeting, you know. You had to go and drug me before things got interesting." The Admiral paused thoughtfully. "I wonder, Kaoru, how far would you have gone to get what you wanted?" He ran a finger down her neck and over her bound breasts. She shuddered in revulsion, which he mistook as a friendlier response to his touch. "How far would you go now to save your friend and your crew? Hmm? If you're nice to me, I might be willing to be lenient."
Kaoru wanted to hurt this man very, very badly. As far as weapons went, there was still the hunting knife securely tucked into her right boot where she always kept it, but she didn't think there was any way she could get to it without getting shot.
"So tell me Kaoru, what could you do for me?" Admiral Serizawa asked huskily, pressing himself up against her in a thoroughly obscene manner. Her hands twitched and she had to force herself to keep calm and not make any sudden movements, like say, punching him in the face as hard as she could.
Inside the warehouse, the sounds of gunfire had stopped, meaning that her men had taken care of all the gunmen and were now fighting with swords. She heard the clang of steel and many different voices, some screaming in anger, some in pain, a few in fear. She heard Sano yell something and the tone in his voice frightened her. Someone in her team had been injured, perhaps killed. She needed to be in there, with her men, but first there was the sticky problem of extracting herself from the Admiral without being shot.
Quite unexpectedly, Kaoru was spared having to come up with a plan on the fly by the unlikeliest of people. As she was pondering a way to answer the Admiral's odious proposition, she felt the light touch of deft fingers slipping into her right boot, where her knife was. Katsu was trying to work the blade free of her boot and she had to keep the Admiral's attention so he wouldn't notice the movement. She steeled herself and slid her eyes over to the Admiral, willing her expression from one of revulsion to one of coy thoughtfulness. "Perhaps we can come to some sort of agreement, Admiral Serizawa. I am, after all, woman who appreciates a good business proposition."
She tilted her head slightly so that she could get a better look at him. "What did you have in mind? An arrangement like you have with Niimi? A hefty share of plunder in exchange for protection and access to ports?"
"Among other things." He replied with a leer.
She raised an eyebrow and fought her natural inclination to castrate him with her bare hands, opting instead to look mildly interested. "Other things? Not anything you've asked Niimi to do, I suppose."
The Admiral let out a hoarse chuckle. "No, definitely nothing I've asked Niimi to do."
She felt Katsu slide the blade free and tensed, waiting for him to make his move.
Admiral Serizawa opened his mouth to continue with his comment but instead of some saucy bon mot, he let out a yell of pain as Katsu sunk Kaoru's knife through his boot and into his Achilles tendon. His arm jerked reflexively and his finger pulled the trigger of the gun he was aiming, now crookedly, at Kaoru's head.
Pain ripped through Kaoru and she hit the ground, cradling her head. The gun had been at an awkward angle and the bullet had only grazed her temple. Still, it hurt like hell and bled copiously.
"Shit, Kaoru! Are you all right? I'm sorry…" Katsu managed to prop himself up against the wall and reached out to grasp her shoulder.
"I think I'll live, but damn it, Katsu, that fucking hurt!" She hissed, pressing the palm of her hand against the wound to staunch the bleeding. Her other hand groped along the ground until it found one of her pistols lying near the puddle, which she grabbed and then pointed at the Admiral, who was thrashing around, howling in pain as he pulled the knife from his foot.
Still aiming her gun at the Admiral, Kaoru slowly rose to her feet.
"Get up." She ordered, grabbing his arm with her bloody hand and hauling him to his feet, not feeling the least bit sympathetic to his protestations of pain.
"What are you going to do? Ransom me off to Niimi?" Admiral Serizawa managed to gasp a moment later as she pressed the gun angrily into his back.
Kaoru snorted. "Niimi wouldn't pay a brass farthing for your ass, Admiral. I'm just going to go check on my men."
"Hey, what about me?" Katsu groused from his position up against the wall.
She looked down at him offered him her free hand. "Come on, moron."
Katsu made a face at her but readily took her hand, hoisting himself up with less noise and complaints than the Admiral. He leaned against his friend, accepting her support as the two marched the Admiral back into the warehouse at gunpoint.
Shikijo, Beshimi and Hannya were still busy fighting the remnants of Niimi's men, Aoshi and Soujiro were nowhere to be found and Chou was lying prone on the ground, a pale-faced and bloody Sano hovering over him, attempting to staunch the bleeding of a rather nasty looking sword slash on Chou's chest with the ragged remnants of his shirt.
Sano looked up as the three approached and his face was disturbingly grim. "We've got to get him to Megumi." He said hoarsely.
Kaoru nodded, her face drained of all color. "Where are Aoshi and Soujiro?" she managed.
Sano's expression became even grimmer, if that was possible. "Niimi and Kanryuu escaped, they went after them."
The sound of her other men fighting suddenly infuriated her. They didn't have time to play around! Kaoru kicked the Admiral down onto the ground, pointed her gun at the nearest of Niimi's men, and shot the sword out of his hand. "Hurry up and take care of them, you three! We've got to get out of here!" She barked. Shikijo, Hannya and Beshimi exchanged nervous glances and doubled their efforts.
Kaoru turned back to Sano and Chou and eyed the injured man critically. "Chou? Can you walk?" she asked in a gentler tone than the one she had just been using with her other crewmembers.
"Of
course I fucking can." Chou replied haughtily, trying not to appear
weak, even though he was as white as a sheet and barely
able to sit up.
She rolled her eyes, ignoring his protest at the action. "Sano, help Chou up and take him to the longboats. Send whoever is waiting there to help with Katsu and then I want you to figure out where the hell Aoshi and Soujiro are."
"What about you?" Sano asked suspiciously.
"I'm going to have a little chat with the Admiral." She said darkly.
Kaoru helped Katsu lean against the wall before turning to the Admiral, who had found himself a crate to lean against.
"You and I need to talk." She stalked towards him, pausing only briefly to divest a corpse of its weapon since one of her guns was spent and the other one, along with her sword, was currently lying in a muddy puddle in the alley.
Admiral Serizawa lifted his chin haughtily and glared down at the tiny, enraged woman standing before him. "I do not have to answer to the likes of you, Kamiya." He sneered.
"I answer to a higher authority."
Her expression went from dark to thoughtful. "Why, Admiral, you're right. How about I send you to that authority?" She jammed her purloined gun under his chin and thrust upwards, choking off his response. "But first, a little justice."
Kaoru turned her attention back to Katsu with a little smile. "Tell me, brother, what exactly did the Admiral do to you? Did he punch you? Kick you?"
A slow, lazy smile blossomed on the injured man's bruised and battered face. Justice, at last. "A little of both, actually. There was also some nasty business with a wooden club and a brad awl."
"Oh? Well, I'll tell you what, why don't I start kicking and punching him and you can tell me when to stop."
"Sounds fair to me." Katsu replied cheerfully.
The Admiral whimpered. In all his pampered life, he had rarely personally engaged in any kind of battle, especially one involving fists.
Kaoru tucked her stolen gun into the waist of her pants and promptly punched the Admiral in the face. He went down like a sack of potatoes, to no one's surprise.
Although Kaoru was small and looked delicate, in fact she was not. Growing up on a pirate ship, she had spent years fighting with guns, swords and fists. A punch from her could be just as painful as one from Sano, although less likely to leave permanent damage.
"How's that, Katsu?" She asked, rolling up the sleeves of her shirt.
"A fine start, little sister."
She grinned and aimed a rather devastating kick to the man's midsection, delighting in the sound of the air being forced from his lungs in a strangled gasp. He had kidnapped and badly injured a man she considered to be her brother, had propositioned and touched her without her permission and was an utterly contemptible human being to boot, so she felt rather justified in doing as much damage to him as possible.
Kaoru reached down and hauled the Admiral to his feet, ignoring his whimpering pleas for mercy and punched him again in the face, watching him fly back into the wall and slide down to the ground in a heap with satisfaction. She pulled her gun out again, but held it by the muzzle, slapping the grip across the Admiral's ruined face.
She was gearing up to do it again when a hand reached out and grabbed the gun from her.
"Stop it, Kaoru."
She went utterly still at the sound of Kenshin's voice, all of her rage draining out of her like water. "How did you find me?" she asked quietly.
"I have my ways." Kenshin replied evenly, tossing the gun away. "I thought I was coming here to save you, but I should have known you wouldn't need my help."
"Captain Himura, thank god! Arrest this woman! She's a pirate!" The Admiral missed the obvious intimacy between the two people standing in front of him, which wasn't surprising considering he could barely open his eyes.
"I'm afraid not, Admiral." Kenshin eyed the Admiral's injuries and made a mental note never to get on Kaoru's bad side.
"What do you mean, you imbecile! As your ranking officer I ORDER you to arrest her!" Admiral Serizawa snapped.
"You are not, in fact, my ranking officer, Admiral, not as of this morning." Kenshin replied with a small frown.
"What are you talking about?" Kaoru and the Admiral asked at the same time.
"I met with Admiral Hijikata this morning and resigned my post. I am no longer an officer of the Navy." Kenshin took Kaoru's hands and squeezed them.
She snatched her hands away, blood rising in her face. "You did what?" She hissed.
Of all the reactions he had been expecting, anger was not one of them. Bewildered, Kenshin repeated what he had just said, hoping for a better response the second time around.
"Shit, shit, shit!" Kaoru punched the wall beside the Admiral in anger, ignoring the blood that flowed from her scratched knuckles and the whimper of the injured man. "You have to find Admiral Hijikata and tell him you made a mistake, Kenshin! You have to get your post back!"
"What? But I gave it up for you!" Kenshin was clearly confused; he took a step towards her, but retreated when she put her bloody hand up to stop him.
"I didn't ask you to! I NEVER asked you to do that! I wouldn't!" She dropped her hand and sighed. "Don't you see? You'll hate me."
"Kaoru, what are you talking about?" Kenshin asked gently, hoping the situation could be salvaged.
"You'll start to resent me, Kenshin. You gave up your career, your life for me, but what if I can't be what you want? What if you regret the decision? What if we end up like my parents?" She shook her head, tears pooling in her eyes. "My mother…she loved my father, but when he went on account, she had to give up everything to be with him and it ate at her. She had to leave behind her friends, her family, her home…and she began to resent my father for dragging her off. They fought a lot and she spent a lot of time crying. Neither of them were happy and when she died…she was so bitter…"
"That won't happen to us, Kaoru, I promise." Kenshin murmured, taking a tentative step forward and reaching for her.
"How do you know?" She asked, allowing him to take her into his arms.
"Because it's my choice to be with you, my choice." Kenshin replied, smoothing her hair and dropping a small kiss on her forehead. He frowned slightly at the sight of the gunshot wound on her temple, but was more concerned with comforting her than worrying about that since it seemed to be a simple flesh wound.
She wrapped her arms around him and sighed, resting her forehead against his shoulder.
Admiral Serizawa opened his mouth to say something rude, but Katsu kicked him hard enough to knock him over, silencing him so that the moment wouldn't be ruined.
"Kenshin, let's make a deal." Kaoru murmured into his shoulder.
"A deal? What kind of deal?" He pulled away so he could look at her.
"Obviously you can't leave with me now," she put her hand to his mouth to silence his immediate protest, "you can't. There's Yahiko and your house and all your property, you simply can't disappear right now, so allow me to propose something. Will you listen?"
He nodded and she removed her hand from his mouth.
"It's coming on winter and my men and I will be spending it somewhere warm where we can recover. As for you, I want you to think about this, and if this is really what you want, then in the spring come find me." She leaned up into him and smiled, just the barest twitch of her lips. "I promise you Kenshin Himura, if you decide to board my ship and take your place beside me, then it'll be for keeps."
A/N: Ahahahaaaa! Two chapters in two days! (Or thereabouts) Holy cow. Anyway, I told you I would make a lot of changes before I posted this chapter. If you read the Ch. 12 snippet at the end of Ch. 11 and then re-read the beginning of this chapter, you'll see it changed, a lot. I always add things as I edit, it's just the way I do things around here. So, let's see here, in this chapter we had BUTT KICKING, girl power and romance. Yup, yup, I'm spent.
Only a few chapters left, we need to find Aoshi and tie up some loose ends. And then, the Vingnettes Series begins! Basically, what I'm going to be doing is posting little stories about the lives of these characters, how they met, life as a pirate, etc. Little one shots covering Kaoru, Sano, Kenshin, Aoshi, etc. They will mostly take place before 'Between the Devil and the Deep', although there might be a few set between BTDATD and LOM, and maybe one after. Who knows? I just have all these stories in my head that I have to get out. Out, damn story! Let me sleep!
Thanks for all your support (and death threats-great motivation, though scary) I really appreciate it!