Living in the Past

Chapter 3
By Henrika

Henrika-Long chapter. Woohoo. That's the good news. Bad news is that I've been writing this story in pencil in my notebook and now I can't read four whole pages I wrote because the lead smeared around. Not to worry, I'll figure out what they say eventually. Thanks to Subaru the Jaguar, Kenjutsu Priestess, GoldAngel2, FantoKitsune. Read and Review!

Kenshin opened his eyes, and then blinked them repeatedly to make sure his eyes weren't playing horrible tricks on him. The red moon cast a dismal light on the gruesome scene. He was on a battlefield that was strewn with dead bodies. He realized that his hair was in a high ponytail and he was wearing his Ishin Shishi uniform. Even worse was the realization that he was covered in blood and holding a bloody katana. Kenshin immediately threw the sword away from him. In some vague part of his mind, he knew that this was a nightmare, but it was one that was all too real.

"Battousai!" Dead bodies began to rise, blood still gushing from the sword wounds that had killed them. "Murderer! Battousai!"

"That's not my name anymore." Kenshin said in a pleading tone. The mangled corpses began to advance on him.

"Revenge!" One of the bloodiest bodies yelled. A ring of rotting flesh began to form. Kenshin bolted, escaping the corpses bent on his destruction. He found himself on the outskirts of Kyoto. Rivers of blood, that he had created, flowed in the streets. Kenshin ran blindly as the smell of blood overwhelmed his senses. He stumbled over something in the darkness. A copper taste filled his mouth as he fell in the river. He turned to spit out the blood and caught sight of what he had tripped on.

"No." He begged for the nightmare to end as the two halves of the samurai in black faced him in the river. Rain began to fall and Kenshin saw the crimson drops join the ones in the river. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a person approach.

A blood-soaked Tomoe came into his view. "I've often heard in plays about a rain of blood, but you really made it rain blood."

"KILL HIM!" The cry came from the dead who had tracked Kenshin down.

"No. Please make it stop. Please make it stop." Kenshin moaned, burying his face in his stained hands as the slain began to converge on him.

Megumi undid the bandage on Kenshin's wound. "Has Sir Ken been eating well lately?" Megumi asked as she surveyed the damage.

"Now that you mention it, no." Kaoru said as she saw how thin Kenshin was. "I don't think he's been sleeping well either, if he sleeps at all." She added.

Megumi sighed "He let this get infected.". She withdrew her attention from the wounds as Yahiko returned with the water. She mixed it with the herbs she had ground up and applied the poultice to the gash. She put on a new bandage and did the same to Kenshin's scar.

Sano returned and laid a few blankets over him. "Hey Fox, the scar is still bleeding." Sano pointed out as he sat down. Megumi moved to get another bandage when she saw the first one was already soaked, but she stopped when Kenshin began shaking uncontrollably.

"Kenshin!" Kaoru yelled, as the convulsions got worse. Sano leaped up and quickly pinned him to the floor so he couldn't hurt himself. Almost as quickly as they began, the spasms started to subside. Kaoru leaned in as she saw his lips moving.

"No...please............stop...make it stop." Then he was still.

"He's having a nightmare." Kaoru realized aloud.

"Is there anything we can do for him?" Yahiko asked tentatively.

After a quick examination to make sure he hadn't re-injured himself, Megumi applied a new bandage to the scar. "I'm afraid there's nothing we can do. It's up to Sir Ken to wake up."

"He couldn't even snap out of his trance in Rakuninmura, how is he supposed..." Sano trailed off as he realized Kaoru was gaping at him.

"Rak...Rakuninmura?" Sano mentally Futae-no-Kiwamied himself. They had never told Kaoru what had happened after she was kidnapped by Enishi. "Sano." He knew that tone. It was either tell the truth or a well-aimed bokken hit to the head.

"Do we have a choice?" Sano asked Yahiko and Megumi.

"I see no other option now." Megumi said.

"We'd better tell her." Yahiko put in.

"Alright Missy. You're not going to like what you're gonna hear. Are you sure about this?" Kaoru hesitated for a second, and then nodded her head.

"Alright then, I'm sure you remember Gein?" Kaoru nodded. "He made a doll of you. Once Enishi had kidnapped you, he nailed it to the dojo wall with Enishi's sword after carving a cross-shaped scar into the cheek." Megumi had gone pale, as Sano had brought up the memory. "We heard Enishi yelling at Kenshin to mourn and we ran for the dojo. We thought that doll was you." Sano shuddered slightly as he remembered and Megumi looked positively sick. "Kenshin cried and said something about again not being able to the one he loved."

"We had your funeral a few days later." Megumi said. "There was no sign of Sir Ken."

"Some of my friends came by later, saying that they had found Kenshin in Rakuninmura. They warned the women not to come, but we all went anyways." Sano said. "Kenshin looked pretty bad. The reverse-blade sword was wrapped in chains and the only thing he would say to us was: No more, I'm tired." Kaoru was speechless. "I tried to knock some sense into him."

"Literally." Yahiko muttered.

Sano just bowed his head. "I came back one more time after that, but it was hopeless. I left and went to Shinshu. After getting in a couple of fights, I realized that I shouldn't have abandoned everyone, so I came back." Sano finished.

"What happened after Sano left?" Kaoru managed to ask Yahiko and Megumi.

"I think that's where I come in." Yahiko said. He waited for Kaoru to switch the compress on Kenshin's forehead before he started. "Misao and Aoshi showed up with Tomoe's diary. They couldn't believe you were gone. Misao and I went back to Rakuminmura after we showed them your grave. I promised Kenshin that I would wield the sword like him using the Kamiya Kasshin style to protect others." He paused, thinking back to what happened next. "Awhile after that, Aoshi told us about his suspicions that Gein had made a puppet of you and wanted to unearth your grave."

"I could have sworn that doll was really you when I examined it. What would have happened if they had listened to me?" Megumi wondered out loud, hundreds of different scenarios racing through her mind, none of them pleasant.

"We dug up your grave." Yahiko continued. "Aoshi cut the doll open and pulled out a bunch of cables. We were so happy that you were alive somewhere."

"The problem was that we had no idea where somewhere was." Megumi added.

"So we visited Saitou." Yahiko grimaced. "He was a jerk about it, but he did tell us that Enishi was on an island and that the police were launching a raid in less than a week. The next day, I was visiting Tsubame when we heard Kujiranami had broken out of prison. You remember the guy with the cannon arm?"

"Yes."

"It seems a bit dumb now, but I went after him.

"Yahiko!"

"I know. Anyway I found him and a few police officers. The police told me that his new gun arm was something called a grenade launcher. It was powerful, but it didn't work as well at close range. I imitated Kenshin's Ryu Sho Sen, but it didn't faze him. Tsubame told me that after I left she went to ask Kenshin for help."

"And?" Kaoru had a feeling she knew what happened next and she just couldn't wait to find out for sure.

"Easy Missy, let him finish."

"There was this kid looking for his dad. Kujiranami aimed the gun at him, so I jumped on top of him so he wouldn't get the full force of the blast. I tried to go for a pressure point that would at least subdue him for a while. I used the succession technique and jammed my shinai into his chest." Yahiko winced. "He just slammed me into the ground."

"Misao and I heard about a kid fighting with a shinai. We got there as fast as we could. Yahiko was badly wounded and Kujiranami had him by the head, but he still managed to lift his shinai into a fighting stance." Megumi said. Kaoru just beamed at her pupil. "Saitou, Aoshi, Misao, and I all showed up at the same time."

"I thought I was dreaming when I heard someone yell Kuzu Ryu Sen." Yahiko said. "Kujiranami got up though so Kenshin did a Ryu Sho Sen on him."

"He asked Sir Ken to kill him." Megumi said. Kaoru inhaled sharply. "Yahiko stepped in though, despite his condition, telling Kujiranami that samurai shouldn't hate each other. He then wanted to fight him again." Megumi giggled.

"What's so funny?" Yahiko demanded.

"You could barely stand Yahiko. How did you expect to fight him?"

"I...um..." Sano and Kaoru joined in the laughing and even Yahiko laughed as he realized what it must have looked like. "They arrested Kujiranami again." Yahiko finished.

"The two of them were in pretty bad shape. Kenshin had gone without food, water, or treatment of his injuries since his first fight with Enishi. He slept for three days straight after I treated him. That's when rooster here showed up with a broken hand."

"After patching up the idiot..." Megumi giggled and fox ears appeared on her head.

"Hey!"

"Yahiko woke up and they decided to wake up Sir Ken."

"But he was already up." Yahiko said.

"He apologized for worrying us." Megumi added.

"And asked us to take him to you." Sano said.

Kaoru smiled widely, but it lessened slightly as Kenshin shuddered under her hand. "So you got on the police boat?" She prompted.

"Yeah we all did." Kenshin told us that he didn't have any strength to spare if he was going to fight Enishi, so he asked for our help. That was about when the second boat hit a mine. We jumped on a smaller boat while they evacuated the sinking ship. Misao used her kunais to make the mines explode before we hit them." Sano said.

"We landed and Kenshin yelled for Enishi." Yahiko said.

"I know. I heard him." Kaoru surprised them.

"Anyways, Heishin and his bodyguards showed up. Yahiko, Aoshi, Saitou, and I each fought one of the Sushin. After we defeated them, Enishi showed up and so did you." Sano wrapped up.

"I had no idea." Kaoru said. "I had no idea you had to go through all that."

"It all turned out well in the end Kaoru." Megumi uncharacteristically put a comforting arm over her shoulder. She then moved over to replace the blood-soaked bandage on Kenshin's cheek. "It won't stop bleeding!" She growled as she put on a new bandage.

Henrika-Bwahaha. Evil, ain't I? Read and review so I can post more chapters of Kenshin's nightmares!