Back at the teahouse Kaoru perfect ivory face was turning purple and black and a thin trickle of blood ran down from her hair.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!" she screamed to Soujiro from the floor.
"I want to see you suffer," he said in a low voice.
Kaoru sobbed her tears adding to the tragic and pathetic look she had on her face. She screamed and flung herself at him wildly, but Soujiro easily sidestepped her. Kaoru fell against the wall as one of the five nameless thugs lifted her up by the back of her kimono, suffocating her and threw her in the middle of the room as the group closed in on her.
Soujiro looked at her face and recognized the fear she had in her eyes, "Break her spirit. I want to make sure she never feels again."
"Sir? Are you ready to go to the teahouse now?" asked one of the maids who knocked on the door to Kenshin and Kaoru's personal room.
Kenshin quickly smoothed his hair over the top and took one last look in the mirror and quickly stepped out into the hall and was lead by the maid to his carriage.
"The teahouse, driver," said Kenshin as he settled in.
He wore white kimono pants with a dark bluish purple shirt underneath and a white robe on top and looked most admirable especially with his reverse-blade sword at his side. He breathed quietly and was getting a bit restless from abruptly stopping getting his fixes, but managed to suppress it remembering Kaoru's face.
"Kaoru, you're ready. I hope I'm ready," he thought to himself as he reached inside his robe and pulled out a small dark velvet box. He opened it, and at first it was so bright from the sunlight that he couldn't see it clearly, but out of the blinding sun you would see a small white gold band with a large oval sapphire in the middle. It was surrounded with many small diamonds and two smaller sapphires at either side.
Kenshin gazed at it remembering that Kaoru's eyes looked just like those sapphires. He thought about how surprised Kaoru would be considering how romantic the whole atmosphere would be when he proposed so legalize their companionship. The thought both excited and worried Kenshin. Not because he didn't want to be with Kaoru from then on, but he worried that he wouldn't be able to be as good to Kaoru as she was to him. This thought plagued Kenshin for a long time before he made the decision to propose, but with every passing day he saw Kaoru's smiling face he couldn't think of a life with her being his. So Kenshin just threw his thoughts of doubt and uncertainty up there with the clouds to work themselves out, today he was going to be carefree with his future fiancée.
All of a sudden the carriage came to a harsh stop and Kenshin, annoyed with the delay, quickly let himself out of the carriage to see what was wrong.
"Sir," said the drive as he calmed the horses. "What is that up ahead?"
Kenshin walked slowly than broke into a run and lifted the small hump on the side of the road up to reveal a face streaked with mud from the street.
"Tokie!" he cried to the near lifeless figure. "Tokie what happened? Who did this?"
Tokie opened her eyes barely at the sound of a familiar voice. Beneath the mud Kenshin noticed a large bruise.
"Tokie?"
"Kenshin," mumbled Tokie, barely audible to Kenshin.
"What happened?" he asked afraid a worse fate may have befallen Kaoru.
"At the teahouse," she breathed.
"What Tokie? Where's Kaoru?"
"Killed,"
Kenshin stiffened and his eyes glowed a soft amber slowly overpowering the violet.
"Kaoru? Where is she," he said in a cold voice.
"The teahouse with Shishio," Tokie had difficulty finishing her sentence.
"No Tokie, Shishio's dead."
"No," Tokie struggled to say and lifted her wavering hand to Kenshin's shirt and pulled him close.
"Shishio's successor."
Kenshin looked into her gray eyes and saw no lie in them.
Tokie continued on, "He has Kaoru…" and with her last breath of this world she said, "He wants to kill you."
And with that Tokie passed from this world leaving Kenshin with her unspoken blessings.
Kenshin knelt his head in respect and carried the old woman's lifeless body to his carriage.
"Driver," he said sharply.
"Ye- yes Sir?" stammered the driver still in shock of what he just overheard.
"Change of plans,"
"To the teahouse Sir?" asked the driver as he readied the horses.
"No. Go to the small bar at the edge of town to find Sanosuke. Then you'll take this woman my home," said Kenshin as he closed the door of the carriage and they set off.
"Please gods," prayed Kenshin looking down at the face of Tokie. "Let her be safe."
The clouds became dark and ripe with rain that dripped down every so often. Kenshin looked outside the window with an emotionless look on his face. He stared at the people he passed by, hate and loathing for every one of them.
"How could man be so heartless," he thought to himself thinking of Kaoru surrounded by strange and ruthless men. "They act like animals," Kenshin looked down to his reverse-blade sword, "And be slaughtered like animals."
The carriage came to a solemn stop and Kenshin got out of it greeted by a steady pour of rain and fog.
He was in front of a small old building and walked under its roof and turned back to the driver, "Stop for nothing."
The drive gave a quick lash of his reins and the horses took off into the gloom. Kenshin slowly opened the door to the bar. It was barely anything more than a small room beneath the living quarters of the owners. He walked past a few silent men, some red in the face and others snoring on the bar's counter. He went all the way to the end of the room where he found in the corner a tall, brown haired man with his head resting on his arm on the counter tilting the glass to his lips.
"Sanosuke," said Kenshin sternly.
The man turned head behind him, "Kenshin?" he said quietly.
"Where's my sword?"
At these words Sanosuke understood and slowly got up from his seat and lead Kenshin to the back room of the bar that was lit only by a dusty window.
Sano walked along the wall while Kenshin stood opposite to him on the other side of a makeshift table of a board of wood and barrel.
Sano stopped in the corner of the room and pried loose a floorboard. He pushed aside some hay until he took out a long package wrapped in blood red silk and gently laid it on the table in front of Kenshin and lit a cigarette as he watched Kenshin slowly unwrap it.
"Do you want help?" he muttered with the cigarette between his lips.
Kenshin pulled the handle of the sword out of its black sheath and held it up to his face looking at his distorted reflection in the metal.
"No…"
There was a long silence and smoke started to circle above them.
"You gonna tell me what's happening?" asked Sano.
Kenshin lifted the sheath from the table and smoothly slid the magnificent blade away.
"They have her."
Sano looked at him more seriously when he heard this and was silent. He noticed Kenshin's eyes were burning amber, the way they used to when he was the leader of the mob.
"And I'm going to kill them."