After continuing protests from Kaoru, Kyossa finally halted his advances on her and bound her to a nearby tree on the edge of the clearing; he drew his sword and began practicing with long swinging arcs and mighty thrusts.
"What style?" Kaoru asked out of pure curiosity, predicament momentarily forgotten.
"Hasagawa Eishin Ryuu." He answered stiffly, still practicing.
She cocked her head, looking at him quizzically, "What is it?" she asked.
He stopped mid-swing and glared at her, "What do you care?" he shot coldly.
"I was just asking!" She shot back after regaining her composure.
Suddenly the sound of someone crashing through the underbrush reached their ears, and Kyossa returned his sword to its sheath, grinning widely.
"Finally. A little late, but that's acceptable." He chuckled, just as Sano broke into the clearing.
"Hey little Missy." He smirked before glaring at Kyossa, "And just who do you think you are, mister"
Kyossa cocked an eyebrow at him just as Kenshin and Yahiko stepped through the hole in the bushes Sano had created.
"You should calm down, Sano, that you should." Kenshin said sternly, eyes on Kyossa. Kyossa's eyes became ice at the sight of the red-haired rurouni.
"You are alright Miss Kaoru?" Kenshin asked.
"Yes... Yes, I'll be alright." She said as Yahiko freed her and furiously began rubbing her wrists and ankles to get the blood flowing.
"So, you have arrived." The air around them froze at the sound of Kyossa's hard voice.
"Yes, and right now I am wondering why you have captured Miss Kaoru and wish ill against her, that I am." Kenshin's voice was equally cold.
Kyossa smirked, "Then you do not remember me. I was hoping you would, but it does not matter. But I remember you. You gave me this." He traced the hideous scar that tracked its way down his face.
Suddenly, before Kenshin's eyes the scene around him changed as he remembered. Kyossa still stood before him, but his scar disappeared, and more men were clustered around him, maybe six. An old man between them lay in a pool of blood, cleaved from shoulder to abdomen.
The coldness in Kyossa's eyes was different, but the same; in Kenshin's memory, it was new, a wild coldness of one blinded by grief.
Kenshin remembered that night. He had been sent to murder an old samurai who had been supplying the shogunate with his stocks of munitions. He had found him followed by seven men, an easy kill, as he was some several yards away from his bodyguards; probably for time alone to think. Kenshin had descended and killed him with one stroke, but his business was not finished. The others need to be killed also; that was the one rule drilled into his head during his days as a hitokiri: there must be no witnesses.
The six others attacked first, and were dispatched one after the other in easy routine. But the last stood yet before him, cold and grief-stricken. With a cry he began his attack, but within seconds Kenshin had disarmed him and left him to die with a fatal wound on his face; he had been trying to eliminate those frightening eyes, but his sword had slipped. 'A rarity to spoil such a close attack,' Kenshin had told himself, 'but a fatal wound nonetheless, and I don't plan to waste my time.
Kenshin snapped back to reality and shook his head. Kyossa smirked.
"So now you remember"
"Yes, I remember that night." Kenshin answered.
"That was my father Battousai. The samurai you killed was my father. And I will not stop until his death is avenged and you are dead." Kyossa stated calmly, but his eyes burned.
"I have left that path long ago. I am very sorry, that I am." Kenshin spoke softly.
"Sorry won't cut it. Only your death will!" Kyossa raged, and drew his sword.
Kenshin sighed, "It seems I have no choice." He murmured to himself before assuming the battou-jutsu stance.
They met in a blur of swords and bodies, Kaoru and the others hard put to keep up with their speedy attacks. Whatever Kyossa had lacked that allowed Kenshin to finish him so easily in the past, he had obtained in the years before now.
Suddenly they broke apart and Kyossa disappeared into the trees, and Kenshin, reluctantly, gave chase.
Kaoru and the others looked at each other for a moment before following after them.
They caught sight of Kenshin entering in the door of a small abandoned shrine just as they reached it. Not wanting to get in the way or distract him, they waited outside, nervous and apprehensive.
After twenty agonizing minutes, a figure stepped out from the doorway of the shrine, eyes glinting harshly in the moonlight.
The others stopped breathing simultaneously. It was Kyossa.
"No!" Kaoru screeched and started to dart forward, when Yahiko and Sano grabbed her arms and held her back.
"Oh, don't you worry. Your beloved Kenshin isn't dead. Yet." He laughed, pulling something from his pocket. The others watched him apprehensively. Kaoru was suddenly robbed of breath as she recognized a flint and tinderbox. With an evil smile Kyossa struck it and tossed it into the shrine, quickly igniting the age-worn dry wood. He stepped forward between the three and the shrine, keeping them from reaching it without going through him.
Sano and Yahiko had released her arms, so Kaoru darted to the left just as Sano darted right. Kyossa took off after Sano, not noticing Kaoru loop around and enter the burning shrine.
"Kaoru!" Yahiko yelled just before she disappeared.
Okay, short chapter, I know... torture complements of Dictators 1 & 2