Destiny

His open wounds were screaming in pain but he pushed all feeling aside except for fear. That shriek had come from Kaoru and he had heard the desperate agony behind it. However it was too late to change what had so suddenly been cemented in eternity. He retrieved the last speck of energy he had into standing up and trudging over the hill, his fingers clinging desperately to the wounds that were overfilling with crimson blood. Each step was torture as he spotted a mane of blue hair scattered wildly across the dirt ground. Shishio was a crumbled heap next to her with no signs of life. Kenshin dropped to his knees before her and reached a trembling finger out to teach her cheek. He flinched when he remembered blood was on his hands and her white cheek was stained with the fluid. Then his blood ran cold when he realized that he was touching her skin but was still alive.

The mission- he furiously shook his head. No! The mission didn't matter now, she was dead. Never to fight with him or have that angry glint of defiance or to laugh joyously like there was no tomorrow. He would never see those eyes again; eyes that had seen and suffered so much loneliness that death had bound her empty soul the day she was born. Was this the destiny that Kaoru had prepared herself with? Destined to die, destined to live with the hate of the people, destined to bring death. He felt like a fool now, telling her that the mission must proceed, that she was merely an assignment. What she must have heard from his foul mouth was that her death must proceed, that she was merely an empty shell owned by the people and not herself. He wished he could apologize for all that he had done to her.

His chest began to clench and unclench in a pain he had never experience in his life. It was no injury he had ever felt before and his breath came out in shaky puffs of air at the agony. His hand unconsciously went to his heart and he looked at his chest in bewilderment. Another pain began to attack him, this time at his eyes. They burned like acid and his whole world grew blurry. Something warm splattered on his arm and he stared at the droplet that had fallen from his eyes.

"Ah." He said out loud. He began to laugh, weak sounds that crawled out of his aching throat.

He was crying.

He walked towards his destiny once more, but something was different. This time, his sword wasn't anticipating its ritual of blood and death and his eyes weren't calculating an enemy's position. There were no longer assignments or missions waiting for him beyond. People still gave him a wide berth but many held reverent eyes for the person who single handedly destroyed the evil that had plagued their land. In their hopeful eyes, he was their savior and the higher levels of government couldn't tell them that the real savior of their land was a young girl who had lived a life of death. An image of her face flashed in his mind and he didn't fight it off. He reveled in the memories of her and the crowd of people around him all looked in awe of the gentle smile that had overcome the warrior.

He remembered his journey and he continued to walk. A lonely bridge greeted him, he had reached the border of the capital. The wind sighed around him and blew dust in his eyes. He rubbed his sleeves across his face and when he opened his eyes he quickly closed them.

"It's alright, it's just me." A voice full of laughter called out.

He was thinking of her again, the memories were so strong this time that he could actually hear her voice.

"Don't be silly, open your eyes! It's me!" She called out.

A dream then. It was another one of his dreams at night, the ones that made him wish he could dream his life away.

"Kenshin." The voice said sternly. "Open your eyes."

He obeyed and blinked the darkness away to see Kaoru sitting daintily on the bridge's post. She was so alive…and so real. Her blue eyes were as light as the sky itself and sparkled with happiness. Her cheeks were flushed with energy and her smile made him lose all feeling of his body.

"K-Kaoru?" He said tentatively.

"Baka! Of course it's me!" She giggled.

He took a step closer but she shook her head.

"No, it's against the rules for you to come close." She said with touch of the old sadness in her voice.

"Rules?"

"Now, you listen closely!" She said with the air of a mother speaking to her child. "I don't have much time so I have to make this short. Kami-sama was kind enough to give me a bit of time to say my goodbyes."

"You're not alive?" He asked desperately. He had frozen in his place, not wanting her to disappear before his eyes again. Only his eyes and mouth moved now.

She shook her head with a smile. "I told you before, I was never meant to live. But I don't have enough time to explain everything. I just wanted to say thank you for protecting me and saving me."

"Saving you?" He cried out. "I couldn't stop Shishio from-"

She shushed him with a hand.

"I did what I was destined to do. And Kenshin, you did save me. You gave me the hope to defeat Shishio." She looked down at her lap. "I was hesitant before you came. I thought I could save myself with the same magic working against me but all I found in the books were my impending death. I began to wonder why I should save the very people who had shunned me all my life. Then suddenly, you came along." She looked up at him and gave a shy grin. "You made me angry, annoyed, irritated, and the list just keeps going on. The point is, you made me feel. I was more inhuman than you were before we met. I didn't care and I didn't lift my head to see farther than my fate. You saved me."

Her eyes began to brim with tears and she quickly wiped at her eyes.

"It's time for me to go now, or else I'll start to blubber like a baby."

He couldn't find his voice to beg her to stay, if not for a few more minutes. He wanted to run to her and hold her, to feel the warmth of her body next to his. She hopped down from the post with the look of a daredevil. Two bright lights appeared out of thin air and flickered angrily at her but she brushed them away with a hand. She vanished and then appeared right before him. Her fingers floated above his cheeks and a soft kiss brushed across his lips. She gave a sigh and her body began to take on the same substance as the flickering lights beside her.

"Now my life is complete." She laughed as she disappeared from him once more. He stared blankly at where she was once standing and then released a sigh of his own. He tightened the straps to the traveling bag on his back and readied himself to continue on his journey. An angel had blessed him today and he could already feel the promise of a new life.

Author's Notes: yup, it's over now. Sniff, it was a short story and I really wish I could have spent more time on it but now I have to work on all my other stories. I hope you guys liked it, even though it was a super short chapter. Eh, also, I was reading back on a few chapters and I noticed that I left some things not quite explained (argh). Ah well, I started this when I was young and inexperienced, what else can I expect?

Twilight Sky: Thanks! I really wanted to do more with the plot, but I had intended to make this a short story from the beginning, which didn't leave me enough room to put in enough romance. I guess this will be a short semi-angst story then.

Thanks for reading Prince Aoshi, Emumoon, athenis, sweety, onnie, Aharah Musici, , XxSilentxDreamerxX, and Jisusaken!!!