I don't own Ruroni Kenshin!
The poem is mine and is entitled 'Endless Night!'
Though darkness hides come the dawn
Morning still will always come
For there are shadows in the night
When there is but moon for light
Mourning, crying, weeping, sighing
Day will always turn to night
But be wary I shall be
Forever of the endless night
"Mama, where are you?" a small child whimpered in the darkness of the enclosed room. "Why did she lock me in here, mama? Where are you and papa? Mama…"
"Oro?" Kenshin tilted his head as he heard someone weeping. "Hello, is anyone there?"
The crying stopped, "Kenshin!" Karou-dono was calling him.
"I'll be there in a little while, Karou-dono," Kenshin called back to the woman of the dojo. Whimpering began as he seemed to get closer to whoever seemed to be hurt. He frowned when he heard the noise loudest where he was standing, and he looked down. He was standing atop a door that was closed from the outside. He frowned, and quickly opened the door.
A gasp was heard as light spilled into the hole-like room, "You're not supposed to be here, she'll be mad at me!"
Kenshin was horrified as he stared at a small undernourished girl. Her hair was in grave disarray; her eyes were a startling emerald hue, which seemed larger in her face because she was underfed, "Oro? Are you alright?" Kenshin quickly opened the door the rest of the way and was shocked and appalled at the sight of this girl, she looked as though she had been tortured, and she was chained to the very wall she was huddled against.
"Please, you must leave, before she comes back!" the girl pleaded with the red haired ruroni.
"I can not leave you like this, that I can not," Kenshin replied sadly as he deftly climbed down into the hole and glanced around for the keys to her chains. He finally sighted them on the wall farthest from the young girl. He picked them up and moved to unchain the girl.
"Please…" the girl sobbed softly as she cringed away from him, "Don't hurt me!
"I will not hurt you, that I will not," Kenshin frowned softly as he quickly worked to undue her chains.
"Did mama or papa send you?" the girl asked softly, hope filling her voice as he gathered the girl into his arms.
"I do not know, that I do not," Kenshin held the girl gently as he clambered up the same way he had entered the hole. He kept one arm around the girl as he replaced the door and relocked it. His ears heard someone coming. Gathering the girl into his arms, he jumped into a high tree that would not let them be seen, but they could see the person down below. Seeing that person shocked Kenshin to the core of his very being.
The girl in his arms whimpered softly and buried her face in his pink haori, "She will be angry with me! She will hurt me more when she finds me again!"
"Shh, I will not let her harm you again, that I will not," Kenshin whispered softly to the girl as he watched the woman open the door to the hole and drop in with a practiced ease. Kenshin readjusted the girl in his arms and sped them both off to see a doctor.
"Ken-kun! It's wonderful to see you!" a lady greeted Kenshin as he appeared on her doorstep.
"Miss Megumi, this lady is in need of your attention!"
"Of course!" Megumi quickly brought him into her home, "Sir Ken, could you lie her down and leave the room?"
"NO!" the girl shrieked as Kenshin tried to put her down. She clung to Kenshin and refused to let go.
"You should let Sir Ken go, he should not see…" Megumi began.
"NO!" the girl cried again and buried her head in Kenshin's haori. "PLEASE!"
"It is alright Miss Megumi, I will stay with her, that I will," Kenshin sighed as he sat down, pulling the girl into his lap as he did so. She huddled into him and clung to him, refusing to let him go anywhere. "She is frightened, that she is."
"Sir Ken, where did you find the poor dear?" Megumi gasped as she examined the girl in Kenshin's lap.
"Oro…She was locked in an underground room, Miss Megumi," Kenshin rubbed the girl's back to help her calm down. "It is alright, I promise I will not leave you." The girl seemed to calm down a bit more and her breathing evened out enough that Kenshin knew she would be alright.
Megumi gasped in horror as she removed the girl's shirt to see a multitude of cuts and bruises, "She was tortured…" Megumi bit her lip to keep from crying. "Who could have done such a thing?" Megumi swallowed hard as she went and quickly bandaged the girl's wounds. "Sir Ken, do you even know her name?"
"That I do not, Miss Megumi, that I do not," Kenshin sighed as Megumi went into another room to retrieve a new shirt for the girl.
"She's coming closer…" the girl whispered in fear as she held tightly to Kenshin.
Kenshin stared at the girl in shock, for he could also sense the woman who had done this brutality was heading their way, but she was off a few blocks, "Miss Megumi! If anyone comes and asks about a girl, say nothing!"
"Sir Ken… is the one that did that…" Megumi pointed to the girl, "coming here?"
"She may very well, Miss Megumi. I do not think it wise for you to stay here. Find Sano…" Kenshin felt the girl trembling in his arms. Megumi ran off to find Sano "She will not harm you again, little one."
"She's coming," the girl sobbed.
"I will not let her harm you, that I will not," Kenshin replied fiercely.
"She'll always find me…" the girl whispered.
"How can she find you?" Kenshin's eyes flashed gold.