Inkblot: Hi! I'm going to try to make updates at least once a week, but forgive me if I don't quite make it. It's easy for me to come up with ideas for this story; however, coming up with ideas that actually work is the hard part. I enjoyed writing this chapter, but I'm not sure if anyone else would appreciate it, but since it's drawing close to my favorite holiday, I thought I'd post this.

Thanks to shadow61x- LOL, I just realized I did say Yahiko was Kaoru's sister. sweatdrop yeah, about that…you see, when I was writing that chapter, I kept on referring to Yahiko as a girl. I dunno why…so I had to go back and correct all that, and I guess I missed that one. Oops. . thanks for the reviews btw. I desperately need the confidence. On the bright side, no one has flamed me yet!

Thanks to half-breed-demon-fox- Yes, I realize that Rurouni seems a bit mean, but he has a reason, really! I just worked out the main plot so I can assure you that Rurouni isn't mean to Shinta; only to Battousai. And our lovely Battousai doesn't really care, now does he?

Disclaimer: No, I do not own RK. I would like to, but my wallet is sadly empty. Besides, if I did, I'd get assassinated by fan girls pretty quickly…

Chapter Two: Operation Christmas

Kenshin had no idea how he got dragged into this…holiday celebration. Hiko detested Christmas time and as a result, the red head had grown up without really understanding this particular holiday's significance. So when Kaoru had come to him with that frightening gleam in her eye, he was utterly nonplussed as to why Rurouni had shrunk away.

You must be a sucker for punishment, Shinta commented gaily. The recent snowfall had made an imp out of the boy and Kenshin was hard pressed to keep him under control. Rurouni wasn't much better. He's a masochist, the ronin added smugly, a smirk pulling at the edges of his mouth. Even Shinta knew to hide when Kaoru came, de gozaru. Kenshin made a face and stepped into the Kamiya dojo, tugging on his scarf in irritation.

Kaoru whirled into the room, blue eyes sparkling happily. Yahiko followed, shaking his head in tolerant amusement, though even his usual scowl had lightened "Merry Christmas!" she sang blissfully, and inwardly Kenshin winced. Kaoru could not sing.

"Sano's gonna meet us at the tree farm," she explained to her friend, pulling on her gloves. "So we don't have to worry about him doing anything stupid. I think." Kenshin nodded silently, not quite understanding her cheer. He snuck a peek at Yahiko; he was excited too, though he hid it better than his sister did. "Kaoru," Kenshin said timidly, "I have a question." He fidgeted with the knitted hat perched on his head. Kaoru glanced at him encouragingly. A deep breath. "Why are we going to a tree farm?"

THUMP! Both Kaoru and Yahiko had fallen over and were staring at him in disbelief. He shifted uncomfortably under their gazes. He could feel the blood rising in his cheeks. "Umm…the tree?" Yahiko said, trying to get a reaction of understanding from his sister's friend. "We're going to the farm to get a tree?" Yahiko was shell-shocked and Kaoru plain couldn't speak from horror. Kenshin's face was blank.

Kaoru finally found her voice and scrambled to her feet. "How can anyone not know what a Christmas tree is?" she asked angrily. Shinta provided him with an image of a pine tree decorated with sparkling lights and colorful glass balls, courtesy of commercials via TV. Great. So even Shinta knew what a Christmas tree was. Yahiko shook his head at such travesty. Poor Kenshin.

"Our new goal is to educate Kenshin in all matter of Christmas celebration," Kaoru announced and the strange glint had returned with a vengeance. Her eyes were now inhumanly bright. Shinta squeaked in terror and ran to Rurouni, who faded both of them to the corners of Kenshin's mind. Battousai's eyes glinted at them in laughter, but the hitokiri's presence was much preferred to psycho Kaoru's.

And Kenshin was, yet again, clueless.

Wow, Shinta piped up. Our host really is stupid!

And so it was that Kaoru called up Shinomori Aoshi, Makimachi Misao, and Megumi, a freshman at Tokyo University. The latter two came of their own free will; their goal in this operation was too torture poor Kenshin as much as they possibly could. The former had to be blackmailed to participate. Of course, the red head knew nothing of this, and proceeded in his clueless way.

To be fair, Kenshin did admit that he learned something. Like, what the perfect Christmas tree was supposed to look like. They had spent a good hour examining them before Kaoru pronounced a certain Douglas pine perfect. A Christmas tree had to be conical in shape and couldn't be one of the soft needle pines, or else the ornaments would fall off of them. Kenshin had no idea; he had felt rather bad for a scraggly Fraser that was out by it's lonesome in the snowy field.

The next lesson the teen learned was that the holidays were about music. One could not be complete without Christmas carols and Hanukah songs. Quite frankly, he would have rather tuned the entire thing out; Kaoru, Megumi, Misao, and Sano could not sing for their lives, and Aoshi would rather die than be caught singing, a carol no less.

The third lesson was that one needed decorations for the tree. Popcorn strings, shiny garlands, and tinsel were essential. Kenshin was put in charge of the popcorn strings; the rest could not be trusted with a needle, or indeed, any sharp, pointy object.

By the end of the day, "Operation Christmas Education" was beyond Kenshin's comprehension. He was completely overwhelmed to the point where even Hiko bursting into a romantic love song would have failed to astound him. He dropped tiredly to the ground, bright red hair sticking up crazily where his wool hat had been. "Hat hair!" Misao had squealed, then proceeded to mess it up even further.

Sano dropped to the floor next to him, grinning at the argument going on between pipsqueak Yahiko and ice prick Aoshi. They were nose to nose, furiously telling each other off. Shouts of "No! The garlands go up before lights on the tree, idiot!" and "You're wrong, kid. The lights go on before the rest of the stuff. And men have died for lesser insults, Yahiko-chan!" echoed through the dojo. Megumi and Misao, meanwhile, were happily stringing the lights up around the house, chatting about bitchy girls, guys, and periods.

Kaoru came out of the kitchen, bearing a tray of popcorn balls and hot chocolate. Sano snagged two of the popcorn balls lazily, disregarding the girl's glare and muffled "freeloader." The tall, brawny youth tossed one to Kenshin, who bit it out the air with boneless ease. The red head had the satiated air of a well fed cat.

Kenshin's eyes flashed suddenly, a metallic blue gleam entering the previous violet. Sano glanced at him in surprise, noting the suddenly purposeful movements and wary eyes. He relaxed as he recognized the alter ego, all the tension draining out of his long, lanky body. "Jeez Rurouni, give a guy some warning next time you want to switch," the teen grumbled. The ronin in Kenshin's body smiled apologetically at him. "Sessha is sorry," he said contritely. "Kenshin dozed off suddenly and sessha was forced into control de gozaru."

Of the five people Kaoru had invited, Sagara Sanosuke was the only one who had known Kenshin before The Incident. He had witnessed the splitting of the then fourteen-year-old's personality and therefore the only one who knew of Shinta, Rurouni, and the ever-mysterious Battousai. The Incident was never mentioned between them and that was the way Kenshin intended to keep it.

Sanosuke shook his head and tugged on Rurouni's red ponytail. "So," he said conversationally, as if he talked to alter egos every day. Which was true to an extent; he had been talking to Shinta and Rurouni for almost eleven years now. "How's Shinta?" he asked, scratching the back of his head. "Haven't seen the squirt in a while." Rurouni drew a leg up to his chest and rested his chin on it, observing the decorating process interestedly. "Shinta is doing well," he reflected quietly. "He wants to make a snowman tomorrow de gozaru. Kaoru has him convinced that snow is the cure for all ills."

Sano grunted in acknowledgement, eyes lingering on Megumi before settling on the boy next to him. "Jou-chan has that effect on people," he noted, shrugging his shoulder eloquently. A comfortable silence fell between the two as they watched the girls and Aoshi finish up. Kaoru turned to smile at who she thought was Kenshin. Rurouni smiled back.

He stretched and yawned, blinking tiredly. "Sessha is leaving now," he said, turning his purple-blue eyes on the lanky gangster. "Kenshin will most likely fall asleep on you de gozaru." Sanosuke watched idly as the blue receded form Kenshin's eyes and the teen looked at him sleepily, eyes once again pure purple. "Have a nice chat with Rurouni?" he asked, head falling to rest on Sano's shoulder. The other teen poked him in the ribs and grinned at Kenshin's glare. "Yeah," he answered finally, closing his eyes. "We had a nice chat. Shinta wants to make a snow man." Kenshin groaned.

"Kill me now."

It was always the same dream. He was alone on a high cliff overlooking a quiet, secluded valley. Smoke curled up in wisps of gray from the burning trees, and the sickly sweet stench of burning wood hung in the air. The sun above shone merrily, almost blinding him until sunlight and fire made the area so bright that one could barely see.

He had blood on his hands and on his katana, and it dripped off the gleaming weapon slowly, like an hourglass of crimson liquid.

It was silent, except for the creams drifting from the valley and the crackling of fire. There was an emptiness in him he didn't understand and he looked down from his place at the edge of the cliff into the valley below. Another high-pitched shriek. He closed his eyes and stepped from the ledge and fell through space, the wind whipping at his hair and rushing into his lungs, clean and sharp and sweet.

And then he knew no more.

Battousai was a killer. Not a murderer, never a murderer. Really, the hitokiri preferred the term assassin; he never killed a man who didn't need killing. It really didn't count as murder, since none of the deaths were done in clod blood.

Kenshin had created him shortly after The Incident. Usually the hitokiri was a mere echo of his true self, most of his true power thinned and spread throughout the teen's mind. He was cautious about his strength, only using a glare here, a growl there, hardly noticeable at all. He was a shadow in the far corners of his host's mind.

Battousai's control was legendary, both physically and emotionally. But something emerged from the darkness that worried him, worried the manslayer that thrived in the very lightlessness the menace came from. For something to bother him so deeply spelled trouble, not only for the hitokiri, but for his host and the other personalities.

And his purpose was to protect Kenshin. His amber eyes flashed as he gathered his scattered strength, eyes molten like gold, burning as fire, and chilling like ice on a starry night.

After all, the best defense was offense.

Finis

Inkblot: I didn't think that went all that bad, so thank you for your patience. I felt I needed to write a tiny bit of humor. Please review! Reviews are like chocolate to me; they're addicting!