There was blood on his lip, he ran a tounge over his teeth and found none missing or chipped. It was just his lip.
He grabbed the daggar and stuck it in it's sheath behind his back.
"I'm alive." he said, looking down at himself in awe.
"I...I stopped him. He just stared down at me, laughed that horrible laugh, and left." She said, answering his unasked question.
She pushed the food toward him and sat back down in the corner.
"I don't need it." she said, her voice soft.
She stared down at the ground, pale blue eyes staring at the dirt and straw.
"You need to eat. i'm going to get us away from him." Kenshin whispered, laying the food beside her as he sat down.
"I did get away...Once. I got away and he found me. he beat me and....and he brought me here." She said, tears in her eyes. "It's hopeless to get away. We've got to kill him." She said, her eyes hardening suddenly.
"I can't take a human life." He said. more to himself. The oath would be broken if he took even one life.
"I'm going to kill him." She whispered, he barely caught it.
------------------
Kenshin stumbled over something in the floor and fell back, hitting his head.
When he came-to, he was in Kaouru's arms.
"K..Kaouru?" He asked, staring up at her, violet eyes filled with confusion.
Then he sat up strait, looking for the monster.
"Shinta? What's wrong?" Kaouru asked, worriedly.
"It's nothing, love. I'll go cook breakfast now, that i will." He said, holding his hand out to help her stand.
"Just be more careful, Okay. I don't want another on you." It was their shared, private joke.
"Maa. Maa." He said, grinning as he walked into the kitchen.
----------------------------
Kenshin stared at the dust swirling in the afternoon sun. Kaouru was eating their dinner. He wasn't hungry and he insisted that she eat it.
His lip had stopped bleeding long ago, but he still tasted blood.
He stared down at the carved steel hilt of the daggar. It was a ceremonial daggar, celtic knots and symbols carved into the intracitely molded peice.
"Where did you get it?" Kaouru's curious voice startled him.
"Oro?" He asked, looking up at her.
"The daggar...Where did you get it?" She asked again.
"I've always had it, i think." he said.
"It's beautiful." She said.
He nodded in agreement and sheathed the blade.
The door opened and the battosai stepped in.
"So, Kenshin, You have finally come to face me? It's touching that you even found your betrothed while stalking me. And you tried to save her the day i was to set her free." He raised the Katana and slashed down easily cutting a peice of board from the post.
Kenshin stared.
"She was to be mine today. And you stopped it. You showed up. Now, my dear brother, You must die." Battosai sheathed the sword and shifted into a bakamatsu stance.
Kenshin gripped the sword and prepared to unleash the deadly blade as the world started to spin.
then the world went black...
---------------------------
"Shinta!" Kaouru screamed from the hall.
Kenshin grabbed the decorative knife and raced out into the hallway.
"Kaouru!" He yelled, racing for the origin of her voice.
"Stop right there, Brother." A cold voice said from behind him.
He turned and found the battosai standing before him.
"Don't you DARE hurt her!" Kenshin said coldly.
"I wouldn't dare harm my prize." The battosai said, grinning evilly.
Kenshin assumed a bakamatsu stance, the beautifully carved daggar a deadly weapon in his hands.
Suddenly the world went black.
---------------
Kenshin was standing in a familliar stance, but he wasn't in the same area. He was now in a hallway, and it was morning.
He stared up and his eyes widened in shock.
The battosai was wearing pink!?! He wasn't wearing that before. But he felt that somehow this was right.
"Shinta! My water broke!" Kaouru screamed from a room down the hall.
The battosai stared down at him. "You are not my brother, are you? All the well. I will kill you none-the-less." Battosai grinned and barked a sadistic laugh.
Kenshin's eyes narrowed and he shifted deeper into the bakamatsu stance.
"DIE!" Battosai laughed gleefully.
"No!" Kenshin said, dodging the blow. He kicked the mirror image of himself onto the ground.
He jumped onto the figure and punched it into unconsiousness.
Kaouru screamed and he stopped. "Kaouru!" He ghasped, racing toward the origin of the scream.
---------------------
Kenshin was standing in some kind of barn, his double stood in a familiar stance before him. The bakamatsu.
"Kenshin! Don't!" Kaouru whispered from the corner.
He glanced at her.
She was thin, almost ghostlike. Her face was pale and he could tell that she was in pain.
Wait..She called him Kenshin?
"Die, brother." Battosai said, attacking.
"I think not!" Kenshin said, blocking the blows with the blade in his hands.
He cut the battosai across the chest, a wound that he knew would only slow him down.
"Kaouru, come on!" Kenshin yelled, distracting the battosai with blows that would keep him down for at least long enough for them to get away.
"I will get you again, my Kaouru!" Battosai screamed at their retreating backs.