Lchan: Okay, so like the title says, AND as promised, there's a REUNION in this chapter! As you can judge by the scroll bar, it's a pretty long chapter, this one. Hopefully, it won't bore you too much. Anyway, please read on. I won't say anything else. Well, except—READ AND REVIEW!!! Luv ya, peeps!! Enjoy!

Counter Strike

- The Reunion

A drop of water came pelting down from the now-dark, twilight sky. The sun had officially set, and the heavens were blasted with gray lights and heavy clouds. After what seemed like a million years, the drop touched down and splashed on a soft, warm, slanting surface. It promptly spattered into microscopic, insignificant puddles.

"Damn."

Sano stopped walking. He reached up and felt his nose with a tentative finger. Wetness met his touch. He cursed again, gingerly rubbing his index with his thumb and allowing the moisture to slowly dissolve into nothing.

"What is it?" Yahiko, who had been walking several steps behind him, stopped upon catching up. He cocked his head.

Megumi walked up. She was about to ask what caused their halt, when something dripped suddenly on the back of her palm. She stopped, looked there, blinked in surprise, and then looked up.

Yahiko transferred his eyes to her. "What?" he asked. And he looked up as well. Then, just as his eyes met the somber sky, another raindrop, fatter than the others that had hit his companions, came zipping down on him. It splashed onto his right cheek and slid off.

He touched a hand to the trickle. "Rain." Great. He flashed questions through his eyes at both his companions. Where do we go? We're nowhere near shelter! But they offered no comfort in looking back just as unsurely. A fresh sense of foreboding descended on Yahiko's chest. Honestly now, did life HAVE to be so evil?

It was Megumi who first managed to gather her wits, as Sano groaned again and Yahiko's head dropped in apparent surrender. "There's the tunnel," she said, decisively, nodding her head at the ominous-looking passageway . "We have to hurry."

Sano's nod was cynical. "All right..." he muttered. "C'mon, brat, gimme that." And he grabbed roughly at Yahiko's load and transferred it from the boy's back to his own. "You're such a slowpoke."

"Hey, I resent that!" Yahiko said, grabbing hold of Sano's knapsack, which had been thrown at him by its owner.

"Yeah? Well, who asked you?" Sano replied. "C'mon, get moving!" He started to jog ahead, following Megumi's footsteps in the now-spotted earth path.

Yahiko followed suit.

Splash! Splash! Splash! Raindrops began to drip down on their clothes.

The three of them scampered wordlessly through the dampening road. Occasionally, Sano muttered an incoherent curse, which always caught Megumi's ear and made her flash a fleeting look of reproof over her shoulder.

The rain was rapidly picking up, beginning to crack low, rumbling thunders in the atmosphere, and drowning out the scents of the rice field and burnt grasses of the day. The drizzle began to shift to a shower, and the three of them were forced to ignore their agonizing muscles and run ever faster. The tunnel loomed closer, but it seemed to them never close enough.

"Oh, this skirt is delaying me!" Megumi carped loudly, as Yahiko bypassed her and Sano drew up to her right.

"Troubles, fox-lady?" he inquired.

Truthfully, his voice had shifted from the earlier grumpiness to something that resembled light concern, but since it was vague in the rush of the situation, Megumi decided to conclude it as another shot at mockery. "Just run, Sano!" she said, a bit unkindly.

"But I am," he replied.

"Well, run faster!" she said, yanking up her skirt and tearing into a faster pace.

The three of them raced neck-and-neck, as Sano and Megumi managed to run up alongside Yahiko, into the tree-covered passageway, hearts pumping madly. They managed to slow down only several feet already into the tunnel, and it took them several more to totter to a stop and gulp in cold air.

"That was...certainly...tiring..." Megumi remarked, between pants for breath. She reached a hand to her tresses and smoothed the moist, clammy tangles.

"You're just...not used to...the rough life, fox," Sano replied, grinning slightly. He shook off the sweat and rainwater from his face.

"We should've...stayed in one of...this village's inns..." Yahiko said, gloomily, his hands on his knees.

Sano suddenly regained his strength. He pierced the younger man with a reprimanding glare. "We're here already, alright, so deal with it. Besides. we ain't got the money for that overpricing airhead so let's get on with the show and find someplace cheaper to sleep in so we could still save enough cents for chow tomorrow!"

"Yes, sir...whatever...you say..." Yahiko grumbled, still gulping for air.

"Very decisive, rooster-head..." Megumi murmured, from where she was now patting her sweat- and rain-dampened chest to regain her composure.

"That a comment or a compliment?"

"An observation."

"Che."

Yahiko rolled his eyes at the exchange, and he wiped some sweat off his face.

"Well...we had better resume..." Megumi said, a few minutes later. She gazed down the seemingly endless, overshadowed pathway that lay before them and heaved an inaudible sigh.

And so they trekked again.

The trees around the dark, unwelcoming tunnel protected the shadowed path from the downpour. Only as the rain pelted down faster and harder did small droplets begin to leak in between the leaves and splatter down on the three, weary travelers.

This time, Yahiko was the one muttering complaints. Sano grudged out some curses with regards to his loudly rumbling stomach. Megumi built her irritation inside of her at being forced to endure it all. But she refused to speak, just to avoid another blaze of arguments.

They walked and walked and walked on, tired but persistent...

"This place is going on forever!" Yahiko grumbled, scratching a clammy hand to his sun-burnt, rain-splattered, very sticky neck. "...Urgh!!" he hissed to himself, as his fingers dragged over the unhygienic surface of moisture and dust.

"Damn my stomach. Tomorrow, I swear, I'll have my chow," Sano appended to the gloomy monologues. "I'll kick any airhead brute's overpricing butt all the way to America if he doesn't cut us some slack and get us a freakin' room for the night for a fair price. Damned businessmen..."

"Kaoru'd better have some money to spare because this trip sucks and I want a ticket for a train ride home first off," Yahiko raged on. "This is hell. I'll need another life to recover from this—that is, if ever I LIVE through this, I—"

He was quieted by a mystifying crackle in a nearby bush. He felt Sano and Megumi behind him stiffen as well.

"What is it...?" Nobody listened well enough to realize who had asked the quavering question. Nobody replied to it.

Tension radiated from their tightly huddled group...and then...louder rustles!!!

A few seconds later, a pregnant tabby cat that had some patches of fur missing from its tail, leaped out and bounded off ahead of them. Megumi elicited a little yelp when the cat slipped between her legs and scampered off, quickly vanishing into the murk beyond.

Nobody had the nerve to mock her about the surprise she had betrayed. She quickly righted herself and regained her composure. "Well, we should go on—"

"Whoa!" Sano suddenly exclaimed, when several trickles of rainwater splashed down on his head from the dripping leaves above them. "Darn it all!!"

All...all...all...all...all...all...

Again, everyone froze.

"Whoa," Yahiko commented in a soft whisper.

"Echoes," Megumi supplied, rather unnecessarily.

They stood there for a few more seconds before Sano broke the tranquility and said, "Well, that ain't stopping me. C'mon we gotta get under a roof!"

"Yes..." Megumi agreed. "A roof...uh-huh..." She cleared her throat and trailed after the swaying black kanji of "bad", whose grumpy owner had now resumed their trek through the distasteful passageway—rimmed by fat, intimidating perennials and littered with hidden squeaks and noises that nobody could put a face to.

Even Megumi was slightly rattled by it all, despite the fact that she betrayed none of her apprehension and walked on as uprightly and as casually regal as she could muster. She put more dignity and strength in every step she took, both for show and for her own comfort.

An eerie, alert tension reigned over their group. Their eyes shifted from side to side, surveying their cage of thick forest and unknown creatures and sounds with unacknowledged trepidation. Nobody spoke, in tacit paranoia of the echoes that would most probably follow an outburst of complaint.

Perhaps, during the day, when it wasn't dark and rainy and the sun could sliver through the small gaps in the leaves, they might have been able to travel more carelessly and with less unease. But now, in the shadowed twilight of a day of blisters and sun-burns, when the moon wasn't even visible from inside the seemingly never-ending tunnel...it just seemed...impossible.

Out of the blue came a vague lurch, and Megumi and Yahiko quickly flashed questioning faces at Sano, who merely grimaced and shook his head. "I need to eat dinner," he grumbled, rubbing at his abdomen. "My stomach's—"

But he was cut off by a sudden, jagged, bloodcurdling shriek that ripped through the stifling stillness and reverberated throughout the damp passageway, echoing and reechoing and reechoing off the not-to-be-disturbed tree walls!

Sano's mouth snapped shut and he twisted his neck about in tense uncertainty.

"Who was that?" Yahiko cried.

Then it came again, from ahead of them:

"NNNOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

Nnooooooo...noooooo...noooo...nooo...noo...no...no...

And the three of them again broke into a frantic dash.

—Kaoru's—POV—

I hate cats! I HATE cats!! I HATE CATS!!!

It screeched at me from several feet away, with its fat tail high up in the air. The tip was naked of fur, so while the rest of its plump body bloated as its icky orange hair stood on end, that part remained pink and ugly and slim, poking off the top of his would-be frightening display.

"Go away!" I screamed at it, stamping my slippers down in front of the pregnant cat.

It gave another screech, this time of terror, and then leaped back, looking at me like I was to blame for all the misfortunes of the world. I swung my luggage at her at that final, stubborn straw and she at last scampered away.

I sank down onto the ground, beside my bag. I tell you, this tunnel stinks!!!

When in the other day that I passed here, sunlight could barely get through, now, in the rain and darkness, nothing at all could penetrate its gloom.

My heart is screaming out.

I was alone. Alone! ALONE!!! Alone in this darkness and this vast, ugly, isolated nightmare!! How could I have ever thought I could do this stupid thing!? And at night, for crying out loud. I had overestimated myself. I thought after I managed to get out of this tunnel the other day unscathed that I would be able to do it again, but now...now...I just...

It's just so hard...

Wait. Wha...? There's something bittersweet...on—from my lower lip. It was blood. I didn't realized I was biting it so hard.

My shoulders were spotted with rain, because I got caught in it a hundred meters or so before I could reach this passage.

I sighed on the ground, willing my heartbeat to relax and failing miserably. I buried my head in my knees. I was on the verge of tears, but I declined the craving. I've been in this tunnel for about five or ten minutes now...and yet...I feel so...lost...

I wish...I wish his hands were here...my Kenshin's...those hands that had kept me safe so many times before...soft though calloused, rubbing my me and telling me I was alright now...reaching out to help me to my feet... And those eyes...smiling at me...accompanying the voice that had on countless times rescued me from losing all control...

Kaoru-dono...

Darn it, Kenshin! I miss you so much!! back to me!!!!!!

That fateful night of my confession returned to me in rapid flashes. Kenshin, sitting there. Kenshin, eating dinner. Kenshin, asking me what was wrong. Kensin, looking concerned. Kenshin, looking confused. And Kenshin...looking endlessly hurt...

By me.

If I could just turn back time, I wouldn't—I really wouldn't—

No, Kaoru! KAORU!! Don't cry! Stop it!! On your feet—NOW!!! Now, Kaoru!!

Then, as I was clambering to my feet in obedience to my better instincts, a new voice greeted me. And it was a voice so familiar to me and so warm and comforting, that I couldn't even recognize it. It was a voice that gathered many fond teases in my mind...many affectionate insults...many candid comments...a few accolades here and there, yes...but...not enough warmth...not enough comfort...

Unlike now.

So it couldn't be. It was a mirage. A mirage that I had cooked up from the loneliness this place instilled in my guts. It was my imagination, just like my absurd intuition with Gohei-san's cart. It was—

"Jou-chan?"

I turned.

—Sano.

And behind him...Yahiko...Megumi...!! They were there...but they couldn't be! They should be in Tokyo, hating me!! And yet THEY WERE HERE!! Brown eyes...red lips...spiky hair...all those comforting sights I so needed to see again. My surrogate brother...my friend...my student...my loved ones...!!!

They were here...with me...only a few yards away...waiting to be touched for inspection if they were real or imagined or simply an illusion to mock my reeling mind...

How could it be!?!? Why were they there!?!? "How...? How did you...??" I murmured aloud.

And there was silence. Were they also waiting for me, as I was for them, to speak? I wanted proof. This was too surreal not to require proof. And yet...I wanted to know...immediately. I couldn't wait anymore. I have to know. Were they real!?

"Sano...Megumi...Yahiko...??"

"JOU-CHAN!!!"

Then I—we were running. Stumbling. They toward me; I toward them. And I was crying. Suffocating. Swelling with absolute happiness and wonder. Then my head was buried in a tall man's muscled chest. A hand was on my back, and a soothing voice was in my ear.

And I knew at last that it was all real.

—Normal—POV—

"That Kamiya girl seems certainly sad."

"Yes, uncle...she has had some rough experiences recently...here's your tea."

"Thank you, Kisa-chan." Uncle Gohei sipped the bitter liquid from his cup and relished in its comforting warmth. "Topnotch."

Kisa laughed. "Well, thank you!!"

And then they sat in silence for a while, with Uncle Gohei looking blankly into nothing and thinking deeply. "Kisa..." he said. "Is there any chance that you could tell me what troubled Miss Kamiya?"

"Oh..." Kisa said, and her green eyes sobered slightly. "Well...see...she kind of...fell in love with the Battousai—"

Gohei reeled back. "No! With that killer??"

Kisa shrugged. "That's love, Uncle," she said. "Kaoru-san has learned not to care at all about his past, for that's all that it is now. Mr. Himura had begun to change his ways. He lived with her for a while...nothing romantic—at least at first. But then it became different as time wore on...on Kaoru-san's part most of all."

"Ahhh...well, that sounds like a very fictional love story, my niece."

"I know, but it's real. I've read it in her eyes. She lost him when she kicked him out of her dojo. She didn't tell me the reason. Just that she did...and she regretted it since because it caused him to resort back to wandering—"

"Wandering?"

"Yes. Since he had stopped being a manslayer, Battousai Himura became a wanderer. And now, because he was kicked out of his home with Kaoru-san, he's back to wandering. That's why she's out here. She's out to hunt him out and take him back. You know, Uncle, Kaoru-san told me that he carried around a reverse-bladed sword! Imagine that—"

"What!? A sword!? A wanderer with a sword!?!?"

"Uh—yes. And as you know, that red hair and x-shaped scar on his cheek that Tomoe-san—"

Gohei suddenly stood up. "I have to go."

"What!? Why?"

"I have to leave. Now. I've met this man. I've seen him. I let him sleep in my cart!"

"What!? Are you sure!?!? When, today?"

"Yes, today! He was in the cart even when I pulled up outside your gate—well, your neighbor's. Whatever! He was still there a few hours ago when I went back for the second box. But when I took Jeta in, he was already gone (to my relief)! I have to go after Kamiya-san. My gosh, I let a legendary murderer sleep INCHES from me!! Imagine that!"

"Uncle, but it's raining, you can't go out there!!"

"I'll be back soon, Kisa!"

(scene shift:)

Dammit...there's nobody out in this weather. Couldn't ask anybody where the Battousai went. Last time I checked, I'm in the right path, but now I'm not so sure. Damn it.

Footsteps splashed noisily in the rain puddles that softened the ground to mud. The man's boots were filled with water and squished noisily with every uncomfortable step. He was drenched, and yet he walked on, tirelessly.

A young man had directed him to this village when he inquired about a covered cart, but ever since the rain started an hour or so ago, his search had become blind at the desertedness of the streets and lack of reliable sources of direction.

Nothing will stop me from avenging him. Nothing. I'm so near now...just you wait, Battousai. I swear, I'll—

Suddenly, a leer replaced the scowl on the man's sun-burned face as a clatter of horse's hoofs and the rattle of a wooden cart caught his attention from several hundred meters away. His eyes shifted up alertly at the noise, and he quickly spotted the waving canvas of a covered cart, dragged by a wet, dark brown horse, its black main and tail soggy but waving in the wind as it broke into a hasty canter.

Sheer delight overcame him, tickled every cell in his body and sent doses and doses of adrenaline pumping through his bloodstream at the excitement of it all.

He had found Battousai the Slasher! He had found, at last, his cousin's ruthless murderer.

He touched a hand to the hilt of the sword that hung by his hip from the ribbons of his hakama.

Oh, yes...this revenge will be sweet...this revenge...will be very...sweet...

And he broke into a run.

tbc

Lchan: Okay, okay, sorry I had to burst your bubble again guys; maybe you were expecting the K/K reunion. Well...uh...that's also coming up...but NOT YET. It just wouldn't do to end it all there since that'd be the point of the story and there are still conflicts everywhere...so...review anyway, won't you?? Action is assured the next couple of chapters.