Dedication: To Sara-chan, who listens to my nightmares and is constant to spur me on to embrace my dreams.
Notes: I'm so embarrassed... Nobody told me I was missing a chapter in there. Whoops. Well, here we are.
"The wreckage of my past keeps haunting me/It just won't leave me alone/
I still find it all a mystery/
Could it be a dream/
The road to nowhere leads to me/
Through all the happiness and sorrow/
I guess I'd do it all again/
Live for today and not tomorrow/
It's still the road that never ends/"
"Road to Nowhere" (Ozzy Osbourne)
Converging RoadsHis shoulders slumped as he ran, not stopping for a breath. Kaoru was in more danger every second he didn't find her. His speed was so fevered that he didn't notice the man he rushed headlong into.
"Toshiki-san?"
"Himura?"
Kenshin didn't speak, only locked his eyes on the other man, seeking an answer to an unspoken question.
"Your girl is-" His jaw dropped as he looked to the little cottage on the mountainside from which he had come. 'No.' He mouthed.
Kenshin's eyes darkened dangerously. "What's going on?" He demanded, rather than asked.
"They're after your girl and Miyuu."
"Who are-? Miyuu?" a dark anger gripped him. The woman who'd kidnapped his Kaoru… and Toshiki had left them alone together? He was seething, but worry filled him more. He pounced, exploding into a run down the path to find her.
…
"You. Come. Now." Miyuu beckoned Kaoru, who had been cowering in a corner.
Miyuu was leaned against one of the old walls, pressing carefully. Finally, the wall gave way, exposing something Kaoru never expected to see. There was a room behind the wall, almost mirroring the first, but new, clean. She ushered Kaoru in, closing the door behind them. The back of her head slammed against the wall and she sighed deeply.
"There, take that door out. You should go." Miyuu didn't even make eye contact with her.
"What about you?" Kaoru asked timidly. She did hold a certain amount of compassion for the woman. Miyuu glanced to her, a smile tugging at her face, but never escaping.
"You're somethin', you know that? Battousai's woman, right? He really likes you."
"Woman?" Kaoru choked slightly. She'd heard it before, but how Miyuu spoke so familiarly of them made it seem more shocking. She hadn't been bound to any man before, even associated by speech, really…
She moved towards the door, she could almost feel Kenshin. Then a shot rang out, piercing through the wooden door of the shelter. They had discovered the escape route.
Kaoru clutched her arm. A bullet had just skimmed it, ripping through her kimono like tissue paper. She threw herself against the opposite wall. The two were surrounded, protected by only inches of wood and steel.
"Now that we're going to die, have any last requests, girl?"
Kaoru, surprisingly calm, answered quietly. "Why? Why kidnap me, why hurt Sano and Yahiko?" Her eyes burned, daring an honest answer from Miyuu.
"You mean the lummox and the kid? One, they'll be fine, I didn't hit anything major. Two, you're supposed to be dead, not kidnapped. My Boss, he doesn't like what you teach, all this about protecting. You're disputing what he's been instructing for years." She almost laughed. "How strange that he would spend all this effort on a frail woman, and one under Battousai's watch. He really is a fool."
Kaoru growled slightly, former timidity seeming to evaporate at the frail comment. Her hands found her hips, noticing that the shooting had died down. She exhaled, but only a moment before the door (and half of the wall) was crushed by bodies ramming through it. Outside, they faintly heard a cry and the drawing of swords, but they were drowned in the chaos.
"Ever use a sword, missy Kaoru?" She didn't wait for a response. "You will now." She tossed the silver blade in a clean arch.
Kaoru muttered to herself as she managed to beat down many of the poorly trained students. A jump from the left, and Kaoru's body reacted in its second nature. Miyuu took to punching the students when she grew bored of her sword. Soon, bodies were strewn across the floor, most merely unconscious.
Miyuu collapsed onto the bed, head in hands- and laughed, long and hard. Even Kaoru began to chuckle. They just sat and laughed. But Miyuu's laughter faded away as she stared, then leered through Kaoru, prompting the woman to look behind her, then fly out of the way.
"You…"
…
Kenshin rushed through the collapsed door, slamming into the opposite wall in an instant. Pain flooded his shoulder as it rammed into the wall at full speed. He slumped down against the wall, his throat tight. There was no one there. He looked around at the empty room. He knew nothing of the passage right next to him… A small sob clawed at his throat, willing to be released, and in the process of oppressing it he was running out of air. But in the quiet left by his hushed breath, he heard voices from behind him. Two at least.
"Please be alright… Kaoru-dono."
…
"You…"
Kaoru turned, and was face-to-face with a man. He was tall, somewhat frail-looking, with a black cape and red mustache. She knew him, but not by personal contact. This was the man who murdered Miyuu's family, kidnapped her sister.
"Well, hello Miyuzuko."
"How do you- Who are-?" Miyuu couldn't complete a sentence, babbling incoherently.
"Don't question. For once, Miyuzuko, don't question."
"B-boss? No… it can't be…"
She was the epitome of shock, then of rage. "No!" A concealed Katana shot out of her sleeve, but he easily dodged it before it so much as touched him.
She continued on- kunai, daggers, her sword, any weapon that could be used was, but the result was the same.
"Foolish girl, I taught you everything you know."
As the two glared at each other, lost in a world she could not be a part of, Kaoru crept unnoticed to the new cabinet. She felt a single second in which Kenshin's strength and courage raced through her blood. In the moment, she tugged on the cabinet handle and opened an artillery of weapons. Few were useful to her, as she'd never so much as held a gun, but she quickly formulated a poorly devised plan.
She carelessly ripped a gun out of the cabinet, weighing it carefully. The sounds of the others fighting found her ears. Silently, she crept around behind him and sent the butt of a heavy rifle flying into the back of Boss's head.
He grunted, staring at Kaoru, and for a moment she feared it had done nothing, but slowly, his eyelids closed and he collapsed, just missing the girl. Kaoru's gaze wandered back to Miyuu, and there was a heavy silence.
Kaoru's eyes questioned Miyuu, but she didn't dare speak.
"My… sensei. He took me in after my parents died… trying to shift the blame off himself. I never saw his face. That's why… why I never knew. I'm so stupid…"
Kaoru awkwardly patted Miyuu's shoulder, finally speaking, almost inaudible. "Iie. You aren't stupid… he can't hurt you any more. Let's get out of here…."
…
The silky voice of Kaoru drifted through the wall as Kenshin desperately sought a way to get through. His tightness melted away, warm relief flooding him. She was all right. She was alive. His hands touched a raised spot on the wall and he readied himself to give it the proper push. Then another voice that made his blood run cold by the sound of it…
…
"Ah, but he will hurt you…"
