Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin.

A/N: End of my three day weekend. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Reviewer Responses:

Aikawarazu Ai: Glad you liked that and the link and thanks for the compliment!

Brittanie Love: Here's the update.

monkey-fairy: I LOVE updating! Of course, I do have a life. I just love fanfiction! (I also liked the cookies again!)

Tsubasa-667: Kaoru's a little strange to me. It's just that it makes it all the more interesting to write about! Of course, she had already met Chika before.

-Preparing-

Battosai watched the scene before him unfold from his perch on the counter with increasing interest.

"How could you know Kenshin?" Kaoru asked Chika in a small voice, "He's dead."

"He said he was dead," replied the blind child with an innocent look on her face. She then stared at the counter with her unseeing eyes. "He's sitting on the counter right now!"

The woman looked over at the counter with hopeful eyes but dropped her head back to the rice balls she had started making. "Kenshin's dead. I learned a while ago that there's nothing I can do about that," she whispered almost to herself, "There's nothing I can do." Kaoru felt the tears coming as she took the food and set it on a plate to cool, so she walked a bit aways until Chika wouldn't be able to hear her.

The traitorous liquid started seeping out the corners of her closed eyes. After it started as a small trickle the tears drew her to racking sobs. As Kaoru's body shook she thought she felt unseen arms circle around her and her dream came rushing back:

"Don't you already know?" the man said in a taunting voice before disappearing and reappearing right behind her again. He swiftly wrapped his arms around her stomach and shoulders, pinning her arms to her side. "I'm the part of Kenshin that you've seen before. The one he was during the revolution. Battosai. And I'm the only one of the two of us that is going to survive this 'test' we are going through."

He smirked as Kaoru stiffened in his arms. "I'm the only one that is going to come back to you," he whispered harshly into her ear, "My other side isn't going to exist anymore..."

The woman stiffened like she did in her dream before pulling out of the cold embrace and going straight to the wall so she would have something to lean on. Kaoru slid down the wood and stayed in a crouched position with her wide eyes and erratic breathing.

Saitoh ducked out of the small doorway and turned around before asking, "You sure it will work?"

"I'm positive," the old woman replied in a ragged voice, her crouched figure hidden by the shadows her lone candle cast around the room, "I've dealt with ghosts before. Just make sure you go there in three days. That's the night of the full moon."

Megumi was doing her evening check to make sure all the patients would be okay during the night when she walked into Sanosuke's room and her eyes widened in shock. "What are you doing out of bed?! You still need your rest!" she demanded in her no-nonsense tone.

"Saitoh's going to come back, Megumi," the tall man muttered as he pulled his large white shirt on, "He's going to come back to kill everybody now that Kenshin is gone, and I have to be ready."

"But you can't go now! You're hurt and your wounds haven't healed yet!" Megumi shot at him, horrified.

"I'm fine," replied Sanosuke as he pushed the woman out of the way gently so he could leave the room, "Maybe it's luck or maybe there's something else at work here, but I have no more wounds. They all disappeared last night." He pointed at his stomach. "Do you see any more blood?" he continued, "There's nothing stopping me from leaving now. Not even you could."

Megumi then set her face in a hard look. "If you're lying to me I am going to poison you," said she, "But you can't stop me from coming with you." The fox woman picked up her coat she had put on a chair, threw it on her back, and followed Sanosuke out the door.

-End Chapter-

A/N: Yeah, well, I thought you might like one more. I might be too busy to type much during the next week or so and I didn't want to leave you all with an evil cliffhanger but I have, haven't I?

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