Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin.
A/N: I hope the chapters get out faster then they have been... I'll try to make each chapter longer okay?
Reviewer Responses:
monkey-fairy: THANK YOU!
animeobsessed3191: Yeah, it took me about two months to finally remember what was supposed to happen in that chapter. Then it took about two hours of beating myself up if I started to do something else other then type this. Yeah...I'm just glad I got it up. At least my legs are...ouch...
Tsubasa-667: To kill her off or not to kill her off, that is the question.
-Beginning of Him-
Saitoh glimpsed at the unconscious blind girl lying in the shadows of the tree in front of him. He hated children, absolutely hated them. They couldn't do anything for themselves except make messes that would burden others, eat, and sleep. They were only curses sent from hell to torment people in his mind. This child was very lucky that Battosai had found her worth keeping around despite her obvious defects.
She would also be worth something to Saitoh if he just played his cards right.
The killer looked up into the night sky through the branches, and the full moon glared with all it could muster back at him. "Soon, Battosai," was what was muttered on what little wind dared to blow in the few last moments before midnight, "Just a little bit longer, and you will cease to exist."
Kaoru slowly dragged her heavy eyelids apart and looked around the room, not really seeing anything. She just had another weird dream that involved Kenshin, or more like, his darker side, Battosai.
He hadn't been as cruel or uncaring as in her dream the previous night though. He just sort of stood there without doing anything for the majority of the time with a faraway look on his face. Just before she woke up did Battosai finally look at her and surprised Kaoru by what his face showed.
The expression was almost pained, as if he was struggling with what to say, yet his eyes were just as steely as ever. It seemed that he couldn't say anything after a bit and settled with just reaching out towards her and pulling her towards him in a tight embrace.
She remembered looking up at his face right before waking up and was shocked to see that Battosai was starting to turn transparent. After just a few minutes only his outline was left and Kaoru's fingers went right through him, as if he was no longer there, and only being kept by her imagination...
Kaoru shook her head to get the thoughts out of her mind. "It's useless to be thinking about him," she whispered to her surroundings which she still did not recognize, "He's dead and gone. My imagination won't bring him back, nor will anything else."
She then looked around in surprise and almost shouted, "Who brought me to my room?"
On the other side of the shoji a smirk crept onto the face of the one and only Battosai. She really was a fool wasn't she? But she was his fool, and that was good enough for him. Of course he had carried her out of the rain! Why would anyone leave someone they cared about outside to freeze to death?
Here he is, a ghost, thinking about death. How ironic.
The dead killer jumped andgrabbed the hilt of his swordwhen he heard the dojo's main door slam, but released his grip when he recognized the voices that rang out as Sanosuke's and Megumi's. The two individuals ran into the kitchen and were met with Kaoru who had run out of her room as soon as she heard them.
"Jou-chan," Sano gasped out, having sprinted the last only-heaven-know-how-far to the house, "Saitoh...he's coming...gonna...kill everyone...." The tall man collapsed onto the ground next to Megumi, who had fallen down almost as soon as she entered due to exhaustion. "...gonna kill everyone...tonight...already on his way...saw on the road...not much time..."
Kaoru dashed outside onto her porch, grabbed a bucket filled with water, and took it to her friends. "Now," she said after they drank from some mugs she had also grabbed, "Tell me what's going on."
The fox-lady decided to speak this time. "Saitoh was on the road behind us, heading towards the dojo. He also attacked Rooster head here earlier and gave him some deep cuts, but there was a young girl that was also attacked and we're safely assuming she's de-"
"Wait a minute, a girl? Oh no! I almost forgot about Chika!CHIKA!" Kaoru's voice rang out loud and clear, but the sound of a blind girl trying to get to them went unheard, "CHIKA! WHERE ARE YOU?!"
"Happen to be looking for this?" a cold voice hissed out behind them and drew the three's attention. Their eyes locked onto the limp child held up by the back collar of her kimono. Megumi had a blank expression on her face (because she has no idea who the kid is) but the other two's eyes widened visibly and Kaoru gasped when Saitoh's sword was lifted up to Chika's neck. "If you care anything about her life you'll kindly step out into the front yard."
Battosai never thought he could hate anyone more then he hated himself after killing Tomoe, but Saitoh was coming dangerously close. Threatening a defenseless child's life was one of the lowest things a person could do. But he couldn't help but be curious as to why he would want Sano, Megumi, and Kaoru to go outside. Maybe it was because it would be easier to hide the dead bodies if he didn't leave blood and other unpleasant things people wouldn't want oozing out of their bodies coating the kitchenfloor.
That thought made the killer's blood boil within his viens. He would not stand by and watch his companions be killed! He never did it when he was alive, when he was his softer -more disgusting- side, and he wasn't going to start now.
Yet that also meant that he would have to make sure that Chika stayed in the world of the living. But how to kill Saitoh without inadvertently killing the girl in the process...? Battosai floated through the walls and out to where his friend's stood.
Saitoh glimped upwards at the night sky. Why wasn't the damn full moon showing it's stupid self already? He then lowered his gaze slightly and his eyes rested on the tree tops. Of course, why didn't he realize it before? Battosai didn't appear yet because the ray's had not yet come above the trees. Just a few more minutes, and it would all be over, for him and his pathetic friends. They would trouble Saitoh no longer.
"What are you going to do to Chika?!" demanded Kaoru from at least ten meters away with her two acquaintances standing rigedly beside her.
"Nothing yet," replied the murderer, before adding to himself, "Just a bit longer..."
At that very moment the first rays of moonlight hit the dojo grounds, Kaoru gasped, Sanosuke stopped breathing, Megumi thought she was going insane, and Saitoh watched with a triumphant smirk.
Battosai just looked down at himself and his strangely lit outline. He supposed that the silverish lines were all that everyone else could see-wait, that means they could SEE him! And he was floating about ten feet in the air, not good. They might all faint or just think they're going crazy or something of the like. But that meant that Saitoh could see him, and that was not good either, considering that he probably planned this whole thing.
Holy heck, he was in trouble.
"Well, Battosai," said Saitoh, "Nice to see that you have the decency to show up even in death. Now..." The man dropped Chika and put his sword in front of him. "We shall truely see who is the better swordsman!"
Over with the three people now the 'audience', Sanosuke was trying to help a Kaoru who had zoned out. "Jou-chan, come on! That can not be Kenshin! I mean, just look at his eyes, and his sword is no longer a reverse-blade!" pointed out the fist-fighter.
"You're right. That's not Kenshin," Kaoru said as she stared at the ghost, "He's gone and not coming back. The only one that will return is Battosai." The word's from her dream several nights before seeped into her mind.
"I'm the only one that is going to come back to you."
"My other side isn't going to exist anymore..."
"I'm the part of Kenshin that you've seen before."
"The one he was during the revolution."
"I'm the only one of the two of us that is going to survive this 'test' we are going through."
"Yes, I suppose you could say that, but I'm afraid you don't fully understand what powers are at work in this world and the next."
"Battosai is back," is all that went through the poor woman's head.
The fool. Challenging one of the dead to a swordfight. There. If I leave an opening. Yes, he saw it.
Now he's finally starting to understand that I can't be hurt. He practically wrote out the wholeplay without realizing that he could notbevictorious in the end and hassigned his own death upon the ground.
Even though he struck straight through my stomach I do not bleed. I cannot bleed. I have no blood. I am like the grim reaper themself, collecting those that should die soon and killing them all. Yes, he completely understands now. He realizes he's lost. And that look upon his face. Fear, pure fear. Terror. Utmost horror.
And thenhe runs off like a wounded animal. Running away from death.
A/N: Yes, well, I hope that the last part wasn't confusing. I'm trying to improve my writing style so it's easier to understand.
Review please!