A samurai must always fight for what he believes in.
But no one ever said that the road to justice was not littered with hurt
"Girl."
She continued to brush her hair slowly, her eyes not leaving the mirror. His eyebrow twitched in irritation.
"Kaoru."
Sparing him a brief glance over her shoulder, she resumed fingering her waist length strands. Kenshin suddenly had an inexplicable urge to run his hands through them.
He shook his head slightly to clear them of those traitorous thoughts.
I must be losing my mind...
"You are to remain here until I decide what to do with you. You have no hope of escaping, so I suggest that you save yourself the trouble and not try anything."
She looked up and met his gaze in the cool glass. If she held any surprise of his eyes being a deep violet, she showed none. "I see."
He was reluctant to break away from that blue gaze.
"I trust that I don't need to call any guards to stay outside of this room?"
She satisfied him with a slight nod. With a slight bow, he exited.
Easing gently into the steaming water, Kenshin let out a large breath as the warmth soothed some of the pain away. Damned woman had given him more bruises than he thought possible. She was good, he admitted.
But what do I do with her?
Swearing half heartedly he ran his fingers through the water, watching the water ripple.
"I cannot hope to keep her with me for long," he said aloud. His voice echoed quietly off of the walls as if to try and support his argument. "She is too much trouble...and what's worse, she might get in the way. I can't afford for a girl to get in the way of an assignment! She has to be killed."
Frowning slightly at the strange feeling that statement gave him, his golden gaze narrowed into dangerous slits.
"Good God, I don't know the girl. And she tried to kill me! Why in the seven hells would I try and protect her? She has to die. She has to...I mean...doesn't she?"
No one answered.
Sitting for a few moments in deceptively lazy silence, Battousai raised his glistening hands to his face, eyeing them with a mixture of remorse and disgust.
The blood would never completely wash off.
Was it deplorable, he mused, to want her around? She did something to him. For a moment, lost in her eyes, he could forget everything else. He could forget who he was, what he did.
He could be a young man again, not an assassin with eyes that told too much sorrow.
Not a man with a black heart.
He let his hand crash down on the peaceful water's surface, scowling darkly. The resounding clap echoed in the chamber, reminding him that he could afford no such luxury. He could not forget, no matter how tempting.
What have I become? When will the bloodshed stop?
He found he couldn't answer that question. He rose from the water, shivering in the cool night air. As he wrapped a towel around his waist, his finger traced the cross shaped scar on his smooth cheek. He was fighting for a cause, he reminded himself. He was fighting for a place where peace would reign and no blood would be spilled.
I have shed too much. Slain too many. But by God, it will end with me.
Kaoru gazed at her face in the mirror and cursed her luck. To be kept as a prisoner with the Battousai was an option that she had never once considered. Kami, she would rather have had him slit her throat with her own dagger than to be kept as if she were some sort of pet!
I have failed my village. I have failed my family.
She could no longer bear her reflection and looked away, sobbing harsh, silent tears. What would she do? She could not go back to her village now- not with the shame in knowing that she had been bested by the one that she had come to kill.
Father, forgive me. I could not avenge you...
She wiped away her tears with her fists, ashamed with her weakness. What would the Battousai do with her? Would he kill her? Sell her as a slave?
Or worse...would he keep me for himself?
She shook her head vigorously as if to expel that last thought. A samurai would likely not keep around a girl who had tried to kill him. Yes, he would kill her, and she reluctantly admitted that if he did so chose to kill her, she could do nothing against him. But she was a samurai as well, she mused. If he planned to kill her, then by Kami, she would not let him have his way.
Rising from her kneeling position, Kaoru quickly scanned the room as she listened for her captor's return. A small smile crossed her lips when her eyes landed on what she was looking for.
His wakizashi...
Kenshin briskly ran a towel through his hair as he walked to his room. The weapons that the girl had used against him clanked gently against his leg as his thoughts crowded his head.
What am I supposed to do with her? I cannot hope to keep her with me...can I?
Fighting the urge to hit his head against a nearby wall, he quickened his pace, cursing the silent night.
Matte...what was that?
His ear pricked up at a small sound. It was a blade being drawn from a sheath.
Kaoru...
The towel had barely touched the ground as Kenshin threw the door open to his room.
"KAORU!"
Author's note: I'm so sorry if this chapter was really bad, but I felt kind of guilty that I hadn't updated this story that I just pumped one out in less than half an hour. So...gomen! *bows*