Kenshin breathed in consciously, as if his lungs had forgotten their purpose and had to be reminded. I hurt. Everywhere.
'I know.'
Warm, so warm; why had he ever thought Battousai was cold? I feel- Gods, he couldn't even begin to sort it out. It was night, he knew it was night and quiet here as New York ever got, and yet there was light and color and sound-
'Stay still, Kenshin. Give yourself some time. I can help, and your instincts will help, once they catch up with you. But no one goes from human to Kin without some time to adjust.'
"Instincts?" he whispered, wincing at the sudden loudness. There was an odd tingling in his fingertips, an urge to dig his fingers into bark and scratch.
'Kin aren't that different from humans, no matter what they think. But the strength of the instincts is greater than you're used to... Ah. I hadn't expected that change to move so swiftly, I didn't think it was needed. Your body must have thought otherwise.'
"Change?" Kenshin scratched at the trunk of the tree, marveling at the rough and smooth under his touch, feeling something in his fingertips stretch and ease, stretch and ease and stretch-
Hardness slid through skin in ten points of fire, flaking away human fingernails, drawing a gasp with blood. Kenshin raised a shaking hand, the scent of his own blood carrying on the breeze from the tips of the bone-white claws gracing his fingers.
'Perfect.'
Kenshin swallowed dryly, feeling that odd sense of contentment washing over his fear as he flexed the new claws. "This-"
'Is what you are now. Is what we are.' A shy touch in his soul. 'You said you trusted me...'
"I do," Kenshin whispered. "Even now. Especially now." He wanted to shake. He wanted to run. He wanted... to laugh and shout joy to the skies, for the world was new and bright and full of wonder. "That is what frightens me." He drew a breath, tasting the scents on the wind. "What time is it?"
'Almost midnight.'
Time, then. He stood on the sturdy branch. Stretched carefully, trying to sort sensations that felt right and wobbly at the same time, like a kitten making its first pounce. Gauged the ground below, and jumped.
Wait-
There literally wasn't time to panic. One moment his brain had just woken up to the fact that he'd jumped off a two-story branch. The next-
He touched down on clipped grass, flexing into the impact with graceful ease.
'Hmm... I did wonder when you'd notice you'd lost that unreasonable distaste for heights,' Battousai laughed.
Kenshin caught his breath, staring at hands that, oddly, refused to shake. "Given that most people cannot drop thirty feet and remain unscathed, it was a very reasonable distaste for heights." Gingerly he touched that place in himself that had always quailed from the edge. There should be fear, panic, trembling...
Difference met that mental exploration. A shift that felt of steel and night, so subtly altered that he couldn't pick out any one thing and say this has changed. But together- Am I... still me?
'You are. But you have woven yourself together with me, and the whole of us is different from either of us alone.' The teasing note dropped from the sword's tone. 'Kenshin. I know you are still afraid. But you must fear later. Jin-e has had his host for several weeks, at least; you have borne me for less than a day. I have done all I can, but he will be stronger than we are. If you do not fight with your whole heart, he will kill us both.'
And Kaoru will die. He felt his eyes narrow into a hard glare. Let's go.
The note hadn't specified where in Central Park, but that hardly mattered. Stretching out his senses, Kenshin caught the shivering edge of Kaoru's fear, mingled with desperate determination. She's still trying to fight.
'As Jin-e planned.'
"Why is he doing this?" Kenshin whispered, heading toward that familiar ki. "If he's anything like you - he can't be just doing this for Miss Kaoru's fear."
'He is not like me!'
"You choose to be not like him," Kenshin replied, facing that raw fury head-on. It was wild, grieving, headstrong as a hurricane made flesh... but he could bear it. He could. "There is a difference."
'I...'
"Tell me," Kenshin pleaded. "I know it hurts you to think of. I know that what you could be, what Jin-e is, is a darkness in you that you do not wish to touch. But if I am to save Miss Kaoru, I must know."
'You are... braver than I could ever have imagined...' The thoughts brushing his mind were halting, pain-filled. 'During the Revolution... we were both hitokiri, he and I. Killers, assassins, raining blood on the streets of Kyoto. I for the side my bearer thought was right, he for whoever would allow him to bathe his steel in the blood of men.' A silent sigh. 'And for all that, I am the one legends paint as the demon of Choshu, the killer whose red blade brought the Shogunate to its knees. While he... he is only a bitter memory.'
Kenshin almost stumbled over the edge of a park path. "He's jealous?"
'In a sense,' Battousai said softly. 'For all that he has done, all the lives he has taken, what he does to his hosts means he will ever be alone. While I - I, the assassin whose very name made brave men quail - I have had friends. Comrades. Family.'
Kenshin's eyes widened. Family?
'You're surprised?' A bittersweet laugh. 'My first true bearer, he who earned the name Hitokiri Battousai, was a kind and gentle man. After the fighting was done, he found a young woman who did not care who he had been. They married. Started a family. And then-'
Kenshin touched the raw edges of bloody memories; the attack of the Meiji assassins, sent to eliminate one who knew too much for the government's comfort. The bitter fight to drive them off, demolishing much of a small village in the process. The soul-rending agony as he poured magic and herb-craft and love into a baby - his little one, with a ki too bright to be human and his mother's brilliant violet eyes - struck by a poisoned shuriken.
The grief, as he took his small family across the wide ocean, praying the distance would be great enough...
'But it was not. Not for me.' A sigh. 'I think I saved them. I pray I saved them.'
"You're him," Kenshin said softly, listening for any rustle that might mean muggers in the greenery. Time was drawn too thin for distractions. "Not just the sword."
'Pieces of him, I think. I was within him, as I am within you. We had been bound for almost two decades, our tie ever deepening. When he died... much of what was him awoke within me.' Hesitation. 'It was startling. I have older memories, you've sensed them, but - they are instinct. Emotion. To go from being a creature nestled against a human soul by raw reflex, to a person - it was a shock as great as yours, accepting me.'
Or more, Kenshin thought. "What was his name?"
'I can't remember.' Old grief. 'I would that I could. Target Alpha has a research division. I could look for them, find them - or at least know what happened. Did I save them? Did she find another to love? Did my son live, grow, find love of his own? Were they... happy?'
"I know something about historical research," Kenshin said thoughtfully. "After we save Miss Kaoru, I'll help you look, that I will."
'Confident.'
"Terrified," Kenshin corrected, mouth dry. He heard the rushing rumble of a park waterfall, felt Kaoru's fear and determination see-sawing back and forth... and there, there was the cruel flicker that was Jin-e.
'Put away your fear.' Again, that feeling of silken scales wrapped him, as if his soul were clad in living armor. 'He fights for hate. We fight for life. And we must not, cannot, lose...'
"It's midnight," a faint, too-familiar voice drifted out of the clearing ahead. "No more time to chat." Brass clicked on brass, an antique watch snapping closed. "It's the beginning of a wonderful moment."
Put away fear. Kenshin strode through the low bushes, feeling Battousai's knowledge rise up within him, coupling sight and sound and energy-sense to know exactly how the rocky footing near the waterfall would and would not hold, once steel sang free. This is what I chose. What we chose.
"Eh, Battousai?"
"Kenshin!" Bound hand and foot on her knees, a thin line of red drying on her neck, Kaoru's smile mingled fear and relief. "You idiot..."
He looked up, and the words died on her lips.
She sees. She knows.
I'm sorry, Miss Kaoru.
And even that grief was set aside, lost in a swordsman's unending now.
Kaoru stared into hard, steely blue, and tried not to cower.
"You don't know what you're doing!" she'd lashed at Jin-e, once she'd come around and realized escape wasn't currently an option. "I don't know what you want, but you're not going to get it! Kenshin's not your enemy. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I know him, he's just a shopkeeper-"
"A Himura as a shopkeeper? Hah!" Jin-e snicked his cigarette alight, sneering.
Kaoru fought the urge to jump up and down and thwack him with her bokken. Bound as she was, she'd just end up plastered on her face in the grass. Sweat beaded on her face from her subtle attempts to wriggle free of the ropes, dripping stinging salt into the slim cut along her throat; a welcome, painful distraction from the fear. Keep your cool. Cuts heal. If he'd decided to slap you awake instead of slice you - you've seen what a guy's backhand can do. "He's not Battousai! Kidnapping me won't make Kenshin easier to fight; he barely knows which end of the sword to hold as it is! You have no idea who he is-"
"You're the one who has no idea who he really is, little girl." Jin-e blew smoke into the clearing. "I didn't take you to make Battousai easier to fight."
Kaoru gaped. "What...?"
Too many teeth gleamed in his smile. "With you as a hostage, Battousai will be enraged. Rage will turn him back into the hitokiri he was decades ago. The killer who hungers for the life of men, whose name alone made the most hardened assassins tremble at their own shadows. A cursed blade who will finally forsake that silly vow of his, never to take a human host against his will.
"Fighting for my life against that blade... it will be the best killing."
Oh god, I'm going to die here, she'd thought then, redoubling her efforts to struggle out of the cruel ropes. Half of her was glad, and half of her was angry, and all of her was terrified. Kenshin wouldn't let Battousai take him, she knew that. He was kind, and he was gentle - and Battousai had made it clear to everyone just how much he wasn't.
And she was glad Kenshin wouldn't let that happen, she was - but she didn't want to die here.
Selfish, selfish Kaoru. Wanting someone else to give up their soul so you can live a little longer.
It doesn't matter what I want, she'd shot back at her conscience. It's not going to happen. So if I'm going to die, I might as well do it kicking and screaming!
Only it had happened. Somehow. The face was Kenshin's, the clothes - though a little torn and leaf-speckled - the simple red gi and off-white hakama from this morning. But the stance...
The stance cried out to a kendo instructor's eye, terrifyingly beautiful. Look! See! This is what we strive for. This the heart of our techniques.
The soul and the sword are one...
If her father had only known, he'd have switched to firearms on the spot.
"Fine eyes," Jin-e said, smile gleaming with predatory anticipation. "Full of rage."
"Rage..."
And the voice was and wasn't Kenshin's as he strode forward, dark and angry and chill as night.
"...At you, who involved Kaoru-dono. And at me, who couldn't prevent it."
"Me, eh? I knew you'd come around." Jin-e drew his katana, gaze never leaving Kenshin as the younger swordsman drew in turn, both rings of steel softened by the falling water behind them. "Now if only you'd turn over that odd blade..."
The sakabatou gleamed in stray light from New York's usual weekend overcast, casting back uncanny blue fire. A glint of that fire seemed to sweep over Kenshin; just enough light to cast folds of cotton into sharp relief, turn pulled-back hair from night's indistinct gray to fiery red.
Red hair? Kaoru felt her heart constrict. The flash of light vanished, darkness leaching colors to gray once more. But that pale shade she could see couldn't be brown.
"...We'd have our legendary hitokiri back."
"Shut up."
And steel raced at steel.
"One foot in front of the other, and you'll be walkin' cross the floor; one foot in front of the other, something something..." Losing his train of thought for somewhere around the forty-eleventh time since he'd fought his way back to consciousness, Sanosuke unlocked the back door of Katsuhiro Tsukioka's print shop. Staggered inside. Pried open eyes that had somehow blinked shut. "Weird. Even this late, somebody ought to be here-"
A sudden draft drew his wandering attention to the door that led toward the front. A dark-haired woman he vaguely recognized as one of Katsu's assistants gaped at him. Paled. Shrieked.
Okay, so maybe I do look a little rough around the edges, Sano admitted, leaning on a stainless-steel sink. The familiar, bitter-edged scent of ink tickled his nose, clearing some of the dizzy fog. No reason to screech at me...
Quiet footfalls approached. A strong hand closed on his shoulder, pale skin discolored with stray drops of red, green, and ever-present black. "Huh. You look pretty lively for a dead man." Lank black hair falling over his headband, Katsuhiro's perpetual frown softened into something that might pass for a smile. "You stubborn bastard. Get in here."
"Dead?" Sano said blankly. "Who said I'm dead?" Sure, he'd punched the panic button. Blown out his apartment, a good piece of his floor, and probably half the windows on the block. And buried himself in a closet keyed to only open to a human touch, praying Target Alpha would find him before Jin-e could take him completely.
Only as the exhausted agent stared at his bleeding hand, he'd seen two cuts running red. Two sources of unnatural sparks; one sickly green, the other fierce amber.
Sparks died, and there was only blood.
Whaddya know, Sano had thought blearily. Sword against sword; they cancelled each other out. He'd grinned a little. Saved me again, 'Sai. Thanks.
And passed out.
He wasn't sure how long it had taken him to fight back awake, dig out, and get here. Hours, at least. But dead...
"You know a Yahiko Myojin Himura?" Katsu asked neutrally.
Himura. Battousai. Jin-e. "Oh, hell," Sano swore, fighting to concentrate. "Where is he? You got wards up? Kid could have all kinds of tails - werewolves, sorcerers, who knows what else - where's his brother?"
"He came alone." Katsuhiro wrapped an arm around him, helping him toward the front. "Sit down. I'll get a healing talisman. You're not going to be in any shape to handle this until that concussion's gone."
Sake, empty cups, lot of quiet whispers... looks like I walked into a wake, Sano realized, half-falling into a wooden chair. Mine?
But it was the mussed dark hair in the chair beside him that caught his attention. Speckled yellow gi over street clothes, shinai and twisted manila folder beside him, tan hands wrapped around a mug full of Katsu's best hot chocolate. A thirteen-year-old face that echoed photos he'd dredged up of Thomas Himura, and looked as if it had stared the abyss in the eye. "Yahiko?"
The kid jerked his head up, dark eyes wide. "Who are you?"
Sano held out a battered hand. "Sanosuke Sagara."
Yahiko shrank back. "Kenshin said you were dead."
"I've been better," Sano admitted. Why the hell would he- oh. Oh, hell.
Battousai had warned him the mark was permanent. That it'd last as long as they both did; a link between their energies, open for the sword no matter where or when he chose to reach out.
Mark's gone. 'Sai thinks I'm gone.
And Himura sent his brother to Katsu.
This is not good.
Katsuhiro dropped a fine silver chain over his head, holding the smoke-quartz pendant attached to it until he could rest it against Sano's shirt. "I know you hate using these. Don't take it off."
"Yeah, yeah, I hear you." Sano felt the healing magic kicking in, relaxing him against his will. Deliberately clenched his fists, stomping on the reflex to tug the chain off and throw it across the room. Hate stuff that messes with my head. Bad as painkillers. But Katsuhiro had said concussion, which meant it was either let the talisman work or have Katsu dump him in a human emergency room. And he had an awful, sinking feeling he didn't have time for a hospital.
"You'd better," Katsuhiro warned. "Street says Uramura's on the warpath." And he knows something, the artist's slide of eyes toward Yahiko said. But he won't talk to me.
Got it, Sano nodded, waiting until Katsu had left him a cup of coffee and swept off to start breaking up the wake. "Okay, kid. Spill. What the hell happened?"
Yahiko's cup rattled against the table, shaken by trembling hands. "He took Kaoru!"
Kaoru? Who the heck? Wait - Kaoru Kamiya? Yahiko's kendo instructor? So that's where you went to ground! Trust 'Sai to head for swords. "He what?"
"He took her! Jin-e!" One young hand dropped off the mug, clenched into a fist. "Kenshin tried to call Uramura but he couldn't get past some jerk on the phone and Kaoru went outside with a lady but the lady was some kind of spy with trank darts and her partner in the store tried to grab me and Kenshin hit him and ran outside and that's when I heard Jin-e laughing and Kenshin screamed, I've never heard him scream-"
"Breathe, kid." Sano rubbed the shaking shoulders, mentally cursing Uramura to a midwinter dip in the Hudson. Hopefully in a lead-weighted chainmail bikini. Damn it, we covered this in planning years ago! Battousai's not safe, but he keeps his word. We had an agreement! If Battousai's host goes down, the human partner has jurisdiction to get the sword back to headquarters-
Only he'd effectively taken himself out of the equation. And Uramura had finally had the chance to "handle the item properly", as the control team leader had not-so-quietly put it.
Oh gods. The bastard backed Battousai into a corner.
And Jin-e's got a hostage.
Paper was shaking in front of his nose, covered in Japanese characters. "Kenshin said - this was where Jin-e was going," Yahiko got out. "And - he was going after him. And his eyes..."
Sanosuke took the scribbled text, dreading what he had to ask. "Amber?"
Wordless, Yahiko nodded.
Oh gods, 'Sai, no.
Pushing aside sick dread, Sano read the rough characters. No one under Captain Sagara's wing got out of learning to read Japanese; Katsuhiro could attest to that. "Midnight." He looked at the nearest clock, a quiet battery-powered number hanging on the right-hand wall, second hand sweeping away the past. "We might have just enough time."
Steel rang against steel, quickening his heart. Feet raced over uneven ground, burning a circle into grass, all too aware that his opponent was circling with the same blurring speed. There was no time to think; only to move and run and strike.
Ryuu Sou Sen!
The Dragon's Nest reached out to entangle the assassin, striking vital points at random - only to be blocked by a flurry of blows.
He's strong!
A waver of eyes and ki; Kenshin leapt away the same moment Jin-e did, sword in his left hand, catching his breath before they circled once more.
"Uhu-hu-hu... u-hah!" Green eyes glowed, blazing over a sneer.
Force - pressure - freezing-
'I don't think so!'
"Useless!" Kenshin shattered the ki assault with a twist of fury, glaring into his enemy's deadly eyes. "Shin no Ippou is a battle of wills! When that will is matched, it will not work!"
The assassin only laughed. And charged.
'Read his movement!' Battousai held him, ready to leap or strike or dodge in a heartbeat. 'First - one-handed flat thrust!'
Easy, so easy to just step aside, steel passing where he'd been a second ago...
A scuff of Jin-e's foot, and Battousai almost nodded. 'The form of one - side swing-'
He ducked, steel whistling over his hair. Jin-e strode in.
'Ten - the bamboo splitter.' Battousai tensed with anticipation. 'Now-'
His hands twisted, intercepting the downward strike not with his own blade, but the pommel of the sakabatou-
'Break his stance!'
And Jin-e was falling backward, right arm flung back by the force of his own blow. Open. Vulnerable.
He raced toward the man, ready to strike, to finish this-
"Uhu...hu-hu..."
Jin-e's arm kept moving back, twisting behind his shoulders, meeting the left from the other side.
What?
And Kenshin felt the katana's point stab home in his shoulder, twisting out with a sickening lurch as he fell away.
The ground... hurt.
Wet warmth seeped out of his wound, staining torn grass. The coppery taste of blood hung on the air.
"You read everything, until my backwards wheel." Jin-e's laughter ached at his ears. "Stubborn, stubborn Battousai. Leaving part of your host still alive? In three cigarettes' time, I could kill you both."
"Kenshin!"
Kaoru, no! Don't draw his attention-
"Enough playing." Darkness swirled in Jin-e's ki, growing, sharpening. "Let the rage build in you. Let it burn!"
"Ken-" Her voice cut off, suddenly silenced.
"Miss Kaoru!" Kenshin found the strength to get to his knees, blood dripping down his arm, heart clenching at the fear on Kaoru's face, the unnatural stillness of her chest. "You bastard..."
"I made it stronger than usual." Jin-e toyed with his katana, studying Kaoru as if she were a moderately interesting bug that had dropped into his rice. "Enough to stop her lungs."
No.
'No!'
"She'll last two minutes. And this won't be as easy to break as what your rooster-head met last night. Death by suffocation... so messy."
His bloody left hand closed on the sakabatou's hilt. "Jin-e..."
"She doesn't have time for your petty oaths, Battousai! If you've something to say, say it with that sword!"
'Kenshin-'
...Do it.
And his body wasn't his anymore.
Fury burned cold in him as Battousai blurred off the ground, blade smashing home across Jin-e's nose. Damn, he flinched; half an inch higher, and we'd have finished this-
His left cheek burned as if blades had cut across it; the full force of his curse sealing him to flesh and bone. He felt the blood dripping, staining red cloth a darker crimson.
If we survive, there will always be a scar...
Jin-e was laughing. Something about having finally seen the true Hiten Mitsurugi style. As if that were a joy and treat, rather than the presage to final death.
It didn't matter. Nothing mattered save the fact that he held this body completely, barring its true owner from controlling it by force of will and magic. A force that could so easily, too easily, burn away everything that was left of Kenshin, leaving just an empty shell for him to inhabit.
"No time for talk." His eyes burned gold. "Strike, then, so I can kill you."
Kami, Kenshin, hang on. Hang on and fight.
Please, gods, don't let me kill you...
"Here I come, Battousai!"
Waterfall at his back, he stared at the charging assassin, coolly unimpressed. Raised his head just a little, to meet mad green with blazing amber-
And Jin-e leapt aside, ki daunted by his fury.
Battousai snapped his glance to where the assassin had landed, grimly amused. "Afraid?"
"...So this is the true Battousai," Jin-e observed. "The bloodlust is in your eyes..."
Idiot. You are yourself a Muramasa blade; we are bloodlust. "If you do want to live, break the spell on Kaoru-dono."
"I can't." Teeth glinted in the night. "She must break it herself, or my will must be shattered. There is no other choice. And for a slip of a girl like her, who thinks kendo is the true way of the sword, to match the ki of a swordsman's spirit," he sneered, "That is impossible."
"Then," amber narrowed, "I will just kill you."
"That, too, is impossible..."
He waited, and watched, letting the assassin enspell himself. Aware of time ticking away while Kaoru fought for breath; just as painfully aware that Kenshin's body needed any moments he could steal to rest. His shoulder had mostly stopped bleeding, but he was so perilously tired.
Rock shattered under Jin-e's blows, brute testament to the other sword-spirit's magical strength.
And our strength is still so human. I can't let him close. I have to finish this.
I have to kill him.
'No!'
Kenshin, I-
'Blood,' Kenshin whispered to him. 'On Kaoru's neck.'
Which meant- gods! Damn Jin-e to every hell that was and would be... if he failed, Kaoru would die. If he struck, Kaoru was doomed to worse than death.
There had to be an answer. There had to be. If only he could see it.
'Let me move with you!'
Let Kenshin guide him? The man who'd never picked up a blade before last night, who truly did not want to kill...
'I trusted you. Trust me.'
He yielded, drawing back some of his magic to let Kenshin take partial control. Felt their shared body shift, dropping into-
Battou-jutsu stance.
Yes.
"Come," he said, a cool, clean joy rising in him. "Learn the meaning of the name, Battousai."
Iai, Kaoru thought past the pounding pain in her chest. Let the sharp edge of the blade press against the sheath, speeding the draw; draw the sword and kill in one blow. But...
Jin-e looked over his small foe. Considered. Smiled.
But Kenshin...
"Here I come, Battousai!"
That's a sakabatou!
Jin-e charged.
Battousai drew, steel blurring almost too fast to see. But still too slow, drifting by the assassin's throat by a paper's width-
"Victory is mine, Battousai-!"
Crack.
And Kaoru stared in open-mouthed awe as Jin-e fell, elbow shattered by a move she'd never seen, never even dreamed could exist.
He used the sword and the sheath...
"Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, Sou Ryuu Sen," Battousai's night-chill voice observed.
Double dragon strike.
"I know very well that battou-jutsu is normally a single strike, and that the sakabatou is unfit for it."
Jin-e was shuddering on the ground, katana fallen well out of reach.
"You will not have Kaoru-dono's soul. Not now, not ever." Both hands holding the hilt, he deliberately turned the blade. Raised it high. "Die."
Still. The night was so still.
"What's wrong, Battousai?" Smirking, Jin-e got to one knee. "Why do you hesitate?"
Battousai. Not Kenshin...
"You must kill me to break the spell. If you don't, she dies. If you do, she lives... and you'll have one bare moment to reach her, before I take her as my new host. Which you probably can't - but you can give her a cleaner death, hmm?"
Host? What?
Kaoru felt a sick, unnatural burn along her throat, and quailed.
"Of course," Jin-e laughed darkly, "if you kill that pesky host still lurking in your mind... then there would be nothing to hold you back from saving the girl, would there?"
Kenshin's... still alive?
"There's no reason to hesitate. You've no time for it. Two lives or three, Battousai! Choose!"
"Without his will I would not do this." Battousai's voice was a whisper of winter wind. "But... to save Kaoru-dono, I will become a cursed blade once again!"
Steel swung down.
I don't have to die here, Kaoru realized, blackness closing in. I could live. And all it would cost me is-
Kenshin.
"No!"
Air rushed into her lungs; sweet, wonderful air. Sweet as the arms suddenly there to catch her as she fell; there, and warm, even if they did smell of sweat and fear and blood.
"Miss Kaoru! Miss Kaoru, hold on!" One arm caught her; the other tilted her head back, looking over the burning slice on her neck. "You've got to hold on, that you do!"
"I've... got to hold on..." Easy to say. But it was like trying to hold against a whirlwind, a black, sucking void that wanted to pull her in and down.
She blinked against the darkness, looking up into-
Violet.
Wild, worried eyes, framed with drifting bangs of crimson. Touched by blood along one cheek, where an odd, cross-shaped wound was just starting to scab. But violet. Kenshin's violet.
It was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.
And the darkness could not stand against it.
"You'll be all right," Kenshin's voice broke, firmed again. "That you will."
"Yes; I'm all right now." Kaoru smiled, feeling the acid burn flicker out, leaving only the ache of an open cut behind. "That I am."
"Oro?"
He blushes! Kaoru watched the color rise on pale cheeks, delighted. Aw, so cute...
The more sane part of her brain tried to point out that the - admittedly - very cute redhead holding her up was covered in blood, currently tearing apart her bonds with what looked like claws, and had just demonstrated sword skills that flat-out demanded a warning label...
Kaoru firmly told that part of her mind to take a hike. She was held and warm and safe, and nothing else mattered.
Except maybe the assassin sneaking up behind us-
"Stop it, Jin-e." Kenshin's hand fell on the hilt of his sword, flecks of amber appearing in violet. "With just the wakizashi and your left arm - you've no chance, that you don't. It's over."
"No. It's not over. I haven't lost yet."
Kaoru caught herself as Kenshin let her go, getting his feet under him for one quick strike-
"I have clean-up to do."
Sneer fixed on his face, Jin-e drove the wakizashi home.
"Heart's blood... so sweet..."
Blood spread under the assassin's fallen form, almost black in the thin light. Kaoru got to her feet, clinging close to Kenshin. He didn't know, she realized, watching hints of amber vanish into violet horror. He didn't think Jin-e would do this...
"Your host's face says he doesn't understand," Jin-e whispered from the grass. "But I know you do, Battousai. If Target Alpha took me, if there was an investigation... it might lead back to the big man in the Commune who hired me to kill."
"What?" Kenshin breathed.
"Uhu-hu... you didn't really think those idealistic words about 'Kin working for peace with humanity' made hitokiri unnecessary? That's not like you, Battousai...
"Everyone's so joyous about the Commune and the Elders who support it... but in the shadows of the pretty words, the struggle for power goes on. Washing blood with blood... it never ends. It never will. We're Kin. We don't talk. We kill."
Green eyes squinted as pain wracked him. "Don't... look at me that way, Battousai." Blood trickled from the corner of Jin-e's lips. "I liked your eyes much better... when you said you were going to kill me."
Kenshin flinched.
"You think that was only Battousai? Don't lie to yourself, Himura. We have so little time left to talk..." The fallen assassin's face creased in a bloody smile. "Within every fiber of your being you are a hitokiri. Another hitokiri tells you this... it cannot be a lie. It has always been within you, lurking, chained. Until you chose to pick up a blade, and kill...
"A hitokiri is a hitokiri until death. He cannot be anything else.
"Keep playing at protecting the humans, Battousai. I'll be watching you... from Hell..."
The black-clad form trembled once, and was still.
Gone. Kaoru swallowed a sob. Reached out, hardly knowing what she did; her enemy was gone, and here was only a shell of a man who deserved better than to have cursed steel haunting his heart-
"Miss Kaoru, no!"
Clawed fingers snatched hers from the air, drew her back. "His host is dead, but the sword still lingers," Kenshin said grimly. "You must not touch that blade until your wound heals; that you must not."
"I-" She stumbled backward into him, breathing hard. "It's a trap?"
"He knows humans forget," Kenshin nodded. "In time, he believes, some unknowing soul will pick up this blade again. And Jin-e Udo will walk this world once more."
Kaoru shuddered. "Well, break the damn thing!"
"I'm trying to think of a way to do so, that I am."
"What's there to think about? Just pick it up and-" Kaoru's eyes fell on the hand covering hers. The bloody hand. "Oh." She squared her shoulders. "Okay. You stay with the body so no one else gets caught, I'll go call... someone who can deal with this." She caught her lip between her teeth, trying to think of options besides Dr. Genzai and coming up blank. "Is there someone who can deal with this?"
"Aa." Kenshin's eyes closed a moment. "I think some of them are coming now."
"We must be getting close," Sanosuke muttered.
Thumping the last of the terrified muggers into unconsciousness, Uramura glared at him. "How can you tell?"
Sano gave him a look. Drew a line through air with his fingertips, tracing the trajectory of the last three groups of hooligans they'd mowed down, all of them running away. "Call it a hunch."
"No!"
A woman's cry, thinned by night and distance. Sano ran toward it, trusting Katsuhiro would keep Uramura's control team from trying to grab Yahiko. The kid would not stay in the print shop, not with his brother out there facing a killer.
Not to mention the kid already knows Uramura's guys will go through civilians to get him, Sano admitted to himself. And he didn't want to bring that down on Katsu. Kid's got guts.
As things stood, Katsuhiro had assumed his usual dour frown and come with the pair of them, pockets of his long coat jangling with talismans; ready to, as he so bluntly put it, pick Sanosuke up once he fell on his face. They'd hit the park, met Uramura and his little band of trigger-happy agents, and wasted most of fifteen minutes shouting at each other.
"Yes, you're dead!" "No, I'm not!" Sheesh... who the hell designed Central Park to be so big? He'd been running for what felt like hours, though he knew it could only have been minutes. Funny Uramura's people weren't racing ahead of him, bad as he felt...
Then again, if Battousai really has turned - they probably figure he'll cut me down first.
Please let it not be true. Please.
The sound of the waterfall grew stronger. Hitokiri traditionally operate near rivers, Sano recalled Battousai saying once. For ease of escape...
But as Sanosuke rounded the last corner between him and the white falls, he knew that pair of small, bloodied figures wasn't going anywhere.
He stopped on the edge of the clearing, giving them time to look him over; the way those two were leaning on each other, they were both worn down to bare instinct. And even on his best days, Battousai's instincts were attack first, ask questions later.
Sword's sheathed, Sano saw. With any other swordsman, that would have been a good sign. Blood all over the place. Again, with any other swordsman, he wouldn't have been worried; the shoulder wound had bled, but it didn't look serious. But if Jin-e had been able to do that to Battousai...
Sounds of crackling brush reminded him time was short. A minute more, and he'd have to tell Uramura to shoot - or give a damn good argument why not. Closing his eyes, Sano reached for aura sight. Test of fire time. Who am I looking at?
It was like opening his eyes to moonlight.
Kaoru caught his eyes first; exhausted, but glowing bright with fierce protectiveness. The scabbing slice along her throat still bore fading traces of Jin-e's malevolence.
Kenshin shimmered in her shadow like cold fire, bright ki just starting to conceal itself under the beginning of Battousai's shields. His wound was more or less clean, but exhaustion hung around him like fog, shot through with the first pangs of inhuman thirst.
He needs to feed, Sano realized. Uramura is going to flip.
But if the man before him was clearly not human, he was just as clearly not malevolent. He let the sight fade. "Kenshin?"
Violet blinked at him. "Sanosuke?" Hope and disbelief warred in his tone. "Sano..."
Sano crossed the gap between them in a few long strides, catching the small redhead as he wavered. Damn. He's even tinier than I thought. "It's okay, buddy. I've got you."
"Sanosuke?" Kaoru said warily. "Aren't you-"
"No, I'm not dead." Sano rolled his eyes. "Looks like Jin-e did a number on himself, though."
"You know Kenshin didn't...?" Kaoru's voice trailed off.
"Not Battousai's style," Sanosuke said matter-of-factly, scooping the smaller man up like a wounded child. "'Sides, I recognize the sword that just about took my head off. And I know you wouldn't have touched it."
Kenshin shoved against his arms. "I can walk!"
"The hell you can, and you know it." Battousai at full strength would have broken free with ease. Kenshin had to be running on pure nerve. "Besides, Uramura's probably not going to shoot you long as I've got you."
"I might-" Kenshin bit back the words.
So he knows. "No, you're not going to hurt me," Sano said easily, feeling the redhead start to lose the battle against instinct and nestle into his shoulder. "Battousai's bitten me before. It's not a big deal." Not the way Kenshin thought, anyway. How did you explain to a guy who'd just met the Kin that you actually enjoyed the bites? That they were one of the very few things that had drawn Ward out of his shell of bitterness, losing self-hate for a precious minutes of peace. Trust, friendship, a warmth that said you belong here - all in that prick of fangs through skin. "Though if you can hang on a few more minutes... you know how Uramura is about blood."
An incoherent mumble tickled his ear; something about Uramura, and irony, and something rather painful with blowfish spines.
I like you already. "Ward that thing," Sanosuke said bluntly as the first pair of Uramura's team dashed into the clearing, guns drawn. "Body and all. That's a Muramasa blade in the corpse, and if one of you guys slips and it takes you over, we're going to be hunting down Kurogasa all over again. Katsu! Keep Yahiko back. It's a mess up here." He nodded toward the path. "Miss? If you'll come with me?"
"Sagara!" Uramura strode in stiff-legged as a Chihuahua facing down a German Shepherd. "Where's that damn sword?"
"That damn sword is back there," Sano said dryly, noting how Kaoru fell in behind him as he kept walking, avoiding the team leader's direct line of sight. Smart lady. "The guy who got tangled up with this damn sword needs some help. Now." Move. Or I walk over you.
Behind glasses, dark eyes frowned. Looked over the bloody man in Sano's arms. "Get him to the labs. We can't have a civilian walking around with that thing."
"No kidding," Sanosuke said dryly, not breaking stride. Not that I think we've got any choice in the matter. Damn, 'Sai - how'd you talk him into it?
And what the hell do we do now?
I won't do it!
'Kenshin.' Exasperation wore at the sword's patience as the scent of warm skin tantalized them both. He could feel the steady pulse through the shoulder cradling them, subtle, enthralling. 'This is Sano. He won't mind.'
I don't know him!
'He knows me.'
I don't care! I've never seen him before tonight, I - I just can't! Kenshin shivered. And - he's hurt already, I can feel it. The last thing he needs is to lose more blood.
A silent sigh. 'All right.'
"Stubborn as you are, huh?" Sano's wry laugh shook him. "Just a minute more. We're almost there."
"There?" Kenshin whispered, catching the scent of stables, hay, a trace of sweet grains. There was a sudden loudness and echoes that spoke of passage from outside to in. Stamping footsteps thudded to his ear, mingled with soft whickers.
"Park mounted patrol stables. I know a few people here."
If he hadn't been too tired to open his eyes, Kenshin would have rolled them. "You know a few people everywhere."
"Fruits of a misspent Crowley youth in the Apple. Sharing memories with 'Sai already, huh?" Sano sounded thoughtful. "Can he walk you through it, or are you going to need a little help?"
Horse. Big. Probably not interested in being bitten. "Anou... help?"
"You got it." Sano chuckled. "Lucky for you, I keep pockets full of sugar cubes."
He wavered on his feet as Sano set him down, tried to hold onto his equilibrium as the agent talked sweet nothings to a large, warm, simple animal ki. Felt along the smooth coat while Sano held the horse's halter, following the scent and pulse of blood. Let the building, tingling tightness in his upper jaw guide him, and gratefully bit down.
I have fangs?
Shock fell away, pushed aside by the slow trickle of warmth through his lips. Copper and rich and very, very good...
'Slowly. Slowly. Only a little at a time. Too fast, and you'll hurt him.'
Don't want to do that, Kenshin admitted. Frowned slightly at an undertone in the sword's thoughts. You - this is practice?
'This is feeding. Which you need, badly.' A hint of amusement touched him. 'But the way Kaoru looked at you... aa, this is practice.'
Kenshin flushed, almost pulling away from the wound. I wouldn't!
'You are Kin, Kenshin. Should she choose to share herself with you, you would find it very difficult not to bite. And you are a gentle soul. I know you would not hurt her.'
A gentle soul. Kenshin blinked back a sudden ache.
"Within every fiber of your being you are a hitokiri..."
'I would I could tell you he lied.' Battousai sighed. 'You may take a falcon from the wild. Raise it and its offspring from hatchlings for generations on end, never knowing the kill. Yet the ghost of the stoop still lingers; and all that is needed to wake it is one taste of blood.'
Kenshin tried not to flinch, feeling the horse grow restless as he began to taper off. You think someone in my family was a killer.
'Young one, I know it. You seized me to strike, intending to kill. So that you might live.' Wistful appreciation. 'It does not make you evil. Only - different.'
Then, if Yahiko had-
'I don't know.'
"You about set?" Sano's tone was matter-of-fact, but tired. "Katsu can't keep a lookout for us too much longer."
Kenshin licked the blood from his lips, accepting the napkin Sano held out to press the gelding's small wounds closed. "I think so, yes. I-" No longer swamped by thirst, awareness of his surroundings rushed back in, and he jerked his head up toward that suddenly visible ki.
Kaoru and Yahiko stood just outside the stall, watching with wide, frightened eyes.
Fist clenched on red-stained paper, Kenshin glared at Sagara. "Why?"
"No easy way to tell it," the agent said bluntly, letting horsy lips pluck snowy cubes from his hand in a crunch of sugar. "Better to take it right between the eyes. You're Kin. They've got to deal with it. You've got to deal with it. Battousai's got enough enemies as it is. Spooning the shock out a drop at a time would just get you all killed." He nodded toward the flicker of Katsuhiro's coat. "Let's get out of here."
Lips pressed into a thin line, Kenshin dropped his gaze and walked out of the stall. He heard Sano locking it behind them, latch clicking loud against his younger brother's stunned silence. "Yahiko-"
A dark-haired thunderbolt hit him in the chest. Wrapped arms around him, cursing and crying. "Idiot - left your brain at the cleaners - you left me! You s-said you wouldn't leave me, you promised - then you go and do something s-stupid..."
"Gomen, Yahiko-chan," Kenshin said softly, hugging the boy to his whole shoulder. "Gomen nasai. It won't happen again."
"D-don't call me chan!" Hiccuping, Yahiko rubbed a fist against teary eyes. "Just don't go."
"I won't," Kenshin promised, walking them both out into the cooling night. Weariness was falling away from him like ashes, burned off by warm blood. He cast a glance toward the white slice of moon visible through the overcast, now sinking behind skyscrapers to the west. Must be two, three in the morning. He's probably just exhausted...
'He is your brother. His ki sense may be untrained, but he is not blind.'
And he'd already seen Uramura's team at work. "I won't go, Yahiko," Kenshin said firmly. "No matter what Target Alpha wants." He glanced past a frowning Kaoru to Sano. "I suppose you'll get in trouble for that."
Sanosuke shrugged. "I've been there before." He scratched awkwardly behind his head, tails of his red headband rustling against his jacket. "Look. You got somewhere to crash for the night? 'Cause frankly, you two go back to your apartment, the cops'll catch up with you, and we better get our story straight first. And my place - well - kind of isn't there anymore..."
"Funny." Katsuhiro's tone was darkly dry as he stalked out after them all. "I could have sworn Uramura told you to get him back to the lab."
"Uramura hasn't read Battousai's private file." Sano's glance rested on Kenshin's left cheek. "Bond's already set. A good night's sleep won't make any difference."
Involuntarily, Kenshin's fingers traced flaking blood, feeling the roughness of new scars. But I thought we were bound before...
'From the moment you let me taste your blood,' Battousai agreed. 'Yet until I have fought unrestrained, until my host allows me free rein within him, allows me to - scar him, both soul and flesh - there is still a seam between us that magic may pry at. A bond that can be broken, though to break it would leave you ever crippled. Or worse. You are not a host as Target Alpha knows them, Kenshin. I belong with you, now...'
"You can come home with me."
Startled, Kenshin glanced at Kaoru.
She reddened. "Well - you already know where all the lumps in my couch are, right? And Yahiko's my student. Some sensei I'd be if I couldn't pull out a futon for the night." She snagged his hand. "Come on, come on; I want to get some sleep tonight!"
"Oro..."
Ryuu Sou Sen - Dragon Nest Flash.
Shin no Ippou - "One side of the soul".
Anou - Um.
Gomen - Forgive.
