Kaoru on Call
Chapter Eight: Like Mother, Like Daughter
-Note-
I'm finally back! My gerbil died a few days ago at the age of seven. I thought he was six, but my mom told me I miscalculated his age by several months. If any of you would like your names on his memorial, just let me know! You may also add a message if you would like. I would like to thank all of my reviewers for your uplifting support! Thank you so much.
Ukokia could compare the fury in her daughter's eyes to that of the legendary Battousai. Saitou Hajime couldn't even compare to the gaze Kaoru was giving her now. Jin-e couldn't hold a candle to her either. It was a look of a death promised and not to be forgotten, and she knew very well if Kaoru was anything like her, her life would end tonight.
"You dare hold arms against your mother?"
Kaoru didn't speak, she just let that deep, sinister gaze continue as her weapon kept her mother's from penetrating Yahiko's skull.
Yahiko's eyelids fluttered, catching Kaoru's gaze. Deep brown fluttered open to meet worried blue, and a faint smile crossed Yahiko's face.
"Kaoru, you...came..."
He barely finished the sentence before he lost consciousness. Ukokia smirked and took the hilt of her sword and shoved it into Kaoru's face.
The young girl flew back several feet before she hit the floor. Spots of red appeared on her white gi, tiny rivulets cascading down from her nose. She looked up at Ukokia with a shocked expression,
Ukokia laughed and approached Kaoru, planting a foot on her chest.
"Funny...Your father had that same stupid expression on his face right before..."
Kaoru spit blood in the phoenix armored woman's face. She kept their gazes locked, and wasn't willing to let them break.
"Before you what?" Kaoru hissed, her words laced with a tone that made Aikoku and the others watching from the side tremble.
Ukokia wiped the saliva and bloody mix from her face and glared down at her spawn.
"It was one of the lesser battles of the Revolution. I had already given birth to you, and you were at camp with Kasumi. I sent a letter to your father several miles away to left him know I wanted to see him. Oh, what a fool he was!"
Kaoru's lungs felt like they were going to collapse from the weight of her mother, plus the armor. Tears of pain slide from the corners of her eyes as her mother continued the story.
"When we met halfway between the camps in the deeper part of the woods, we shared an embrace...Then I removed my katana from within my kimono. He looked so shocked when he had that first taste of steel."
Ukokia sighed and looked dazed as she continued her talk of Kaoru's father, angering the girl under her weight further.
"The look on his face was very similar to yours when I took his life. Too bad you never knew your father died at the hands of your mother!"
Kaoru's eyes were obscured behind her bangs. Her katana...Her father's katana...Was too far away to reach. She could picture the pain filled look on her father's face as the wench who dared called herself her mother took his life.
"Why...Why did you kill my father?!"
Ukokia snorted and dug her heel into Kaoru's ribs, causing them to painfully spread a little ways apart.
"Do you honestly think he was worthy to be called a part of my family?! My father was the greatest warrior under the Shogunate, but until that red haired runt stepped up and took his place, he was labeled the Battousai. Then along came that good for nothing that your uncle, my brother, trained in Hiten Mitsurugi!"
Kaoru struggled for breath, and tried to juggle her thoughts and process her mother's words all at once. She couldn't possibly mean that Hiko-san was her uncle...No way...
Ukokia finally moved her foot from Kaoru's chest, and made a big mistake in the process.
Kaoru moved with lightning speed and grabbed the katana. Ukokia was to slow to stop her, and found the sharp end of the blade pressed to her throat.
"What makes you think you're going to kill me Kaoru? Are you going to kill your own mother?"
"What makes you think I won't?" Kaoru hissed, pushing the blade hard enough to make a tiny cut in her mother's neck.
Ukokia smiled, a smile that Kaoru had only seen in the picture books with demons and ghost used to scare people. Her eyes were wild and unnatural looking, fear began to spread like wildfire through the Kaoru and the people present.
"Come then, Kaoru! Kill me."
Her heart stopped at that moment when the woman announced her chosen path of destiny. Kaoru closed her eyes, and the images ran rapidly through her mind.
Her days arguing with Yahiko.
Sanosuke and Megumi arguing.
Tae and Tsubame at the Akabeko.
Kenshin playing with Ayame and Suzume.
And the picture of her father beside the shrine in the Kamiya dojo.
Kaoru looked up at Ukokia, her eyes a furious ice blue.
The elder woman gasped as she noticed the blazing anger in her daughter's eyes...It was the same look Okihayo had when he was fighting in the Bakumatsu.
"This...Is for all the pain you have caused me!"
Kaoru lifted the katana up above her head and slashed her mother's side with a downward motion.
"This is for taking away my child hood!" Another slash.
"This is for eighteen years of misery!"
She slashed at Ukokia's legs, causing her to hit her knees.
"And this is for killing my father!"
Kaoru raised the sword above her head, Ukokia prepared herself for the final blow, but the blow never came.
"No...Death is too easy a punishment for the crimes you have committed." Kaoru murmured, her eyes returning to the normal deep blue.
"Death is too good for you."
The katana hit the floor with a clatter, and Kaoru walked past her bleeding mother and picked up Yahiko's limp body.
Aikoku, Kasumi, Yamanote, and Shimushi parted to let her pass when Ukokia spoke.
"Yahiko was named after mine and Aikoku's father. Notice the spelling? Yahiko is Okihayo backwards, just like my name is Aikoku's name backwards."
Kaoru stopped and turned towards her.
"And you are telling me this why?"
Kaoru started to turn away and her mother yelled to her.
"The blood of the Samurai runs in your veins! Your grandfather was once known as the legendary Battousai! You can't run away from what you are Kaoru!"
Kaoru stopped before she reached the stairs and turned to the kneeling woman with a slight smirk.
"You're right, I can't. But..."
She looked down at Yahiko and tears filled her eyes.
"I can do everything in my power to make the people around me happy. Even if I never will be."
She carried her half brother up the stairs, ignoring her mother's screams of rage.
Ukokia grabbed the dagger from her side and released the clasps on her armor to let the heavy material fall to the floor. She held the dagger to her abdomen and looked towards the heavens.
"Father, I will join you soon."
Kaoru heard the piercing of flesh and Ukokia's groan of pain as she completed the first part of seppuku by ripping her stomach open. She turned to see the bloody entrails peaking from the gash, and Aikoku taking a katana from Yamanote, and with one slash, her mother's head rolled across the cellar floor.
Kasumi and Gosei stood outside waiting for Kaoru along with Kitano and Koraku. Kaoru turned to the two sister's with a panicked look.
"My father's armor! I must-"
"Miss Kaoru, Miss Kaoru! Kitano and I have it packed and in the back of the carriage. Now you must go!"
Kaoru was hesitant about leaving them to deal with Aikoku and the two mean alone, but she nodded and allowed them to shut the carriage.
Gosei cracked the whip he held and they barreled down they drive towards the main roadway. In Kaoru's arms, Yahiko moaned and his eyes opened.
"Yahiko! You're awake!" Kaoru cried, pulling the young boy to her.
Yahiko wrapped his arms around his half sister and cried along with her.
"Kaoru, how did you find out?" Yahiko asked, pulling away from her.
"How did I found out what?" "Where I was hidden!"
Kaoru giggled slightly and allowed Yahiko to sit beside her and lay his head on her shoulder.
"The placement of the torches under the marble floor upstairs heated it in certain areas and led me right to the door. And-Ah!"
Kaoru grasped her side and doubled over, screaming in pain.
"Kaoru! Kaoru, what's wrong?!" Yahiko yelled, reaching to touch Kaoru's side closest to the carriage window. He pulled her hand back to find blood quickly rushing from her side. He tore the material back from a cut already made and gasped at what he saw.
On Kaoru's side, was a cross shaped wound.
Yahiko began to panic, and he stuck his head out the window to call to Gosei.
"Old man, stop the carriage! Stop, Kaoru's hurt!"
The carriage stopped, but no one came around to assist them. Instead, the carriage door was thrown open and there stood a black clad ninja with a dead Gosei in on hand and several deadly shuriken in the other.
"Don't think you're getting away that easily, Kamiya!"
The attempted assassin pulled back the mask, and Aikoku stood before them.
END- I hope you like! Please review and let me know what you think!