Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin or any creations from it so yeah.
Keys
* * * * These represent scene changes
~*~ Means scene change but into a dream.
Italic writing Means either thoughts, memories, contents of notes etc.
Behind My Back – Chapter One – By Cherry Chibi
'When Fate Twists'
AN: Hehe, here's another fic of mine. This is a Kaoru + Battousai fic so I hope you all enjoy! BTW, this is situated in Kyoto, modern time and Battousai has amber eyes all the time.
* * * *
Kaoru removed the apron that was part of the uniform for a Akabeko waitress and hung it on the wall. She straightened the material of her dress. "Kaoru! There's another customer needing to be served, could you please attend to him?" Tae came rushing in holding a tray stacked with dirty dishes.
"Ok!" She rushed out to booth where one man sat alone. She slowed to a walk when her eyes caught a glimpse of the man's cross scar. She pulled out her notepad and pen. "Excuse me, is there anything you would like to order or the usual?" Kaoru asked in a gentle voice. Even though the man was a regular at the place, she had always been slightly fascinated that he unusually had amber eyes and red hair.
"The usual." The man replied.
"Alright." Kaoru recorded his request and reentered the kitchen to fetch the order. Some of the other women who were waitresses there bid good bye to Kaoru before leaving for home. She placed the hot bottle onto a tray with a small cup.
'He always comes late… I wonder why though?' Kaoru thought while she took short easy strides to the table. She placed the tray onto the table and served the sake. He accepted the cup she handed to him and finished it in one swallow.
"Kaoru, you can go home, I'll finish up here." Tae said to Kaoru. Kaoru nodded. She headed inside to the back of the restaurant. She picked up her bag from her small storage area and walked into the restrooms to change into her casual clothing. 'I smell something burning…' Kaoru thought while walking out. She left her folded uniform on the shelf while carrying her bag. She pushed open the swinging doors revealing the white kitchen. 'Chef must have left the fire on again.'
She turned off the gas jet and proceeded to the back door. Under the cloudy sky, she paced quickly towards a secluded area where she was to meet the vehicle and driver who were to take her home. After a few minutes, Kaoru stopped. 'I left my uniform back at the restaurant!' She turned back and made her way hastily to the Akabeko. Although, little did she know that going back meant that her life was going to meet its turning point.
* * * *
Knife clatters onto the floor followed by tubes of splattering blood. A man falls onto the floor without a single breath. Amber eyes emotionless, breathing their own secrets. Battousai sheathed his sword and prepared to leave. Another life taken for the sake of a new world. Now, he felt the strong need to go back home and scrub his skin until it felt clean again.
He heard a gasp and immediately his senses went up again. He stepped out of the kitchen and found the waitress who served him before clinging onto the edge of the bench. 'Had she seen me?' His hand reached over the hilt of his sword. Kaoru's breathing was soft and quick. He stepped closer to her.
Kaoru looked up to Battousai and stared right into his fearful amber eyes. Unable to step out of her position, she picked up the uniform from the shelf beside her instead. "You're still here." She said in a slightly shaken voice. Battousai's eyes narrowed and he unsheathed his sword.
'There's something wrong with this girl,' Battousai thought. Why was she looking at him like that? Not with fear but warning. Her eyes darted downwards towards her right side. He followed her eyes and saw the point of a blade.
Kaoru heard a wisp quiet rattle and saw a blade aiming straight at Battousai from behind him. "No…" Her breathy voice called while she ran forward towards a blade that shooting straight at the red haired man from behind.
A man pounced out of the shadows holding a sword joined by a chain. He attacked with no hesitation. Death gleaming from his cold hard eyes. The man tugged a chain and then from behind, Battousai heard a small cry followed by splatters.
'He's another shadow assassin.' Battousai thought. Showing no pity upon the opponent, he struck with full speed bringing the man down with a strike through the body. The awesome attack caused blood explode in all sorts of directions.
"I hear about it in stories… but you made it real." Battousai heard Kaoru directly from behind. He turned around and found her stained with blood. "You… made it rain blood."
'She didn't see me finish my task… but she saw me kill the assassin… should I silence her?' Battousai thought, 'She helped me though,' His eyes wandered to her hands. 'What?' Blood dripped from her left wrist where the blade of the second sword connected with the chain had stabbed through from the back. She was slowly pulling it out making no noise. 'She must have stopped the second sword that came round.' How could he have been so reckless? He didn't even question why a chain would've been connected to his opponents sword. Now he knew, he was in debt to her.
"It… hurts…" Kaoru finally said, blood was dripping furiously like melted ruby flowing. When she had pulled the tip out, the sword dropped with a clatter. Her eyes fluttered shut. Battousai ran forward and caught her. 'She's losing too much blood…' He wrapped a ripped piece of material around the Kaoru's wrist and tightened it to slow the bleeding. 'I'll have to take get a doctor. She can stay in the hospital.' He hoisted her over his shoulder and left the building unnoticed, like a shadow that melds into the darkness. Shaded by night, Battousai turned into an alley and slowed to a walking pace.
His hand touched the cross shaped scar on his left cheek and his eyes widened. 'Again…I thought it had stopped bleeding last year…' The hard look in Battousai's eyes softened for a moment as he relived the past when he felt the life of his loved one slip through his fingers.
Battousai reached her home with swiftness and a worried glint in his eyes. He found the door open and entered fast without any delay. In her bedroom he saw her seated on the edge of her bed gripping onto her dagger with a gentle fondness. She looked up to him with a sad smile. "Akira…" She said quietly. "I only wanted you to be by my side…" A tear dropped from her chin onto her lap. "My ability tells me too much…but not what I need."
"Tomoe…" Battousai froze at the crucial moments when she revealed the blade and plunged it into her chest with a short high pitched cry of pain. "Tomoe!" He should've told her earlier. He should've told her what he knew that she needed to hear.
Silence flooded Battousai's ears. He couldn't feel. He could hear the sounds of the birds whistling outside. He couldn't breathe. He could only see her – lying there. She raised her blade and added to his scar. "I'm… sorry." Her smile slowly faded, her eyes flashed blue for a moment and her muscles limped.
"Tomo…"
Battousai lifted his head up for the steaming hot water from the showerhead to splash on his face. The smell was there. Still there. White Plum and blood. It was a sickening mixture that made him weaken dramatically.
~*~
"Mama… where's dad gone?" Thirteen year old Kaoru walked up to her mother in shorts and a singlet top. The household had ended in silence again after another loud argument between her parents. She approached carefully with small steps.
"He's gone to do some business…" Her mother replied quietly. She wore a warm look on the surface but beyond was despair, sadness and grief. Kaoru knew it too well. She's seen the look too many times. Sometimes she couldn't understand why her mother endured it all.
Kaoru frowned and sat beside her mother on the bed. "Dad's never home anymore! He's never around when we need him!" She stared at the floor fiercely like how a predator looks at its prey.
"Yes, I know." Came the soft and gentle reply.
"He wasn't even there for your birthday!" Kaoru continued.
"…I know…"
"It has always been the same excuse! Business. Mum! How can you stand all that? Doesn't it make you want to scream at him?" Kaoru faced her mother, the warm mask had dissolved. "Mama? Are you alright?" Had it been something she said? Had the argument this time done something to really her Kaoru's mother?
"Yes." Her mother forced a smile. "Kaoru… sometimes, you have to consider what your actions could do to people around you not just the person who is the problem." Slowly, sobs choked her throat and she fell back on the bed in bitter tears.
"Mama…" Kaoru laid beside her mum and hugged the helpless woman. "I didn't mean to get you upset by saying those things… I was just saying how much dad makes me angry." Her mother continued crying and Kaoru fell silent. She remained there just to let her mother know that she wasn't alone.
At the doorway, Sanosuke watched silently. His head lowered. Then he entered hesitantly. "Kaoru, its time for you to go to bed. I have to talk to mama."
~*~
Eyes snapped open. Body awake and moving. Kaoru sat up to find herself in her own room in her own bed. Searing pain pumped from her bandaged wrist. 'I'm still alive…' She would've thought that the red-haired assassin would've left her there to die since he couldn't leave any witnesses. Her thoughts were interfered when her bedroom door opened and a tall man entered holding a tray stacked with food.
"Morning Missy! You're finally awake!" Sanosuke said cheerfully. "How are you feeling?"
"Ok." Kaoru said.
"You must be starving. You were out for about three days. Doctors had to operate you know?" Sanosuke asked. He placed the tray on Kaoru's lap. "You better eat up 'cos the doc said." He waited for Kaoru to start. "Hey, are you sure your alright?"
"Yeah," Kaoru said with a nod. She picked up the knife and fork and started eating.
"After you eat, you better take your medication ok?" Sanosuke asked. He placed a blue bottle with a red label on her bedside table. "Or else you'll get in trouble with the government." Kaoru smiled gently.
"OK."
"Mama!" Kaoru rushed through the double storey house searching, "Where are you?" In her hand held a blue bottle with a red label. "Mama! You need to take your medication!" She gasped when she found her mother getting up from the kitchen floor with Sanosuke's help. "Mama…"
"You're father is going to kill me." Her mother said in a shaky voice.
Kaoru stopped and then shook her head. "No he isn't. It's just your illness mama. Here, you have to take your medication." She twisted the cap off the bottle and took out a white chalky pill. She pressed the pill against her mother's lips.
"You have to take the pill." Sanosuke said.
Her mother accepted after awhile. Under her breath she muttered, "It's not an illness."
Later, after Sanosuke had taken the tray out, Kaoru stared at the blue bottle with the red label. 'Not an illness? Mama, after you left us, I started getting head aches and weird ideas that felt true.' Kaoru took out a chalky pill from the bottle and popped it in her mouth, slowly, the head ache eased.
* * * *
The apartment was neat and clean, which was unusual coming from a group of unruly men. Then again, Battousai was not like the others. To the left wall center was the kitchen section then the dining table beside it. On the furthest wall was a single window. Across the kitchen were two doors, one leading to a bedroom and the other to the bathroom. On the whole, to Iizuka, it was the most basic and dull looking apartment he had ever seen.
Iizuka entered Battousai's apartment and slumped onto the leather black sofa positioned against the wall a few steps away from the door. "Hey! Battousai! Why is it so quiet here?"
Battousai came out of the bathroom looking agitated. "It always is."
"Alright, alright…" Iizuka shrugged, "I just thought that you should loosen yourself up like the other-,"
"I'm not like the others." Battousai said curtly. "What is Katsura wanting me to do tonight?"
Iizuka sighed. "Always straight forward." He handed Battousai a black envelope. "Katsura said that this time, you're hitting at the Kamiya Mansion so make sure you avoid the security."
Battousai had read the content of the envelope with a bored look in his eyes. "Easy. I'll get it done." He scrunched the envelope and threw it into the bin nearby.
Iizuka stretched, "Well, since you find no difficulty, I'll get going then." Battousai led Iizuka to the door. At the last moment, the man turned around and said, "I heard that you were ambushed awhile ago…"
"I suggest it was an attack from the Ishin Shishi." Battousai said. "I've already explained to Katsura." Silence took place and then Iizuka changed the subject.
"See you later… hey, your scar… it's bleeding again." Iizuka said.
"I know." Battousai said and closed the door. His mind then wandered off to his task that was to be done that night, 'The Kamiya Mansion… eleven o'clock. I have to eliminate Mr. Kamiya, his brother and daughter…'
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AN: The first chapter to 'Behind My Back'! ^-^x Hope that you liked it. It's a pretty 'dark-ish' one. So, tell me what you think!