Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin or any creations from it so yeah.

Behind My Back - Chapter Four - By Cherry Chibi

'Illusions'

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"I assume the usual sir?" Kaoru asked.

"No. I'll have 2 bottles of warmed sake." Battousai said. "This time you're joining me." His expression told Kaoru more than asked. However, Kaoru passed on the order and took a seat opposite of him.

"Your name?" Battousai started in the most unreadable tone. Kaoru shifted uncomfortably. Was he playing games with her? An assassin should know everyone in the family's name. Battousai had decided to come earlier than usual, even though he didn't necessarily like the idea in the first place. There were many, many questions that were to be answered and there was only one person who can clarify.

"Kaoru."

"Surname?"

"Kamiya." Kaoru smiled. Tsubame came holding a tray with Battousai's order. When she placed it onto the table, Battousai eyed her strangely. She glanced at Kaoru with a flushed look before turning back to Battousai.

"I apologize for the other night. Please, enjoy." Tsubame placed a small cup in front of Battousai and then Kaoru. She diligently poured the sake and while pouring for Kaoru, she said, "I hope you enjoy Kamiya-sensei." She left leaving a peaceful aura. The young girl had sometimes really was unpredictable, being a kendo instructor for Tsubame, Kaoru had learnt that although Tsubame may appear as a shy and low confident girl, inside, she really was quite the opposite.

"My student." Kaoru said when she recognized Battousai's confused gaze. "I teach kendo to her since she had asked me to." Kaoru lifted the cup to her lips and took a small sip. The bitter taste covered her tongue within moments but had a subtle sweetness to it. "May I ask what is your name?" She had just gripped a thought that the assassin was too used to getting answers rather than answering, she watched as Battousai's hard look turned slightly stonier.

Battousai hesitated for a few moments. He swallowed the cup full of sake in one gulp. The girl was smarter than she looked. Even if the girl had a short fuse, sometimes irrational with her choices, something helped her to balance those to make her see more than a average person. "Kenshin."

"Kenshin." Kaoru thought for a moment. 'Where have I heard of that name? I'm sure that I was told.' She poured some sake into Battousai's cup, the clear liquid poured smoothly and at that moment, it just clicked. "I remember! Kenshin Himura the man who was taught Hiten Mitsuruugi Ryuu by that tall man in the white cloak." Kaoru sat back and straightened her uniform dress. She had wandered off into her own world and hadn't realized Battousai's narrow eyes of suspicion. "But." Confusion clouded her eyes and her face paled. 'It was true? That dream did have fact?'

"How did you know?" Battousai questioned abruptly. "Who told you?" Wasn't there a way to keep that girl in a still position? He was getting agitated further and further by every moment that the girl was wasting.

"It was only a dream." Kaoru said. A voice within nagged her. Confirming that what she had seen in that dream was more than it seemed. A voice confirmed that her mother was right, whatever she had was not an 'illness'. "A dream! It was only a dream!" Her hands gripped onto the edge of the table.

'It was only a dream! How can I know something like that? I never knew him! We're complete strangers! A person doesn't go around dreaming about another's past! It's not right!' She pushed herself from her seat and stormed out of the restaurant, completely forgetting about that man she had left behind. She walked at a fast pace along the busy street. The sky darkened and one by one, stars sprayed into appearance.

There were too many questions. There were just too many for her to handle.

Too many things in mind.

Too many things happening all at once.

Too many.

Too. many.

Without being aware of her surroundings, she stepped into a dark alley still in the depths of thought. 'It's not an illness.' An ebony shadow casting over brought her to an abrupt halt. She looked up and knew that she wasn't going to be able to be at ease for a long while. A headache emerged.

The man stood tall and wore an expensive outfit. His face was not hard and stony like Battousai but rather a gentle and calm expression. In his eyes, Kaoru saw differently. He was a dangerous man. Not precisely one that kills but still dangerous. Not too far behind was a black limousine parked with two body guards waiting for their boss.

"You must be Kaoru Kamiya. We finally meet." Silence took place upon the man and everything else except for Kaoru's mind. Her head throbbed. She heard screams in her head while blood polluted the air around her. The atmosphere tightened and strangled her as if she was wearing a skin tight outfit that had decided to shrink on her. 'What is this?! This isn't right. why do these affects have to come now?' She backed away from him slowly, step by step. She recognized him at an instant.

The man spoke. His voice young and had a flare to it. "I'm Katsura Kogoro."

"I know who you are!" Kaoru replied sharply. "Whatever you want from me, I have no business with you!" She didn't want to return to the life of politics. She had grown tired of being mentioned on the media as well as being succumbed by wealth and the like. For only once, did she just wanted to be away from everything. Just to be herself. Just to be happy like she had been years before.

Fear struck her gut when she suddenly saw flashes of stilled images. One of him injecting something into her neck. One of her at night. She thought that she had felt her lips warm for a moment. She drew herself away from such thoughts of confusion when they had only added onto the throbbing headache she was receiving.

"I'm afraid, that is not possible." Katsura said calmly. Too calmly. Kaoru shook her head in disbelief and ran only to have her wrist grabbed into a tight hold.

She pulled hard and tried to break free. "Let go of me!" She didn't want to get into the hold of another damn politician. 'It's this thing I have. it has to be. why am I getting crazy thoughts in my head? Why do I smell and hear things? Why do I get such a headache?'

"I have a proposition to make with you, concerning Battousai of course." The man said calmly. Kaoru stopped struggling and gave her wrist a final useless tug. She forced her eyes to meet his. "Kaoru, I can assure you, you will be grateful." Kaoru didn't see a man from behind approach them slowly with his sword drawn ready to kill.

"Katsura. why?" Kaoru questioned. Why would her father's ex-rival politician want to help her? Was there are trick to it? "No one ever wants to see the likes of me on the streets. I'm just a strange experiment in the eyes of the government, I know that." Tears rimmed the lower part of her blue eyes as traumas returned painfully slowly.

The assassin was only metres away and was going to make the kill within a couple of minutes. A glimmer of angst submerged into Katsura's eyes, they held secrets which were only told to a chosen few. The daughter of sorrow was truly, bringing him back a memory of a lost happiness. He couldn't do it. Katsura shook his head slowly and the assassin understood.

The red haired man sheathed his sword smoothly.

"This government is filled with dirt. There is nothing in it for anyone but only for them, nowadays, it's only about the money and popularity." Katsura said with loathe. "I bear you no ill-will Kaoru. But I will do what I must to rise to power and correct the mistakes. Make sure you're ready within two days." He turned his back to stop the young woman from seeing his eyes. For a moment, the brown shade had flickered blue.

"Wait a moment! You can't just do that! I'm not going to be another toy to anyone!" Kaoru stammered to a halt when the scent of pine floated into the air and a feeling that what she was going to hear soon was going to hurt her more than she thought.

"Interesting words you use, Kaoru." Katsura said. "A toy? I wonder why you chose that word out of many." Kaoru bit her lower lip and refused to say anymore. Katsura smirked. "As I said, the government now has more dirt than anything. But because of their power and wealth, they could easily cover their tracks. Kaoru, you have an ability that can help my cause, you can become the sheathe which hides our dark roots."

Kaoru's migraine pounded and rung in her head at that moment the word 'sheathe' was said. Her hand swung to the crown of her head and held tightly. Essences swirled into a cocktail in the air. Blood. Pine. White Plum. "I. don't understand." She muttered.

"You'll understand when you turn around." Katsura said. Kaoru turned around and found Battousai standing there with a awestruck look upon his face. Rapidly, her migraine slowly vanished along with all of the sudden sensations except for a sharp prick in her shoulder.

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Suddenly the girl's blue eyes faded to brown and her figure and face changed. 'Tomoe.' A smile on her lips. He took a couple of steps hesitantly forward. The essence of White Plum. As abrupt as the image came, it'd gone. Soon Tomoe was gone and Kaoru had returned. What had just happened? Was he seeing things? "Katsura?" Battousai saw Katsura pull out a syringe from Kaoru's neck-shoulder area. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she collapsed hard onto the cobblestone ground.

"Take her back to your place." Katsura said while the body guards escorted him to the vehicle. "Keep her out of sight from the government and the public. I'll have Iizuka deliver her things."

"So you don't want me to finish my task from last time?" Battousai questioned. Katsura shook his head.

"And about you're task tonight, I've decided to change that. Take care of Kaoru instead, her intuitive instincts are running higher than usual," Katsura said. Battousai picked up the sense that there was some sort of secrecy in Katsura's tone. He didn't even understand what Katsura had meant by 'intuitive instincts are running higher'. "Ah. Kikuno. it was my mistake." Katsura's eyes looked troubled and their mystical colour flickered between the lines of brown and blue. The car door slammed and sped back onto the streets after a long screech.

Soon after the vehicle was long gone, Battousai approached the girl and carefully lifted her up. 'Am I crazy?' Battousai thought, 'Believing that I saw Tomoe for that moment.' He heard the girl in his arms mumble something before resting her head against him. 'But why do I keep thinking back to Tomoe?'

Quickly, he took her back into his hidden parked black Mercedes E-320 car. He opened the back door and laid the girl inside. He closed up before settling himself into the drivers seat and driving smoothly back to the apartment.

"Ma.ma." Kaoru mumbled like a kitten calling for it's mother.

Battousai at the rear view mirror down at Kaoru's face for that short moment. 'They say that a person's current situation about life would be expressed when they sleep.' Kaoru's small frown and her despaired expression reminded him of someone, 'Why does she seem so much like her?'  Then he turned around a corner that led to a suburb where there were rarely any streetlight to brighten the streets.

It was going to be quite a while before he was going to get back to the place. He didn't want any of the other bastards to start spreading rumours of him bringing a girl home. He turned the vehicle into the car park and stopped in his reserved spot. Glad that no one could actually recognize him through the tinted windows, he sat back and waited for another ten minutes.

"Would you. ever stop killing?" Tomoe asked Battousai while arranging a bouquet of flowers into a vase. She had avoided making eye contact with him while asking.

"No," Battousai replied, "I've been brought up holding the sword. therefore I'll die by it, Katsura would require me to use it until the end." He continued cutting the vegetables into neat slices. He heard Tomoe's gentle sigh.

"You're life sounds so easy. only following orders." Tomoe said. She checked over the arrangement of flowers. Battousai tried to ignore her comment. "If I had asked you. would you stop?"

Battousai was silent after that. He wouldn't. Because he wanted to change the era and bring a much more better one for the unfortunate. Tomoe had stopped and gazed at him with a distant look in her eyes. She knew the answer and it only saddened her heart for she knew what he soon will have to convey.

"Only time will tell. you have to know that I won't be here for any longer." Tomoe said. "Then. you'll meet someone who shares my pain, you'll know when you see her." She smiled gently. "I just hope she doesn't suffer too much guilt."

Battousai stopped and looked up at her, he couldn't read her mood.  

Kaoru pressed her forearm against the leather car seat to support her upper body. Energy had drained from her muscles and she could barely hold herself still. Her mind however, was wide awake and she slowly tried to examine her suddenly new scenario.

Her blurry vision slowly adjusted to the darkness. Two amber lights aimed right at her. What were they? Cat's eyes? When her vision focused she could feel herself tense. "Where am I?" Was all she could breathe out. Although she meant to speak normally, her body failed her and the words only came out a harsh whisper. For a moment, Battousai had transformed into a person she had once really loved.

Battousai noticed, even though the only source of luminance was the moonlight, that Kaoru's sorrow surfaced again and she just stared at him with adoration and hurt. She stared into the face of the deceased man from years ago. His face was just the way she had pictured it in her mind every now and then. It was still the same face that she had fallen for. "Akira." She whispered.

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AN: Thanks everyone! I've sincerely been so busy. *I'm getting into the later years of high school* But I know one thing, I'm gonna try really hard to improve my writing so please, I need your help. If you have an idea or know a way that I can improve on my writing, please tell me. Please!!!

Nee-chan: No worries! *Cherry is a hard worker and will update whenever! And she will update all of her stories!* ^-^x Thanks for reviewing!!!!!!! (and for helping me improve a bit.)

Rose Kurama1: Thank you! I'm really happy that you like this story! And yeah, I thought that people would get confused at the chappy with the girl with the brown hair, but it all works out! ^-^x and yeah! The other characters will be in this fic too! *but it will be a while.*

Kik-ting: Doesn't really matter if you've reviewed yet or not. You have now!!! *clears throat* I'm not sure how you got the idea that Kaoru is gonna die. but maybe. ^-^x Thanks for r/r!!!!

Lynnie6: Sensei? But.. No more sharp objects for me? *sobs* But. but. me like my swords and my kunai and my kodachi. *turns head* O.Ox *squeals* Sakabatou!!! *runs towards it* Lol. Thanks for reviewing!!! ^o^x

Female Tsukasa: Kaoru's eyes were originally brown for scientific/anatomy (if that's what the subject is called.) reasons. But because of her ability combined with the medication, it changes her eye colour to blue. Hope that explains it. ^-^x

Ja, arigatou mina! Until next time,

Cherry Chibi.