Disclaimer: You know Rurouni Kenshin? Yeah, well I don't own it.

Unexplained Happenings

Chap 10

Fire & Ice

The group arrived in the clearing the note had indicated, a few minutes before midday, they spread out slightly to present a larger target to their enemy and avoid an ambush attack.

Sano gently kicked at some crumbled stone while the others looked around nervously, the place was decidedly spooky, even in the middle of the day with long shadows and large dark trees.

'Where are they?' Yahiko asked a little shakily, running his hand up and down the handle of his shinai nervously.

'Patience,' Kenshin told him gently. 'It still isn't midday yet, they will be here.' He finished with a confidence that both unnerved and strengthened all around him.

He closed his eyes slowly, centring himself, off in the distance the midday gong sounded, echoing eerily off the nearby mountains, the echoes had faded completely and everyone was beginning to get edgy in the abrupt silence, Kaoru had just breathed out to calm herself when the air around them was suddenly toxic and dangerous as two large explosions went off, one slightly to their left in the forest and the other right behind them, Kaoru acted on instinct, tackling Yahiko to the ground to protect him from the larger pieces of falling debris. Aoshi and Saitoh immediately reached for their swords and Sano ran to shield Kaoru and Yahiko who were now standing gingerly, Kaoru grasping her bokken tightly and Yahiko his shinai. Silence once again filled the clearing.

Kenshin stepped forward deliberately his sword still untouched on his hip a strange smile once again lighting up his amber eyes 'Show yourselves.' He said in a calm voice, still grinning while the others watched a little concerned at their friend's seemingly lax attitude. 'Show yourselves.' He said again, this time his tone leaving no leeway for the enemy to disobey him, his grin turned slightly feral as the silence continued.

A light rustling sounded from Sano's immediate left causing him to sink even further into his defensive stance. The sound stopped and again there was silence.

'Show yourselves now!' Kenshin demanded, banging his sheathed sakabatou slightly against his left leg. Saitoh, who was the only one standing behind the furious ex-assassin was therefore the only one to see the emerald green sparks jump from the katana and into the air, making Kenshin's left hand glow green for a few seconds. The policeman exhaled slowly and reluctantly turned his gaze to face the foe, occasionally shooting glances at the young redhead.

All at once and accompanied by only a slight rustling, a ring of around twenty caped and hooded figures rapidly had them surrounded, appearing to materialise out of the surrounding shadows. Each of the figures was armed and appeared capable with their weapons. They each took a few steps in closing all the gaps until they were standing shoulder to shoulder in an impenetrable circle, the Kenshin-gumi trapped in the centre.

Kenshin growled deep in his throat and drew his sakabatou smoothly, the light reflecting off the blade and into his eyes making him look demonic with the strange grin he still wore. The others looked at him edgily.

'I have had more than enough of these games.' He told the silent group surrounding them in clipped tones. He raised his voice and yelled into the nearby forest, his words echoing off the trees. 'I know these are nothing but puppets, and I will knock each and every one of them down right now if you refuse to show yourself.' He informed their hidden foe while the caped puppets stood silently, weapons held at the ready.

He waited for a few seconds before launching his attack on the puppets, his sword now glowing green as though reacting to its master's fury. The red-head launched himself at the first puppet, cleaving the head from its body in one controlled swing, a low hissing noise and a small blast of steam rose into the air as it made contact with Kenshin's glowing blade. He landed lightly a few meters away crouching slightly as the cloak rumpled to the ground behind him and the headless figure lost its form and gushed hundreds of litres of water into the dry earth.

'Wow.' Yahiko said stunned, and leaned forward to get a closer look.

'Indeed.' Saitoh semi-agreed, as he calmly lit a cigarette and leant back against a tree at the edge of the clearing to watch the battle.

The others stood silent, watching their friend cautiously as he looked at his sword, seemingly as surprised by its sudden destructive power as they were. Even for the Hitokiri Battousai, the ease with which the head had been removed from the enemy had almost been laughable.

They were broken out of their reverie as the remaining water puppets rushed the group as one and each were forced into battle, five of the creatures rushed Kenshin as he stood completely still, slightly to the left of the main battle. When they were almost on him he sprang into action, simultaneously ducking a heavy handed blow from a large axe and using his sheath to block a sweeping blow intended to knock his feet out from under him by an enemy to his left wielding a 6ft bo staff. He rolled behind the axe wielder and used his momentum to deliver a hard blow underneath its right arm and into its chest as he stood. As his enemy fell forwards Kenshin continued his movement forwards to jump vertically and plant both of his feet on its head, giving himself the leverage he needed to flip over backwards, while also knocking the creature to stumble forcefully into the path of the creature attacking him from the rear.

He landed behind this other puppet who was just a second too slow to stop the blow it had aimed at Kenshin with one of its twin sai, the move instead sinking deep into the hooded figure of its falling comrade and turning the thing back into its liquid state, gushing water before it even hit the ground.

The sai brandishing figure protected its back skilfully and unexpectedly from an attack by Kenshin, using the other sai to tangle and trap the sakabatou, it twisted its wrist, and had almost wrenched the sword from the still furious red-heads hands when Kenshin leant back, using the way his sword had been locked to his advantage. The figure lost its balance and began to lean backwards, trying desperately to regain control of the duel. The ex-assassin took advantage of this to lean forward, causing it to stumble backward, he then sank a very hard kick into the things chest, knocking it back a few paces and untangling his sword from its sai as it fell.

Sensing something behind him, Kenshin leapt into the air flipping 180 degrees and bringing his katana down onto his third opponents shoulder who had just aimed a wild swing to the spot Kenshin had just been standing with its katana, it fell to its knees and turned back into liquid.

As he landed he was forced to twist sharply to his right and somersault out of the way to avoid the well placed pike attack from another, he gasped slightly as he felt his sleeve rip and felt a slight pain where the last prong of the pike had grazed his left forearm, narrowing his eyes in anger, he swept his katana around at knee height as he rolled from another bo strike aimed for his throat and managed to slice the sai wielding enemy off at the knees as it prepared for another attack, the amber eyed young man found himself drenched with water as the puppet de-solidified and reflexively closed his eyes for a split second as the water streamed down his face.

When he forced them open again, he found a long sword rapidly descending towards his throat as the fifth puppet finally made its move. He yelled hoarsely and used an offensive block to knock the sword to the side, then, using the time it took the thing to regain its balance Kenshin somersaulted backwards, and pushed off violently with both feet, springing forward and bringing his katana down with a loud cry using gravity to add more destructive power to his swing. Once again his katana responded to his emotions and began to glow on the downstroke, it cleaved the puppet completely in half, sending a cloud of steam into the air with a loud hissing before each half fell to the clearing floor and liquid seeped back into the earth.

Turning to face the last of the five who had challenged him, the bo puppet. The ex-assassin rushed forwards intending to finish the battle as soon as possible intending to aid his friends, he was more than a little surprised when the puppet dodged his wide swing easily. Taking advantage of Kenshin's momentary lapse, it launched itself at him bodily and pushed Kenshin hard into a nearby tree with a loud squelching noise, causing the young man to black out for an instant as his head smashed into a low-hanging branch, he felt his breath rush out of him as his body hit the tree. A few seconds later, when his fogged senses had caught up with him, he realised with growing horror that his enemy had still not moved and, with the way he had been pinned he was now in a very real danger of drowning.

He narrowed his eyes in frustration as he felt his vision already beginning to dim, the lack of oxygen and his fatigue from the gruelling fight beginning to take its toll, his momentary lapse in consciousness had meant that his attacker had had the chance to perfect his stance, Kenshin could see no weak spots. He could hear his friends calling to him through the water of his captor's body and his own spreading darkness. It was no use, his vision began to blacken further and his arms devoid of energy began to drop against his will. His feeling of helplessness began to be replaced by a strange calm and he began to succumb to the darkness.

Suddenly, he felt a large push and the water creature was forced off him and into another nearby tree at the edge of the clearing, the force of the impact shattering it back into innocent water.

The young man fell forwards as the darkness fully overcame him; only dimly aware of two anxious voices calling his name.

He felt as though he were floating on a haze of warm light, he was so tired and it was comfortable there, so very comfortable. He didn't want to leave. He felt himself being tugged back to a place he could barely remember. He shook his head and tried to speak but no words came out… he was so tired, he stopped resisting and allowed himself to fade out of the light and back into the darkness.

He awoke no more than a few minutes later to find himself laying on damp ground with Sanosuke kneeling next to him pushing his chest down violently to remove the water his friend had inhaled, when the shorter man turned his head, he could also see Aoshi standing over them protectively, ready to fight more water puppets, behind them he could see at least half a dozen empty cloaks, evidence that they had held their own against the other enemies while Kenshin had been preoccupied with his own. Kenshin coughed weakly, turning onto his side and spitting out another mouthful of water, he groaned softly as he sat up. The feeling of air in his oxygen starved lungs made him dizzy, he closed his eyes for a moment waited for the blackness at the edges of his vision to melt away.

Sano looked down at him and winked roguishly, although the concern on his face was unmistakeable. He spoke, his voice shaking slightly with relief. 'I'd have to say that was one of the closest calls I've ever seen. You alright?' Kenshin nodded and stood up wordlessly, leaning back against the tree to regain some of his equilibrium, he was still breathing heavily but no longer felt as though he were in immediate danger of passing out.

'Thanks.' He said simply, raising his dripping head to look at them.

Aoshi, who was looking at him carefully, nodded, apparently satisfied that his ally was not injured and returned to their foe.

Kenshin gestured at the cloaks lying empty on the soaking ground with one hand, shakily pushing his own sopping hair out of his eyes with the other. 'How did you…?'

Sano grinned again. 'We found, purely by accident that although these bastards are difficult to destroy with one blow, they go down fairly well when two opposing strokes are aimed at them.'

Kenshin nodded and took advantage in this brief lull of battle to survey the rest of the clearing, almost directly in from of him he could see Kaoru and Yahiko fighting another puppet wielding a pike, Yahiko had a large rip in the front of his gi and Kaoru was bleeding quite badly from a deep gash in her upper right arm. Both were panting heavily, but it was obvious that neither was close to giving up. As they watched, Kaoru took a deep breath and began a swift downwards swing as Yahiko swung up from underneath, both blows landed at the same time and for a moment there was silence. All at once the blows began to take effect and the water puppet appeared to melt into the earth from the feet up. Kaoru sighed and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand as Yahiko leant on his shinai, both looked utterly exhausted.

Kenshin felt his eyes widen as several things happened at once, taking advantage of their inattention, one water creature had somehow managed to creep behind Yahiko, acting on instinct the boy reacted instantly blocking upwards and outwards, successfully stopping the things blow to his head. However, the young samurai had been so focussed on the puppet in front of him, he had neglected to gauge his surroundings behind him and slipped on a large patch of wet earth, loosing his footing and stumbling backwards, he had almost managed to regain his feet when he tripped over a small, partially hidden tombstone. He fell with a yell, his shinai landing a few feet away on the leaf littered ground. Now unarmed the boy looked up at his foe with enormous eyes, frozen as the puppet advanced.

'Yahiko!' Kaoru screamed rushing forward and impaling the creature through the stomach with her bokken, the scene froze as Kaoru tried to release her bokken which now appeared to be stuck firmly in the things body, she pulled harder, desperately trying to free her weapon. Her own eyes registered fear as the creature whirled towards her violently, she shrieked, but still didn't let go of her bokken.

Kenshin snarled, unable to contain himself any longer, he charged forwards ignoring concerned yells from Aoshi and Sano. He quickly sent a strong blast of ki at Kaoru, causing her to fall to her knees, her hands finally releasing her bokken, he then thrust the tip of his sakabatou into the moist earth, holding it there for a moment as his eyes registered the whereabouts of the remaining puppets. He lowered his head, took a deep breath and then with a yell that rang loudly off the trees, wrenched his sword in a spiral before removing the tip with a grunt of exertion.

For a moment there was silence, and then, all at once, an incredible blue light burst from the pattern the young ex-assassin's sakabatou had made, extending outwards to the edges of the clearing. This massive glowing spiral trapped all but two of the remaining water puppets.

Kenshin smiled lightly his eyes shrouded by a veil of his red hair, and then dug his katana back into the centre of the circle. Instantly, the ground where the spiral had been traced sprang up violently as though under the influence of a powerful, fiery Do ryu sen. The water creatures stiffened, and, as the light reached its highest intensity they evaporated with a loud hiss, in seconds all that remained were several small clouds of steam and a few cloaks that drifted back to the earth, completely dry.

Kenshin turned and gracefully re-sheathed his sakabatou preparing to face the last two puppets. He felt a hand on his shoulder, was surprised to feel his knees buckle slightly and looked up to see Saitoh looking at him beadily, the wolf's eyes glowing with a fire Kenshin had rarely seen. He put his cigarette out with the heel of his boot and exhaled the last of the smoke from his lungs.

'My go.' He stated simply and strode towards the hooded figures.

It was then Kenshin noticed that he was shaking and breathing heavily and that his lungs were hurting slightly from the water he had inhaled, but even though the battle had almost killed him and forced him to use an inordinate amount of ki, he found that he was not as tired as the first time he had used the green fire. Karou, Sano, Aoshi and Yahiko all came over to him as he leant lightly on his sword.

'Are you alright?' He and Kaoru asked each other simultaneously. They both smiled and nodded.

'I'm fine.' Kaoru stated. 'Thanks for the help.' Kenshin was about to ask another question when Yahiko's voice broke his train of thought.

'What's Saitoh doing?' he asked.

'I dunno,' Sano muttered. 'But it sure looks interesting.'

Kaoru and Kenshin nodded as they watched, Aoshi remaining motionless and all of them watching the ex-shinsengumi intently.

Saitoh was standing completely still, his head down and his hands hanging loosely at his sides. The cloaked figures were steadily moving closer to his prone figure.

Kaoru moved forwards to call his name, but found Kenshin had grabbed her arm. She looked into his exhausted amber eyes as Kenshin shook his head, signalling her to stay back. She nodded slowly and turned to watch again.

The figures drifted closer and closer, when they were about two meters from Saitoh, Kenshin reached for his sword. When they were about one meter away, he could feel Aoshi's ki charging and condensing, the shorter man took a step forwards.

At that moment Saitoh decided to spring into action, sinking his weight deep into a stance his arms shot out so fast those watching could barely see the movement and he carefully placed one hand on each of his opponent's chests. He held his stance for a moment, each of his enemies began to reach for their weapons, they had almost touched them when Saitoh's arms bent slightly and then straightened again, the ex-wolf of mibu never uttering a sound. A huge, purple ball of light burst from each of the wolf's hands filling the entire clearing with a blinding flash, the force of the blast sinking his feet three inches into the wet earth.

There was a light cracking noise as Saitoh's attack began to take effect, which was followed by a deafening roar and a freezing, violent wind.

Kenshin sheltered Kaoru and Sano guarded Yahiko, while Aoshi stood firmly with both arms up to guard his face from the cyclonic winds.

After a moment of silence the group all raised their heads and gasped. Saitoh had somehow successfully frozen the two water spirits into giant ice statues and in the process, covered a large portion of the forest behind each one in a thick snow, icicles covering the lower branches of all the trees at least 10m into the forest.

Saitoh turned to face the stunned group and reached into his pocket for a cigarette, when he reached up with the match to light it, he seemed surprised to find his hands were shaking uncontrollably.

Kenshin released Kaoru gently and cautiously approached the taller man.

'Saitoh,' He asked carefully. 'Are you alright?'

Saitoh looked at him haughtily, the shaking now moving to his legs.

'Ahou.' He muttered quietly. 'Of course.'

Kenshin nodded once, his head slightly to one side. 'Alright.' He agreed and stood watching the taller man as though waiting for something vaguely interesting to happen.

Saitoh's shaking became even more pronounced as he fought to keep his face impassive. 'What?' He finally asked in annoyance.

Kenshin grinned that small evil grin. 'I'm just waiting for you to fall over so you can rest.' Was the semi-innocent answer.

Saitoh growled and attempted to take an intimidating step towards the still grinning redhead, the effect was slightly ruined when the policeman's legs refused to hold him any longer and he fell to his knees with a dull thud.

'Much better.' Kenshin conceded as he beckoned for Aoshi to help him lift the wolf back to his feet.

'Now,' he continued mercilessly. 'I know you were attempting to keep your Shinsengumi pride and all by not admitting you were exhausted, but do you think you really keep more pride by falling over and having to be carried to the log than if you had simply admitted you needed to take a rest and walked over yourself?'

'Shut up ahou.' Saitoh muttered as they lowered him gently,

Kenshin heard a small snort from his left and looked over to see Aoshi's eyes twinkling. Kenshin smiled to himself and sat down on the log a respectable distance from Saitoh.

Sano and the others walked over slowly. 'We beat the water puppets,' Sano said to his red-haired friend. 'Now what happens?' Kaoru laughed a little at this speech. 'That was eloquent.' She jeered and Sano blushed. 'Yeah, well I don't know about you but I'm buggered.' He informed her bluntly. She laughed again.

Kenshin shrugged half-heartedly, his own exhaustion now catching up with him. 'Waiting here too long would not be a good idea,' he began. 'We don't know who will be coming next.'

'I say we should only stay here long enough to rest up.' Sano said shooting a sly look at Saitoh.

Saitoh glared back and Yahiko, deciding he had, had enough, left the impending verbal battle to inspect the life-sized ice sculptures Saitoh's last attack had created. He touched one briefly and was not surprised to find it was cold.

'Cool.' The boy muttered vehemently as he tapped one on the head. A blue sparkle slightly below his eye level caught the sun in such a way that it shone into his face.

'What?' He murmured, reaching up to remove the things robe, he narrowed his eyes slightly, trying to focus through the slightly frosted ice to see the object inside.

His eyes widened and he took a step back to try to get the attention of the others. He sweatdropped when he saw Kenshin holding a still yelling Sano back by the ties on his head band with one hand and his own head in the other, and Aoshi standing with his hand on the shoulder of the drastically weakened Saitoh to prevent him from rising.

'Eeerm… guys?' He tried. They all turned at once, the battle instantly forgotten. The boy sweatdropped again and pointed at the figure. 'There's something in its head.'

They all turned to the ice figure and noticed that Yahiko had removed the cloak from one of them and they could now indeed see something sparkling inside its head.

After silently staring for a few seconds Kenshin cleared his throat and voiced what they were all thinking. 'Err… Yahiko, why were you undressing it?' Everyone, even Saitoh looked to the boy who had just face faulted into the snow for an answer, he leaped up and faced them. 'It was sparkling and I wanted to know why.' He stopped and shook his head as though clearing his thoughts. 'But, the way I discovered it isn't the point!' He yelled pointing at the figure with his face still covered in snow and ice. 'That sparkly thing inside, the blue thing that is probably evil and will cause untold horror if it isn't removed, that would be the point!'

'Okay, okay!' Kenshin exclaimed holding up his hands defensively and trying to stifle a grin, while the melodramatic boy glared at them panting angrily.

Aoshi stepped up to the snow figure and looked into the frozen water to see the sparkling stone.

He turned to the others. 'It looks like crystal.' He stated. 'Possibly like the green one we already possess.' He turned back to the figure and smoothly drew one of his kodachi. 'In any case, the boy is right.' He continued, taking careful aim. 'It needs to be removed.' With that he swing his kodachi in a wide, controlled arc, severing the formless head just below the crystal, as the piece was falling he drew his other kodachi and skilfully sliced the descending ice to the right of the stone, successfully halving the amount of ice that surrounded it. He sheathed one of his kodachi with a flick of his wrist and bent to retrieve the object. Using the handle of the kodachi he still held, Aoshi repeatedly pounded the ice around the stone, crumbling away the excess until only the crystal remained, it was slightly larger than a fist and glowing faintly.

He turned to the group who were watching his every more intently and stepped towards them, still examining the thing in his hand. 'It appears to be a… container.' He told them as he turned it over in his hands.

Kenshin reached for it slowly. 'I think I know what this is.' He said softly. It felt strangely warm in his hands, as though it had been lying in the sun, not imbedded in ice.

'What?' Kaoru asked bewildered.

'I think it's the limiter case for the green crystal.' Kenshin muttered as he stared at it. 'I've seen it in those visions, surrounding the green crystal that topped the staff.' He looked up suddenly, stowing the crystal in his kimono pocket as he heard a rustling in the forest to his right. When he noticed it was only a small bird he realised just how long they had been standing in the clearing. He cursed himself for his inattention and motioned for the others to stand.

'We've been here too long.' He hissed urgently, motioning them forwards.

Aoshi nodded in agreement. 'Let us examine the object more closely at the Aoiya.'

Kenshin nodded and led the way out of the clearing, leaving the ice to melt slowly in the afternoon sunlight.

A/N

Well I guess my prediction of the floating man coming back into his body was wrong after all… but I never said I was clairvoyant, right? Although, my super senses of deduction say that it will definitely happen in the next chapter.

Sorry it took a little longer than planned to get this chap to you all, but as I said, I have a lot of difficulty writing fight scenes. Hopefully it didn't come out as lame as I think it did…

Thanks again to all who reviewed, it really helps to have that motivation! Anything to get me off my lazy but is good motivation… laughs!