Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin.

Stroke of Bad Luck

Chapter 13

"Four ninety-eight, four ninety-nine, five hundred!" Yahiko cut the air swiftly with his final swing and then settled his bokken over his shoulder. Five hundred swings barely made him tired anymore, a sure sign that ticking Kaoru off actually did him some good. Assigning him swings was her favorite punishment aside from cleaning the dojo. Hiko's lodge was too small to present much of a threat in that department.

Wiping a hand across his brow, Yahiko glanced across the white meadow he stood in. Kaoru had tired of watching him do his swings long ago and gone back inside the cabin to rest. She was still unnaturally thin from her ordeal, even if she was doing better. Yahiko tried not to imagine how much worse she must have been.

Slinging the bokken across his back, he trudged through the deep snow around the corner of the cabin towards the back where he knew Kenshin's master would be. How the man could spend hours sitting in front of a kiln was beyond him but he did and seemed quite content to do so. It was almost impossible to believe the man was a master swordsman. Almost. One only had to study his movements to know otherwise.

"Done already?" the man asked when Yahiko stood ten feet behind him.

"Yeah."

"Where's the girl?" he asked gruffly.

"Resting," Yahiko said and plopped down on the log beside the taller man.

"Giving orders is exhausting," he returned and Yahiko just stared at him, knowing if he dared to laugh Kaoru would some how find out about it and whack him over the head.

The two sat there in silence for what seemed an eternity before Yahiko's curiosity got the best of him.

"So, are you really the master of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu?"

"Yes."

"Then why are you making pottery?"

"I'm good at it."

"Will you teach me?"

"Pottery?"

"The Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu."

"Why?"

"I want to be stronger."

"No."

"Why not?"

The dark-eyed swordsman glanced down at the boy with large beseeching eyes. "You already have a teacher and she is strong enough."

Yahiko blinked at him in surprise. It was not the answer he had been expecting and begrudgingly he had to admit there was a good deal of truth behind it. Kaoru was not a weak woman by any means, daring to teach swordsmanship beneath the disapproving eyes of her entire village so that her father's ideals would not die. She had stood unafraid between the children and the enemy and in the end dragged herself across the mountain in the dead of winter with a gapping wound in her shoulder so that she might live to fight one day more.

Still, this was Kenshin's master.

"But you taught the Battousai swordsmanship!" he uttered in one last desperate attempt to convey how necessary it was for himself to learn the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

"You did?" a soft voice interrupted and both glanced back at Kaoru standing a few feet behind them, her eyes wide and wary.

"I have never had a student by that name," Hiko said simply and turned back to the kiln.

Yahiko looked up at him in surprise, glanced back at Kaoru, and then back to him again. Kaoru doesn't know. And wisely, the boy said nothing more.

"What are you two doing?" she asked when they remained silent.

"Yahiko wants to learn pottery," Hiko said, an amused glint in his dark eyes as he glanced down at the boy who merely scowled back.

"Oh, okay," Kaoru said. "Well, I'm going to get some more water. Yahiko, behave yourself."

He stuck his tongue out after her as soon as she turned away and won a slight chuckle from the stolid Hiko in return.

Kaoru was completely lost in her thoughts as she walked down the river path swinging her bucket idly. Hearing Yahiko's declaration not long before had stirred her obsessive curiosity about the strongest swordsman of their time. She never did question Sir Hiko about the Battousai, knowing he would tell her nothing. There was no mistaking that he knew the Battousai, perhaps even as well as Kenshin knew him for he had boldly declared to Kenshin that she needed no protection from the legendary manslayer. What did he mean by that anyway? She had never so much as cross paths with the man, let alone even know who he was.

Her steps hesitated as another possibility crossed her mind. Could it be that Kenshin and the Battousai are enemies? Why else would Kenshin feel that he must protect me from him? No, that can't be it. Kenshin had promised that if he ever could not reach me to protect me, then the Battousai would come in his stead. Of what difference would my safety make to a man like the Battousai? I am nothing and no one to him and yet…

Her thoughts faded off as a wave of unease swept over her. Lifting her gaze from the trodden path she followed, Kaoru glanced into the shadowed woods for some hint of what was sending shivers down her spine. The silence was unnatural and unnerving, not even the crack of a swaying branch breaking the stillness.

Grasping the bucket a little more firmly, Kaoru turned back in her steps and began to hurry away from her original destination. Instinct was deeply ingrained in her and at that moment it was screaming for her to get back to Yahiko and Hiko.

"Kaoru."

"Huh?" Yahiko glanced up at Hiko as he suddenly stood. Barely seconds passed when a high-pitched scream rent the air to pieces.

"Kaoru!" Yahiko yelped as he leaped up to follow the swordsman who was already disappearing into the tree line. It was impossible to keep up with the man, but the trail he left was plain as day as Yahiko crashed through the brush heedless of wayward branches until he stumbled breathless onto an open path. All that remained among the snowy footprints was a bucket and red snow.

"Is that blood?" Yahiko panted as he scurried up beside Hiko.

The tall swordsman picked up the bucket and narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "It isn't hers," he said after a moment before handing the bucket to the boy.

Even Yahiko could see that now. Blood stained the bottom edge of the bucket and he winced in thought of the blow she must have dealt to her attacker to cause that kind of damage.

"Which way did they go?" he asked but was only answered with silence.

Hiko's eyes were busy reading the ground. Six, twelve…there had to be nearly twenty men. It would seem some of the renegades have taken to the mountains and by a stroke of bad luck, stumbled upon the girl. Kenshin is going to be royally pissed.

"Well?" an angry voice interrupted his thoughts and Hiko glanced to the dark red eyes of Kaoru's spirited apprentice.

"Well what?"

"Aren't you going after them? They have Kaoru!"

"I know," he said as he took the bucket from the boy and continued on down toward the river.

"Where are you going?" the boy shouted.

"To get some water," he said simply.

"Water? How can you think of water at a time like this! Kaoru is in danger!"

Not as much danger as the men who took her. "We will have guests tonight," he said simply to the boy who followed him.

"Guests? Now you're thinking about guests!"

Hiko rolled his eyes as he kneeled to dunk the bucket into the river. This kid had spirit but little patience. So much like Kenshin when he was younger.

"Well if you aren't going then I am," Yahiko declared and spun on his heel. He didn't take more than two steps before he was dangling above the ground.

"She wouldn't want that," Hiko said.

"Put me down!" Yahiko shrieked as he kicked and struggled to free himself. Hiko merely shrugged and carried him off back to the cabin as if he weighed no more than the bucket of water.

"Relax, kid," he said. "They are in Oni's domain now."

Yahiko ceased his struggle and stared up at the man with big eyes. "Are you serious?" he whispered.

A grim expression shadowed Hiko's face, the only evidence of his true feelings. "Deadly serious."

Yahiko stiffened and reached for his bokken when he heard footfalls outside the cabin door. Seijuro Hiko remained where he was, enjoying his second jug of sake and seemingly oblivious to the presence of any outsiders.

Doesn't he know that someone is here, Yahiko scowled. It could be the men who took Kaoru! How could this guy possibly have been the Battousai's master?

The door swung open and two men scurried in with a whirlwind of snow. Yahiko leaped with a throaty cry and slammed the tallest man to his knees. Ready to deliver another blow, Yahiko glared down at his victim to meet a pair of angry brown eyes beneath a rock size bump.

"Little Yahiko!" Sanosuke howled and the boy yelped as he leaped off the man and shot out the door.

"Took you long enough," Hiko murmured as he lifted his jug for another swallow.

"The wind is restless tonight," Kenshin returned as he glanced after Sanosuke chasing down the young boy in the snow. Closing the door softly on their shouts and threats, he turned back to meet his master's stare.

Dark eyes narrowed. "You are wounded."

"Is it that obvious?"

"Only because I know you. What happened?"

"I am certain there is a traitor among us," Kenshin said darkly as he pulled his sword free from his belt and settled himself on the floor. Kami, he was exhausted.

"Do you know who?"

Kenshin shook his head. "Our numbers were already few and they set a trap for us. It was well played and by the time we recovered from the surprise, many were already dead and our enemy had escaped into the mountain into as many as five different groups."

"They dealt you a heavy blow and then forced you to divide your numbers even further," Hiko observed. "Clever."

"They knew exactly when and where to strike and," Kenshin's eyes darkened several shades, "they knew where to escape to."

"Your friend was followed when he brought the boy," Hiko surmised and Kenshin nodded.

"I suspect so, yes. But why?"

Silence settled between them until Kenshin suddenly looked up, an amber glow flickering through his violet eyes.

"Where is Kaoru?"

A moan escaped her lips as she stirred herself back to consciousness, pain sweeping through her body as her senses checked in with her brain. Hands numb, check. Aching wrists, check. Throbbing headache, check. Big smelly jerk, check… and check.

Her eyes drew into focus on the ground passing beneath her sight, telling her she was slung over the shoulder of one of the men who had attacked her on the river path. There were too many to count and they caught her completely off guard. She swung her bucket at the first to step in striking distance and it all went black from there.

Before she could open her mouth to demand to be put down, she was thrown carelessly into the snow. Her breath whooshed from her lungs on impact and a tinge of pain seared through her shoulder. Someone roughly grasped her hair and yanked her to her feet, her eyes tearing at the pain even as she glared in heated anger.

"Let go!" she shrieked as she swung her fist at her attacker, suddenly realizing that her hands were bound together and the blow easily blocked.

The man who held her merely laughed as she struggled futilely to free herself from his grasp. "She sure is spirited," he crowed with delight. Kaoru cut his laughter short with a sharp kick to the shin. She jumped back and tripped into a snow bank to avoid the blow he aimed at her head, a cloud of powdery snow swirling about her.

More laughter surrounded her reminding her that there was more than one enemy to contend with.

"So this is the wench that got away from you, Gohei," someone else spoke and Kaoru felt a chill slice through her that had nothing to do with the icy wind. Struggling up to a sitting position, she raised her gaze to the face of the man that stood above her. It was the wicked scar cut deep across his left cheek that stuck in her memory and she felt all the fear of the winter past seize her in a death grip.

Dropping to one knee, he reached out and grasped her throat, pulling her towards him until her face was just inches from his own. Kaoru gasped and struggled to pry his fingers from her throat, but they held firm. His dark eyes roved over her face as he stroked her cheek almost tenderly. A whimper escaped her as tears began to trail down her face and he leaned forward to lick the salty sweetness from her face.

Helpless to stop him, a strangled sob tore from her throat. This can't be happening. This can't be real!

His tongue trailed teasingly across her skin as he pulled her closer and whispered softly in her ear.

"This time, you will scream for me."