Kaoru was left heartbroken on the cruise ship. She loved Kenshin a lot- not that she had ever told him-but it now pained her to think that she might never see him again.

Elsewhere, the pirates reached their destination, and the leader brought Kenshin up to the deck. Kenshin was still in shock after discovering that the leader was indeed a woman. He couldn't believe that he had fought a woman, for it wasn't in his system to quarrel with them. He was a gentleman all in all, and with his dark past, he respected women even more. After what he had done to his first love-Tomoe- he had tried to protect them, not hurt them. He knew that it wasn't really his fault she was dead, but it still pained him to remember that it was him who delivered the final blow.

After some talk with her crew, she demanded a rematch from Kenshin, but he declined. She got pissed and told her men to execute him. They tied him up to a post and watched over him.

Elsewhere some of the pirates are plotting against their leader-Shuura- because they were tired of being bossed around by a woman. They felt humiliated by it, even though they knew deep inside that she could kick all of their asses no sweat.

Their trump card was a stash of poppies they had found in the middle of all the loot they had stolen from the cruise ship. This find got the wheels in their head running, and they decided they could blackmail the owner of the poppies in exchange for weapons. The owner has no choice but to comply, and their taking- over-the-pirate-crew scheme was underway.

Kenshin's friends were still aboard the ship and they heard everything about the plan. The pirates also saw them but paid no attention to them, for they considered them useless and no threat whatsoever. However, just in case, the pirates put explosives all over the ship.

Back at the island, Kenshin was still tied up to the post when Shuura came up to him to talk. She was intrigued by him and wanted to know him a little bit better, so she asked the first thing that popped into her head. Kaoru.

"Why would you risk your life for her?"

Kenshin cocked his head and thought for a while before answering her.

"Because," he said, " I wanted to protect her,"

"But what makes her so special?"

" Does she need to be special for me to protect?"

"Well…" Shuura started, but didn't finish.

"She's a human being, a defenseless one too, I couldn't stand there and let you take her and do god knows what to her." he told her.

"We wouldn't…"

"Wouldn't you? Maybe not you, but your men? I thought you were a man, how could I not think about her safety?"

"I guess you're right, but you didn't have any ulterior motives?"

He cocked his head again, "You know, you remind me a lot of her."

"Huh? Please explain." She asked surprised at this comment.

"Both of you are stubborn and very prideful."

"Prideful?"

"Enough about that, why did you become a pirate?" he asked suddenly.

Her eyes clouded over and she was in an instant in another time.

"My father created the Kairyu Pirate Crew, he never stole for his sake, but for the sake of others. To help the ones that couldn't help themselves, the weaker and poorer ones, that's why he created the pirate crew. He was the one that thought me all I know, and when he died I decided to take over his job and became the leader of the pirate crew."

"That means that you've know your crew for a long time now, right?"

"Yes but why do you ask?"

"Because I have to warn you that some of your men are trying to revolt against you."

"That's a lie and you know it! They would never do anything like that! My dad practically raised them; they couldn't do that to his memory! I refuse to believe it!" With that said she ran off looking for her crew.

Kenshin let out a sigh and thought to himself, 'That's another thing that you two have in common, not listening to people.' He dislocated his wrist and untied himself and started to run after the girl.

He knew that the girl was strong and in any other situation she could have taken perfect care of herself, but right now she was emotionally unstable and that made him worry. He reprimanded himself for telling her about the revolt and letting her run off like that, if she got hurt he wouldn't be able to forgive himself. He didn't want the blood of another woman on his conscience.

Shuura found her crew mates on the other side of the island. They had all kinds of nifty weapons and artillery and they told her that they were going to take over the crew because she was no good as a captain. That got her pissed, but she was to shocked to do anything.

The second in command took his gun and pointed it to her head and shot.

Thanx for the ppl who reviewed this story, I didn't actually think anybody would read it, much less review it…Thanx! I actually thought I was going to be crucified for sticking Kenshin w/ somebody other that Kaoru.