AN: Sincerest appologies for the LONG wait. School's been very busy for me and my internet was stupd. I tried to update on a number of occasions but there ere a bunch of errors, etc. So, at last...
part four: Questions
Crack of dawn. She knocked on the small cabin door next to the assassins' quarters. A sleepy boss opened the door and gestured her to come in.
"What can I do for you, miss?" He asked her slightly hung over from last night's drinks that he had alone in his cabin.
"I just have a few questions if it's all right," She simply stated.
"Sure thing, Kamiya. What is it?" He was beginning to awaken and focus.
"One: Who exactly are we killing?" She asked.
"Your next assignment is a man called-"
"No, no. What are these people doing to deserve the death we so quickly give them?" She more clearly asked.
"Oh. They are organizers of serious crime. Yakuzas. Murder, burglary, and murder, and rapeyou get it?" (AN: I am aware that he said murder twice...)
"Okay, but could you tell us when you assign them to us what they have been doing?"
"Well...I guess I could do that for you. Just don't tell none of your co-workers or they'll be asking too."
"Why can't we know?" Kaoru asked curiously.
"'Cause you don't need to. It takes up a lot of time to write it out all out."
Kaoru was unconvinced but was satisfied that she, at least, would know who she was killing and why.
"Okay, two: What is wrong with my partner? He's so...I don't know. He's just wierd, secretive...tense."
The boss sighed, "Look, I'm not the one to talk to about Himura. If you want anything like that, talk to him. It's not right to do something like that. It's like stabbing him in the back in a way. I mean, he's not a big truster and if we talk about him when he's not looking, he'll trust us even less. The greatest prize of all would be Kenshin's trust, know what I mean?"
There was an ever so silentsneeze from outside the door. Kaoru turned towards it and examined it suspiciously.
But she looked down and understood. She felt kind of bad for even thinking about talking about akage behind his back. It was wrong.
"I understand," She said, "It's just that I trusted him and he didn't want me to. He's kind of strange, you know? Why would you not want someone to trust you? He's the first person I trusted in a long time..."
"I know...Don't worry. I'm sure he'll change in time. Just wait a little longer. Once you make friends with him I'm sure things will be different," He said and stood up, walking her to the door.
Quickly and quietly as he could, Kenshin ran back to their room. What he had heard was slightly strange and wierd but...nice? He wasn't sure. He liked how the boss respected him enough not to talk about him. But he started feeling really bad about this whole trust thing with Kaoru. She was making such a big deal.
Kaoru opened the shoji to their room and saw Kenshin sitting on his futon. She rolled her eyes but he didn't notice. He must have thought he was slick.
"So," He said, "Where were you?"
"Don't give me that, akage," She spat, "Did you like what you heard back there, hmm?"
He looked up, "I don't know what-"
"Baka! I know you were eavesdropping. Talk about back stabbing!" She layed down on her futon and stared at the ceiling.
Then there was a knock on the shoji door. A piece of folded paper was slid under the door and the footsteps were heard walking away to the next room. Kaoru jumped up and pounced over to the paper before Kenshin even finished standing up. She unfolded it and read their next assignment in their boss's messy handwriting.
Zanza the Fight merchant- You'll find him at the river.
He fights illegally for money. Known for his toughness and has never lost a fight. Age 16. Good luck. (Happy now, Kamiya?)
Kaoru folded it and put it in her belt then picked up her katana. She fastened it to her belt as well and walked out. Kenshin got his katana and ran after her.
"Hey! What, were you going to leave without me?" He shouted as he caught up with her outside the cabin.
"I don't need your help," She said and kept walking. He pulled the letter off of her waist and she looked at him astonished.
"Just what do you think you're doing?" She asked.
"Reading who our next assignment is, if you don't mind," He said, unfolding the slip of paper.
"As a matter of fact I do mind!" She said and tried to pull it away from him but he just turned his back to her. She ran around to face him and yanked it away. But he had already read it.
"Zanza?" He said to himself.
"It's my assignment!" She continued yelling.
He looked up at her, "We're partners!" He said.
"You didn't exactly want my help yesterday either!" She stated. True, he thought, but...But what? he asked himself. But he didn't want her to get hurt? No, that wasn't it. That couldn't be it. What should he care if she got hurt? He wasn't her babysitter or anything.
Before he realized it, she was gone. He looked around but saw no one. She must have gone to the river. No! She would get killed! Wait, he forgot. He didn't care. But he still ran to catch up anyway. He found her at the river.
"Zanza! I have a fight for you!" She yelled. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She was going to die. Stupid little girl!
There was a small house with a tall pole wrapped in cloth leaning on it. A tall spiky-haired boy pulled open his shoji door with a smirk on his face. Kaoru got into stance.
"And I won't lose it!" She finished. Kenshin watched, unable to move for some strange reason. He felt like she might actually win. Her ki was very strong right now.
Kaoru stared at the bird-head and imagined it was Kenshin. Her anger grew and her ki got stronger. She turned him back into Zanza and focused, for she didn't really want to kill Kenshin. She was just mad at him for being so hypocritical. Back-stabber. I'm not the back-stabber right now. He is! He's an eavesdropping little rat. Who just so happens to be, oh, slightly...kawaii(AN: kawaiicute)...but that was so not the point. The point was...she didn't know if she could trust him or not, even though she desperately wanted to. And it confused her.
Zanza walked over to the large pole and picked it up leaning it on his shoulder. He stepped a few feet in front of Kaoru.
"You really think you're gonna win, girl?" He asked with the smirk still on his face. She rolled her eyes.
"Yeah. I really do," She said as if she wasn't stating the obvious. It must be a spear or something, She thought, I can beat him.
Zanza shrugged and held his pole upright. He then grabbed the cloth and pulled. What came out of the cloth was enough to scare all of the forest animals away. In fact, a mouse actually scurried across Kaoru's foot towards the shelter of the forest, adding to her sudden burst of fear. She whimpered at the sight of the horrid little creature like a baka and turned back to Zanza and his humungous...well, she wasn't sure what it was.
"Zanbatou," He said, answering her thoughts, with a smirk. She gulped and tightened her grip on her lame katana. Well, lame compared to this monster.
Kenshin stared with no visible emotion. But inside he felt something incredibly knew. It might have been fear. But a new kind of fear that he hadn't felt for about ten years, since his parents died. Was this the end for her? She was so young, so carefree. And yet, she was going to fight this person with no hesitation.
One swing. One blow. One fatal hit. Instant death. She couldn't want this. In fact, he knew she didn't want this, but she was doing it anyways because she believed that strongly that she would win and that she wouldn't die. He knew she wouldn't, she couldn't win. He didn't want her to...what? Lose? Die, perhaps?
Was the Battousai going soft? Who was this girl who had done the impossible? She had gained the Hitokiri's care. Not much, but enough for him to not want her dead.
Nevertheless, he stayed put. For some odd reason, he couldn't move. Couldn't help her, couldn't scream, couldn't stop her, couldn't do anything...He was too terrified to move. But he didn't know why he was afraid. More than that, he didn't know what he was afraid of. He was 100 percent confused.
"What is happening to me?" He whispered to the depths of the forest. He felt emotions he didn't even know existed or what to call them. He stared as an eerie breaze blew his hair. He watched Kaoru's hair blow in the wind and slap at her face and neck, slithering across her skin. Her bangs blew away from her eyes and the stealy cold crept out of them, enclosing Kenshin and Zanza in their malice.
At that moment she struck. She lunged at the fight merchant and aimed to kill, but was blocked at the last second when realization hit him in the face that this girl was attacking. He had dragged the Zanbatou up to connect with her sword in a shower of sparks.
He was good, to block her attack at the last second like that. She would have had him, but he had to break out of the silence and into the fight. Why could things never work her way? Like with Kenshin. Why couldn't they be friends? Why couldn't he cooperate? Why? Why, why, why, why, why? Always "why?" She would never be given an answer. Only questions. Why did her parents have to die? Why was she fighting now? Always. A never-ending cycle of whys.
As she continued to attack him and he continued to block her she was not paying attention to anything that was going on. All she was thinking of was "why?". Would life never give her a straight answer? So many things were still a mystery to her. After fifteen years there were still questions to be answered. Why? Why couldn't she know? Why was she depressed? Why was all of this happening? Why did it start? Why won't it end?
Tears leaked out of her eyes and streamed into her hair across her cheeks in the force of air as she rushed forward. She sprung forward again. But was blocked. Suddenly, after several minutes of parrying and defending he found the perfect opportunity to strike. He took it.
I can't lose! He told himself. There it was. An open field to attack. He attacked it. Everything seemed to have slowed. Time slowed and her malice slowed. But he sped up.
Her sword hung at her side before she was about to attack. In that nanosecond he leapt at her, Zanbatou in hand.
She saw him coming towards her and tried to block but knew it was no use against that...thing. The flat of the Zanbatou smacked her in the stomach and her eyes widened to their widest extent. Pain seeped though her and the wind was knocked out of her. Her slightly open mouth exhaled all air she possibly could at the impact of the Zanbatou and she flew.
She flew towards the cabin with shock written plainly on her face. When she hit the side of the cabin the whole thing shook. Zanza's force was very powerful. She slid down the wall and landed with a thump on the grass. It took a few seconds, but her eyes closed slowly as a single last tear leaked out and slid down to her chin. It fell onto her silk kimono and her head dropped onto her shoulder. She was out instantly.
Kami, was she dead? Her smile flashed in his mind but suddenly the tear streaked face with closed, lifeless eyes replaced it. It couldn't be...
Kenshin finally found the will to move and did. Towards Zanza.
Zanza stared at her for a brief second and then took a step closer, standing with his feet apart he stared at this strong willed girl. Such strong will.
Suddenly his Zanbatou broke in half. The top half slid off and fell to the ground. He stared at it with disbelief. His partner was now no more than a broken toy. How could this be? This was his one and only Zanbatou.
He turned slowly with sadness in his eyes. There in front of him stood a red headed kid with eyes glowing amber and evil. He sprung forward at Zanza, his eyes burning with hatred for what he had done to her.
Zanza, caught off gaurd, was attacked by a flash of speed. A sharp pain in his arm made him drop what was left of his Zanbatou. There was a deep gash in his arm. He couldn't believe it.
Kenshin was about to attack again at the boy's unprotected chest but stopped seconds before conecting when he saw the door of the cabin behind Zanza slam open. A girl with long black hair walked out. He saw a pair of gambling dice fall from her hand as she ran towards Zanza, who was cluching at his wound. The dice rolled from where they hit the ground and fell into the river behind the house.
"Tori-atama!" She exclaimed. She gingerly touched the wound and he didn't even flinch. She winced at the sight and dragged him back towards the cabin. Kenshin cocked his head on its side in confusion. Did this baka not see the essence of battle? He walked over and tapped her shoulder with the flat of his blade.
She turned and met a pair of eyes. They were firey gold eyes that burned with anger, grief, hatred, malice, and countless other emotions she could not place. She gasped. Who was this? She pushed Zanza into the house and faced the man. He rolled his eyes.
Realizing that this woman was utterly clueless he turned towards Kaoru who was leaning against the side of the house. He knelt next to her and brushed the hair away from her face. Then he placed his hand on her chest. A heartbeat. It was a miracle. He would kill Zanza later.
Suddenly, he felt someone kneel down beside him, "We need to treat her immediatley!" She said.
AN: Oh, surprise, surprise, she isn't dead…And guess who the baka woman is! The single person that I hate almost as much as Tomoe (sorry, fans of the two…)! And that chpter was pretty much just showing the beginning of Kenshin's confusion. Muahaha, I'm so mean.Anyhoo...Well, review please!