Disclaimer: I still don't own Ruroken...

Trust and Betrayal

I was deaf. Blind. Unable to read their ki. Their movements. Anything. My body was nearly frozen, slow and heavy. And my heart... my heart was a block of ice, as I wondered what they had done to her. Or what she had done to me...

I wasn't sure which was worse. That perhaps she had knowingly betrayed my trust. Had meant to have me killed. Had set me up for this ambush.

Or that they had harmed her. Used her.

Touched her.

Though fighting my way up the mountain was harsh, the most painful battle was within my own heart. It wasn't until I faced the last of them, managed to faintly sense his triumph, her fear, through all of the confusion of my senses, that I realized what I should have known from the start...

That it didn't matter if she'd betrayed me. I would protect her.

This thought pierced my heart just as my blade pierced hers.

And so she lies silently, the smell of white plums now drowned out by a much stronger, sweeter scent. Dressed in a crimson that she would never voluntarily wear. A faint smile on her lips, she looks more alive now than I can ever hope to feel again.

At first I feel nothing. Nothing but the slash on my cheek, and a crumbling of my heart. The ice has melted in time for it to die.

And then, at last, I feel something wet on my face that has nothing to do with snow or blood...

And I find myself realizing for the first time since I became a hitokiri... that what kills most devastatingly is not the sword, but trust... and betrayal...

Author's note:

Yes, shock of shocks, I'm still alive... and look! I posted a haiku and a one-shot all in one night! Exciting isn't it?

Heh... well, sorry for being gone so long... work stress, moving stress, etc. piled onto writer's block, and a handful of fanarts that I promised to do ages ago and am finally working on are the cause of the unintentional hiatus!

And yes, I totally had fun ripping off the OVA American Director's Cut title for the premise of this fic!

Thanks for waiting around. Thanks for reading. Please review!

Dewa mata!