Forgotten, December

By: Kelli St. Pierre…………………..sadly I do not own Rurouni Kenshin

Misao's pov.

All she could do was sit there and stare back at the man she loved most, as she could see the hurt in his eyes. It wasn't what he thought what looked like at all. She tried to open her mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

'I thought I'd never say this', Misao thought, 'but I actually wish it was Cole who came in, instead of Aoshi.'

But the hurt in Aoshi's eyes quickly changed back into their ice blue state as he said…..

"Misao, get up, it's time to go."

"Lord Aoshi….let me explain…", Misao started.

"Now Misao", Aoshi coldly stated, even colder than usual.

Misao started getting up, as Raff got up on his own for Misao. Misao stood up and started walking towards Aoshi, while Raff said to Aoshi….

"I can not let her go that easily"

"Is it a fight you want?" Aoshi answered back.

"Correct, to get Misao, you need to fight me. By Lord Cole's order's, I must defend his upcoming wife with my life."

"If it is a fight you want, than I accept" Aoshi stated calmly.

"Good, but we must fight not here, but in the fighting gym."

Raff then turned around and walked away from Aoshi and Misao, and faced the wall with the two whips. He grabbed both of them, one in each hand, and then walked towards Misao and Aoshi.

"I shall show you the way, please follow." Raff said, in his deep voice.

So they left his room and took a left, with Raff in the front and Misao and aoshi right behind him.

"Alright Lord Aoshi listen," Misao started. Aoshi was just about to interrupt, but Misao glared at him. "What you saw back there was not what it looked like, all I was doing was comforting him."

"Hmm, it looked more than comforting to me", Aoshi replied sharply.

"You're acting like a fourteen year old Lord Aoshi." Misao replied back.

"Really, well it's not everyday when you see the person you love sleeping with another guy, meanwhile he's your enemy. So unless you were seducing him, I don't see any other way to defend yourself."

"You know what, I don't need this right now," Misao finished.

The two of them were then quiet as they now were at the stairs. They all climbed the stairs quietly, the only that could be heard were the sounds of there footsteps. But the silence was broken when…..

"Shinomori, what Misao is saying is true", Raff said, "Her and I did nothing but comfort each other last night, or she comforted me anyways."

Aoshi said nothing and just kept on climbing as they reached the last step. There were then two pathways; one straight ahead and one to the left. Of course Misao knew that the pathway on the left was the way to her room, since she's been there a lot. But Raff instead walked the pathway straight ahead, as Aoshi and followed. There was silence again among the group as they went down another dark hallway.

Misao saw something that looked like cloth from Raff's pocket, so she asked…

"Raff"

"Yes Misao?"

"What's that cloth in your pocket?"

Raff looked and took out the cloth from his pocket. It was just a plain blue piece of cloth, but the look on Raff's face told it was something more than it.

"It was something my mother gave me, since we were poor and didn't have anything" Raff started," She died when I was about five, but I would remember how she would tell me things. Like when it snowed; my mother said that when it snowed, your true love would be there. My mother would always say funny things like that."

"Raff," Misao started," Why are you doing this, I know you were a great friend to Cole, but since he's now changed…why do still stay with him."

"Because….he is my friend, whether he's evil or not," Raff answered back.

"Well, since he's changed, shouldn't you?"

Raff didn't answer this question, but kept his head down as if he was thinking it over in his head. Misao knew she struck a nerve in him. But she just doesn't want not only him hurt, but Aoshi as well. But since they'll be fighting each other shortly, they will get hurt either way. She just wished that Raff could just open up from his shell and move on, so he's not judge by who he works for.

But then Raff then suddenly stopped and turned left, just in front of two big golden doors. He pushed them open with no problem, and a burst of light hit their eyes as they entered. They had to squint their eyes for awhile to get used to the light, but that didn't take long. But the gym was big, no, huge as the wall's were in gold, with gold torches on them with fire in them. It was basically a huge empty room in there as they walked in.

"Hello…", Misao yelled. Then echoes were heard around the room as Misao smiled at it. She looked over at Raff and Aoshi who were looking at her, as if she were stupid or something.

"Sorry, I always wanted to do that," Misao said weakly. Raff had a little smirk on his face, but it was erased quickly as they all stood in the middle of the gym.

"Now we shall fight, this is where all the battles have been taking place", Raff announced," Though we haven't had any visitors in awhile, this will be a good brush up for not only I, but for my other comrades as well."

"Misao, stay back", Aoshi told her. Misao backed up to Aoshi's left, so she could see the fight better. Misao knew she could do nothing at this moment, but watch as two people she cared about were about to battle. She was now about ten feet away from them, but still nowhere near the doors as this was a huge gym.

"For this fight, I will use these whips as you see", Raff said.

"Very well, I will fight you with these," Aoshi said, as he pulled out his two kodachi's. As Misao was watching this, she actually wanted to laugh. She just never got why men were so formal when they battled. If she were in the fight, she would have been stabbing the guy already. She could imagine Aoshi saying to his opponent 'These are my weapons, and now I shall shop off your head'. Just thinking it made her laugh, but now wasn't the time to be laughing.

"Ah, kodachi's, I've never battled against any, this will be interesting," Raff stated.

"Neither have I battled against whips either, that shall be interesting as well."

The both of them got into there fighting stance as they were ready to attack. But just then when they were about to, the giant doors came open, and Pack and Rack came out, along with the other Oniwabanshu ninja's.

"Hey Misao!", Okon and Omasu yelled.

"Oh, Misao, we knew you'd still be alive!", Kuro and Shiro yelled out.

"Oh my pretty Misao, did you miss your sexy grandfather!" Okina yelled out.

"Jiya, out of all the places in the world, did you have to yell it out here….", Misao wailed. God, he was never going to give up was he.

"So Raff I see you got here first, that's no surprise", Pack yelled out to Raff.

"Of course", Raff answered.

But then the door's opened again and Cole appeared and entered the room. He had that creepy smile on his face again, as he stood at the wall behind Raff.

"Welcome, it seems we have visitors here", Cole announced," The most polite thing to do is to greet our guests….with our weapons of course."

"Fine by us!", Shiro and Kuro yelled, as they approached Pack and Rack.

"Fine by us, you say", said Rack," But me and Pack fight together, so it will be better if it was a two on two."

"Just the way we like it", Shiro yelled.

Misao could see that Pack and Rack's weapons didn't look all that tough, they only had what looked like metal claws on their hands and that was it. But Raff though, they looked really challenging.

"Very well", Cole announced, "Let the battles begin!"

Aoshi and Raff then charged at each other at full force. Aoshi formed his kodachi's into a pair of scissors as Raff dodged them, without using his whips. But not for long; right when Raff dodged Aoshi's kodachi's, he slashed his right whip right on Aoshi's right side ribs. Blood splattered from there as Aoshi jumped back away from Raff, and started to regain his breath. Raff however stood there, no indication at all if he was tired. Aoshi then stood up and knew that this was going to be a long battle.

Shiro and Kuro were not doing so well either. They both got slashed a couple of times by Pack and Rack with their metal claws. It seemed there was nowhere to hit on these guys.

"Hey guys, switch!" Okon yelled out. Shiro and Kuro did just that as they slowly backed away as Okon and Omasu stepped up. Pack and Rack looked to each other and laughed.

"What are you two laughing at!" Omasu yelled.

"It's just that, do really expect you two woman to beat us," Pack snickered.

"You'd be surprised what us women can do," Okon said, as she smiled at them since she had a plan in her head form watching Kuro and Shiro fighting. She told Omasu the plan before as well, so both knew what to do.

"Alright then 'Miss hot shot', were not going to go easy on you, let's go," Rack roared.

Pack and Rack started charging at Okon and Omasu. But the way they were charging was the same way they did it to Shiro and Kuro. While charging, they would jump side to side, in front of each other, to make it look like there were multiple of them. But Okon and Omasu were prepared for this, right when Rack came down to slash Okon, she jumped back away. Pack quickly tried to slash her again, but again Okon dodged it. Okon quickly turned and saw that Omasu was now right behind her, with the other twin after her as well.

'Perfect….', Okon thought. Now both Oniwabban ninja's were back to back with each other, as the two twins came at full speed to each one. Just as the twins both raised there metal claws to attack, Okon yelled to Omasu…..

"NOW!", and both ducked to the ground. Pack and Rack didn't see this coming and couldn't stop in time. As a result, Pack and Rack slashed each other right across the face of each one. Blood was everywhere on their face as Okon yelled to Omasu….

"Alright, now's our chance!"

Okon quickly got up and bashed her weapon behind Pack's neck, knocking him unconscious. Omasu did the same to Rack as both fell to the ground with their eyes rolled back in their heads, blood all over their faces and ground.

" You see", Okon started, "As I was watching when Shiro and Kuro were fighting, I noticed their speed and how fast they were. True their speed is incredible, and I used their speed to our advantage. But that wasn't what led them to their defeat, it was their cockiness that did it."

Okon looked back at Shiro and Kuro and said, while smirking…..

"You see, that's why you shouldn't let a man do a woman's job".

"Shut up!" Shiro yelled, as he already had bandages applied to his injuries, so did Kuro.

"Ha, and we even left this fight untouched", Omasu snickered with Okon.

"Well done…. you two." Okina quietly said. Okina looked up and could see Cole didn't enjoy this much.

"My comrades……got beaten by two women…" Cole stated threw clenched teeth. But Cole looked to his left and then smiled. "Ah, at least one of my comrades is doing their job."

As Cole said it, Raff was accurately winning the match with only a slash at his shoulder. But Aoshi on the other hand, had many slashes on his body, most on his rib area. Aoshi was panting for breath as he still held a strong grip on his kodachi's.

"You're lucky those slashes aren't deep, if they were you would be dead right now. But whips don't make big slashes though, so you're lucky in this case."

'He's strong', Aoshi thought, 'I cant even hit him'.

Okina was watching Aoshi the whole time, and could tell he was in trouble. If he didn't think of something fast, it will be over….and fast.

'Think Aoshi', Okina thought, 'If you cant attack him, then there must be something else you can attack…….'

It was as if Aoshi read Okina's mind, cause his eye's winded and he then got into one of his stances again.

"Are you still going to try that, it wont work, my whips will block it before it can even lay a hair on me." Raff stated.

Aoshi chose not to answer, but instead charged at him and formed his stance for his Kaiten Kenbu, his most ultimate attack. Raff huffed at this, since he tried it not to long ago and set his whips down to attack Aoshi's head. But Aoshi quickly changed his stance to instead formed his kodachi's into their scissor form. Aoshi quickly caught the whips with his kodachi's, and just like scissors, he snapped Raff's whips in half. The ends of the whips fell to the ground silently as Aoshi jumped back. Raff looked completely shocked, he had figured that he would try his ultimate attack again, but was wrong.

'I see, so you changed your attack right at the last minute. You had me fooled to believe you were going to your ultimate attack, but instead you changed your attack cause you knew where I was going to attack, and took my whips.", Raff thought out.

"It's over, your now weaponless, there would be no point in fighting anymore now would there", Aoshi stated calmly.

"You are correct, I am weaponless and I have lost a battle which I have used all of me strengths. You are the victor in this battle" Raff stated back calmly, as he bowed to Aoshi. Aoshi nodded and sheathed his kodachi's back in place. Cole however, did not look happy at all.

"What! This cant be happening, all my comrades lost to a bunch of freaks in customs!" Cole yelled out.

"Well theses freaks in costumes, are now telling you to surrender," Okina started," All of your comrades have lost in honorable fights, please give Misao to us peacefully and you may not be in jail for a long time."

"Cole." Aoshi stated.

"What?" Cole answered.

"Tell me one thing, why is it you are after Misao. You could not be doing this just for the sake of her in personal, am I correct."

"Oh, so she didn't tell you did she." Cole said amused. He looked at Misao who had surprise written all over her face. The others were looking at her as well, wondering what she was hiding.

"Well, well, well, look what we got here" Cole said, now laughing, "Well, to make things simple, we met at Tokyo not to long ago, and well…..me and her got pretty close".

"Bastard, tell them the truth!", Misao yelled out

Cole smiled at Misao and then cheerfully replied.

"Alright, alright, truth is I basically raped Misao". Right when Cole said that, everyone where sending death glares to him as were just two seconds from braking his neck. Cole saw this and then announced…..

"But that doesn't matter does it, all that matter's is that if I cant have Misao, no one can…"

But before anyone can do anything, Cole pulled out a revolver and pointed it straight at Misao. Misao, to shocked to do anything, stood their with wide eyes as Cole lastly said….

"So long Misao, have fun in the after life!"

The sound of a bullet was heard throughout the gym, as the sound of blood splattering was heard as well…….

Well, that was chapter 13, and god, I think that was the longest chapter I have ever done so far. But then again, I had to get all of this in. But on with the story, ooooo you guys are gonna kill me for another ending like this aren't you. Well, I'm sorry, but this is my job, to keep you entertained. Does Misao die form the bullet? Find out in the next chappie!

Oh yea, and I want to say that I might not be able to update soon as usual cause of school and all and plus I might get grounded. So, I hope I'll be able to update soon!