Author's Note: Alright, I've finally thought out a schedule for updating. I plan to update twice a week, with some exception (homework, etc.). By the way, forget that Soujirou wears breeches! I made a slight mistake in that, so now I'll portray him wearing a comfortable hakama and gi -. You know, I actually didn't think I'd make it to fifty reviews. I thought I would only get 20 or 30, tops. But you guys blew that away, easily! Thank you... There was something else I wanted to say....hmmm...what was it? ARGH! I'll think of it later.
Review Responses:
Dragon Master271: You're welcome! And thanks!
GoldAngel2: Wow...I don't know what to say...except I'm so happy to hear that! -
Whisper of Darkness: Thanks! Exactly my intentions.
NargieGirl21: Thank you--I'll definitely try my hardest!
Shihali: You've guessed it! I wouldn't doubt Kaoru's character for a second -. By the way, the ki that Kenshin sensed is just the ki of a black-outfitted lackey. Nothing to get overly excited over.
Brittanie Love: I hope two times a week is soon enough for you!
Arteme: When I read your review, suddenly an earsplitting grin (and I mean earsplitting) exploded onto my face. My sister glanced over and immediately deducted that I had gone insane, sitting in front of the computer screen and grinning my head off. So I guess she's ready to send me off to the funny farm...
Shiomei: Thank you! I had a really good time, in fact.
rurouni madness: If I went through Kaoru's predicament, I'd probably have tried to beat up Shishio the first time I get. First: a hard slap in the face with dominant hand. Second: Yank the green rug out from under him. Third: give him a swift kick in the family jewels. Seriously! He makes me SO mad... and that's why I like writing a fic with him in it!
Disclaimer: The characters, storyline, and heck, the plot kind of isn't mine. I'm basing this fic on the Legend of Kyoto subset of Rurouni Kenshin. But hey, you still can't exactly copy my idea! (Well, without informing me, that is, and actually asking ).
A Cloak of Protection
Chapter 7: Striking HopeDAY TWO--6:20 am
Kaoru angrily gripped the edges of the crimson drapes in her pale hands. Her knuckles showed a startling white against the background of the red drapes.
How could this be? She had been so close. So close.
She furiously wrung out the curtains in her hands, and slowly sank to the carpeted ground, wanting to scream out her anger and frustration. A hint of shining tears threatened to spill over from her sapphire eyes, but she determinedly forced them back.
Kaoru sat there on the carpeted ground, stiff back against the locked door, and stared numbly at the twisted handfuls of red drape wound around her fists. A heavy lump formed in her throat, making it painful to swallow.
She didn't know how long she lay there, listening to the soft and persistent ticking of Soujirou's gold-rimmed pocketwatch. Which was now sprawled on its side, lying near the double front doors. Kaoru couldn't see where the pocketwatch lay, as the pale yellow couch was blocking her way.
Her back started to ache from leaning against the stiff wooden door, and she finally got up. This was a difficult feat, as her right foot had unfortunately fallen asleep. As she struggled to stand up, pinpricks of numb pain shot through her swelling foot and she stumbled heavily, starting to fall.
She seemed to fall in slow motion, plummeting to the ground. Her breath caught in her throat, and her loose, long raven hair flew back. Suddenly, a flash of deja vu hit her square in the back. This fall reminded her of how she had fallen in the woods near her dojo--right before she had fainted from loss of blood--right before she had been captured--
The side table, next to the yellow couch, loomed in her view. The lone candle perched on the round surface of the side table flickered crazily in her view, as she fell toward the table.
Finally she crashed into the side table, knocking it over. It smashed into the green carpet, and the candle toppled over. Lying among the protruding wooden legs of the side table, Kaoru watched in horror as the candle tipped over. She knew what would happen when it reached the ground--and she had no bucket of water close by. Heck, there wasn't even any water in this room at all.
Almost unconsciously, Kaoru shot out a pale arm to catch the falling candle. Her elbow smashed into a leg of the side table, and she winced as lightning bolts of pain shot up and down her arm. In her mind, she prayed.
Luckily, Kaoru was able to catch the candle before it hit the ground and exploded into flame. She had seized the side of it, so the tiny flame hadn't sputtered out in her palm.
Sighing in unsuppressed relief, Kaoru stretched her arm as far as it would go and gently set the candle, with its dish, right-side up on the ground, so to allow her room to untangle herself from the mess with the side table. A wooden leg jutted into her ribs, and one pressed against her smooth cheek. The other crushed against her elbow, sending waves of electricity up her arm.
Wincing, Kaoru backed out of the mess and straightened up, quickly clenching her left forearm as red-tinged pain flashed in the wound on her left shoulder. The fall had jolted both of her wounds, and the side table's legs didn't help matters. Poking her cruelly hadn't helped at all, smashing into her elbow and almost numbing it...
Kaoru gasped, clapping her right hand to her mouth. For she had just gotten a bright flash of inspiration.
She hurried back to the fallen side table, long silky raven-blue hair flying behind her. She knelt down to the side table, which was sprawled heavily on its side. Taking one of the three legs into her hands, she examined it, running her index finger down the wooden stick, measuring it with her calculating sapphire eyes, trying to imagine the leg not attached to the circular surface of the side table.
The leg stopped a few inches short of a regular bokken, but otherwise, it was the perfect size. However, it didn't matter--the Kamiya Kasshin Style maintained the fact that you could use anything in your efforts to protect others. Once, when her bokken had cracked in half, it had still been useful in succeeding to whip the bad guy's butt. This side table leg would be perfect for wielding. It didn't matter that it was carved in a curving, Oriental way.
And now--she finally had a weapon.
She could finally defend herself.
Whoever tries to come in, Kaoru told herself proudly, better regret it.
This sudden but rewarding discovery almost made up for the locked door that she assumed opened up to a dark, secret passageway. It almost did.
Without further hesitation, Kaoru set at the task of trying to remove the wooden leg from the side table. As she pulled at the delicately carved leg with her hands, she noticed how sturdy the wood was. This was going to be one fine weapon--it didn't even matter that the table's legs were carved intricately.
A surge of happy hope filled Kaoru, brightening its way from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. The extra strength helped her in deftly ripping the leg from the table. It had been securely attached, but her superstrength and bursting hope had practically done the job for her.
Now, Kaoru grasped the end of the wooden leg in her hands. It was slightly slick because of the shiny rosewood oil applied to it. But no matter--she would find a way to scrub it off.
As Kaoru wielded the wooden leg and brought it down hard, she almost lost her grip. The carved edges of the leg bit into her palm and fingers, so she'd have a tough time handling the leg. No matter, Kaoru decided. She would put a grip on it--and her obi seemed perfect for the job.
Kaoru strode over happily to the yellow couch, hefting the leg in her hands and not bothering to clean up the mess behind her, consisting of the two- legged side table and the pile of scattered candles and matches on the ground.
Perching on the edge of the couch, Kaoru reached down to rip her magenta obi off. Her long, nimb fingers grasped the edges of it, and she pulled the obi from around her middle. A bright smile on her rosy lips, she set to work on improving her new 'bokken'.
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6:25 am
The invisible, cheery birds sang their early morning tunes, singing in high- pitched voices. The leafy tops of trees gently rustled in the calm breeze. All was quiet and still.
However, to the shocked Kenshin, the world had come to a halting stop.
He couldn't take his wide violet eyes off the violently shivering arrow, embedded in the dojo wall.
The long, wooden arrow that had shot directly at him, grazing his cheek and piercing the dojo wall just behind him.
This was a horrible omen. He could feel it. And it most likely had something to do with Kaoru-dono.
Kaoru-dono.
Kenshin forced his leaden legs to move. He dashed over to the dojo's wooden side and to the arrow, mind numb with fear for what he was about to see. Tied around the arrow's long wooden shaft was a tightly-folded paper.
Kenshin's eyes narrowed, and he reached up with his right arm to yank out the arrow. Grasping the wooden shaft, he braced the palm of his left hand against the dojo wall and pulled. Finally the arrow pulled out of the wall, and Kenshin almost fell backward. The arrow had been imbedded pretty deep in.
Carefully handling the slim arrow with his right thumb and forefinger, like it had an incurable disease, Kenshin stepped away from the dojo's wall and plunked down on the top step of the three wooden steps, left arm automatically bracing himself from toppling over. He couldn't tear his eyes from the tightly wrapped piece of folded paper around the arrow's shaft.
Licking his suddenly dry lips, he laid the slender arrow onto his knees. The wooden arrow stood out among the clean whiteness of his hakama, the hakama's baggy folds surrounding the dent of the arrow.
Kenshin's fiery-red bangs completely covered his dark eyes, shielding them from view and throwing them into a haunting shadow. He licked his lips again, twining his fingers together.
Come on! he told himself, biting his lower lip. No use in stalling--might as well see what the paper says.
But try as he might to yell at himself, try to get himself to untie the thickly-folded piece of paper from the arrow, and unfold the note, he just couldn't.
Kenshin just sat there, the seemingly innocent wooden arrow perched on his white-hakama'd knees, his magenta gi flapping in the gentle morning breeze, amethyst eyes clouded, long, thin fingers twined together.
Until he dimly heard Sanosuke bang open the door to his room, and call loudly for him.
"Kenshin! Kenshin! Is breakfast ready yet? Oi, Kenshin!"
Kenshin violently started, feeling guilty for having sat there on the dojo's front steps for such a long time, unwilling to at least open up the thicky folded paper. He quickly untwined his fidgeting fingers and reached for the arrow, grabbing it up and hastily untying the piece of white paper, folded over and over horizontally many times.
In his haste, he almost ripped the piece of paper apart, trying to unfold it. His nimble fingers, useful to him in so many battles, failed him. Now his fingers just seemed like heavy blocks of wood, knocking into each other and totally useless in his task.
After fumbling around for a few minutes, his block-like fingers finally managed to grasp the edge of the knot and pull, slightly undoing the tight knot. He shudderingly drew in a deep breath and plucked at the knot again, occasionally failing to grasp the knot and having his thumbnail cutting into his index fingerpad.
Finally, the knot came apart, and the long, thickly folded piece of paper dropped heavily to the second step. It was creased in the center from having been tied to the arrow's shaft, and it tumbled around vaguely from the slight morning breeze.
Kenshin hastily bent down for the paper, the back of his magenta gi becoming taut. The fingers of his left hand gripped the edge of the step as he straightened back up with the paper that had been knotted around the arrow. In the fingers of his right hand, he tightly clenched the note, knuckles bone-white.
This was it--he couldn't stall any longer.
As the red-haired samurai started to slowly unfold the thickly-folded slip of paper, a strong feeling of foreboding blasted him full in the chest, sending him reeling. Of course, this paper had strong, unpleasant vibes hanging on to it. Kenshin could sense it.
Biting his lip, Kenshin rolled out the extremely creased paper. Now he could see the boldly imprinted words on the paper, now naked to the world after the paper had been unfolded.
A turmoil of emotions rose up in Kenshin. No--he couldn't read it--he couldn't!
Heart pounding, palms sweating, he shook out the note with difficulty, so to completely unfold the paper. And finally, he brought his clouded violet eyes down to the crinkled paper and started to read the stark, carefully scribbled letters.
"Battousai-
We have your woman.
Don't try to play any unnecessary games with us. Do so or the girl dies.
To reclaim her, come to the Six-Gated temple in Kyoto. Surely you know where that is.
You won't get your woman back unless you defeat the top Juppongatana members.
Lastly, you must fight me to finally settle things between us. Lose, and you will suffer drastic consequences.
Shishio"
A turmoil of barely suppressed emotions bubbled up inside the fiery-haired man sitting tensely on the dojo steps. He clenched his teeth tightly together.
Kenshin's eyes had been narrow and gleaming with anger as he read the note. Now, his usual shining amethyst eyes had hardened to a cool yet burning liquid gold color. With an angry gesture, he deftly tore the crinkled piece of paper into two equal halves and hurled them away from him. Angrily, he shoved himself up from his sitting position.
"Shishio," Kenshin breathed, hands clenching together into tight fists. In his mind, the horrifying dream from this morning replayed, and again he saw Kaoru-dono, lying limp on the misty ground. Shuddering, he sank back down to the top step and clasped his hands to his head, trying to rid away the horrifying image. His head pounded with an indignant fury like never before.
How dare he take away Kaoru-dono??
Author's Note: I remember what I forgot to say! Anyway, I wanted to ask you all: How do you add in bold/underlined/italicized words into a fic? I know you have to use HTML documents or something, but do you have to do that? (Sorry, I'm a little confused...). Anyway, I don't follow instructions well, so if you help me on this, then you'll have to be VERY clear and VERY detailed in your explanation... -; Wait for the next chapter in a few days!
-Twilight Sky