---Kanna and Souzou---

She dodged left and felt the blade collide with her ankle and she hissed, falling to the side. She saw his blade coming down upon her and she quickly slid back so her legs got scratched up pretty good as she flipped her fan open and swung it at him, slicing open his sleeves and jacket.

Souzou saw his opening and charged, knocking Saito off his feet and the two of them collided with the nearest tree. Souzou lifted his fist and slammed it into the side of Saito's face, blood splashing out all over his fist and the dirt beneath the "officer", and he didn't stop when Saito finally dropped his weapon.

Kanna slowly stood up, her hands shaking, her eyes wide. She reached out and gently took hold of Souzou's raised fist and sank to her knees beside the two men as she held Souzou's hand to her face and gently kissed his fist, which loosened and his menacing look vanished, he just relaxed and his other hand came up and he touched her cheek.

Saito lay there looking away, not wanting to watch these two. "Get off of me, you." He shoved Souzou off and reached for his sword. Kanna stepped on the blade so he couldn't pick it up. "Cut it out. I'm not going to cut anyone with this any time soon." He sheathed it. "I know this will be the worst way to tell the woman of my brother's house, but, now is not the best time to return to his house..."

Kanna nodded. She took out a hankercheif and handed it to him. He stared at her. She pointed to her mouth. "For the blood." She went to Souzou and smiled her innocent smile once more and she handed him her fan, as if she was asking him a favor. "You can hold that for a bit." She went out of sight, where the trees were thickest and the rain didn't come through as much.

Saito hit Souzou with the hankercheif. "She writes things in odd places. Maybe she's giving you a message... like this." He held up her hankercheif. There, written in katakana were the words 'don't, not in the rain, and deffinately not when I'm here' "She refers to any harm to you... she's so annoying like that..." Saito looked utterly irritated. "See, the thing is, my 'brother', as he calls himself, wants her head. I went ahead to try to warn her. I'm sorry, but I had thought you were one of the men that wanted her head... do you wish for a formal apology?"

Souzou grimaced. "No."

---Sano and Ken---

Kenshin suddenly whirrled around in a circle, avoiding a spear that was thrown at him and he almost fell, but Sano caught him. They looked for the source of the spear. When they found nothing, Sano decided to move on, and so did Kenshin.

The two began to walk into the forest when they heard a crash and looked to see trees being pushed out of the way of a raging man who had a body drapped in awhite shirt and dark leggings with shoes and black hairdragging behind him. He was tall, almost like Aoishi, but his hair was blonde and his eyes the color of blood, and skin like ivory colors. Beside him was a sword dripping with rain and blood.

Kenshin noticed the body was dead already and the rain was washing away the blood from it's wounds, almost like there was something horribly wrong with the body, like it was blood-less.

All of a sudden, it swung the sword at something that was trying to get up from the splintered mess of trees and they saw him, his red head band flying out, his white shirt bathed in water, his armour shimmering with blood, black hair flying, black leggings and white and black shoes drenched in mud and blood...

Souzou collided with a tree and it snapped, his scream echoing throughout the forest. Sano darted in front of the next attack and re-directed it with his two-layer technique. Kenshin was about to take action when a flash of white and he saw her, her blade embeded with diamonds, dripping blood in the rain. Kanna's eyes were no longer sweet and beautiful, they were dark and evil, almost like those of the Batousai.

Sano charged forward, but he wasn't able to fight this thing of a human. Kanna's blade flashed over his down body and she matched the man blow-for-blow, like they were equals, despite age, height, and gender. She hopped over him as he began to slice at her. She changed course right over his head and managed to twist around and slash at the back of his neck, knocking him forward and she landed lightly near a tree, her blad held up before her. She twitched and was a blur of white as the man began to stand.

Sano pointed. "See? She's all good. I think the name we gave her would have been perfect."

Kenshin stared at Sano. "Your proud to call her your sister, aren't you?"

"Nah. I consider her a cousin!"

Souzou groaned and covered his face. "I see somethings don't change..." He wobbled to his feet and he sighed, leaning against a sturdy tree and he watched her. "She means a lot to me because she saved my life and I have nothing I can return in payment for that... in some ways, she's like a lover I never will get..." He slid to his knees, his legs giving out and he slumped to the ground.

The man changed course and threw Saito at Souzou and Sano. The two of them weren't able to dodge out of the way, but they did manage to hold Saito. Kenshin and Kanna charged forward, their blades flashing and the man matched them blow-for-blow. Kenshin raised his blade to do the Kuzu Ryu Sen and was suddenly knocked to the side by Kanna's sheath.

"oro!" Kenshin was startled, but then he saw it, her hand was bleeding.

"Don't do anything fancy. Stick to the basics. He has no power of the basics. He also copies any special attacks you use to defeat him... even if you think you can beat him that way, you have to do something different and not something that he can copy." She launched herself at the man again and she clashed. "There's no point in trying to give him time! Just charge in whenever you feel like you see an opening!"

"hai?" Kenshin saw her throw an opening free when she threw her own blade into the air, throwing his blade up as well, showing that she was now unarmed.

Kenshin's blade flared with rain and became so quick to cut that man across the knees, knocking him down. His hands raised up to do a vertical strike on this guy, but it came down a little slow, so the guy was out of the way before the blade was able to strike him, mud flying up into the air around the slab of metal as it came down on where the opponent once was. All of a sudden, Kenshin went flying past, his whole body coming to a full fledged tree and colliding with it,with the tree starting to crack and collapse.

Kanna's fan became a circular blade that cut down the tree so it wasn't so harsh of a fall on Kenshin. She blocked with her blade and made it spin off. She stood there, breath coming uneasily, blood staining that pure white kimono, but it wasn't an enemy blood, it was Kenshin's blood that stained her cloths, causing large red hand-prints on her sleeve, like blotches of red rose petals on white snow.

"This is the end," Kanna whispered, her eyes begining to streak with tears as she straightened up with Kenshin's arm at her side. "This is where I draw the line. I won't live to see a new day anymore. I must die like I should have back then. There's no way I can live my life now that those around me are starting to suffer from my mistakes, the mistakes I caused by acting selfishly. No more. Today, I can finally die and rest peacefully benath the earth." She closed her eyes and smiled. "Kenshin? Shinta-chan, take care of yourself and the one you love, ok?"

"Eh?" Kenshin stared as Kanna raised her daimond-studded blade above her head. "K-Kanna?"

"Goodbye," she said, turning to her friend and his lover and at the face of the man she loved. "Today, I can rest peacefully knowing your all safe." She turned back to her opponent as he lurched forward to attack her. "BRING IT! I can take what ever you throw at me now! I know where your weakness stands!" She brought her blade down and sliced off his legs from the top of the knee to the heels of his foot. He managed to twist around and smack her across the back with his huge blade and slash open her back and spread her blood all over the kimono and splashing into the mud, she lay there, unmoving. She didn't even twitch.

"Kana!" Souzou lunged forward and scooped her up into his arms. "Kanna?" He pushed her hair out of her face. "Maybe I shouldn't be the one alive. I should have died years ago, when they fired those guns at me and betrayed me in such a manor, don't you think, Sano?"

"Well, there's a chance you were meant to be here to be beside her. There's that possibility as well, Sagara. I don't think it's quite the reason you want, but there's no way you can just throw her away like that. I think you should be the person she wants to smile just for her sometimes, like sometimes I want Kenshin to just be the dork he is. Maybe you should live just a little while longer so she can finally rest at ease?"

Souzou stared at Kanna's paling face and she smiled softly and touched his cheek with her cold hand. Her eyes began to fade and her tears began to stop as she slowly let go of Souzou's other hand and her's fell into the mud. The rain kept pouring, pouring like they didn't care that it had smothered the tears of a dying girl like that, sheding the regrets of life and sheding new light onto a dead man's heart.

---one week later---

Kenshin was carrying a boquet of white roses and Sano was carrying a single white Lily of the Valley. The two stood before a set of graves. One read; Here lies Kanna, a White Rose amongst the toughest men, Dec. 2 - March 5, Beloved sister, beloved friend, and beside it, that tomb stone read; Here likes Souzou, a strong man until the end of his days, Jan. 16 - March 6, Beloved leader, beloved friend.

Kenshin knelt down and touched Kanna's grave. "You rest now. The forest will protect you for as long as you need. You and Souzou are free now, free to love and be loved like you have always longed for, that you can. Rest and be free, free, free!" Kenshin put the boquet down and stood up. "You think they'll be safe?"

"Yeah." Sano kissed Kenshin on the ear and put his Lily of the Valley on Souzou's grave. "I think they'll be just fine. Kanna and Souzou could hold their own in a fight, no sense they go through the afterlife not loving one another." Sano smiled. "NOW! TIME FOR BEEF STEW ON KAROU!"

'He only thinks of food when it's utterly neccesary. Well, I think that makes him cute!'