Kurokuma Lin would have loved to say he never signed up for any of this, but that would have just been dishonest - a vice that lawyers were expected to avoid, as a matter of principle.

Not that the expectation mattered in Kurokuma's case, as he couldn't recall when last he had been honest. It came with the job description of being in the pockets of a crime boss and cahoots with yakuza.

So yes, he did pretty much sign up for this, being called upon to start and referee a deathmatch between his client's brother and the headmaster of an old-school kenjutsu dojo. With a quiet sigh, he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, before glancing between the two sword wielders pensively. Say what you will of his scruples, they paid himjust enough to do these things.

'Kamiya-san. Hiruma-sama.' He straightened his tie and cleared his throat, before glancing between the two parties. 'This duel's victor will be determined by who first puts the other's back. I have prepared with me a contract of sale and transfer of ownership in my possession. Kamiya-san will sign the papers should she lose. Should she win-'

'She won't win.' Gohei gruffed out, glaring at a calm and collected Kaoru. Kurokuma made a face and bowed his head.

'Naturally, but by way of theoretical happenstance, if she should win I will be obliged to tear apart said documents in my possession. Questions, anyone?' He turned his head back to the older Hiruma brother as he asked, knowing that it was all moot if he were to disagree.

Kihei was not a happy man, but one look at his stubborn brother told him that putting an end to such silly theatrics would only cause more them more hassle.

'What are you looking at me for? Get this over with already, I want to call the engineer that'll start working on my new property as soon as this is over!'

'Yes, Hiruma-sama.' Kurokuma murmured dryly and returned his gaze to the two before him. 'Well... begin.' He took a step back and took off his glasses, wiping at the lens as swords clashed. 'Oh dear... I definitely should ask for a raise after this.'

...

Gohei sneered at the woman who had drawn first blood so early on in the match, letting out a harsh bark of laughter as he paid her back with a slice on her abdomen. She leapt back far enough to have it leave nothing but a shallow cut, but it still stung badly. Kaoru inhaled a sharp breath, unbothered by the blood seeping into her cloth. The gash she landed on her opponent's cheek was much deeper.

Kaoru raised her hands, her sword cutting his thrust to her chest off in a feinted counter-attack and destabilizing his grip He was heavier than her, and his sword was heavier than hers. Gohei's brutal and savage attacks kept the weight gap fresh in her mind, but she wasn't headmaster on a whim. She dodged out of his way and launched pre-emptive counterattacks with her father's tachi as she evaded. Gohei wasn't by any means a slow opponent and for every time she dodged and returned he just paid her back in kind, determined to overpower her with sheer brute force. It was his viciousness that drew her to cut him so early into the fight in the first place, but his viciousness was also why she was keeping her distance.

'You're very good.' She remarked finally, hoping the conversation would buy her time. Gohei straightened up at this, successfully distracted. He opened his mouth to reply when Kaoru launched her self thrust-first at him. He immediately switched to defence, but again her attack was nothing but a feint. She stabbed the ground and threw herself up in the air, before landing feet first on a sword that defended his face at the last minute. As quickly as her feet made contact with not-flesh she lept off him and landed right back where her sword was. She pulled it out from the ground and glared at him. He gave her a cruel grin and she sneered. 'I see you mastered many of our techniques, bastardized as they are in an attempt to kill they may be.'

'I don't care for your compliments.'

'I don't care to give them either. I prefer the facts.' She said haughtily and then gave him a devious smile of her own. 'Your brother was right. I have seen video archives, however, and even well into your prime, my mother's skills at nineteen was superior.'

Gohei's expression blanched and on the sidelines, Kurokuma made a distressed noise. Gohei spoke of the late madam Kamiya in their meetings with great anger. To be told by her spawn that he was second best was a recipe for disaster. Not to far off to his side, Kihei carried the same sentiments. Never mind that they were true - he had always known his brother to be a better marksman with a gun than swordsman with a blade.

'I'll maim you so badly you'll beg to die, and I'll oblige such begging after you forfeit the rights to that be-damned dojo.'

'You're welcome to tr-' She cut her self off as she defended against another brutish attack. She was more than a little annoyed by it. It was clear that he had completed every level in all 3 classes of student sets, and she was starting to suspect he had at least learned up to her father level of skill on the headmaster's power scale before going rogue and picking up more fatality-inclined techniques. The Kamiya-Kashin style was nearly-completely defensive, and she recognised his attack forms as modified versions of those from the power scale training charts. 'I'll be damned you asshole.' She scowled as his weight began dominating and pushing against her sword. 'If you had a working right hand you would be a very big problem.'

'You have your old man to thank for that,' he snapped, his jaw clenching at the reminder of her handicap. Kaoru slacked in her weight and sidestepped as soon as he took advantage of her pulling back. As she predicted, stepping to his right slowed down the reaction time of his left-handed attack. It was enough her, as she immediately drew the sheath out and went straight for the crook of his left wrist. Not for the first time Kaoru wished her muscle mass was bigger. She had given him a heavy hit, but in no way crippled him. She didn't wait for him to recover from the pain before ducking and slicing his thigh. He finally let out a heavy groan, but Kaoru was far from through with him. 'You bitch-!'

But Kaoru had completely pushed him into defending with her coming down hard on his less-favoured side. She had fought her father while he was alive enough times to pick up more than one of his high-level offence techniques and had long since an offensive program of her own to serve as a considerably vicious opponent to her students. Having cut him down enough to slow him, he would not be able to change gears fast enough to overtake the speed of her footwork and gain the advantage on her. It was only a matter of time before she'd floor him. She was confident about this.

And she wasn't the only one who believed so either.

Gohei was roaring with rage, incensed at the idea that the spawnling of his long-dead usurper, a girl of all things, was more than his match. But Kaoru was not phased by his aggression, pressing hard with her attacks. She'd be damned before letting one of his attacks deal a good blow. Not after what she had dodged by a hair-thin margin.

'You're used to the advantage being left-handed gives you and how hard it is for people to defend from attacks from an unfamiliar direction. What you're not used to is using your right hand to do what your left hand could do against right-handed attackers. Oh no,' she sneered as she made another successful hit, this time with her hilt to his elbow joint. 'You're too used to what a murdering terror being a lefty makes you against your opponents. I'll bet those women you killed only fell victim cause of your clutch. You're not that good, and it's obvious they must have given you a hell of a fight before they went down.'

Gohei cursed her and raised his right arm to do just what she said he failed to do. He knew she was baiting him before her sword sliced a clean deep cut into his arm, but he didn't mind it. The sword clean stabbing into her thigh was satisfaction enough.

Kaoru gasped as she dropped to one knee, her sword in the ground to hold her up. Gohei's blade was still in her leg and with a cry of pain, she pulled it out and staggered to her feet. She tried to will the pain from her consciousness, but she was not her opponent. She couldn't take a hit and keep going as he could. She stared at his bleeding arm, which bled as much as her own wound. She flickered her eyes to the cut she gave him on his thigh, which looked like it stung like hell. Her eyes found him again, and he was sporting a sneer at her.

'I'll be damned,' she cursed out loud as she stared at him in shock. He knew it was a bait and he didn't care. He took the hit anyway, to throw her off her one-tracked focus of her line of attack. 'You're bloody insane.'

'If that's what you call taking an efficient risk I'll take it.' Gohei said smugly. 'You have papers to sign.'

'Damn you! I'm not on my back yet!'

Gohei appraised her thoughtfully, before kicking straight to the face. He knocked her out cold and flat on her back, making Kurokuma wince from where he stood.

There were several beats of silence.

'Gohei you idiot! How is she going to sign the damn thing now?'

'Its a shame. She had such a pretty face...' the lawyer murmured pitifully. He lifted his head to his employer. 'I expect you want me to start making those calls.'

'Yes yes...' Kihei waved him off dismissively. 'You can do that while we head inside to put the troublesome broad. Gohei I've had enough of these delays and if she wakes up to a missing limb she'll give me hell before I get that land so for the love of God don't maim the wench just yet! Show restraint, she's yours to do whatever after she's done being useful!'

The murderer merely grunted and turned away from his fallen opponent, binding his wounds with fabric that had been torn while fighting, all the while mumbling to himself about troublesome women high on power trips these days. He turned to glare at Kaoru's still bleeding wound, before crouching and rudely stuffing it with just enough clothes to stop bleeding. Her face contorted half-heartedly, but she was still out cold. He slung her over his shoulder unceremoniously and the three men started to make their way out of the hangar of the ship and back into the passenger area when they heard shouts and gunshots. The three men glanced at each other and then looked back in the direction of the hangar door. The gunshots were followed by the unmistakable sound of swords and screams. None of the members of the gang used swords. Kihei scowled and gave his brother a hard stare.

'We have guests. Have Kurokuma carry the broad and you go entertain them for us.' He got out his mobile and started dialling his pilot. 'Yoshino-chan if you get yourself killed I'll bring you back and saw those tits off of you! Hurry up and get us out of here!' He barked into his phone as he stormed off. Kurokuma gulped as he watched him march off before hurrying to the equally terrifying brother to carry Kaoru.

'Kamiya-san is heavy.' He said when he felt his upper body sag under the weight of carrying her bridal style. Gohei didn't spare the lawyer a glance though, instead picking up his bloodied sword and bringing out the spare keys to the space ship. With the press of a button, the hangar doors opened up. He was a long way off, but the murderous expression on the real Battousai's face was impossible to miss.

...

Despite all of the worry he had been feeling on his way here, seeing Gohei bloodied and bandaged as he was made him smile. Kaoru had made him pay in blood, whatever her plan was. However she was not the one waiting for him, and that was all it took to quell the satisfaction and pride at her handiwork. He noticed he was alone and glance back at his partner briefly.

'Zanza get the kid off my back.' He yelled, his eyes quickly focused on Gohei again.

'I'll throw him at the fodder.'

'Aright!'

'Yeah! I get thrown at the fodder - wait - what-?!'

But Sanosuke was already grabbing Yahiko by the scruff of his neck and throwing him to the wolves. With a scream, he landed on the back one of the thugs coming towards them from around the spaceship. Despite being caught completely by surprise, the boy took to quick work at his opponent, brutalising him with all the ferocity of a rabid stray cat.

'Get that kid!'

'Isn't that Myojin?'

'Don't kill him boss wanted a piece of the runt!'

'Zanza was that wise?'

'You approved it.' Sanosuke shrugged and then narrowed his eyes at the woman bounding her way towards the ship. 'You can take this guy, right? I got my eye on a chick I wanna meet.'

'Of course Zanza, just don't have too much fun.'

' 'Course bro, it's all for the mission.' The taller hunter grinned and slammed on the gas pedal, steering ways off Kenshin's side and ahead. Gohei watched him go by with mild interest, before focusing on the Battousai, reaching for his gun in the back pocket with his right hand. Kenshin had his sword in his hand as well and set to quick work blocking the bullets without so much as wavering his driving. He smoothly weaved from side to side to dodge most of the bullets and soon Gohei was out of ammunition. Until that point, the velocity at which he'd been riding was practically leisurely. Kenshin held his sword ready at his side and stepped on the gas as well, furiously picking up the speed. He got out of the seat and balanced his feet on it, poised to attack. Gohei watched with reluctant awe and was almost stunned when he found the bike, now riderless, coming straight for him. He grabbed it by the handles and threw it to the side, barely doing so in time to block the bloody sword that was coming straight for his head.

'You came for the whore, Battousai?' He taunted. 'I was kind enough to make sure she doesn't bleed out.'

'Do you want to die?' Kenshin asked simply. Gohei simply smirked as Kenshin leapt back.

'Yunno, I asked the whore the same thing.'

Kenshin did not rise to the bait but instead cast one of his own.

'It would just be like you to find some underhanded way to strike your better down.'

'Not underhanded,' Gohei scoffed dismissively, his jaw ticking in annoyance. 'Gutsy.' Kenshin frowned but said nothing. The other man smirked at his opponent, feeling quite full of himself. 'Definitely gutsy,' he said to himself, but loud enough for Kenshin to pick up. The redhead looked on impassively. Gohei, meanwhile, got impatient and enthusiastic, feeling quite "gutsy" right at that moment. He charged at the bounty hunter with a full swing.

Hiruma Gohei was in for the shock of his life.

He staggered and missed, swiping at thin air, before spinning round to furiously glare at the man who seemed to have completely evaded him. His sword was drawn, but the blade was free of blood and facing the blunt edge up. He made to lunge for Kenshin, but that was when he felt it.

The aftershocks of blunt trauma force in 28 different parts of his body, all in rapid succession. His shaky eyes found the Battousai's as he fell to his knees and coughed out blood onto the metal ground.

'You're not gutsy, Hiruma.' Kenshin said simply as he walked up to her. 'Just stupid.' With that, he had his hilt strike the bigger man's forehead, promptly knocking him out. Kenshin stared at the collapsed body and gave a forlorn sigh. 'That was anti-climatic.'

With that, he made his way into the yakuza's luxury spaceship.

...

'Yoshino-chan forget the sword and use your bloody gun!' Kihei snapped impatiently at his pilot, who was fending off Sanosuke on the other end of the call. He spared a still unconscious Kaoru half a glance before shooting his lawyer a glare.

'Do we really need her Kurokuma?' the question made the lawyer sigh with ill-disguised annoyanve. Asking that this far in deep shit was the kind of thing Kihei disliked, but he clearly wasn't subject to his own rules while under stress. Kurokuma nodded solemnly, confident that forging a new title deed was only asking for more trouble. The Kamiya holdings would prove a useful cover to launder money from their underground businesses, but the "legitimate" cover was doomed to fail if it started on a fraud.

Kihei paced about, from one end of the room to the other. The distant sounds of fighting in the hangar had stopped, which meant one of the Battousais would return into the ship. Gohei had the keys and hopefully, the idiot was working his brains to keep the Battousai at bay. The bounty hunter's reputation preceded him, but he was convinced that he was far from an urban legend or a powerful myth that could not be beaten. He held onto the gun in the inner pockets of his Kimono. The bullet was truly the great equaliser.

'Do you have your gun, Kurokuma?' The lawyer's face as he nodded. 'Good. Hold Kamiya at gunpoint. And don't say a word.'

The lawyer nodded stiffly and obeyed, keeping his eyes transfixed in the direction of the hangar. Kihei kept his eyes in the same direction, schooling his expression when he was greeted with red hair.

'Kihei Hiruma.'

The yakuza held the gun up and immediately started shooting. Kenshin was unfazed by the onslaught, dodging and weaving out of the bullet's path with ease. As soon as he was out of bullets he started to reload his gun in a rush.

'I've had quite a morning, Hiruma-san. Dreadful start. The boy's an awful cook and this one,' he motioned to Kaoru, 'This one has done gone got herself kidnapped and gave my partner and I loads of trouble.' Kenshin let out a sigh. 'You have no idea how done I am with this.'

Kihei started shooting again, but with Kenshin as evasive as he was the rounds were soon out. Kurokuma watched with barely disguised awe. Kihei was more enraged.

'Come any closer and I'll have my lawyer shoot the broad!'

'No he won't.' The mouth of a gun's barrel met Kihei's temple in a cold kiss. Kenshin smiled wryly at his partner as Kihei's blood ran cold.

'Zanza where's your broad?'

Sanosuke turned to grin at his partner. Kenshin returned it with an amiable smile.

'Things with the lovely Yoshino-chan didn't work out then, I take it.'

'She didn't take too kindly to ropes and gags,' the taller man shrugged and let out a wistful sigh. 'She looked like a pretty lil' gift too. All tied up and everything.'

Despite himself, the lawyer's stoic expression cracked as he let out an uncharacterique snort. Kihei gave him a bitter glare, unamused. The lawyer immediately had everyone's attention, and he began to sweat, nervousness apparent on his person.

'Shoot Hiruma-sama and the girl dies!' He threatened hysterically, his eyes darting between the two with more than a little suspicion.

'Do they pay you enough for this?' Sanosuke asked dubiously, taking off the safety of the gun in his hand. The lawyer slumped on himself and sighed.

'Not nearly enough, but that's hardly the point! Drop your weapons now please.' Kenshin and Sanosuke exchanged glances but didn't budge. Kurokuma scowled furiously and pressed the gun harder against Kaoru's temple. She let out a whine, stirring in her unconscious state. 'I'll kill her Battousai! Don't push me!'

The bounty hunters only smiled.

'You idiot!' Kihei snapped suddenly, but this only confused the lawyer further, 'lookout for the little bastard you foo-!' But then Yahiko landed on his head and proceeded to attack with all the ferociousness of a stray cat.

'Careful punk, don't let him pull the trigger!' Sanosuke warned as he used the butt of his gun to knock out Kihei.

'You get her before he drops her dumbass!' Yahiko snapped back, taking the man's arms hostage. Like Sanosuke, the boy had snuck in via the pilot's entrance and got a successful jump on the lawyer. Sanosuke did just that, while the lawyer struggled unsuccessfully to pry Yahiko off of him. Kenshin sheathed his sword and quickly relieved his partner of the girl that seemed to be a magnet for trouble.

'It really has been a hell of a morning Kaoru-dono.' he said with a sigh, as he scanned her over. 'Sanosuke call the cops and an ambulance, please. Kaoru-dono needs medical attention.'

'On it captain!'

Yahiko had subdued the lawyer and was now tying him up, while Sanosuke bound up the bigger fishes. The younger boy walked towards the redhead, who was now laying Kaoru on one of the couches and minding her. If one could ignore all blood, she looked as if she was sleeping peacefully.

'She's going to be okay right, Kenshin?'

The bounty hunter sighed heavily and gave Yahiko a tired smile. Man... was he hungry...

'She'll be fine Yahiko-chan.'

I know. I'm horrible. I know.

This year has just been... especially shitty. I have been trying to get round to this for the past two weeks but my exhaustion levels have been through the roof. But I didn't want this year to go buy without trying so... Tada. Compliments of the season! I managed to pull one out of my ass! Woohoo.

Expect more frequent updates for a little while, okay?

UwU