Pain of the Past

By Hikari Tsuki Chi

Disclaimer- I do not own Rurouni Kenshin.

Summary- Re-incarnation fic, set in present day Tokyo. When Kamiya Kaoru inherits an old but well kept dojo on the edges of Tokyo, she thinks little of it…until she goes to look it over. She finds a place of secrets and lingering bloodstains, visible at twilight, or at dead midnight. But when her apartment building catches fire, Kaoru has little choice but to live there until she can find a new apartment. To prove that her imaged bloodstains aren't real, she invites friends Sagara Sanosuke, Takani Megumi, and her brat of a cousin Myojin Yahiko, to live with her. Sanosuke also brings a friend of his, Himura Kenshin. But from day one things aren't as they appear. Dreams of disaster enter the thoughts of the dojo new occupants, and images of the past play themselves out in front of their eyes. But when a man bearing an grudge dating back to the Bakumatsu appears, Kaoru and her friends must delve into the dojo's past…and their own pain-filled pasts as well, lest they fall victim to the man's grudge and add blood to its bloodstained blade.

Note- This idea has been bouncing around in my head for a while. Though, usually it's in the story Edodale, and it involves Kenshin being Oibore and whole lot of other things. But right now I'm having a little trouble with Millennium I and just need to write something that for once isn't a cross over or a story that involves the future of the little world I'm creating. This story might actually be updated faster than Millennium I, so please bear with me.

Chapter 1- Dreams

Dreams aren't something unusual for kendo instructor Kamiya Kaoru. Her dreams normally consist of the normal things one would expect a twenty-year-old woman to dream. Her dreams normally were of the right guy, model students who actually cared for the art of kenjutsu, and of all the things that girls would dream. But ever since her father died six months ago, and left her an old dojo dating back to the Meiji Jidai, her dreams have been anything but normal. Now, Kaoru's dreams are filled with a red-haired man, dressed in old-style clothes. Normally they're of him doing tasks that at that time were for women, but they had shifted, changing to where she's attacking him on the street, armed with a bokken. Hugging her, leaving her crying amidst fireflies. Raising his head, cold amber eyes in place of warm amethyst. Okay Kamiya, just go in, see if there's anything worth something, leave, and forget about it till you need the money and sell to somebody with enough time and money to turn this into something. Kaoru thought as she parked her car near the gate. She rarely used her car, except when she traveled anywhere and Sanosuke came along. He had this weird phobia about trains.

Sanosuke hadn't come on this trip with her, but Kaoru hadn't been able to locate public transport to this place. Bus routes stop seven miles from this old place, and that was the closest. The outskirts of the city were reserved for those who wanted to live in the past and served as a minor tourist spot. Her father had left her the key to the property, along with the deed, his life savings, pension, and the techniques and secrets of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu. The family sword style had been started by Kamiya Koshijiro, and had been handed down through the family. His daughter, Kamiya Kaoru, had been murdered before she had borne a child, but the style survived through family members of the Kamiyas and the Myojins. Myojin Yahiko had been the last student of Kamiya Kaoru when she died, and even though he himself had been killed the same day, distant family members had came forward to claim the body and thus met the Kamiyas. She and her gaki cousin Yahiko and both been named for the two of them.

Opening the gate, Kaoru wondered what the key was for, since there was no lock on the gate to begin with. In front of her was the typical training hall of dojos. Deciding to start her explorations there, she opened the door, once again pondering the need of a key. Nothing seemed to have a need for a lock in this place. She entered the training hall, glancing around. It still held the nameplates of the people who last trained there.  Kaoru read to herself the names on the nameplates. "Master…empty…Assistant Master…Kamiya Kaoru…students…Myojin Yahiko…Tsukayama Yutarou…expected…"

Turning from the nameplates, she faced the front of the training hall. There was a pair of swords, a katana and wakizashi, that she supposed belonged to Kamiya Koshijiro. Kaoru placed these in the duffel she had brought with her, to take to the museum and donate. At least there they would be safe from thieves. There were several bokkens and a shinai also in the training hall, but she was reluctant to remove these, for some reason. Kaoru figured that when she wanted to practice in peace and quiet that she could always drive out here.

She moved to the living area of the dojo. Kaoru didn't find much, but what she did find was worth holding on to, for the time being. Several kimonos were folded in a chest in one room, along with several gi and hakama sets for training. A diary sat on the table, but she didn't touch. It didn't feel right to read another's diary, even if that person had died over a hundred years ago. The family's hope chest was in a closet, holding several other kimonos, man-sized clothes, a bokken that was for decoration, and an old photograph. Kaoru picked up the photograph and wiped the dust off the glass. Four people were in the photo. A girl who looked remarkably like her, a boy that looked a twin to her bratty cousin Yahiko, a rooster-headed man who was stock straight that resembled Sanosuke, and another man. He had a sword at his side, and looked very familiar, like the man from her dreams… Checking the back of the photo, she read, "Kamiya Kaoru, Myojin Yahiko, Sagara Sanosuke, and Himura Kenshin, Yokohama, Meiji 11 (1878)"

Himura…doesn't Sanosuke know a man named Himura? Some professor of Japanese History at Tokyo University? Thought Kaoru as she replaced the picture in the chest. Finishing up her tour of the dojo, she found nothing else of note worthy interest. Returning to the training hall, she was surprised to find that it was sunset already. It hadn't seemed like she had spent several hours there, but she had. Kaoru shivered at the breeze blowing through the hall, suddenly cold, despite the fact it was May already. A sense of foreboding filled her, as if something was going to happen. Sounds of a fight, not one that would normally take place in a dojo, filled the air. She saw no one, but could clear as day hear the fight, and after a moment, hazy images appeared.

The red-haired man from her dreams and the photograph faced off against a tall dark-haired man in a police uniform. Both held swords. The police officer injured the-rurouni- Kaoru called him for some reason, and blood dripped from his wound on his chest. The images faded as if they had never been there before, but the smell of blood lingered. Tentatively walking to the place where she could have swore they were, she find a dark stain.

Nani? Kaoru thought as she kneeled down, touching the stain. Pulling back, she found her fingers stained with blood. Standing up and backing away slowly, she eyed the stain, as if it was going to jump her any second. But as the sun set slowly, the stain faded away, out of mind and sight, as if nothing but a dream. 

Deciding that the dust had gotten to her, while her more logical side protested that she hadn't find any dust, Kaoru quickly left the training hall, eager to leave, for fear that her mind would decide to play more tricks on her. She had resolved to take the swords to the museum the next day after the school where she taught let out for the day, and to push the creepy old place from her mind. Yet it wasn't until she had driven for five minutes and had to stop at a red light that she noticed the tears streaming down her face, her dream of a similar nature playing itself over and over again inside her head. As soon as Kaoru reached her apartment, she went straight to bed, deciding that she was merely suffering from a lack of sleep. Turning out the light, Kaoru thought, I'm not going to let that old place get to me! My dream must've played itself out in front of my eyes and the blood was a trick of light. I'll be fine in the morning…trailing off as she fell asleep.

Dream Sequence

She was running down a misty dirt street, old-style buildings lining the road with fences bordering them. She was wearing a dark blue kimono with an even darker blue hakama. The man she was following had red hair, pulled into a low ponytail at the nape of his neck. He wore a navy blue kimono with a white hakama, a katana at his side. She herself held a bokken in her hands. "Hitokiri Battousai!"

He turned towards her as she walks closer to him She noticed a cross shaped scar on his left cheek. "At long last I've found you. Your two months of bloodshed in the streets ends tonight. Prepare yourself!"

"Oro?"

"Don't play innocent with me! Who else would ignore the edict and walk around with a sword!"

She swung at him and he leaped out of the way, but crashed into a fence and fell to the ground in a heap."That didn't take long…Hitokiri Battousai?"

"Rurouni. Sessha wa rurouni. Sessha is merely a tabi no kenkaku, de gozaru yo. Sessha just arrived in town. Sessha doesn't know anything about bloodshed in the streets-"

"Well-well how do you explain this katana at your waist? Kenkakus aren't allowed to wear real katanas!" She drew the katana from the saya, and was shocked.

"Nani…kore…sakabatou?"

"Could this katana kill anyone?" He asked.

"It couldn't…the nicks don't smell of blood, there's no clouds of tallow on the blade. Like it's never been used. You really are just…"

"Hai. A rurouni."

"But why carry a katana you can't use-" the police whistle cut her off. "-the police whistle!" she ran off, throwing the rurouni's sword. "This time for sure!"

The image faded, and came to focus. She was being held in the air by a huge man, about 6"7'. A shorter man had appeared in the doorway of the dojo training hall, and the man holding her asked him what was wrong. He muttered the word "strong", and fell, revealing the rurouni.N

"Ru…rurouni!"

"I'm sorry I'm late. I heard the whole story from him."

The man holding her said, "You again. You're probably with the girl on this "Hito o ikasu" thing."

"Iya. A sword is a weapon. Kenjutsu is the art of killing. Whatever pretty words you use to speak of it, this is its true nature. What Kaoru-dono says are the words of one who has never dirtied her hands. An idealistic joke."

She heard herself murmur "Rurouni" as he continued.

"But Sessha likes Kaoru-dono's idealism better. If one can ask so much, Sessha wants the world to accept this joke as its true nature."

The man holding her captive ordered his men to attack him. She yelled at him to run. He made this speech about how if any one who doesn't like to visit doctor should retreat. They responded with that there would be no injuries, just one death. He responded with inhuman speed that was mistaken for sorcery. He easily took down the men as if they were nothing more than untrained pupils. He than turned his attention to the man holding her and said, "Sessha forgot one thing. Hitokiri Battousai's style of fighting is not Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu. It's an old style of kenjutsu which arose in the Sengoku Jidai, designed to face many opponents at once. The name is Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu. And without the sakabatou, it is slaughter with deadly swiftness."

Something clicked in her head. Or rather, in the person in whom her dream-self existed in. But what that something was, she would never know.

End Dream Sequence

Kaoru gasped as her alarm clock awoke her. It was only when she looked into the bathroom mirror that she noticed the tears streaming down her face, and noticed the feeling of abandonment, loneliness, and unrequited love.

Author's Note

Well…how is it? I'm hoping that this story is a little more popular than Millennium I, but maybe that's just wishful thinking. The dream bit was taken from maigo-chan's translations at wwwdotmaigo-chandotorgslashrurokendothtm.  Please Read and Review.