AN: So, the sheer agitation I have felt in trying to get the site to actually let me load this chapter is... immeasurable... I've had this chapter ready for a couple days now, and have been fighting tooth and nail to get it to load. Apparently, this has been a problem with others as well, so at least I know it's not my computer... :sigh: Ah, well, problem fixed.

As for stories, not that I'm just rolling them out as it is, but they'll probably continue to be slow due to the end of the school year. I've got lots of papers and exams coming up, so I'm going to be pretty busy. At the same time, I'll do my best to keep up with my writing.

Hope you enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 5

Her office was a small piece of space just beyond the cubicles of the office, positioned neatly in one of the corners of the building and thus providing her with two floor-length windows on adjacent walls. The space itself was sparsely filled due to her own preference, containing only what was necessary or conducive to her job, such as a moderately-sized mahogany desk and filing cabinets. Her desk was positioned diagonal from the window that was closest to the entrance, allowing her full access to the view presented in the second window, the light enough to fill the entire room during the day without any need for her lamp or the overhead light. It just so happened that it was in this line of vision that she also placed chairs for any clients she entertained as an intern to the firm. It was in one of these chairs that she found the red-haired swordsman waiting for her, his features illuminated with great rays sunlight for her to see.

The first thing Kaoru noticed was that there was no cross-shaped scar to mar his left cheek, and the second thing was that, in all her memory of him at the firm, he never had. But the vision of an angry scar glaring at her from amidst a frame of gold and red was painted in her mind. A week ago, he had had a scar.

"H-Himura…" The word came out weak and unsteady, her body trembling without permission as unbidden flashes of last week's events surfaced in her mind.

He was sitting before her as he always did: impassive and intimidating, golden eyes locked with her own in a way that demanded she meet his gaze. Nothing in his expression spoke of the killer she had discovered him to be; nothing betrayed the idea that he was a sword-wielding maniac who pranced around in the dark of night decapitating old men and security guards. Was this the mask he had always been wearing all these years? Kaoru wondered now --knowing what she knew and suddenly facing down this enigma of a man-- had she always been looking into a carefully placed façade?

Even so, his eyes… There was something about his eyes that made Kaoru consider that it was not so much a mask as it was… what? …She did not know.

Forcing her trembling body under control, Kaoru valiantly fought the fear that threatened to creep into her eyes and voice. She straightened behind her desk as much as possible to mimic the ramrod-straight posture the redhead had always managed, lifting her chin defiantly. He was on her soil. He was in her office, in the middle of her busy workday, and at least the receptionist knew it was Himura who had been sent down to see her.

There was a killer in her office and she would NOT be frightened by him.

"What can I help you with today, Himura-san?" Kaoru was surprised at how calm her voice sounded, unruffled despite the frantic, erratic beating of her heart. The door to her office was still open, and she noted this with hysterical pleasure. She had told no one about the 'Battousai's' identity, so he had no reason to go back on his word… not that the word of a murderer really meant all that much… But, even so, he had not killed her yet, and she was not so foolish as to think he'd finished the job in broad daylight, especially when her office was open for the entire world to see. As long as there was an open doorway, Himura would at least have to watch himself. Whatever he wanted, she was safe for the time being.

"I was hoping we might speak in private, if you don't mind," he said casually, a callused palm gesturing to the door.

Or not…

Kaoru glanced at the door, her jaw clenching, but forced her legs to move anyways, the crutch held firmly under her arm. "Of course, Himura-san…"

The steps to the spiteful wooden barrier were painful and seemed to last forever. It took every fiber of her will to keep her hand steady as she reached for the handle and swung the silent contraption shut before her, effectively cutting off any help from the outside world. She was reluctant to remove her hand when the deed was done.

"What do you want?" she ground out once they were alone. It was another act of will to turn body to face him, but Kaoru was determined to be bold and undaunted in the face of her would-be killer. Himura, for his part, had not seemed to move from the chair where he had taken residence, poised perfectly and gazing steadily across the room as though there were nothing amiss. He took the time to study her from his seat, molten eyes sliding over her form in a way that made her clench her jaw and fight the urge to fidget. His gaze was neither cruel nor lecherous, it was simply… calculating. The look made her feel exposed to the very core, and Kaoru wanted nothing more than to run from the room at that very moment. However, her legs refused to comply with the urges of her mind, and so she was left to stand frozen by the doorway, awaiting his response while he mapped civilizations over the geography of her body.

Finally, his eyes snapped up to her own, battling against her will and testing how long she would return his gaze. She met it unflinchingly, and this seemed to satisfy him.

"There is a problem with our arrangement, Kaoru-dono," he stated bluntly. Kaoru blinked, confusion immediately overcoming her previous fear in light of both his directness and the actual sentence.

"A problem?"

He studied her a moment more before standing from his chair and turning to look out the far window. His eyes caught the sunlight and glinted against the rays as he narrowed them, resembling melted amber.

"There are objections to my letting you live. You are a risk to the work and goals that my employer has set, and he is inclined to believe that we cannot afford that kind of liability."

"Wait- what?" Again, confusion set in, Kaoru's mind reeling while trying to process the information that made no sense to her. The result was only agitation at both his crypticism and her own ignorance. "A liability? But I haven't said anything! You're employer? You mean Katsura-san?" The use of the name earned her a subtle glance that easily had her closing her mouth and watching him wide-eyed from across the room. However, when he did not immediately respond she took a few halting steps towards him. "You told me, Himura, to keep my mouth shut. I have. I've done what you told me to do!"

"I said nothing to the contrary," he deadpanned, giving away nothing to her.

Kaoru threw up her free hand in an animated fashion, venturing yet another series of steps towards the dangerous man taking up space in her office. Himura turned to regard her, ever the piece of granite as he stared her down. "Then what are you here for? I've done what you wanted. I've kept my mouth shut. I've lied to my friends so that you won't go on some sort of bloodlust crusade. No one knows who you are and they all think I'm just some idiot who fainted at the sight of blood. You can go about happily slicing and dicing all you want and I won't say I word because then you'll have free rein to go 'happy' on me and mine! What the hell more do you want?"

By now Kaoru was almost nose-to-nose with Himura, completely forgetting exactly whom she was confronting in her irritation at the ridiculous implied accusations that were being thrown her way.

"A guarantee." The answer was quiet, unruffled. Kaoru blinked.

"…Pardon?"

"A guarantee. If you are to be allowed to continue to live normally and without interruption or termination on our part, my superiors require a guarantee. I have been given orders to present you with stipulations to ensure this." He said it so casually that it sounded like a business proposition. Kaoru was certain she was looking at him as though he had grown a second head. Was this really the man who had chased her down with a sword after committing a gruesome double murder just a week ago?

"Stipulations?"

"Yes."

"…What kind of stipulations?"

Her mind was reeling even as she looked eye-to-eye up at Himura. The man had never talked so much in his life, she was sure --at least not in one sitting, and especially not to her. Now he was standing before her about to dictate on the ways in which she would obey him if she wanted to live another day. The week had been playing out like some bad horror movie, but this topped it all off. All that was left was for the cameras to appear with an obnoxious television host to tell her she was part of some sick reality show.

"The initial agreement will stand that you will speak to no one about what you have seen or heard; however, you will also be monitored from now on, your actions under strict surveillance. If you are not at work or at home, you will be followed or accompanied. I would suggest you cooperate and accept the latter." Kaoru's jaw dropped, but Himura merely continued on, seemingly unperturbed. "Furthermore, you will be expected to aid our cause in any form deemed appropriate whenever asked. If you are given orders, you will obey them, and you will have weekly meetings with Katsura to discuss any of these operations --among other matters.

"You will provide information when asked concerning current or expired case files involving either you or your firm and –"

"Now hold ON—"

"—And," he continued, his eyes hardening and daring her to interrupt further, "You will monitor those coworkers or superiors that you are ordered to. All of these conditions will be explained in further depth at a later time. Unofficially, by accepting these terms, you are becoming a part of this operation. If you do not accept…" He did not have to finish, they both knew what the consequences would be, but that did not stop Kaoru from glaring at him in a way she had never looked upon another human being before.

Her hands twitched at her side and against the handle of her crutch as she glared up at him, her teeth clenched and jaw locked so firmly she might have cracked a tooth under any more pressure. It was one thing to watch her, make sure she kept quiet, but to treat her like some doll…

"I won't betray the people who have taken care of me. That includes this firm," she growled.

"You don't have a choice."

"Yes, I do."

"Then you'll die. And so will anyone close to you because of the liability your interactions will have caused." All the blood left her face, Kaoru knew it from the way her skin suddenly felt clammy.

"…You wouldn't," she whispered.

He said nothing, but the pain in her chest told her that he very much would.

Suddenly, rage blinded her vision and her face contorted into a snarl of disgust. "You're a monster!" She all but tripped in her need to escape the close proximity they had achieved over the course of their conversation, stumbling backwards over her feet and crutch without ever taking her eyes from him. All at once, Kaoru felt disgusted simply looking upon this treacherous, unfeeling wretch of a man. What kind of man was this? What kind of human killed without a second thought, only to go on with the day as normal the very next moment? His very presence made her stomach turn with the thoughts of what unspeakable acts he could have performed in the years she had known him, only to act as though nothing peculiar had happened.

"I do what I must," he explained, never flinching. It was more than she could take.

"Get out of my office."

There was a tense silence in which Kaoru distantly wondered whether he would cut her down there and then. But, eventually, Himura took a step forward and continued on until he was at the doorway. It was there that he paused.

"There is one last condition, Kaoru-dono…" He paused, and she waited for him to speak, her back turned towards him so that she could feel his eyes burning into her.

"Never interfere in what we do." It was not a warning.

And then he was gone, opening and closing the door so silently that only the wind stirred by the exchange of air from the hallway told her he had moved at all.

Alone, Kaoru's legs crumpled beneath her, leaving her to sit shaking upon the floor of her office for the next fifteen minutes.

He watched as the redhead stepped calmly from the office, closing the door behind him without a second look and pausing only long enough to straighten his suit jacket. His eyes followed Himura as he turned and stalked off through the maze of cubicles and pressed the button for the elevator, never the worse for wear. The stoic businessman stepped through the sliding doors as the vertical carrier arrived, and disappeared behind a metal barrier.

Hiko's gaze snapped back to the door of Kaoru's office and narrowed, his face an indecipherable mask that had employees stepping carefully around him as they made their way about the office, but he made no move towards the closed entrance.

Instead, he turned away and retreated back into his own office, gaze locking with another icy-blue pair of eyes.

"Shinomori, I have a job for you."

The office was quiet, even for nine. Most of the employees had left hours earlier, many still daunted by the idea that a killer had targeted one of their most prominent lawyers and decapitated both him and the security guard on duty. Those few who were known to stay late into the night had shuffled out with the setting of the sun, leaving only a handful of people to dot the corporate offices of Hiko Seijuro. Kaoru was one of those people.

Despite her earlier meeting with Himura –or perhaps because of it—Kaoru was reluctant to leave the office. Throughout the day she had found herself constantly buried in work and looking for more when she had finished one task or another. It was impossible to count how many times throughout the day Hiko had come out to force her to sit down or take a break, always with some sarcastic, biting comment about her lack of sensibility or propriety. At one point he had threatened to send her home, and it was only then that she had conceding to passing of some of her work to others.

But what else could she do? What would happen once she stepped out from the building?

Himura had made it clear that she would be watched for now on, at every second she was alive a breathing. Like some caged animal. The thought made her blood boil and her throat go dry all at once.

It was true that she was scared of Himura, and Kaoru did not doubt that he knew that whether she showed him or not. He was a killer. But she would be damned if he thought she would simply lie down and take orders like some trained dog. She would—

"Kaoru."

Kaoru's head snapped up at the sound of her name, only to find the tall, broad form of Aoshi standing in her doorway, watching her. She blinked at him in confusion. Since when did he come to her office at nine o'clock at night?

"Aoshi-san? Why are you here?"

He stepped carefully into her office, glancing around the space as though expecting to find something out of place. When he finally returned his gaze to her she could not decipher the expression her wore in his eyes.

"I've come to take you home. It's getting late. I would not be wise to walk home at such an hour in your condition." He motioned to her crutches in order to make his point, but Kaoru already knew where this was leading to and where it was coming from. As much as she appreciated and adored her friends, it was becoming grating to deal with the plethora of overprotective streaks she found directed towards her.

"Aoshi-san, I'm perfectly capable of making my way home all by myself like I've done almost daily for the past four years of my life. If that idiot of a man put you up to this, you can go and tell him that if he wants me to have an 'escort' he'd better as hell come himself." She glared at him from behind her desk, fully intending to work for at least another hour, but the look he countered with told her that would not likely be happening.

"I assure you this is being done of my own volition. Come." Without asking her further, he began to gather her things, placing the files on her desk into her satchel and handing her her crutches while the stunned intern sat staring at him. It wasn't until he was halfway out of her office with her files and belongings that Kaoru let out a growl of exasperation and grabbed up the crutches, following after.

The ride down the elevator was a silent one, Kaoru smoldering from her position beside him. Aoshi appeared unruffled, and stepped smoothly from the elevator in much the same manner as he had done that morning.

This was getting old.

Outside, Kaoru all but snapped at him when he attempted to help her into the car, only to find herself sat firmly in the passenger seat with her crutches beside her. She huffed, and simply conceded as she watched her newest captor circle the car and climb into the driver's seat.

Resting her head against the glass of her window, Kaoru allowed her eyes to wander over the desolate streets; most of the corporate offices deserted for the night save for the stragglers here and there. One man was even crossing the street nearby, his reflection clear in the rearview mirror, and climbing into his car that was parked near an alley behind them. He looked unconcerned, a briefcase in one hand and his keys in another as he slipped easily into the black sedan, oblivious to the world around him. Suddenly, something glinted in the dark space beside the man, catching and holding Kaoru's attention.

What she saw was the unmistakable glint of steel and… gold?

'Never interfere in what we do.'

The breath caught in her throat as the SUV she was in began to creep forward, leaving behind the unsuspecting business man and his black sedan, both soon to be completely alone in the dark of the streets with the whisper of cold, sharp steel nearby.

Kaoru swore, just before they turned a corner, that she saw the color red spray across the windshield of the car.

She said nothing.

Next Chapter: 6, Dirty Little Secret, Kaoru learns the hard way how to deal with the new information and duties Himura has placed upon her, and goes to visit Katsura for the very first time.