05/06--- Chapter under went plastic surgery to clean away a few glaring errors. Basic plot remains the same, if you care to skip over and move directly to the most recently uploaded chapter. Thank you. DoC

Chains Required, Whips Optional

A Tale of Rurouni Kenshin

Chapter Three: Dreams of Revenge

Surrounded by a glittering natural defense of rock laden waters and standing tall on a pillar of an island, the fortress had earned its reputation. Through styling and reason it would have appeared as though one of the daimyos of the Sengoku Period had built and defended this three story marvel. In fact, Matsuo-jo had been built near 1800 by a solitary, suspicious merchant- Matsuo Ieyasu. A well known and extremely wealthy merchant, the man behind the yamajiro of the Pacific Ocean trusted no one and was prone to making any threats to his wares and routes 'disappear'.

Perhaps that alone would have explained the peculiar inner sanctum of the fortress. It's unforgiving, undecorated walls. It's lack of color, warmth, and comfortable furnishings. The two level dungeon carved into the solid rock of the island below its straight forward, no nonsense, base.

However, it was likely during those fifteen years after the death of Matsuo the merchant that Matsuo the fortress adopted many of the rumors and stories that made it famous. The time the mountain castle spent as a prison for some of Japan's most dangerous convicts and most lethal punishments. It was this menagerie of weapons and store house of restraining devices that was left behind when Matsuo-jo was so hastily abandoned. When her guards fled to aid their families in a civil war beyond compare and the prisoners escaped to their own paths and desires.

It was that array of sharp metal objects that Sagara Sanosuke most defiantly did not appreciate the value of at the moment. It was kind of hard to with sick visions of how they could be implemented on stage in his mind. The young man growled and closed his eyes, giving yet another futile jerk at the chains that bound him to the rock wall at his back. Throbbing pain between his temples kept a steady beat to that of his injured right shoulder, which was no doubt bleeding again. Fatigue and worry burned a path of frustration through out his core. If only he could have willed the strength and energy back into his limbs so far as to break a few chains. It shouldn't have been hard.

A tiny sob near the corner of the square cell that had become his surroundings reminded the young man that he was not alone in his predicament. Reopening his eyes he softened his gaze for the small bundle of colorful kimono and slightly mussed pig tails that huddled beside him. "Ne, Suzume-chan…"

Brown eyes, a darker shade than his own, gazed up at the ex-gangster. Liquid pooled on the four-year old's lashes, the salty mixture rolling on in a waterfall down her dimpled cheeks. A rattle of chain reminded Sanosuke that his hands were indeed bound tight against the wall above his head, no matter how much he wanted to reach down and wipe those crocodile tears off of the little girl's face. The only thing at her level were his legs, equally bound to the wall. Suzume herself was free of restraints to the small relief of her cell mate. "Are ya cold, kid?"

That wasn't really what he had intended to say. He wanted to comfort her, and tell her everything would be jus' fine. And Suzume would have believed him. Lying had never been his strong suit though, especially in the face of one so trusting as a child. The little girl blinked up at him, unleashing yet another torrent of tears down her face. She choked and sniffled before quickly dashing her kimono sleeve across her cheeks. "Y-yes." She hiccupped, "A little bit."

"You can hang on to me if ya'd like to, Suzume-chan."

The young man watched as the child bit her lip, a few more crying jag inspired hiccups racking her frame. He gingerly flexed the fingers of his right hand while waiting the child's decision. He had lost feeling in it, trapped though it was, some fifteen minutes ago. He wished it were his unforgiving shoulder that could have gone numb. Having made up her mind, Suzume stood and fairly flung herself at Sanosuke's leg. Curling her arms around the limb, the girl clung to the white fabric at the back of his knee and buried her nose in his thigh. "Uncle Sano, I'm scared! I want Ayame and big sister Kaoru. I want Uncle Kenny!"

Sanosuke sighed; a whisper under his breath of 'you and me both, kid.' "We'll find 'em. You gotta have faith sometimes. And I'm sure Kenshin is prolly on his way."

Not that he was depending on the Rurouni himself, of course. However, Kenshin did have a knack for arriving in time to save the day. Sano himself, had been questioning his own heroic skills of late. Especially when he seemed to be in need of 'rescuing' as often as the Jou-chan. Fingers on both hands clenched into unforgiving fists at the thought, sending a shock of fresh pain through his abused shoulder. The little girl did not respond to him, sniffling into the soft cloth of his pant instead. Prolly for the best, with the rare depressed and frustrated mood he was finding himself in.

Unclenching his fists, Sanosuke stared unseeing at the wall of unnamed instruments displayed before him. This wasn't the time to be feeling sorry for himself. Kenshin was his best friend. He knew for fact the man was on his way. He also sensed, somewhere deep with in him, that he hadn't the time to depend on the samurai's arrival. Neither he nor Kenshin could afford another failure on his part. Another jerk on the chains above his head, again in vain.

The grip on the back of his leg tightened. "Uncle Sano… I'm real scared to be here, but I'm happy you're here with me."

The statement was made so quietly Sano nearly thought he misheard the girl. His heart tightened in his chest. Before meeting Kenshin, and Jou-chan and the rest, he'd gone a very long time with out knowing this kind of trust. Sure, he had good friends and the street kids tended to look up to him with a certain amount of awe and respect, but it wasn't this unquestioning trust. This time his pull on the chains was more heartfelt and less desperation driven. He was rewarded with a small pop and a squeal of a link in the chain stretching and dislodging.

"Uncle Sano?" Watery doe eyes gazed up at the young man in open curiosity.

"We can't find 'em if we're in here, ne? I jus' need to… work at this."

"Oh," the child loosed one hand from her grip on his pants and tugged thoughtfully on a pigtail. "Can I help, Uncle Sano?"

Stopping for a moment, he eyed the girl. Sanosuke grinned. "Yeah, yeah ya can, kid. Go stand by the door and let me know if you hear anyone coming, aright?"

"'Kay!" Bobbing her head decisively, Suzume dashed to the wood and metal structure that separated them from the main hall as though she had been given a great task.

Shaking his head, Sano continued his work at the right chain. The left he did not completely pull through, though he could at a moments notice. At the moment it was his right arm that was weakest. The struggle which had chaffed his left wrist beneath its red wrappings had by now worn a patch right through the cloth wound about his right wrist. Mentally the young man was reviewing the route by which he and little Suzume had been brought into the fortress. They had been brought to a separate entrance than Jou-chan and Ayame. From there the two had been brought through a maze of corridors down into a dungeon level.

Sanosuke's lack of direction was indeed renowned, but he thought this time he could find his way back out. It would be finding Jou-chan and Ayame that could prove a bit more challenging.

"I hear someone walking, Uncle Sano!"

"Eh? I hadn't actually expected anyone so soon." A scowl darkened his features for the briefest moment. "Okay, good work, Suzume-chan. Come back over here by me."

The girl obeyed, clinging to his leg again, half hiding herself from the door behind it. Sano wrapped his left hand about the loosened link in the binding chain and both cell mates waited silently as the echoing of boots on stone corridor drew nearer. By the sound of it, possibly a few men. Only one in boots, the others in something that tread softer. Loud enough on the hard floors.

The feet halted, predictably, before their door. Four-year old fingers curled tighter into soft white pant as a key was inserted into the lock. In stepped three men all together. Two of which in traditional dark clothing. The third was a slightly taller man, though not so tall as Sano himself. He wore a western style in clothing. The suit coat looked awkward with the katana at his waist. The two followers fell neatly into place by the door, mister west continued on until he stood a scant foot before the bedraggled ex-gangster.

"Sagara Sanosuke." Dark cinnamon eyes played carefully down his length from a weather worn face. Those eyes rested uncomfortably long on his hips before traveling back up and meeting his own. The man smiled dangerously. "Indeed."

Sano scowled, "Yeah, nice, you know who I am. Who the hell are you?"

"It really doesn't look to me like you, dear boy, are in any position to be demanding anything of me. However, it would do no good to die at the hands of a stranger. I am Kuromori Ichiro. You should feel flattered to have met me, boy."

"I'm hardly impressed by no-good kidnappers."

A smile graced thin lips, but did not touch the eyes. "Such fire. It will be fun to execute you."

Sanosuke started, shocked despite himself. "Executed!"

"Yes, Yes. Part of my impromptu deal with the Battôsai, you see. I want him to rush here as fast as he can, so I left him a little message. I kill one of his friends a day until he arrives. You have too much of an urge to cause trouble, you will go first. I do hope you mean enough to him to cause suffering. If not, I'm sure these girls will drive him beyond mad, don't you agree?"

"You're the one that's mad," Sano sneered, "If you actually want the Battôsai to be fuckin' pissed at you."

"Do keep your opinions to yourself. Now then, will you come quietly, or will I have the pleasure of using force? They have a most exquisite guillotine on this island. I think you might enjoy it. All though, the blade is a tad rusty. It may take two, perhaps three drops to completely sever your head."

The young man leaned back against the wall and gripped the chains that bound him ever so slightly harder. This Kuromori guy was defiantly a nut job. A sick and twisted nut job. The quivering leech attached to his leg brought Sano back to where he needed to be. "Answer me something."

"Again with the demands. It's your last hour of life and this is how you treat your captors? Fine then, ask, boy."

"Where'd you make off with the other two girls; are they all right?"

"Don't think I can't count, Sagara. That was two. They are on the third story. And alive. My men will need something to play with for this long of a wait for the Battôsai. "

The ex-gangster instantly bristled, squaring his shoulders and jerking on his chains. "You! Don't you even consider touching those girls!"

Kuromori turned his head away, black ear length bangs falling slightly into his vision. "Don't insult me, boy. I would not consider such a thing." The man grinned devilishly, bearing slightly yellowed teeth. Laying a gloved hand on Sanosuke's naked abdomen, he continued, "I don't go for women."

The young man jerked back as far as he could, however the rock wall halted any real retreat. The psycho seemed amused by this and let a finger trail down to Sanosuke's navel before pulling his hand away. "That doesn't mean that my men do not though. Which is what I said in the first place, if you would have been listening. Jidai, grab the little brat. Himeji, please assist Sagara-san. I have a promise to keep and a guillotine to bloody."

A haze of red clouded his vision. With out second thought, Sanosuke leapt for the throat of the man who dare make such threats. The weakened chains on his arms gave way with a mournful squeal, the anklets pulled from the wall with a loud protest from mortar. Kuromori was moving down and away before the final bolt had pulled from the wall. Sword drawn, held in a left handed stance he backed from the room. "Take him down, you fools!"

The ex-gangster heard little of it. In a show of strength and brutality, Sanosuke latched onto both men's collars and heaved them unceremoniously against the wall of horrors. Skulls cracked against the stone and limbs were impaled on unnamed sharp objects. With a squeal, Kuromori turned on his heal and ran down the hall.

Anger would have had the young man plow onward after the beast. A small choked sound from the opposite wall reminded him again of all of his responsibilities. "Suzume-chan, are you all right?"

The child whimpered and stayed hunkered down beside the wall. "Yeah…"

"Let's go find Jo-chan and your sister, huh?"

Casting a side long look at the unmoving forms dangling from the wall of horrors, Suzume stood and again attached herself to his leg. Sanosuke took this as acquiescence and started for the hall himself. They needed to get out of the dungeon and up to the third story. In one piece. "Good girl. If anything starts out here, you find someplace out of the way to hide till I tell you it's all right to come out. Okay?"

"'Kay… Uncle Sano, you're bleeding again."

Reaching behind his right shoulder, Sano noted ruefully that the child was right. "I am. S'okay. Let's hurry."

Studying both directions in the hall, it was obvious that Kuromori was long since gone. Striking off to the right with four-year old in tow, Sanosuke cautiously maneuvered toward the stairs. He was met with no obstructions. The young man grit his teeth and eyed his continued journey with all the more worry. Surely Kuromori would have raised an alarm by now. He should have been swamped. A second flight of stairs at the end of another long hallway led the duo from two dungeon levels and up into the fortress itself.

And still not a soul was present.

"Suzume-chan, stay right behind me."

"'Kay."

There was only one explanation. They were planning an ambush. Sanosuke clenched his fists in expectation and slowed his pace ever so slightly. Concern for the other two girls drove him hard. If Jou-chan or Ayame had been… Brown, wild hair was shaken ruthlessly. He couldn't think of that. The focus had to solely be on getting there. Where ever 'there' was.

The street brawler found the greeting he had been so long expecting on the third flight of stairs. Halting for caution's sake just round the stone corner he listened for a moment, as had been done with the previous two sets of stairs. A once elaborate tapestry, long since slashed sown its middle, ruffled with a stir of air. The hackles jumped on the back of his neck and Sano pulled himself and his young charge down a step just as a dark clad body whipped about the corner.

Sanosuke hardly realized his own actions as he flung out his left arm and fairly hung the man. Momentum carried the attacker's feet out beneath him sending him flying on down the steps; hitting his head several times down. He did not get up. The street brawler was already moving further up the stairs before the first thug hit the landing below. He was unsurprised to find the array of flunkies in the large chamber above and appalled really at the idiocy of their assault. They weren't attacking more 'an two or three of them at a time.

Sanosuke had the advantage.

Pressing Suzume tight to the wall just around the corner, he whispered an urgent 'stay' to the child and darted out into the great room. This was the entrance to Matsuo-jo, as he recalled. The ex-gangster found quickly that he needed to rely on his left arm; his right sent a jolt of agony through him with each hit. Not that it stopped him. Slamming one thug hard in the sternum with the palm of his hand he swiveled and pounded an elbow hard into the next guy's jaw. He was vaguely aware of a fist grazing his ribs as he kicked out and struck yet another man in the knee. He caught the following attacker hard on the chin with a fist, grabbed his arm before he fell, and took out the following three attackers by throwing his dead weight directly into their path.

Sanosuke ducked quickly as the following man had the wits to draw a sword on his victim. The ex-gangster growled, catching the attacker's wrist on the next swing and squeezing so hard the bones buckled beneath his grip. The man let out a strangled scream as his cronies moved into to take advantage of the distraction. Taking a few hits gracefully, Sano buried his fist in one man's kidneys first, and then into the second's back. Both fell with nigh a sound.

Gunmetal glinted across the room as the last of the fools tried their head on assault. The ex-gangster found luck on his side as a bullet lodged itself in the stone wall inches from his left ear. The young man ducked low to the floor. Acting on instinct, he snagged the sword that had been forgotten on the floor, stood, and hurled it hard toward the final man. Sanosuke's aim was true. The blade pierced the man's chest straight, driven to the hilt and part way into the wall behind him. Goggle eyed, the man dropped the gun and gurgled before slumping forward. The sword held him upright against the wall.

Panting, Sanosuke sagged against the wall to the stairs and held tight to his throbbing right shoulder. His mind however, was tallying. And he was on a role tonight. The young man grimaced, that was, as he eyed the bodies at his feet, six men dead at his hands to night. Eyes closed and teeth clenched as he bit back the bile that wanted to rise in his throat. People had died because of him before, but six…

Jou-chan. He needed to focus on Jou-chan, and those two little girls! Nothing else mattered at the moment. May the gods help who ever would stand in his way.

The young man bit his cheek and dragged a hand through his hair, headless at this point of the blood. Turning, he half staggered back to where Suzume sat hunched tight against the staircase wall, both hands covering her ears. Sanosuke bent down before her, and gently nudged her knee with a hand. The tiny girl opened her eyes; those wide frightened eyes and stared blankly at him for a moment before flinging herself at him, cherubic arms caught tight around his neck. Sano sighed, and loosely wrapped his left arm about her and allowed the child to sniffle into the curve of his neck.

"Uncle Sano… I don' wanna be here anymore. I'm scared… I want my Ojii-san!"

Sanosuke did his best to shush the girl. What could he say to her, really? "I know kiddo. I know. I'll get you to your 'Ji-san. Promise. But, you gotta be brave for me. We have ta' find Kaoru and your sister, ne?"

The child's response was muffled against his neck. "Yeah…"

"So, let's get goin'."

The girl clung even more furiously to his neck. Sanosuke sighed again; he'd been doing that a lot lately. Slipping his arm beneath the girl's bottom, he hoisted her up with him and gingerly began picking his way through the scatter of bodies on to the stairs across the way. Kuromori had said the third floor, that's where Sano was heading. He delicately avoided the corpse stuck to the wall as he maneuvered up the following flight of stairs. A little girl's scattered hiccups in his ear, and the draining burden of blood loss working to eat away at his adrenaline flow.

Chapter Notes:

Ojii-san- Essentialy means "grandfather".

Author's Notes: 11/04

Bows My humble apologies, dear readers, for an inexcusable wait. Writer's block is murder. However, as I sat at this computer filling out my College Application, the finale for this chapter struck me with the force of a Futai no Kiwami. Needless to say, my college app. is not yet completed, but after nearly a year chapter three of Chains required is.

I'm working right now on Chapter four. I make absolutely NO guarantees on when it will be finished. To be warned ahead of time, however, my plans for Four are rather darker than previous chapters. We'll see once I finish, but it may be better to up the story rating to R at that point. I intend to deal with a subject (or two) that may seriously offend or sicken. Appropriate warnings will be placed when the chapter is uploaded, of course.

To the reviewers- Bless you and your kind, encouraging, and thoughtful comments. I truly appreciate knowing that I have, in your opinion, kept the characters in character. Cannon is very important to me. Having the agreement that yes, this is leading toward the dark twist of angst, is also good for me. I spent so many years in Humor that a good angst is truly a challenge. Your comments, and yes, your e-mails have been a burr under my saddle for nearly a year. A good sort of burr, the one that says, 'Get your arse in gear and write the bloomin' chapter already!'

Chapters one and two have each been slightly modified and will be re-uploaded at the same time this chapter is put up. I hoped to fix a few glaring errors and better prepare a few sections for upcoming chapters. The changes are minor; if you do not want to re-read those chapters, you won't miss much. Ah, and Kegoin- you will be happy to know I changed all of the "I say" lines just for you.

DoC