A/N.. Hi guys... yeah I know this chapter is late, but that's not my fault.. hehe See the college closed to get ready for fall classes so I had no way of updating. But now it is open so I'm updateing...:P

Ok enough of that and on to the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kenshin... Drat.

Devotion

by

Melissa x

Karou had worked her way through twelve men, all knocked unconscious, all without a single sound and all of them were not going to wake up for many hours. She was gaining more and more confidence in herself with each one. She was sneaking up on lucky number thirteen when silence filled the air and the sound of dozens of swords being drawn replaced the shouting. Karou froze at the sound and swung around to look out of the forest to see that the gang had their swords out and ready. Kenshin had his sakabattou out as well.

"I don't wish to fight you!" Kenshin shouted grabbing Sano with his free hand. "Sano," He said softly, keeping his eyes trained on the now armed gang in front of him. "Don't get into this fight, fall back and search for Tanako alright."

"Alright Kenshin, I don't want to be here any longer than I have to, and I'm sure you don't ether." Sano took a few steps away from Kenshin, to dart away the first chance he got, also.. to stay safe, for when Kenshin got started, no one wants to be in his path.

"Go test him boys!" Sasorie suddenly shouted and all at once a wave of men and swords lunged out at Kenshin.

"Now Sano!" Kenshin shouted as he raised his sword to give enough distraction needed for Sano to disappear. "Do-ryu-sen!" he shouted as he struck the ground as hard and as fast as he dared, sending a wave of dust and rocks toward the first line of attackers. Sano instantly vanished in the confusion as the second wave of men shoved past the blinded men. Kenshin dodged many of their attacks, moving much too fast for many of them. There was a few that had the skill and speed enough to keep up with him. After a moment, unconscious bodies dropped from the confusing blurs. The slower gang members one by one were being taken out by Kenshin's reverse blade sword. Then two at a time...then three at a time where dropping. Soon the weaker, slower ones where weeded out of the waves of attackers, leaving only the best of the best.

Karou paused after knocking another man out of the fight. She had just heard Kenshin call out an attack, had the battle started? Without thinking, she made her way closer to the edge of the forest, making sure to keep a tree between her and open space, she crouched down next to the tree, lest she be spotted. Already there was a pile of unconscious men around Kenshin, so many in fact that he had to retreat back in order to move without stepping on any of them. Even with the dozens on the ground, the gang kept coming; for each one that Kenshin defeated, there where five more to take his place. Karou could see the leader standing there, smug as could be. He was surrounded by his gang, all eager to jump in and have a chance to fight the legendary Battousai.

Kenshin was getting tired, even if the men posed no threat to him, there was just too many. Karou stood up to get a better look and she could see that Kenshin was struggling for breath. Less winded men, even men who had not yet swung their swords where pressing in and Kenshin was slowly being worn down. Karou griped her bokken tightly, oh how she wanted to jump in there and help him. She could take most of those men and she could be of more help than hiding back here in the forest. More and more men joined in the wait for battle. That must have been the leader's plan all along. Beat Kenshin by numbers. Karou wanted to shout a warning to her beloved Kenshin, but she knew that if she had thought of this, Kenshin had thought of it long ago, and shouting out would only distract him and get her caught. Little did she know.....she was already caught.

Sanosuke would have given up meals for the rest of the week for his Zanbattou right at this moment. There where so many gang members surrounding him that one good swing from his Zanbattou would have taken them all out. Sano had darted far into the village but a woman of the gang had spotted him and alerted the others. Now men came out of nowhere with swords draw and aimed right at him. He thought perhaps his Futae no Kiwami may just do the trick of getting rid of them. He cracked his knuckles and grinned at the thought of what this would look like when he finished. Finally he was going to get into the fight. A few of the men paused at the sound of the cracks and wondered what the young man was up to.

They didn't have to wonder for long.

Tanako paced back and forth in the small room. Sounds of the battle were filtering in and made the girl even more anxious to get out there. Grrr if only Toshiki had not asked her to stay, she would be out there the second he left. She was going to anyway, for when was the last time she ever listened to him? Bad thing was, just after Toshiki left, two armed guards were posted at the door. She could slip by if she wanted to, but the sake she drank had slowed her down just enough that she might catch a sword in the legs again.

Suddenly she head a shout go out about another intruder in the village. Tanako darted up to the door and pressed her ear against it. She couldn't tell for sure but it sounding like the guards at her Door had left, but she couldn't be sure. She waited for a few more moment ans still heard nothing. her pacients was wearing thin. She wanted to be out there in the battle!!.. she was not as helpless as Toshiki said she was damn it.. she fought along side him many times with no trouble. Suddenly there was loud shouts and then suddenly silence. Tanako couldn't take it anymore, she had to get out and join in the battle and help her friends. She backed away from the door and ran to the other side of the room; she thought that perhaps one of her good kicks would bring the door down.

Well it was now or never; so Tanako took a deep breath and sprinted over to the door but before she could jump and aim a kick, the wooden door exploded into tiny splinters.Tanako was so surprised that she skidded to a stop and fell back, landing hard on her butt. She was exposed and without a weapon. But before she could jump back to her feet to attack whoever it was that shattered the door, she saw a hand reach down and help her up.

" Sano!" She never thought she would be so happy to see the teenager. She showed her happiness by punching him in the arm. " What the Hell was that!?!!" she indicated with a wave of her hand to where to door use to be but now lay in splinters all over the room.

"Whoa, nice to see you too Tanako, and you are very welcomed about me busting the door in to get you out it was no trouble." Sano growled as he took her by the arm and half dragged her out of the small building. Tanako jerked her arm out of his grasp as they set foot on the ground outside.

" Thank you Sano.. Gezz, I was going to say it, I was just surprised." She finally looked around here and saw a dozen or more gang member littering the ground around them.

" You sure did take your time." Sano grumbled as he took her by the arm and pulled her out of the open, last thing he wanted was for her to be spotted. Tanako jerked out of his grasp and glanced around quickly before following Sano behind the trees of the nearby forest. She looked for her Love.. Toshiki was no where to be seen among the unfortunate that stood up against Sano.. yet when she was close enough to see the mound of twitching bodies that Kenshin was leaving in his wake. She was surprised to see Toshiki standing calm as day next to his leader.

"What's he doing just standing there?" She hissed in a soft whisper to herself as she crouched down low behind a tree, Sano standing behind a nearby tree as well. " Why does he not strike Sasorie down and be done with this whole thing?"

"Perhaps his honor is too strong for him to turn against his own leader." Sano offered, even though she was talking to herself. "Or perhaps he fears his sword is not as good as the all mighty leader." Tanako glared at him. How dare the teen speak of Toshiki like he knew him. Then again, Kenshin would have told him all he could about the gang in preparation, and so talked of Toshiki.. perhaps to make sure to spare him.. or keep a eye on him.

" Hush Sano.. you don't know who you speak of." She snapped, here eyes darting back and forth between Toshiki standing calm, his hand still on the hilt of his sword and Kenshin, moving and striking like the demon she had heard him to be.

' Is that so.. That is not Toshiki, you're childhood friend, over there next to the mastermind of all this?" he pointed right at Toshiki and turned back behind the tree to grin at Tanako. " That description you gave Kenshin was pretty good... I knew I would be able to spot him among all these dirty gang members."

"I told you to hush Sano." Was all she could say.

Kenshin raised his sword to block a reckless over head swing by a gang member. And returned the attack with a well aimed hit to the side of the head, dropping the gang member out cold. This was crazy! Kenshin had never fought so many at one time.. hundreds to one. He stopped counting at forty downed men. He knew that there was over a hundred more ready to jump in.. and dozens watching him in the forest. And how knows how many sill in the village pressing closer to the fight. A line of five men broke through the mob and approached him with speed. Kenshin crouched down and waited until they drew closer, the then jumped up and over the men and landed behind them. Without even having to look, he knew he caught all five men in the back with his sakabattou.

Suddenly, that strange familiar spirit in the forest grow suddenly and he had no idea what would cause such a spike. He was so distracted that his skin tasted cold steal of a enemies sword. Blinking back to the task at hand he left back a few feet and saw that he had been sliced from upper left hand chest to his right hip. His gi gaped open, staying on him only because of his sleeves. A thin red Line appeared only half the length of the cut gi and slowly blood began to collect and trail down his stomach. Now he was the reckless one, he was lucky that whoever it was that attacked him was not very good or else he would have been in two pieces right at that moment.

Karou had been so caught up in the battle that she had failed to notice that she was being stalked. A man waiting for the signal to jump in had caught sight of the woman as she snuck around, taking out his fellows one by one. He slinked further back into the forest and worked his way behind her. His task was made even easier when the stupid girl had stopped to watch The Battousai execute his famous moves. Closer and closer he moved until he was so close to the young woman that he could smell the soft flowery sent on her skin.

He timed his moment perfectly. The red haired demon leaped over five advancing men and he knew that her attention was completely gone at this moment. He made his move. He tackled the girl the the ground and the first thing he did was wrench the dangerous bokken from her grasp and flung it out into the forest.

Karou would have screamed but she knew that any distraction would be much too dangerous to Kenshin. She stayed silent, her only sounds were soft whimpers as she struggled to throw the larger man off her back. Her one and only weapon was torn from her grip and she lost sight of it as he tossed it away. But it seemed the more she fought, the stronger her attacker became. He turned her around so she faced him and was assaulted by his hot breath and hard black colored eyes. Then suddenly for no reason at all, Karou made the mistake that would change her life forever... ....She panicked.

In her panic of being caught and perhaps killed.. or worse, being used against Kenshin; and panicked about not having a weapon she begin to struggle recklessly trying anything to get out of the iron grip of the gang member. The man tripped over a tree root and both of them tumbled to the ground. The man then gave a shout to his fellow gang members and Karou knew that if she didn't escape now, she never would. She didn't notice how easy it was for her hand to slip into her gi nor did she feel the smooth metal of Tanako's throwing knives as her hand closed over one. She was amazed though.. at how easy it was for that sharp cold blade to find its way to the throat of her captor, as if it knew the way one it's own.

His shouts were literally cut short as the razor sharp tanto slipped through his throat. Karou though not really realizing what just happened was " awakened" at the feel of hot blood pouring over her, drenching her chest and face. She smothered a scream as she pushed the now dying body of the man off her. She staggered to her feet and wiped the blood from her face with the sleeve of her gi. Only then did reality hit her and she realized what she just did.. she just spilt blood... she just killed a man. All of her father's teachings of the Kamiya Kasshin Style went against blood shed. The still sharp as ever tanto slipped from her blood sticky hand. She gazed down at her blood covered hands, her mind was burning this image into her memory, her first kill, the first sight of blood on her skin.

She was caught from behind by another pair of hands, though she hardly noticed. A few gang members had hears the shouts and had come.. but they came a few moments too late. Now they had Karou and the evidence that she had just killed a fellow brother. They had no idea who she was, but had a feeling that the battousai would do anything to see this girl unharmed. It was easy to tie Karou up and search her, she was in a stupor and followed their demands like a scared child.

A/N.. GAAAAHHHHHH Karou killed a man.. ducks from any angry reviewers. Yeah I though it was about time she tasted blood for herself. But it seems to be fore nothing because she got caught anyway.. sigh.. oh well.. hehe It will be a bit over a week before my first chance to update.. so don't expect a new chapter till then kay?.. ducks again