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Chapter 6: Betrayed?

Kaoru POV

"I'm Zanza. But you can call me Sano, babes," the tall spikey brown haired man said while readjusting his enormous sword over his right shoulder and scratching his chin with his free hand.

Who is this?

"Sano….bakai-mono…" Kenshin said as his knees threatened to collapse under pressure from his wounds.

"Kenshin! Here, let me help you," I said as I pulled one of his arms around my shoulder, transferring hopefully most of his weight little weight onto me. "What are you doing here, Sanosuke?" I asked turing my attention to the brown-haired new comer.

Sanosuke laughed out loud before responding. "You're definitely the feisty girl Aoishi-kun mentioned! Anyways, he sent me here to pick you up from your captors, but it seems Kenshin became your knight in shining armor and rescued you…damn him," he added with a loud chuckle and a wink.

Kenshin glared up at him, panting. His normally purple eyes turned a violent shade of amber and then slowly warped into a molten gold-purple swirl. "Sano…I'm warning you…back off from Kaoru-dono! She's…not interested…in….idiotic…flirts…" he gasped out the words as he slumped against my shoulder.

"Kenshin!"

Sanosuke rushed forward and supported Kenshin from the other side as Kenshin's eyes closed.

"That pig-headed idiot, rushing out here with wounds as serious as these!" he murmured. "Let's go back to head quarters. You were kidnapped but a mile away from HARM."

We reached headquarters with Kenshin in tow. As soon as we entered the gates, a beautiful medic greeted us and led us to the ER of the place. While we followed her, Sanosuke couldn't help whistling out loud at the beautiful doctor.

After we left Kenshin with her and her team of doctors' hands, I left Sanosuke at the ER door and took off to Aoishi's room, wherever that was.

I looked around for a big sign saying "LEADER'S ROOM" but didn't find any.

Why are there NO directories here? Do they want their guests to be lost? I thought about it for a moment and laughed. DUH! It's a headquarter of an assassination corp. after all!

After an agonizing hour of walking through what seemed to be a maze, I heard a pair of voices around an upcoming corner.

"Man, Ken-chan's not going to like this when he wakes up," said a high pitched, sing-song voice.

"This is your order, Misao. It doesn't matter what the Battousai thinks," said a more serious voice.

I heard footsteps go in another direction and soften into little taps and then no sound at all. I gulped and rounded the corner. There stood Misao looking at me with a beaming smile, obviously trying to hide something.

"Kaoru!"

"Misao. What are you doing here?" I asked in my most intimidating tone.

"Uh….well you see…I was looking for you to tell you how Kenshin was and I found you…yeah!"

I raised an eyebrow at her before continuing my interrogation. "Oh really? How is Kenshin?"

"Uh…uh…he's fine. Just tired. Sleeping! Yeah…will you come with me for a sec? I got your weapons for ya!"

She took me off to the side and held out my shamshirs, wooden pole, sais, and gloves. My guns and boots were missing. "Uh thanks. Where's the rest of it?"

"Oh you'll get it soon!"

I shrugged and strapped on all my equipment before turning to face her. "Now what?"

"Come with me. Aoishi-sama has something for you!"

She led me down the "maze" till we reached a door that said "DANGER" written across it in big red letters. "Uh, Misao?"

"Come on!"

She shoved me into the dark room before her and as soon as I entered, the door slammed shut behind me.

"Misao?" I said, while summoning my ki in masked anxiety.

"Time to fight, Kaoru!"

In the pitch black darkness of the room, I heard a gun click and a sword clink slightly as if being drawn from a sheath. What the hell is going on? I asked myself as I pulled out my pair of sais out and held them out in a ready position. I shut my eyes, trying to find her ki in the darkness. Maybe even a scent of her…something!

I felt a slash at my shoulder, and I rolled to the left in the last minute. But blood oozed out, soaking my outfit slightly with blood. So she can find me, eh? I fell back, turning into chameleon mode, invisible.

I heard a gun shots fire and hit around the room. The shots were random. She was trying to find me. My eyes had been shut the entire time, but when I opened them, my eyes saw a faint glow around the outline of a person. Her ki was now visible to me! I crept around her slowly till I was right behind her. I carefully placed a sai at her neck, the edge pressing softly on her neck. The other's sai's point was pricking her spine.

"Now, Misao. Care to explain?"

"Not really!"

She bit my hand and slammed a fist in my gut before running along the wall. She leapt off the side with a kick aimed for my head. I ducked before she reached me, and she kicked at the space where my head had been a few minutes ago. The girl has some intuition to aim for where she thinks I am. but she still can't see me!

I flipped over her and grabbed her head in between my knees and flung her in front of me. I stood up, seeing her faint glow of an outline in front of me; she was reaching for something...

A flash of bright light came from no where, blinding me. I couldn't open my eyes! I felt the ground under me move, and when I reached around for Misao, I found nothing. Suddenly, I was falling.

My vision came back as I looked up; I saw Misao's face shrink in a little patch of light before I hit the bottom of what seemed to be a chamber.

"Ouch," I said, rubbing my nether regions with a hand. I looked back up at the trapdoor about 30 feet above and saw that it had shut, leaving me in darkness once again. I felt around for my sais on the cold marble ground, and found them a few feet from me.

What's going on? Why did they betray me? I thought Misao was my friend! I swore I would teach her a lesson as soon as I got out of this room…if I got out of this room that is.

I switched into chameleon (which had turned itself off when I was blinded with light) and looked around. I could always find someone Ki, a ability to see things in the dark when I was in this mode. I saw the faint glow of what seemed to a desk and chair in the center of the room I'd fallen into. I walked over to the desk and grazed my hand over its smooth surface till my hand had touched a little round squishy thing. I felt around the little soft bump; my curiosity got the better of me, and I pushed hard on it. Not a smart move.

The room began careening and several machines were appearing from behind the walls and the tiling of the floor. I saw the outlines of moving spikes, machine guns, and laser shooting guns quickly filling up the previously almost empty room.

Oh crap.

The lasers began shooting a bright dangerous red line towards me the floor burnt from impact. I somersaulted backwards out of the path of the laser and rolled to my left to avoid them. As soon as I finished my roll, a machine gun was clicking, ready to shoot me in the head! I pulled out my shamshirs and deflected a few bullets before rolling away from the machine. A wooden pole covered with spikes was swinging toward me. I rolled under it, feeling a few spikes shallowly gouge into my back. Ignoring the pain, I rolled, deflected, and somersaulted from all these crazy machinations till I found myself in the very center of the room, all the weapons focused on me. There was a brief pause. Then all the weapons attacked at once. I leaped up before they touched me, my feet running across the ceiling in quick steps, my feet threatening to leave the ceiling at any moment. I reached the edge of the ceiling and made my way down the wall, heading toward the center of the room. This was my chance! The machines didn't expect me from behind them. I pulled my shamshirs in front of me, and slashed at the machines, cutting through all with my swords. The electronics sizzled, and white hot sparks landed on my skin, burning slightly. I whipped my swords in front of me and noticed something odd. The lions engraved on them shone brightly. They seemed to be growling at me in victoriously, proudly flicking their tails. Then, they weren't moving at all. Was I imagining this?

I panted slightly as I went out of the chameleon mode, my body shaking with exhaustion. Damn HARM. I'll f-up their headquarters.

"Well done, Kaoru!"

Light erupted everywhere, blinding me again. My eyes adjusted in a few seconds, and I saw the room slowly engulf the broken machines back into its bleak walls. There, in front of me, stood a smiling Misao and a very emotionless Aoishi.

"What is the meaning of this, Aoishi?" I asked venomously, my eyes narrowing at him in heated anger.

"You passed. You passed the assassin test. You fought against someone you had come to like, Misao, and would probably have killed her if we had not sent you to the next part. Your skills were tested, and you passed," he said; he had repeated the words, "you passed" again.

"I passed what?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"You are now a member of HARM," Aoishi said in his annoyingly emotionless voice.

"WHAT?"

"Yeah and you passed the highest setting of this test! You're legendary! Right up there with Ken-chan, Zanza, Megumi-chan, and me! But I think you did better than me and Megumi-chan!" Misao exclaimed practically bouncing on her the tips of her toes.

"What? You're kidding me? I'm part of NOIR! Your E-N-E-M-Y!" I yelled in anger and confusion.

"Not anymore," Aoishi said, his voice firm. "You became their target as of tonight."

I stared at them, dumb-founded.

"I don't believe it."

"Really! We're telling you the truth! We're offering you a home!" Misao said earnestly.

I didn't know what to say. I heard Enishi's words replay back in my mind.

"Because, you'll never learn the truth with them."

"Please say you'll join us!" Misao said in a pleading voice.

"Say something, Kami," Aoishi said hurriedly.

I sighed trying to reason out a decision. This HARM corp. has done everything it can for me, protecting me. Also, I probably couldn't escape from here alive. Aoishi doesn't look like a slacker at fighting and Misao was pretty good. Plus, Kenshin was here…

"Alright," I said, my exhaustion filling every syllable of that word. ""but call me Kaoru. Kami is my old name with NOIR."

Misao yipped for joy as Aoishi looked at me with indifference. I could tell he was pleased though.

"Misao. Take Kami…I mean...Kaoru to her new room."

I looked at his retreating back, Misao's cheerful chatter dulled in my ears as I thought. It was funny how I was going away from my 'Kami' persona. It's still there in my heart, but I feel more alive then I ever did before. I think I'm ready to find out about my past. And maybe create a better future for myself…with friends.

"Ready Kaoru?"

Misao's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah. Let's go, Misao."

I hope everyone is happy with this chapter! (Reignashii, Jasmine blossom625, Ohagi-chan, and Sapphirina

Please review! even if you're just reading this story for the first time!

-KishofWings