Misao and Kaoru were now nearing the forest. Kaoru was holding the Diary preciously against her.
The ninja girl had the feeling that the forest was too quiet. There were no animals around as if some human being had been walking down that path not a long time ago.
Suddenly the ninja girl shouted out loud when she saw her friend tripping on some thin wires hidden in the leaves. A long spear came from nowhere heading towards Kaoru's head.
But she dodged the spear's deadly course with her right arm's back. It fell on the floor with some blood trickles from Misao's arm.
She swiftly ran to Kaoru to reassure her: "I'm ok, don't worry; let's continue". "We're almost there!" Kaoru nodded.
Kaoru was happy her ninja friend had accepted to accompany her in this crazy plan.
But the way to the mansion wasn't as close as they thought.
Enishi had prepared traps that were only intended to wound a man of Kenshin's height... but...
Misao was scrutinizing every parcel of the forest. She was doing pretty well so far: killing the snakes hidden under the leaves, cutting the wires leading to explosives with her kunais before they detonated.
Although Kaoru was dressed with her hakama outfit she couldn't move as swiftly as Misao could, and she was pretty much relying on her best friend to dodge all the traps.
But there was one thing she hadn't foreseen: what if two traps were set to be triggered exactly at the same time.
Misao was walking in front of Kaoru because of ability to detect traps. Kaoru was carefully following Misao's footsteps in the leaves.
Suddenly Kaoru tripped on a tree root and dropped the Diary. Kaoru tried to jump to catch it before it reached the ground but failed. The Diary hit the ground and a very bright explosion was set off some feet away from the two girls.
Misao immediately turned around protecting her eyes with her right arm, while Kaoru's eyes never left the Diary. When the brightness of the explosion faded out Misao turned round to check on Kaoru.
Kaoru had not been directly hurt by the explosion but her eyes had been severely exposed to the bright light. Although everything was still in a blur Kaoru immediately stood up to pick up the Diary.
Suddenly two knives cut the air at light speed. Misao managed to dodge one of the strike but was startled by Kaoru's cry.
The knives were aimed to hit Kenshin's body at thighs height but Kaoru being a little smaller than Kenshin, the other knife landed right in her abdomen.
Misao turned round to see that Kaoru was lying on the floor - the Diary next to her - trying to pull the short knife out of her body.
Misao couldn't reprehend a cry of horror: "Oh My God, NO!"
Kaoru tried to gather her quickly fading away consciousness to tell Misao to move the Diary a little bit away so that it wouldn't be tainted with her blood.
While Misao was trying to help her, Kaoru urged her again to put the Diary in a safer place. Misao quickly did so to calm her down by putting the Diary on an old tree stock.
Misao pulled out the knife for her and was surprised by the amount of blood that was pouring out of the wound. She quickly ripped a piece of the ribbon tightened around her waist to place it on the wound to stop the bleeding.
She could see that despite Kaoru's will to stay awake her face was growing paler every minute.
"No, please bring the Diary to him... Misao, please..."
"Sssh..." "We need to take care of that wound first, or..."
"That wasn't such a good plan after all..." Kaoru whispered.
She was so ashamed the plan hadn't worked out in the end.
"Now they would have to face the battle anyway and Kenshin would be worried sick over a deadly hurt Kaoru while fighting" Misao thought too.
"Misao, ... pl..."
Her empty eyes were closing from time to time, but this time she didn't finish her sentence.
Her eyes remained closed, the vision of a scared to death Misao printed in her head.
Misao tried to think straight but the idea of her best friend dying here in the middle of this forest away from her home, away from her friend... away from... Kenshin horrified her.
They desperately needed help, help from Megumi, help from Kenshin...When glancing at the wound she knew that was beyond the few medical knowledge she had gained in the company of the Oniwabanshu.
Besides she didn't even have enough bandages. What was the best thing to do?
Although Kaoru was a pretty thin girl, she was older and taller than her. That would make it difficult for her to carry her body.
That would only slow her down while she could get help faster by running back alone to the dojo.
She decided to go for that solution... Before she started to run madly to the dojo she had dragged Kaoru under a tree to shelter her a bit from the wind and cold.
She rolled her over to her side to make her as comfortable as possible. She kneeled down beside her once again ...
"Hang on Kaoru! Please hang on! I'll get help for you! I'll get you Kenshin! Hang on for me, hang on for Kenshin!" Miaso said while holding her hand, hoping that these words would be engraved in her unconscious mind, and that they would help her stay alive.
Then she headed for the dojo without turning around, with tears running down her cheeks.