"I can get us inside."
Concealed with the rest of their small group in twilight shadows, studying the odd lights flickering at the penthouse windows above Kanryuu's corporate headquarters, Bobby Goren couldn't quite hold back a shiver. In all his years working homicides, he'd met dozens of people convinced they had no way out. This... this was different. The flatness of her voice, the utter loneliness in her eyes...
Takani isn't seeing Kanryuu's penthouse. She's looking into Hell.
"You're a witness," Alex insisted. "You shouldn't be going anywhere near him! We can get a warrant-"
"Try it and you'll die." Megumi's voice was dry, matter-of-fact. "He's vanished cops before." Her dark glance fell on Sanosuke. "DEA agents, too."
Goren traded a slight flicker of eyes with his partner, glad they'd left Tyler cooling his heels back at the station once it was clear he wasn't going to change his story. No way did he want an ex-reporter hearing this.
"Yep," Sano nodded grimly. "Damn, I hope 'Sai was right about Uramura."
"'Sai?" Goren asked carefully. He could mean the ninja sword-breaker, but - no. That sounds like a nickname. Someone we didn't see at the scene?
"Um... long story..."
"Not so long."
Goren clamped down on the impulse to jump like a startled rabbit. The voice was cool. Controlled. Himura's.
And yet, not.
"Come an alley west," that level voice stated. "I've found a better vantage point."
And a better vantage point includes fire escapes and ten-story rooftops, Goren thought, breathing a little hard as he made it onto the roof. "Yahiko."
"Oh, man..." The teen shot a glance past him toward Sanosuke. "Couldn't you leave them somewhere safe?"
Alex swung down onto the roof from the steel ladder. "Sounds like you're more worried about us than we are about you." She lifted a curious eyebrow.
Even in the shadows, Goren could see the kid redden. "I'm not the idiot who's-" He clamped his mouth shut.
"Yahiko-kun has a point." A red brow arched in silent question.
"They've got a reputation for latching on like a pit bull," Sano shrugged. "I called in. We've got clearance." He shot them a purely wicked grin. "And if they can't handle it, I figured we'd leave 'em handcuffed up here."
"You'd what?" Alex said coldly.
Goren didn't move toward his gun, even though something about Himura stirred the hairs on the back of his neck. Not the voice. Something about the eyes... "Kind of an odd place to meet for someone who has trouble with heights, isn't it?"
"I have never had trouble with heights, Goren-san."
Amber. Not a trick of the light. Detective Goren drew in a slow breath, adding tone and eyes and stance- "You're not Kenshin."
"No." A cool, quiet smile; the slight man before them bowed, formal as a Japanese patriarch. "I am pleased to meet you again, Detective Goren; though you did not know me in the hour of our first meeting. The name I bear in these streets of steel and blood is Battousai; it serves well enough."
He knows I speak Japanese, Goren realized, watching those knowing amber eyes. Damn, they do good research.
"Bobby?" Alex said in an undertone. "Unless we're looking at someone's evil twin here-"
"You're an alternate personality," Goren said steadily. A wry smile touched his face. "So Kenshin really was innocent, all along."
"Well, of course he was - hey, wait a minute!" Yahiko's hands fisted. "You're acting like Battousai did something wrong!"
"Easy, young one. They don't quite understand, yet." Battousai ruffled dark hair, lifted his gaze to meet the detective's once more. "You have pieces of the whole, Goren-san, but the world is not quite as you think it. I have been within Kenshin for almost a fortnight, now; yet I have been Sanosuke's partner for years. As I have worked for the agency Sanosuke serves - not the agency you think - for almost a century."
Which was so far beyond crazy it was almost funny. Goren didn't even bother looking at his partner, just slanted a disbelieving look Sagara's way-
The agent wasn't laughing.
And neither is Takani, Goren realized with a sudden sinking feeling. It was one thing for a kid brother to be caught up in an alternate personality's delusions; but for a purely unrelated woman who'd had enough guts and sense to run from Kanryuu...
"I do," Battousai said quietly, almost gently, "have proof. If you are willing." He held out his right hand, palm up. "Take my hand, and look at me."
Goren cast his partner a blink. Well?
A minuscule head-shake told him no; she'd take the risk, and depend on him to fire if something went dead wrong. Shoulders back, Alex slapped her palm down on Battousai's.
And paled.
"Alex!"
She stumbled back, staring, hand an inch from reaching for her firearm. "What the hell are you?"
What? Goren blinked. An evidently violent alter self was a shock to see, yes, but all that was there was a short redhead with a red shirt and off-white pants...
And a sword.
Twilight seemed to clear and darken at once, red and white shifting, looser-
A redheaded ronin met his gaze, amber sardonic and amused. "So." Claws flexed, and drifted back to the blade at his side as Battousai made a second, slightly deeper bow. "Welcome to the NightLife."
---------
"I'm not staying behind!"
Kenshin stared into his little brother's desperate face, trying to still his hammering heart. "Yahiko..." If he could only find that balance he'd held with Battousai again, just for a minute-!
:I've been trying!: Frustration, and no little fear, shivering from the steel at his side. :It slips away like smoke into the sky...:
The smoke of a cremation. Kenshin tried not to shudder. "They'll have guns, Yahiko."
The teen gulped, but looked up at him, brown eyes defiant. "Kaoru's in there."
Yes. She is. He could sense her angry, determined ki, even through the Oniwabanshuu's illusions. Which argued it was likely they were letting him sense her...
"In or out, finish it up quick," Sano said in an undertone as they circled the building toward the freight entrance. "Megumi's on her way, and if the code bits Uramura dropped me are right, when they really show up, they're coming in armed for were-bear." He shot Kenshin a look. "And we ought to be."
Kenshin shook his head, determined not to miss the weight of daisho. There was something wrong in the Oniwabanshuu's actions; something that cut against all he knew of them from Kyoto. A century is time enough to change even the foremost ninja of the Kin. And yet... if they truly wished to start a war between New York's Kin and Target Alpha, they could so easily have done it without implicating themselves at all.
Sano puffed out a frustrated breath. "Damn it, they killed our people! We know it's a trap!"
"It is," Kenshin inclined his head. "And those deaths may be the trap."
"Oh kami," the agent groaned, "Zen's bad enough from Battousai, not you too..."
"Never react as your enemy predicts," Kenshin said firmly. "They expect us to grant them war. Until I know why - I will not give it to them, that I won't." He touched the sakabatou, feeling oddly calmer. "We go to rescue, not to slay."
"Yeah, maybe." Sano shrugged, then snickered darkly. "Nice touch with the bug, leaving it where it could pick up Natasha's plan."
"We can't count on it fooling them," Kenshin said numbly, finger tracing the tsuba. Were. Sano. "They're ninja, they'll be prepared for deception." I don't want to do this.
:I know.:
"Sano. Stay still."
"Say wha- ow!"
Dizzy. Falling-
:Hold. You are mine. You have the strength. You will hold.:
He was leaning against a hand. And the hand was attached to a body, which held a stubborn, angry ki, which was his, fiercely as any dragon claimed a golden hoard-
A ragged breath, and the competing pulls in his soul came to a rough balance; one near and coveted, one as precious, but more distant, and one...
Valued. To be protected. But not as heart-rendingly close as the others.
:Gensai's right, it seems,: Battousai mused. :You're far more resistant than the others under my wing.:
"The heck?" Sano managed, tearing his eyes from the new scar on his hand. "'Sai?"
A cool chuckle. :Who else?:
"He enjoys that," Kenshin said faintly. Braced himself, and stepped away, eyes on the pair of Beijing guards on the concrete loading dock, playing dice in the dim pool of light reflecting off the steel garage door. They'll have to go down first. And silently-
"We should-" Sano started.
Ryuu Tsui Sen!
The downward blow took out the diceless Beijing; his partner was still rattling cubes in hand as the upstroke caught him in the underside of the jaw, dropping him like a flour sack.
"-Wait for Uramura... why do I even bother...?"
"Uramura, too, wants war," Kenshin said grimly. "I will not give it to them, Sano. Whatever Kanryuu wants, he will not have."
Yahiko gulped. "But - if it's just us, how are we going to-?" He waved a hand up at the bulk of the tower.
"Without numbers, it's speed." Kenshin scanned the garage door, eyeing overlapped steel. "We break the door and run."
---------
"Welcome home, Megumi." Seated in his overstuffed chair, Kanryuu smirked across the study rug.
I want to faint, the Witch thought dizzily, barely aware of the two detectives flanking her, studying Kanryuu like a new species of flesh-eating beetle. I want to scream.
"Believe we will come for you, Megumi-san."
A quick smile of violet eyes. A glimmer of red in New York's half-lit night. The memory of that same scarlet tangled with pink insulation, after its bearer had chased her captors halfway across the island.
It was enough.
"I knew you'd come back," Kanryuu shrugged lazily. "Where else have you to go?"
Where else, indeed?
"Our stock of Spider's Web is almost out." The businessman nudged his glasses up, eyes calculating. "You will make more, won't you?"
Detective Eames sucked in a quick breath, but didn't flinch.
So. Now you know. "Let Kamiya go," Megumi forced out. "She's nothing to you."
"Hmm... no." Kanryuu smiled broadly, standing. "After all, she tried to win my little goose away - and we can't have that, now can we?"
"So you know where Ms. Kamiya is." Detective Eames' hand started to move.
Kanryuu tched. "I wouldn't bother."
Shadows blurred; Shinomori's pale hands closed over Eames' wrists, while Goren choked and went limp in Han'nya's metal talons.
"Though I suppose I can't blame you for trying," Kanryuu mused, casually turning his back on them to stride toward the frozen Witch. "After all, security of my quality commands a very high price... and I only need Megumi."
"NYPD... won't stop 'til they find us," Goren managed, face pale as Han'nya's grip sucked his life-energy away.
"Well, of course not!" Amusement glittered behind Kanryuu's glasses as he caressed Megumi's cheek. "In fact, I'm counting on it. Kin and Target Alpha and the unknowing human world, all destined to collide in blood - it quite gives me shivers of anticipation. Oh, the profits to be made..." He chuckled. "Thank you so very much for bringing them, my darling. The pieces are all finally in place-"
Now!
He shrieked like a little girl; it almost made her laugh, as he jumped back, blood spurting from her slash to his shoulder.
Move! Eames is buying you time, but Shinomori's fast- "I said I'd rather die than return," Megumi said grimly, circling the chair he threw into her path. The rune-scribed long knife glimmered at the edge of her vision, beautiful and deadly. "No longer will others' lives keep me alive." She mustered the magic within her for the spell that would grant her enhanced reflexes; just enough for one inhumanly swift, lethal blow. "We're falling to hell together."
A blur, a tug-
Her empty fist thudded against Kanryuu's bloody suit.
No!
"Enchanted to be invisible to Kin." Holding her weapon by the blade, Aoshi sniffed it with cool interest. Behind him, Eames struggled furiously on the floor, gagged with a white handkerchief and bound in her own cuffs. "But one can still catch the scent of blood."
The brutal punch wasn't - quite - a surprise.
"Wretch!" hissed in Megumi's ears as her knees hit the Persian rug. "Your flamen defied me, too - and that's when things went wrong! So I treated you well, and kindly; and this is what I get in return? How dare you!"
Pain. Sparks flying through her vision. Threads of carpet, abrading her bloody cheek.
"'If the bird will not sing, kill it.' And you'll have to sing so very, very well for me," Kanryuu snarled. "Because while I might very much like your incantation for Spider's Web... I don't truly need it anymore."
What?
A gloved hand caressed her brow; Megumi couldn't suppress a shudder. "You were with those blind fools from Target Alpha, weren't you?" Kanryuu crooned. "You know what we won from them." A brutal shake. "Say it!"
"A killing blade," Megumi gulped, mind whirling with confusion.
"The assassin Kurogasa. The blood-soaked blade Jin-e, who shattered the souls of men even as he cut them down." He laughed, sharp and short. "Yes... you should see what happened to Jin-e, my little bird. And then you can stop dreaming of rescue. Ever."
---------
Don't look. Face stinging like ice from the most recent prick of enemy steel, eyes half-closed as she tried not to watch her Beijing tormentor, Kaoru traced her thumb along the knots binding her wrists. Smoke tainted the air, rising from runes burned into the polished wood floor and the still-smoldering body in the far corner of Kanryuu's conservatory. Other scents were slowly seeping out to join it, from the shredded form of the only Beijing who'd refused to touch the ebony box of hungry steel thorns. Her stomach churned. Don't look. Not at the body. Not at the blood painted over the floor. Don't think about what happened here. Because if you think, you'll start screaming, and then nobody's going to help Misao...
I'm not going out like that. I won't. Which means I've got to get past this knot!
Kaoru drew a subtle breath, reaching for stillness. Rope was only rope. A swordsman's mind was steel. She would not give up. If the cord goes that way, and then that way, and under like that... It sure feels like a samurai knot.
Which was both good news and bad news. Good, in that she had a decent idea how it might untie. Bad, in that this kind of knot was designed to hold prisoners of war hell-bent on escape.
Details, details... ow!
She couldn't really see it from this angle, but prior wounds this idiot had made on her hands gave Kaoru a good idea what was happening. A poisonous spark of green was being driven to the surface of her wound, swarmed and cast out by angry amber, leaving only a drying spot of blood to mar her soul.
I'm so tired...
The crew-cut gang member growled, eyes aglow with an inhuman hint of ruby, flourishing the evil steel thorn a hair's breadth in front of her nose. "Why can't we drink you?"
Like I'd tell you. Even if I knew. Though Kaoru had a sinking feeling she did know. Every prick had carried a faint shadow of Jin-e's soul-chilling cut - and every rush of amber, the warmth of Battousai's protective arms.
But the warmth was fading.
Whatever Kenshin's left me with, it's drawing off me Kaoru concluded, fighting the bone-deep weariness to scan the room once more. This Beijing had been the most persistent, but there were a half a dozen of his buddies a few yards away, checking over their newly improved weapons, and it'd only be a matter of time before they decided they wanted to let their thorns taste her again. If I don't get loose soon...
Spitting an angry Cantonese curse at her, her torturer slapped the steel thorn against the grip of his gun, a smirk curling his lips as he watched steel melt into steel. "Let's go."
"And leave her alone?" a shaggy-haired younger one objected, moving as if to pick up his dead comrade's gun, dropped casually on the floor by the thorn meant for the dead man.
"She's not going anywhere." It might have been a trick of the light, but the crew-cut's teeth looked too sharp to be human. "And there's someone to fight downstairs. I can feel it."
Laughing, they swept out of the room.
"The hyena pack has left the building," Kaoru muttered under her breath. Cast another glance at the charred corpse in the corner. Was that - no. Just a curl of smoke. I hope. Sorcerers would revive after being killed, according to Dr. Gensai, just like any other Kin. But not until sunset.
And since like all Kin they wake up starving... if that's not smoke, I'm toast.
Battousai's protection might hold against another Muramasa blade; after all, it had for Sano. Against another Kin? Not likely.
Steel whispered over steel.
Kaoru froze, looking at the ebony box in the center of scribed runes. No way.
Overhead light cast back a dark glint that hadn't been there a moment ago. As if steel thorns had somehow mounded just a little closer to the rim of black wood.
And the thorn on the floor was just a little closer to the gun.
Oh hell. Those things are moving.
Breathe. In. Out. Keep working on the damn rope...
Long minutes passed. Steel never moved while she was watching - but every blink, the thorn had crept closer to the pistol-grip. Sweating, Kaoru kept her eyes on it as her questing fingers poked and prodded. She felt a strand grudgingly start to slide...
The conservatory doors slammed open. Startled, Kaoru jerked on the cord-
Damn it, no!
Knot tight once more, Kaoru saw dark hair tumble to the floor, battered and bloody. "Megumi!"
"Oh, how sweet," Kanryuu snickered, as Han'nya tossed a pale Goren near the center of the room and an expressionless Shinomori unceremoniously dropped a gagged Eames to the floor. "She really cares."
So much for the cops, Kaoru thought, resigned. Gods... I could really start to hate this guy. "I hope your rent-a-thugs eat you," she fumed.
"Touching." He tched, looking over the bloody body on the floor as most would picnic leftovers. "Were they full? Or did they leave you for-" he chuckled, "-dessert?"
"Looks like I don't agree with them," Kaoru fired back. "Lucky for you. Sano's going to open up the Empire State Building just to drop-kick you off the top of it."
"Sagara?" Kanryuu affected surprise. "Not your little lover?"
"Kenshin's not my lover!" Yet, anyway. She swallowed hard, and glared with all her might. "And Battousai will just kill you."
Another regretful tongue-click. "It might find that just a little more difficult than that."
"It?" Goren muttered from the floor, wobbling hands trying to push him up as he stared at shredded flesh. "What did you do to this guy?"
"Herd. So ignorant," Kanryuu sighed. "He fed Jin-e, of course. Or should I say, he fed my men through what's left of Jin-e." A sardonic glance fell on the crispy Sorcerer. "Poor Smythe. Knew his spellwork, oh yes - but the pure power in a Muramasa blade? He had no idea." He tapped his glasses. "I did, of course. I've known for years. All planning for this moment..."
"Ji-uh um gmph?!?"
Goren's glance flicked to his partner, full of dark humor. "Looks like it." Drained, blinking in and out of consciousness, he still gave a soundless laugh. "I have to hand it to you, Kanryuu. Talk about getting one over on the cops! Even if we'd caught the guy... the real killer would have gotten locked up in Evidence." He managed a shrug. "And, well, we all know things disappear out of Evidence..."
"Don't bother." Aoshi's voice was cool, unimpressed; though blue-violet glittered on his hand as he made a subtle move Kaoru's eyes picked out as palming something from a hidden pocket.
Misao's right; he is wearing a ring, the kendo instructor thought, recalling a bit more of those last few minutes before the lab had gone dark. Lousy idea for a martial artist. Especially a ninja. Doesn't make any sense-
Which is what Misao was trying to tell me.
Why?
"We've done our research on you as well as Battousai, Detective," Aoshi went on. "You won't talk your way out of death this time."
"Hmm, but it's so much fun to listen to him try." Tugging slightly on his glove, Kanryuu stepped over to the gun on the floor, where a thorn had finally reached its goal, wriggling into the grip like a steel leech. A wave of malevolence seemed to wash over the room; Kaoru shivered.
Weighing the weapon in his hand, Kanryuu chuckled, and held it by two gloved fingers within easy reach of a quick grab. "I've heard you're a fair shot, Detective. What do you think?" His voice dropped, a low, smug whisper. "Can you kill us all?"
"Don't!" Kaoru blurted. "Don't let it touch you!"
Half-tensed, Goren blinked, and shot her an incredulous look.
"Don't," Kaoru whispered, jerking her head toward the bloody wreck on the floor. "Do you want to do that to us? To your own partner?"
Pale, Goren recoiled from steel.
"Tch. Pitiful." Kanryuu stepped away, waving a scolding finger in her face. "It's not nice to steal my fun, Kaoru-chan."
"I'll watch you bounce," Kaoru said flatly. "I had Jin-e in my head once, you bastard. Do you think I'd let you do that to anyone else?" No matter what it costs me. "How could you do that to your own people?"
"Money," Goren said softly, looking over blood-drained flesh, the ebony box of steel, the black-gleaming gun in Kanryuu's gloved hand. "He wants a profit. And the only thing that pays better than Takani's sideline... is arms dealing."
"Yes indeed! You are worthy of your job, aren't you?" Kanryuu chuckled, delighted. "Drug dealing is profitable, but - hmm - carries such unnecessary risks. Dealing in death pays far, far better... and I've had the perfect product in mind for years. Weapons that can let a mere Herd match any Edge Kin bear; that can cut through Virus as if it were simple flesh and bone. That can make the most craven person pick up a gun as if he were a born killer; make him long to fight, to kill..." He smiled at the gun, nestled it into the nest of thorns, and stepped back, dusting off his hands. "Addictive weapons. What could be better?"
Kaoru felt her stomach roil, envisioning a wave of blood and pain, as thorn-laced guns passed from hand to hand like a demonic contagion of violence. "Target Alpha will stop you!"
"Oh, my dear, foolish little girl..." Behind glass, Kanryuu's eyes creased in vindictive glee. "They'll be my best customers."
Words dried on her tongue. No, that's crazy, that's impossible - maybe they're not the best guys out there, but they stop Kin from hurting humans, they wouldn't-
"They won't have a choice," Kanryuu went on, as if explaining to a particularly slow child. "Virus isn't going away, after all. Far less Red Moonrise, and Black Solstice, and - well, a host of other groups I'm sure you haven't met. Yet. They would have killed you if you had; you're just a Herd, after all. So many, many Kin willing to do harm, and only Target Alpha and the frail forces of the Commune to cover it up... sooner or later the truth will come out." A chuckle. "Well, make that sooner. After all, at this very moment Target Alpha is trying to bury any evidence of what happened at their little lab today - but it's on record that two of the NYPD's finest investigating officers were there, asking questions. And when those same investigators turn up here, dead in ways no human can explain..."
"Mmph mraugh!"
"Now, now; name-calling won't make me change my mind, Detective Eames." Kanryuu rubbed his hands together. "You'd like one of my thorns now, wouldn't you? Think you could handle it, just long enough to kill me?" He tched. "Of course you do. Humans will pay any price to feel safe. Any price at all."
Sick at heart, Kaoru still found her eyes drawn to Kanryuu's glance toward Aoshi. It's like he has some kind of inside joke going. A really, really evil one. "Not any price," she breathed.
"Oh, throw those stones, do," Kanryuu mock-pouted. "Here I am with my little thorns, and you nest with the whole rosebush. How do you live with yourself, I wonder?"
"You..." Kaoru stumbled over the heart-stopping thought, let the conclusion tumble off her tongue, "you broke Jin-e?"
"Improved," Kanryuu smirked.
"A soul-wracking spell." Megumi raised herself on trembling arms, face pale as she studied the seared runes. "Mingled with containment, and geometric doubling... you didn't kill the demon, you fragmented it." She shook her head. "That shouldn't have worked."
"With a demon? No. But Muramasa blades seem to have some interesting... hmm, almost viral qualities, wouldn't you say? Spreading violence from bearer to bearer, even to those only wounded by the blade, if the spirit doesn't choose to jump bodies. And legend says that if you're unlucky enough to have a splinter of steel lodge within your flesh, a new demon will be born. I knew it would work." He gazed at the box of thorns with a proprietary air. "But to make them, I needed funds; Muramasa blades are notoriously paranoid, and Target Alpha's Triborough division is so proud of being incorruptible. And your coven discovered such a perfect way to get them."
"You hired Jin-e," Kaoru breathed.
"Kill some rivals, gain what I needed for the prototype - two birds with one stone, so efficient! And I'd almost convinced Jin-e to come into ambush before your little boyfriend interfered," Kanryuu said regretfully. "Ah well. Spilled milk."
Kaoru went red. "I told you, he's not my boyfriend!"
"Pity. But I suppose he could do better than a plain little girl." Kanryuu bent to stroke hair away from Megumi's bruises, tugging on it to make her look him in the eye. "Is that where you found that foolish courage, my darling? Did you look at a killer, and feel there was someone tainted enough to love you?"
Whatever Megumi hissed in Japanese made Kanryuu flush, Goren gape, and Aoshi raise one surprised brow.
"Bitch!" The arms dealer smashed her back to the floor.
It's not just money, Kaoru knew in that moment. He likes to hurt people. To use them. To make them hurt each other; it's just a game to him...
Misao loves Aoshi. She was sure he'd never hurt her.
She was sure he'd never wear a ring.
That bastard!
"No one cheats me out of what's mine. Least of all you. Call my men!" Kanryuu snarled, shaking the sting out of his hand. "We'll torture the spell out of her!"
"They're busy."
"What?"
Tired as she was, Kaoru could have sworn the faintest hint of a smile crossed the Okashira's face. Silent as snowfall, the Ubo touched a subtle button on the observatory wall, setting a discreet intercom to on. "Listen and you'll understand."
Emergency whistles. Screams of shattered metal. Panic-stricken yells.
"The sword you sought," Shinomori said evenly, "is here."
Kanryuu gaped. "But Target Alpha's not planning to attack-"
"For another hour?" Cool amusement glimmered in emerald eyes. "The Demon of Kyoto. The greatest of revolutionaries. The Hitokiri Battousai. And you thought he'd dance to Falconi's tune?"
Goren's head lifted at that last. "He's... an assassin?"
"Just another Muramasa blade," Kanryuu snarled. And smirked, equilibrium restored. "He'll be as profitable as Jin-e."
"Only if he is taken," Aoshi observed. "And for that, he must fight on ground of our choosing." Cool emerald touched Kaoru's gaze. "Lover or not, he is coming for you. Though with Han'nya's enchantment on you, he cannot know you live."
"Okashira?" the Animate muttered.
He's lying! Kaoru tried to keep her face blank, thoughts racing. Kenshin knew when Jin-e "killed" Sano - and the thorns didn't get everything Battousai left me. He knows I'm alive...
"All he knows is that one from Target Alpha is here, and that could well be Misao." Aoshi's fingers danced across the intercom, ring casting back angry blue-violet glints. "We should change that."
Smashing. Metal ringing. Howls of pain and fury.
"Heads up, up, up!" Sano's voice snarled out of the speaker. "Look out - or get hurt!"
"Kenshin," Kaoru breathed.
"Kaoru-dono?"
Oh yeah. He's wired like a mouse in a coffee factory. Kaoru fisted angry fingers, and gulped in a breath. "Kenshin - Aoshi's wearing a ring!"
The Okashira's fist slammed through the speaker.
Kaoru tried not to look too hard at Megumi, as the Witch cupped her hands over bloodied, ringing ears. Sorry... but look at them! Aoshi's face - perfectly blank. Han'nya's, masked confusion. Kanryuu's...
Purpling. Slow and furious.
It is important! I knew it! Oh, when Kenshin catches up with you-
"Kill her," Kanryuu hissed.
Eep!
"That would hurt Misao," the Okashira said softly, removing untouched fingers from sparking circuits. "No."
"What?"
"You've invited in a guest." A thin smile bent Aoshi's lips as he looked over sputtering arms dealer and frowning Animate. "We should greet him."
---------
Best. Summer vacation. Ever.
He wasn't really a violent person, Yahiko took pains to remind himself whenever they had a second to breathe between bad guys. He was a pretty good student. Determined to help out where he could in the family business. Totally sure of his commitment to Kamiya Kasshin kendo, that emphasized the study of the sword to strengthen the body and revitalize the spirit.
But there was just a hard knot in the back of his mind, clumped together from the accident, Kenshin's bloody night with Tomoe, and all the past year of Mom and Dad are gone-
And every time they left bodies slumped and groaning behind them, that knot seemed a little looser.
Like the school shrink said, Yahiko slipped under a Beijing's swung chain, took out a kneecap before Sano's fist put the shrieking man down permanently, I got a lot of frustrations that need a proper outlet.
"That's the lightweights down," Sano panted, glancing about the mess they'd made of what had been a typical eighth-floor office setup: one open span wide as a castle courtyard, now laced with shattered gray cubicle walls, split water coolers, and a good two dozen unconscious thugs. "If Megumi's right, we're still short at least half a dozen of these guys, not to mention the ninjas- Down!"
He hit the floor with Sano, hair standing up at the flat crack of gunfire.
Red blurred ahead.
"Gyaaah!"
Yahiko winced, now recognizing the kind of crunch that meant bones breaking. Least they've stopped shooting...
"Sano, help, now!"
"Say what?" Sano poked his head up. "You hit 'em!"
"And they don't seem to have noticed much," the redhead snarled back, steel blurring as he stopped aiming for skulls and kidneys and started breaking arms. "Kami, it's like trying to fight you without killing you!"
"Like-? Hell. Stay down," Sano ordered, charging into the bloodied pack.
Yeah, right. Yahiko rolled his eyes, scooting along closer to the action. The Beijings were finding it hard to shoot with useless gun hands, but they weren't slowing down - and was that a pop of bone back into place, just before one grabbed for his gun again with fingers that shouldn't have worked?
Steel sang; that one had just enough time to hiss, tendons severed and nerveless, before an iron sheath smashed his temple.
Kaoru says - hit someone there, you can kill them... and Kenshin's a lot stronger than he used to be. Yahiko gulped, feeling ill. Kenshin was taking off the kid gloves, and something about these guys gave him chills down to the bone.
Virus?
No. He'd know that deadly sense of emptiness again, he was sure. No, these guys were human...
Sort of, Yahiko amended, noting that the guy with the cracked skull was still breathing. Which he shouldn't have been. What did Kenshin mean, like fighting Sano? Sano's human-
Sano's marked. Like I am.
Golgotha said Battousai's letting me lean on him, just a little. Which means Sano probably does too. And Sano told me Battousai didn't like to spar with most humans, they were too fragile... but Sano could take it.
Are these guys... leaning on someone?
But there isn't anybody else like Battousai out there! The only other Muramasa blade in New York is-
Yahiko froze, then moved; beyond thought, beyond reason, only feeling that deadly aura that had stolen any sense of sanity from his world, that had taken Kaoru and hurt Sano and driven his brother into choosing a blood-soaked blade.
Crazy as it was, Jin-e was here, and bullets didn't matter against the need to get to Kenshin-
Ice stabbed his neck, and Yahiko yelped, struggling against crushing arms.
"Drop it, Battousai!"
"So." Stepping out of the knot of groaning bodies, some of which Sano was still pounding, Kenshin sheathed his blade. "The weapon may have changed, but the ki is unmistakable... Jin-e Udo."
No no no, damn it, we watch the same cop shows! Yahiko thought furiously, feeling red warmth trickle down into his collar as he clawed at the wrist holding sharp steel in his neck. Icy steel, like acid; he had to catch his breath at a sudden wash of pure rage, as if nothing in the world mattered as much as killing this creature that had dared to draw his blood. Never drop your weapon just 'cause he takes a hostage!
"Keep that right hand where I can see it," his captor sneered. "Jin-e? Not a chance. I just... know a few things."
"And all it cost you was your humanity." Red hair shifted slightly, steel-blue eyes weighing the Beijing. "No... you are not quite Kin, that you aren't. Even with a shard of Jin-e gnawing at your heart, you still have time to choose again." His voice dropped, low and chill. "Put him down. Put down that tainted steel that eats your soul. And go away."
The world went loud - then silent.
Sano! Stunned by the flatness of sound in his ringing ears, Yahiko could only watch the agent teeter, blood welling from his side.
"Ha! You're not Battousai," the shooter spat, finger flexing near the trigger. "Battousai would have known I was going to shoot-"
Red whirled. Yahiko caught an impression of a right hand out and empty, deliberately drawing the Beijing's eye...
As the left hand seized the saya, spin adding centrifugal force as the thumb freed steel in one keening whirl-
Kannng!
The arm around Yahiko went limp. He had just enough wits to wriggle out of it, before his captor went down like a lightning-struck pine.
"Hiten Mitsurugi Battoujutsu, Hiryuusen. Flying Dragon Flash." Red hair loose around his face, the swordsman walked over to pick up his flung sword. "Jin-e would have known better than to allow me to sheathe my blade." Amber gleamed as he tucked the sakabatou back into his obi. "Are you well?"
"You..." Yahiko gestured wordlessly at his own hair.
"Ah." A wry smile, and Battousai tossed back loose scarlet. "Aa, it's useful - but very hard on hair ties." One brow lifted, silently demanding an answer.
"My ears hurt," the teen admitted in a small voice. "But Sano..."
"Bastard had lousy aim," the agent gritted out, hand pressing on the red stain. "Hit him a few more times, okay? These guys don't seem to know how to stay down."
"Likely wise," the sword-spirit muttered. "Don't look."
No problem, Yahiko thought queasily, listening to still oddly flat crunches and crackles as his brother went about separating their opponents from consciousness. Oh, I hurt everywhere... and my ears...
"Ease up on the worrying, kid." Sano managed a sweaty grin. "Nice thing about working for Target Alpha, you got a heck of a health plan. Couple curing spells, and things'll sound just fine." He gave a breathless laugh. "Heck, just one, and you realize how loud New York really is."
"I-" I want to go home now, Yahiko shivered. He didn't know where that cold fury had come from, or where it had vanished once the threat was gone. But it had been there, and real, and if he'd been in a position to sink his teeth into a vulnerable throat-
Suddenly panicked, he tongued his canines. Please no, he's my brother, yeah, but please no...
Teeth. Just teeth.
Yahiko let out a sharp breath of relief. I really, really want to go home now. His fists clenched. But not without Kaoru! And Megumi, too; and Misao, if we can find her, he added belatedly, even if she is a hyperactive weasel-girl.
"Don't touch that!"
Yahiko blinked, seeing Sano's hand stop just short of one of the fallen guns. "Say what?" the agent asked, in a near-polite snarl. "You don't leave guys like this armed. I don't care how out-cold they are."
"You're wounded." Claws flexed and clenched, as Battousai glared at fallen steel. "Don't let your blood feed it."
"...The hell?" Sano managed.
Shing!
The sheared magazine spilled black powder and copper rounds to the floor; something black and metallic squirmed-
Battousai snatched it. And hissed.
Yahiko gulped, watching a sickly green flame wreathe the black steel thorn in the sword-spirit's grip. A thin amber light seemed to gather about it, sparking and burning-
"Back!"
Sano grabbed Yahiko by the collar and dragged them both back, as Battousai hurled the poisoned steel up, drew and flipped his blade-
"Zantetsu!"
The concussion blew them both off their feet.
Picking bits of computer paper off his face, Yahiko watched sparkling trails of dust wink out. "That was Jin-e?"
Panting, amber closed; opened again, weary violet. "A piece of him, hai. Oh kami... there are so many more..."
"We tie them and leave them," Sano said grimly. Glared at the redhead before he could protest. "Don't. Don't even start. I can see what that took out of you. And we haven't even hit the ninja yet."
White-faced, Kenshin nodded. Accepted the plastic ties Sano tossed, and gave his brother a desperate look.
Right. I'm on it. "You need help, rooster-head, you better sing out," Yahiko said under his breath as Kenshin started binding groaning thugs. "He's got to get to Kaoru. He's got to. So don't you dare bleed out and get yourself killed just 'cause he can't turn around."
"Hey, I know how to dodge. It's a graze. I've had worse." Sano winced. "What do you mean, has to?"
Yahiko opened and closed his mouth, shook his head. How could he explain what he could only feel? That endless instant when steel and scales had seen, and known, and breathed a silent promise that everything he was, was and would ever be treasured and protected?
Sano touched the thin scar on Yahiko's neck, glanced down at the matching one on his own hand. "Kuso," he breathed. "Ward died because..."
"Because I had to protect you."
Yahiko started, hearing something odd in that familiar voice. Chill, and yet...
Violet regarded them both, amber glinting in it like embers in a banked fire. "You are my friend, Sano. What good are all the nights of eternity, without other hearts to share them?" A soft sigh; some of the amber flickered out. "But I am not Ward. I will not fight Battousai; not in this. He cannot stand by while those in his charge are in peril... and neither will I." Red hair tilted. "Are we ready?"
"Hang on." Sano took one more tie out of his pocket, planted his hand on top of the flow of scarlet. "You can't fight with all this in your face."
Red burning over his cheekbones, Kenshin let the agent tie his hair back. "Oro..."
"Don't mention it." Sano dropped them both a wink. "So. What say we go roust us some bad guys?"
Dredging up a grin, Yahiko gripped his bokken and scampered in their wake, heading for the elevator.
The descending elevator.
Oh man... not more of these guys...
A ding, and the doors opened, revealing a trio of mean, greasy-haired guys armed with-
Mops?!?
"-And don't forget to get under the head honcho's desk this time, Bernardo," the hefty guy at the front grumped, not even looking before he stepped out. "If the VP's not happy, the company's not happy, and that means I'm not happy-" He turned, and his jaw dropped. "What the f-"
"Who the hell are you?" Sano snapped.
"Um... we are the cleaning crew?" one of the less shell-shocked guys in the back managed. "Who are you?"
"INS. This is a raid," Sano snarled. Glared at the sharp gulps, the sudden stammering excuses from the crew leader. "We want the head guys; punch that button for down and you won't get caught in the sweep."
"Gracias, muchas gracias-"
"Get outta here," Sano growled. "And quit laughing!"
Shaking with silent giggles, Kenshin waved a helpless hand. "Bye," he managed.
Sano waited until the doors slid closed, then gave the redhead a look.
Snickering, Kenshin shrugged. "INS?"
"Worked, didn't it?"
Yahiko rolled his eyes - and stopped, caught by a discreet black diagram set on a brass plaque near the obligatory fire extinguisher. "Hey, guys!"
"We-ell." Sano's grin was distinctly toothy as he scanned the layout. "Score one for New York fire codes."
"Another staircase," Kenshin nodded. "Let's go!"
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Translations and info:
Flamen - male leader of a coven.
Tsuba - hilt-guard.
Zantetsu - iron cutting.