Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin does not belong to this one, it certainly does not.
A/N: Thankee for all the sweet reviews, everyone! I don't know about this chapter... 'Cause the next chapter isn't done yet, and that means I might need to change something and not want to and end up getting stuck, but oh, well. I feel like I owe you another one this week. Thanks for waiting! --Misao-incarnate.
In All My Ways
Chapter 13: "Blind Man's Bluff"
Kaoru had never been so scared in her life.
She and Sano had gone out looking for Kenshin, starting from the place Kenshin had gone in, and looking in all the inns along that path. There was no sign of the red-headed wanderer anywhere, though, and Kaoru was feeling more and more desperate. And then she defeatedly told Sano that she needed to sit down and rest for a moment.
"My feet are killing me, and there's no sign of that nit-wit anywhere," she told him, acidly, plopping down in the alley outside of the last inn they'd been in.
Sano tucked his hands in the pockets of his white pants so that they flared out strangely, Kaoru's eyes traveled down to the bandages around his ankles and the strange black shoes on his big feet. He was such a lunk-headed, freeloading jerk... but... but somehow, his presence still made her feel safe.
"I don't know what to tell you, Missy... Maybe I should go back in and ask the inn keeper if he saw anyone looking like Kenshin." He shrugged, eloquently. "That red head is pretty hard to miss, especially since Shinta, I mean, Kenshin, likes to wear that clashing magenta gi all the time. I have no idea what you see in him, Kao--" He cut himself off, seeing that she was staring at him very oddly.
Kaoru wondered what her expression must have looked like then shook it off, saying, "Okay, go ahead. I'll just wait out here." Sano nodded and went back inside the inn.
Kaoru buried her face in her arms and tried not to cry. Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes anyway, and she prayed, 'Oh, God... please let us find Kenshin. I can't shake this feeling that something is wrong. Please let him be okay... please...' She sniffled and looked up, wiping her damp face on the sleeves of her kimono.
With annoyance, she wondered why she'd worn this outfit to go walking in. The tight skirt of her kimono ensured that she had to take miniature steps to move, and the more steps she took, the more the wooden healed sandals, geta, made her feet hurt. Growling with frustration, she snatched the sandals off of her feet and threw them toward the end of the alley.
They hit the cobblestones with a clatter, and Kaoru sighed and got up to go get them. She was acting so foolishly, she realized, and started to feel bad about that too, until she noticed something lying on the ground at the end of the alleyway... What was it? Kaoru stopped and stared at the thing at her feet--it was Kenshin's reverse-blade sword!
What was it doing lying there? "Kaoru?" came Sano's voice from behind her, startling her into looking over her shoulder. "What is it?" he asked, coming to stand beside her.
"Look," she said, "It's Kenshin's sword..." She panicked. "What is it doing here, Sano? Has something happened to him? Do you see any blood? Where could he be? Why would he just leave his sakabatou like this?"
"Missy," Sano interrupted her ranting, grabbing her by the shoulders and giving her a firm shake, "Get a hold of yourself!"
"But, Sano!" she began, then stopped herself. Sanosuke knelt and picked up the sword, still in its sheath.
"It looks like he just put it down and left it here, Missy, so he must have been okay to have done that..." Sano explained, examining the sakabatou.
Kaoru shook her head back and forth. "But why would he do that?"
Sano looked worried as he replied, "I don't know..." He frowned. "But the inkeeper said that he saw Kenshin come into the inn, look around and then leave again. And then a little later, he says he saw another man go outside too." He paused before continuing, and Kaoru didn't realize she was holding her breath until he said, "He said the man had white hair, but he looked like a young man, and he wore a sword," and she let it out along with all of her hopes of ever seeing Kenshin alive and well again.
o o o
Enishi had demanded that he leave his sword when Kenshin agreed to go with him.
So he'd taken it off and laid it carefully on the cobblestones at his feet and followed Enishi out of the alley. He'd followed Enishi all the way to the beautiful house where he was apparently staying. And once they were inside, Kenshin sensed that Kaoru wasn't in the building at all, or anywhere close to it, for that matter.
"What have you done with Kaoru?" he questioned Yukishiro, desperately, but the young man only shook his head.
"First, I want you to tie your feet with these," he picked up some rope, thrown in the corner of the room against a wall. He threw it at Kenshin and then picked up another length of rope. "I'll do your wrists..." he said, with a strange smile.
Kenshin sat down and started tying the rope around his ankles. He had a feeling he was getting himself into a mess far deeper than he would be able to get himself out of later. Enishi stood, watching him with that eerie smile on his face, and when he was through, he came and knelt behind Kenshin.
"Come on, then," he said, softly, "Give me your wrists..." Kenshin worriedly placed his hands behind his back. While Enishi tied the rope around his wrists, Kenshin took the oportunity to ask, "You don't have Kaoru at all, do you?"
Enishi burst into short-lived giggles, getting to his feet and going to stand in front of Kenshin. "Never did," he replied, matter-of-factly, "I heard about her and a police officer named Hajime Saitou, looking for me, and when I saw you at the inn, I figured they were important to you and used the information against you. There was always the chance that you already knew where she was, but I figured it was worth it."
Kenshin felt lightheaded from relief, but found the presence of mind to ask, "And why did you wish me to come with you? I would have thought you more inclined to kill me once you had me away from my sakabatou, that I would."
"You're very observant, aren't you Himura... No," Enishi concluded, "I want you to suffer... suffer as much as I have over the years, knowing you were the cause of my sister's death. All that time I was not able to bring her back or avenge her, but now I have you in my grasp."
"And what do you propose to do with me...? Now that you have me in your grasp," Kenshin wondered. He heard the deadly tone of his own voice and realized he was the Battousai again, at least to some degree.
Enishi glared at him, the insane look in his blue eyes growing more intense. "I haven't quite decided just yet... There are so many delicious options." He grinned and the next thing Kenshin knew, he was being kicked in the face. He saw red and then black and then he didn't see anything at all...
o o o
Kaoru strapped the sakabatou's sheath around her waist and said to Sanosuke, "We'd better start looking for Kenshin now before..." She didn't finish, afraid that what she was going to say would jinx it. She'd been about to say, "Before it's too late," and the words stuck in her mind like a warning or a curse.
"Yeah, but where do we look?" Sano questioned, looking slightly harried.
Kaoru bit her lip as she thought for a moment. Then it came to her... "Well, who would know better where to find you than anyone else, Sano?"
"Me?" Sano questioned, looking slightly befuddled. She nodded, and he thought for a moment, "You and Kenshin and Yahiko... Probably even Dr. Gensai and Miss Megumi... anyone I hang out with actually, including my gambling buddies."
"That's right--the people who know you. And that's who we're going to ask about Enishi Yukishiro," Kaoru said with finality. Just as soon as they found those people. Then again, maybe they could start right there... Maybe Enishi had been dining with someone in the inn, but there was the possibility that he'd been all alone. "Come on, I think I have an idea," she said, hurrying barefoot into the inn.
She rushed over to the innkeeper, and Sano followed. "Not you again," the innkeeper groused as if he were already tired of seeing Sanosuke's face. Kaoru didn't blame him...
"No, I have some questions now, sir," she said, and he looked her over like she was a piece of meat he were going to buy or something. She bristled as he said, "And what would you have to ask me, little lady?" Little...? Why the... the...!
Kaoru lost her temper and reached across the counter, stealing a move from Saitou's book. She grabbed the innkeeper by the collar with both her hands, making sure to tighten it uncomfortably around his neck. Then she shook him for all she was worth. "Don't call me 'little'! And tell me who that man with the white hair was with earlier before he left," she demanded.
"Uhm, Missy," she heard Sano call to her, worriedly, in the background. She ignored him.
The innkeeper gasped for breath and strangled out, "L-Let goo!" She glared at him and he finally said, "I'll teelll youuu... just leeet gooo!" She released him, and he clutched his neck breathing in and out harshly.
Once he'd caught his breath, he said, "They're still here in that booth over there," he pointed and continued, "They're not the type of men you want to mess around with, miss."
Kaoru glared at him. "I'm the one who's going to be doing the messing, if you catch my drift."
The man paled and his eyes flickered to the sakabatou at her waist. Kaoru couldn't resist the wicked grin that formed on her lips. She was going to find Kenshin, and so help anyone who got in her way...
o o o
A while later, after bashing the hooligans that Enishi Yukishiro called "friends" over the head with Kenshin's reverse blade sword for information, Kaoru and Sanosuke were on their way to the little mansion Enishi had been staying in since he'd gotten back from his "business trip."
"Do you think they lied?" she wondered fearfully.
Sano looked peaky as he replied, "I doubt that a whole lot, Kaoru-chan..." Well, she contemplated, she had bashed them up pretty well, hadn't she?
"I need to change," she realized, looking down at her impractical kimono. "Let's stop at the inn..."
They changed direction and were at the inn a little after the sun set. Saitou was nowhere to be found, but oddly enough, he'd left a Kaoru-sized gi and hakama lying on the futon, and a pair of regular sandals, socks, and a hair-tie on the floor beside it. He must've gone shopping, she realized, blinking in surprise. When she got over her astonishment, she ordered Sano, "Get out!"
"Hunh?" he wondered, confused, and she glowered at him. He got the message... "Uhm, right. I'll be right outside, missy."
After he left, she changed quickly and replaced the sakabatou around her waist. She took a look in the mirror and realized she looked a little bit like a samurai. Hopefully, she wouldn't get into trouble with the police for carrying a sword around... Nah... Kenshin hadn't, mostly people just left him alone. Maybe they'd been afraid, she speculated.
Shaking herself, she put on the finishing touches, taking out the ribbon she'd held her hair up with and replacing it with the simpler material Saitou had left her. She used it to put her hair up into a topnot. Nice, she complimented herself with her last glance in the mirror. Now she really did look like a samurai.
When she came out of the room, Sano looked at her and then gave her a double take. "Why are you dressed like that, Kaoru?" he asked, bewildered. He'd seen her in a gi and hakama before, but she supposed never with her hair up like that or with a sword strapped to her waist.
"I wanted to look more intimidating," she said, feeling embarrassed and defensive, "It might help if Yukishiro mistakes me for a man."
"Hah," Sano snorted. "Like that'll ever happen!"
Kaoru socked him in the arm and growled, "Shut up!"
"Then again," Sano teased, stifling laughter. Kaoru practically stewed she was so mad, but now wasn't the time for petty squabbling. They needed to hurry if they were to find Kenshin before anything bad happened to him.
"Forget it," she snapped, "We've got to go now, okay?"
Sano nodded, growing serious. "You're right. I'd hate to see anything bad happen to the little guy, even if he was an ex-assassin."
Kaoru nodded and they left the inn. She broke into a jog once they were out in the street, glad to be in a pair of comfortable sandals again but worried sick that maybe she'd wasted precious time merely changing her clothes. Then again, half her chance at rescuing Kenshin was pure bluffing. Because if Enishi was able to get Kenshin to surrender, then Kaoru had no chance against him in a fair fight.
o o o