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Swords and Roses
Chapter Six: The New Student part 1
Birds chirped and the last of the morning rays finally peaked over the tallest tree along the dirt walk trail. Kaoru ducked her head as she soundlessly pushed aside the last low tree branch that concealed the big clearing where she instinctively knew Gohie and his goons would be.
Making sure not to give away her position she allowed the branch to swing silently back a little so she could survey the area without anyone seeing her.
As she looked on she could see some of Gohie's slackers laid around on the ground still asleep in the bright early morning. And as she continued to look she saw Gohie lift the beaten form of Yahiko off the ground, preparing to strike the poor defenseless boy again.
'I'm sorry Kenshin….But I have no choice.' Kaoru thought to herself as she prepared to dash out there and knock the boy out of Gohie's hands.
She had remembered last night she had promised not to go after Gohie on her own, but she just couldn't help it. All her life she had never sat by knowing someone was in trouble. It was just who she was and she wasn't going to change now.
After circling around the group, so that she wouldn't have to intersect any of Gohie's fighters. Kaoru sighed as before she spirited out of her hiding spot without Gohie noticing her at first. She readied her bokken and then with a powerful swipe of her wooden blade she sent a powerful blow into Gohie's guts.
The blow was so intense it knocked him down and away from Yahiko.
Kaoru skidded to a halt and wisely used the time Gohie spent on the ground running over to Yahiko, who was staring wide-eyed at her.
"Are you okay?" Kaoru asked as she bent down towards the sitting Yahiko.
"Look out!" Yahiko shouted as he lifted a hand to point at the charging Gohie.
Instead of standing up to attack Gohie like she wanted to, Kaoru chose otherwise to pick up Yahiko and elude Gohie's sword.
Kaoru leapt away just in time to fill the breeze produced by Gohie's missed attack. As she landed she placed Yahiko down and looked up at Gohie who hadn't moved an inch since the recently failed counter attack. Now by his side were men dressed in black outfits just like the one that had attack her last night.
She narrowed her eyes.
"Well, well Ms. Kamiya…For what reason do you honor me with this early morning visit?" He asked casually.
Kaoru spat at the ground to the side of her as she still retained the dirty look on her face.
"Don't play dumb Gohie. You know why I came." She responded bitterly.
Gohie chuckled at her response as a few of the men beside him began to lean in the direction towards her, anxious to attack.
"Now Ms Kamiya I don't know what you are talking about, but you really must return that boy to me. He is of great use and importance to me." Gohie replied as he shrugged his shoulder some. His face displaying that of an innocent man.
"Shove it! You know why I came and you know you're lying to yourself if that is what you really have to say about the boy. Quit wasting my time!" She raged.
Suddenly the humor on Gohie's face fell instantly as if he had put on another mask where his eyes were narrowed and his face was stone cold.
"Fine then you little bitch! You want to get serious than fine. But first I think my friend Yutaka wants a little vengeance here for what you did to his leg last night. And not just him, but a couple of his friends too." Gohie said darkly as his gestured with his arms towards the group of men behind him...
"Quick get out of here!" Yahiko yelled as tried to pull Kaoru away to safety. Though it was too late.
Gohie gave the signal for the band of fighters to go out and have fun and as the crowd of men began charging at them, Kaoru's eyes widened.
'There's way too many of them for me to fight at once!' She thought in a panic, though her face and eyes did not betray her inner worry.
"Come on!" Yahiko yelled again as he grabbed Kaoru's arm and they began running in the opposite direction.
Kaoru allowed herself to be pulled by the young boy and as they were running she had realized something about him.
From the force of his pull and the speed he showed he had great potential for learning swordsmanship. Considering when she came he had, what appeared to be, roughly beaten and she only came near the end.
Though her observations was cut short as one of the men leaped in front of them blocking their path.
"Quick! You run the other way and I'll take this guy on and try to hold off any others." Kaoru said as she whipped out her bokken and began combat.
Yahiko just stood there and watched her shocked.
"What are you standing there for? Go get Kenshin and the others!" Kaoru yelled as she smacked the guy she was fighting in the head with her bokken and grabbed Yahiko by his collar and threw him into the bushes a few feet away from her, trying to give him some distance.
Yahiko landed on the ground roughly and he cursed at the girl, who had just thrown him, but he got to his feet and after shaking off the fall he began to run to do as the girl said.
Get help.
"You know she's really beginning to bug me." "Come on Kenshin that's the hundredth time you said that!" Sano complained while shoving his hand into his pants-pockets. "But seriously! I told her not to go running off and what does she do?" Kenshin exclaimed.
"You like her." Sano said casually. "What! Sano I barely know her!" Kenshin exclaimed again.
"You said the same thing about Tomoe when you first met her." Sano said shrugging as they continued to trudge along the path Kaoru had traveled only a half hour ago.
"You were always running after her to rescue her." Sano replied.
"That was different." Kenshin said protectively.
"Different my ass! You like her and you just don't realize it. I saw the way you were looking at her the first time she got here. Why if you don't have this weird way of masking your inner feelings you would be like the rest of those guys back there drooling a storm." Sano reasoned as he pointed behind him, referring to their dojo classmates.
"And what about you?" Kenshin asked spinning the tables. Sano halted in his tracks as he looked at Kenshin with narrowed eyes.
"Why do you always do that?"
"Do what?" Kenshin asked innocently. "Would you drop the 'I'm a saint' act for a minute? Why do you always flip the script on me when I talk to you like that?" Sano asked again.
"Why didn't you answer my question? Surely it couldn't be that hard to answer." Kenshin answered not looking at Sano. But just as Sano was about to answer there was a quick rustling in the bushes to the side of them.
Kenshin immediately crouched into a fighting stance, his hand above the hilt of his sword. Sano on the other hand threw up his fist ready and waiting for anything.
Then finally Yahiko burst through breathing heavily. As he tried to get some air Sano and Kenshin relaxed.
"Yahiko are you okay?" Kenshin spoke first.
"Hai…But Kenshin….That girl….out numbered…needs help…ambush…." Yahiko replied in between gulps of air.
"Wo, wo, wo man slow down!" Sano shouted. "What do you mean ambush?" Sano questioned.
When Yahiko's heart started to calm down he took one final deep breath and explained clearly to them.
"That Kamiya girl came to rescue me and she almost did it! But then Gohie called on some of the guys from the Street Lords and now they're ambushing her. She managed to get me to safety by getting me a head start to run away, but she won't last much longer with those guys!" Yahiko elaborated.
Kenshin listened to Yahiko and worry began to engulf him.
"Yahiko which way do we take to Kaoru?" Kenshin asked in a rush.
"Clear across that way!" Yahiko said as he turned to point in the direction he ran from. Suddenly Sano walked up to Yahiko and picked him up the back of his collar.
"Hey put me down!" Yahiko yelled.
"Sorry bud, but you're going to have to do better than pointing." Sano said as he ran into the forest, Kenshin hot on his tail.
'Oh…I hope he got away.' Kaoru thought.
She had managed to fight off a great deal of the masked fighters. But until recently, she was now weaponless and was doing the best she could bare hand.
'I can't do this alone!' Kaoru cried in her head as she knocked down landing roughly on her rump.
While Kaoru tried to sit up, Gohie's dark chuckles could be heard as he stepped up to the small group of fighters as he stared down at the young woman on the ground. He watched her as she rushed a hand to her head and then looked up to meet his gaze.
"My, my…You're more trouble than you're worth." He started as he began to circle her.
"First you intervene with my affairs, then you take away my hostage and now you have the nerve to fight for your own safety when you're clearly out numbered!" His gentle talking growing with anger.
"You are the very pentacle of your father!" He hollered as he set a hard kick to her stomach as she was on all fours at the time. "Stupid and Stubborn! Why if I had my way all those years ago I would still fight with my right hand and you wouldn't be here!"
Kaoru let out her breath as she felt as if Gohie had knocked the wind from her lungs. Gohie relished in pleasure as he saw the daughter of his most hated enemy fell back down in pain. He chuckled some in triumph.
'Finally…finally I'll get my revenge on Sensei Kamiya for damaging my right thumb!' Gohie cheered in his head. But what he wasn't expecting was the fist that hit his face during his silent musing and the following blow to his gut by the hilt of what felt like a sword.
Gohie grunted in pain as he tasted what seemed to be blood in his mouth.
Kenshin watched with narrowed eyes as he Gohie touched the corner of his mouth and lifted his fingers to see the color of blood.
"Why you…Attack them!" Gohie yelled his voice filled with rage while he looked up at the new comers.
"I don't think so!" Sano replied as he jumped in front of one ninja and punched him. Then he picked up his body over his head and threw him into the running mass of fighters.
Gohie growled even more enraged. Sano had just taken out the remainder of his fighters.
As he began to stand up Kenshin's unsheathed sword met his throat, stopping him in his tracks. Out of fear Gohie gulped as he stared down the long metal blade and up the arm of the owner.
While all of this was going on Yahiko ran over to Kaoru and helped her up.
"You got a lot of nerve Gohie." Kenshin said gravely.
"You're one to talk..." He replied. "Shut-up!" Kenshin yelled.
"Kenshin….Sano…." Kaoru spoke for the first time since they came. Kenshin looked at her out the corner of his eyes.
"Kaoru! Get away from here! Sano!" Kenshin said in a commanding voice as he looked over at Sano. "Quick get Kaoru and Yahiko to safety!" But as soon as Kenshin took his eyes off Gohie he grabbed Kenshin's sword and swung it out of the way throwing Kenshin momentarily off balance.
"I will not let you leave this fight in one piece!" Gohie shouted as he moved quickly to attack Kaoru.
"Kaoru watch out!" Sano yelled. Kaoru weakly looked up and when she saw Gohie coming at her and Yahiko. She suddenly stiffened.
"Yahiko when I tell you to I need you to run okay?" Kaoru asked quickly.
"What? What about you?" Yahiko replied in a panicked voice. "Now! Now Yahiko run!" Kaoru yelled at the top of her lungs as she pushed him out of the way.
But that plan went up in flames as he stopped short of Kaoru and knocked Yahiko upside the head with his elbow. And as Kaoru fell down backwards loosing her main support Gohie then turned to her, pulled out a hidden dagger and went for the leg that Surigia had injured.
He barely scratched the wound, but blood began to soak the bandages already on it. Kaoru grunted in pain and just as Gohie was about to attack her again Kenshin jumped in.
He sent a quick swipe to Gohie's sides knocking him away from Kaoru with his sword. While he had done that Sano picked up Kaoru and Yahiko and began heading away from them.
"Sano get them out of here!" Kenshin yelled his eyes now amber. "You got it!" Sano yelled as he continued to sprint away.
"Now you…" Kenshin said gravely, turning back to Gohie. His eyes were narrowed as he watched the taller man before him squirm under his intense golden orbs.
"Please! Please I beg of you don't hurt me!"
"What is this? You are begging for mercy?" Kenshin said as he put on a facade of a murderous tone in his voice. "I know you wouldn't hurt me. You gave up your days as the 'Kyoto Battousai' after Yukishiro tricked you." Gohie said knowingly.
Gohie then felt the sharp edge of a blade grazed his arm. "Urg!"
"Want to run that crap by me again?" Kenshin asked his eyes still narrowed. "And if you do then it will be you're other arm." He added coldly. Gohie growled.
"You can't protect that wench forever! And besides what is she to you?"
"It doesn't matter what she means to me. If you ever, ever come after her again I'll personally come after you myself." Kenshin replied darkly. Gohie gulped again.
"I…will have my revenge!" Gohie shouted. Gohie's reply was seeing black as Kenshin took the liberty of knocking him unconscious.
"Were you mad or were you just stupid!" Kenshin yelled as he and Kaoru, who had regained consciousness.
Kaoru was carrying Yahiko as they were traveling back to the Hiten Dojo. Sano had long since left them alone, his excuse he was near his home.
They were now climbing up the steps to the dojo.
"You're over reacting…We're all fine." Kaoru stated simply as she carefully sank to her knees and laid Yahiko off the side of her as they entered the empty training hall. Kenshin closed the door behind him.
"We're all not okay, that we aren't! Your wound has reopened and Yahiko-chan is knocked out cold with more wounds than the last time we saw him." Kenshin said sternly as he went to the back and pulled out some fresh bandages.
"My wound is fine…As for the boy his wounds will heal too in a matter of days. He just has a few bruises and a little blood for color." Kaoru stated as she exam him. When she looked up again she saw Kenshin returning over to her with the small basin of water.
"It'll take too long for me to heat up the water so you'll have to clean your cut with cold water instead." Kenshin stated firmly, trying to stray from arguing any further with the young raven-haired beauty.
Kaoru realized by the tone of voice he was using he didn't want to fight with her anymore. Kaoru wanted to say that it would be better if they tended to Yahiko first, but she figured it wasn't worth the argument that would probably come from it.
'Damn you…..Gohie…' Kaoru thought as she lifted the bloody edge of her hamaka and placed a piece of cloth over the dried blood on her leg.
Her eye twitched a little as she continued to rub gently at the dried blood and mopping up the fresh blood that rolled down her leg as she would wring the cloth out to wipe again.
When she was done cleaning her leg the basin was filled with red water from her wound and she finished off treating the injury by wrapping it tight with the bandages Kenshin had left out.
While Kaoru had been working on her leg Kenshin, out the corner of his eyes, watched her as he moved Yahiko away from Kaoru and started aiding the unconscious boy.
He watched at how her face pinched up slightly every time the water felt too cold against her cut skin. Also he watched as she delicately wiped at her skin as if, if she were to wipe too hard she would peal off her skin.
Kenshin did his best to give his full attention to Yahiko, but still an overwhelmingly big part of his conscious wanted to stare at the hurt beauty continue on to wrapping her wound as she had now finished getting up the blood.
As she continued to wrap her legs seemingly unaware of Kenshin's continuous gaze he shook his head as he refocused at the task at hand.
Upon even further inspection of Yahiko's body Kenshin realized that his bruises covered most of his body and cuts ranged from either his arm or his face.
As he took off Yahiko's gi, to get a better look, Kenshin saw old bruises going away mixed with new ones all over his chest.
'Kami have mercy…He has wounds like he's been to war.' Kenshin thought as anger began to rake over him. He had a good mind to get up and go back out to Gohie where he left his ass laying and beat the hell out of him all over again.
"To beat a child as badly as he did this one…it's cruel." Kaoru said as she came over to sit by Kenshin.
Her only response was a sigh from Kenshin as his lavender eyes relaxed and glew with a mixture of sympathy and empathy for the child.
"And such is the way of life for one as young as he who have no one else…I'm just grateful your uncle was willing to help me." Kenshin stated from experience as he got up and grabbed the basin with the bloody water and headed out the door.
"Where are you going?" Kaoru asked silently, looking at him at the corner of her lashes.
"He needs warmed water. His wounds aren't as serious as yours so his body can wait and would benefit from warmed water." Kenshin answered as he closed the door behind him, leaving Kaoru and the boy behind.
As the hours rolled on Kaoru and Kenshin did their best of nursing Yahiko back to health. But when it came time for Hiko to start teaching his pupils Hiten Mitsurugi, Kaoru and Kenshin had to move him into a guest room.
"Are you sure about this. Maybe I should stay behind and watch after him. I can always start my first day of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu tomorrow." Kaoru said as she looked down at Yahiko's sleeping form.
"Trust me he'll be fine. Also it would be dishonorable to not come to training today after you earned your right to train with us." Kenshin reasoned with her. "You're right I don't want to dishonor my uncle or father. Though I don't want to leave him alone either." Kaoru answered as she leaned in the direction of the door.
"With the knock out he received he shouldn't wake up until nightfall." Kenshin stated as he placed a hand on Kaoru's shoulder. After a moment of silence pasted them Kaoru nodded her head in agreement with him for once.
"I'll go change." Kaoru replied as she walked out of the room.
Kenshin sighed as he shook his head. 'She's something else.' Kenshin thought as he looked down at the slumbering boy.
"You'd better be lucky she worries for you." Kenshin stated aloud to Yahiko. "Because you know and I know no one else really would." He added.
Kenshin watched the unconscious boy continue to slumber a few more minutes before he too decided to leave the room.
Today, this mid-afternoon, history will be made.
For the first time ever in Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu history the first female pupil would learn this ancient style of fighting to learn, master and utilize.
The classroom filled up as Hiko's pupils came in. Kaoru stood near her uncle at the head of the class, watching everyone walk in.
"Are you nervous?" Hiko whispered down to her. Kaoru slightly jumped at the sound of Hiko's voice and he chuckled somewhat at her.
Kaoru eyed him hard, but answered him kindly. "Just a bit. I don't know to what extent I will be able to meet your expectations."
Hiko did a quiet 'feh' as he rolled his eyes and looked about the room at his students.
"Please.. You will do fine. Today I don't expect you to be able to catch on to every little thing we're doing, just try to keep up." Hiko said as he watched the last person enter the hall. "For anything you don't catch I will have Kenshin teach you and if he can't, then when I have time I will." Hiko added as he walked ahead of Kaoru to call his students to order.
"Yo! Kenshin!" Sano called over to his friend who was doing some quick stretches.
Kenshin looked up at him.
"Sano… How are you feeling?" "Oh what you mean about yesterday?" Sano questioned. "Please you should know me better than that by now." Sano quickly added as he slapped a hand on his friend's shoulder.
Kenshin eyed him warily and Sano noticed this and started to laugh a little.
"Besides what was really going to kill me was you and Missy arguing all the way back home when she woke up. If I didn't know you any better I would say you really do have a thing for her." Sano said slyly.
But before Kenshin could reply to Sano's assumption, Hibiki interrupted.
"Who isn't intrigued by the little vixen." He laughed quietly. Kenshin opened his mouth to say something, but Hibiki once again silenced him.
"I mean you'd have to be stupid, gay or insane to not be mesmerized by her." Hibiki ranted.
Kenshin looked at the slightly taller youth with black hair slicked back running smoothly down his back. Sano noticed Kenshin eyeing Hibiki and gently nudged Kenshin to get him to stop before Hibiki could notice Kenshin glaring at him.
Kenshin coughed suddenly not expecting Sano to send his elbow into his gut and Hibiki took his eyes off the delicious eye candy, better known as Kaoru, to look at Kenshin who was recovering from a short coughing fit.
"You alright?" He asked concerned. "NO…No I'm fine." Kenshin replied wishing Hibiki would just crawl back from whatever corner he came from.
Hibiki shrugged his shoulder and turned back to watching Kaoru who was talking with Hiko.
"Man it's not fair that she's off limits." Hibiki whined.
"Hey man can you stop eyeing her like she's fresh meat." Sano replied as he notice a familiar murderous gleam in Kenshin's eye begin to swirl in amber forming depths.
"Huh?" Hibiki asked before he turned to face Sano. "What he's trying to say is shut up talking about her." Kenshin answered for Sano.
"But-" "Shut up!" Kenshin slightly growled, trying hard not to make himself sound annoyed, but failing miserably.
Hibiki eyed Kenshin cautiously and carefully decided to chose his words carefully for what he was about to ask the red haired swordsman.
"So...Uh Kenshin…" "Yes?" Kenshin replied after sighing deeply. Kenshin could just sense he was about to ask something that would piss him off. "Well I was w-wondering…if…"
Rolling his eyes Kenshin caught onto what Hibiki was asking.
"No Hibiki…I'm not interested." Kenshin replied dryly. "Are you sure?" Hibiki asked again double checking. "I remembered the last person who dared to cross the 'Battousai's catch' and well I don't want to be a repeat. Not to mention you sounded pissed off when I was talking about her." He reasoned.
"That's because you were over talking!" Kenshin replied. Sano gave a quiet snort, but Kenshin still heard it and looked at Sano out the corner of his eyes.
"Oh! Well in that case I guess that maybe then I still have a shot at her! Limits or no limits I shall make her mines." Hibiki proclaimed happily. Though just as Kenshin and Sano were both about to say something, Hiko called the class to order and everyone rushed to fall into there respective lines.
STOP HERE!
A/N- I hope you liked this chapter. Please review!
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