Chapter Two: The Battle of Light

Kaoru would not wake. Sometimes Kenshin would have to look carefully for any sign of breathing for at least five minutes. Yet alive she was, if barely. It had been three days since the day the sky made tremors. He had to sneak into his camp, which he did quite easily, for fear of being questioned about the nude maiden in his arms. He had to think. He needed answers. And the only one who had them was sleeping still on his bed, looking positively dead if not for the minute heaving of her chest.

But after three days without food or water for the priestess, Kenshin couldn't keep it to himself. He brought in a trusted servant to take care of Kaoru but it wasn't going well.

"I swear on the head of my father, I cannot touch her, my lord. Anytime I try…" Tsubame started to cry and she held her arm dearly. Burn marks showed clearly on her hands. "It feels as if a surging fire would go through me."

"Bare it." Kenshin listened with his eyes closed. He hadn't had a decent night of sleep since...

"But my lord, I can't." Tsubame slumped to her knees and started crying. Kenshin eyed her with a weary glance. Walking towards the maiden in his bed and delicately placed a hand on her forehead feeling her temperature. A surge of blue electricity went through his skin, the crackling light enveloped him for a second and then stopped. He looked pointedly at the crying maid, who glanced wearily at the priestess and curiously at her lord. Not once did he take his hand off. Still, Tsubame felt unsure. Whenever she tried it, the crackling light never stopped.

"See? Now you try." Kenshin tiredly pulled Tsubame's fingers and laid it on Kaoru's hand. Tsubame didn't argue, she knew she was right. Kenshin's eyes widened when a full minute passed by without any sign of the electricity disappearing from the skin contact. He had to pull Tsubame out. "Why the—"

"Please my lord, perhaps you're the only one allowed to touch her." Weakened, Tsubame struggled to keep her voice even and without spite; she stood up with all the dignity she could muster. "My lord, please…" she begged. Kenshin massaged his temples.

"Very well, bring me something easy to eat." Tsubame left the room in a hurry and came back with a tray of egg soup, milk, and a banana. Kenshin dismissed the girl, and she bowed low in gratefulness.

Kenshin stared at Kaoru, the tray in hand. He walked over to her and closed his eyes as he laid a finger to touch her skin. It crackled once before silence ensued. It got easier and easier to touch her, as if it knew it was he. He propped up her head with a pillow and tried to wake her up, but to no avail. He parted her mouth with his fingers and started to spoon-feed her. With the patience of an older brother, he wiped away her dribbles and kept on trying to spoon-feed her until she started to swallow. She finished the soup. He wrapped another layer of clothing around her neck and tilted the small glass of milk to her lips. She swallowed slowly, letting a good half of the milk drip down to her neck. Not once did she gain consciousness. Only the small gulping noises hinted at her being an actual living person.

When finished with the milk, Kenshin opened her robe a little bit to wipe her neck and shoulder blades of the milk. He decided against closing it and instead took off whatever he had put on her nude form. He pulled her blanket above her breasts, and distracted himself with carefully peeling the banana. With two fingers, he broke off a small piece, mashed it, and tried to make her eat it.

She choked at his fingers and unconsciously spat the banana out.

"Orrro…" he said angrily, his patience wearing thin. He did it again and got the same response. "Listen, priestess, you need to eat something solid or you'll starve." He did it again and she spat it into his eye. She moaned a little and turned her head, her eyes moving rapidly beneath her eyelids. Kenshin smirked. She will eat. He bit off the banana and chewed it carefully. Gently, he tipped Kaoru's mouth towards his and slowly kissed her. With his tongue, he firmly but tenderly pushed the banana into her mouth. She was about to reject it, but he parried her tongue with his. He pressed on her tongue and edged the banana down her throat. She swallowed and made a slight noise. He ignored her and did it again. He parted her lips with his, slipped in his tongue, pressed the banana on her tongue, and pushed at it repeatedly to flatten it some more. Several times, Kenshin had to pause to clear his head. Everytime he did, he took longer and his knuckles went whiter as he tried to supress whatever it was he was feeling.

During the past three days, many had noticed (and even remarked) that the amber in his eyes had been appearing more often, though none knew the cause of it.

Kenshin felt weird when he noticed that they had finished the fruit. He looked hard at the banana peel in his hands, crushed and sticky and completely done.

"She might need a bath, my lord…" Tsubame whispered, coming in. She thought it wise to stay hidden until they finished. Kenshin nodded. With the blankets still covering much of her body, he lifted Kaoru's slight form and walked towards the bathhouse.

The camp was more of like a temporary headquarters. Kenshin had a whole compound to himself, including a bed room, meeting room, a dining room, as well as a bath house for his use. He had the privacy required to keep Kaoru secret. Gently he laid her down in the steamy water, scented with jasmine. Probably Tsubame's doing, he thought to himself as he scrubbed her body with forced indifference.

"So this is what's keeping you inside your room," a tall Aoshi looked down at the creature in Kenshin's bed and clothes. "You've clothed her as yours?"

After five days of continuous sleep, she woke up. At that very hour Kenshin had a meeting assembled, impatience driving his blood to madness. He wanted answers and he will have them.

"Lord Himura has chosen a woman? Will wonders never cease?"

Kenshin growled at the impetuous comment, but the elders merely laughed at him as they took their seats facing Kenshin and Kaoru in his bed. Kenshin snapped at them, telling them to be quiet.

The elders, unknowing what to do then, turned to Kaoru. Her forehead was wrinkled, her eyes shining a little too blue and too bright.

"What is your name, my dear?" a particularly fatherly figure came up to her when she didn't answer the first time. Kenshin stared at her. Maybe I should have made sure she was literate before I started this meeting. He scowled.

Kaoru was very interested in her hands, or seemed to be. At any hint of noise, she would then turn her face towards it like a scared rabbit. She started to pant.

"Maiden, answer him," Kaoru turned towards the source of the words… but saw nothing. Emptiness.

"I…I can't see."

Kaoru was blind. The council waited for a whole hour before she could compose herself and talk. Kenshin waited outside, looking at the rain angrily. Blind? The blue light in her eyes rendered her blind?

Kaoru faced the elders as she introduced herself and started the painful process of recalling that last thing she can remember. She started with the morning of her marking as a priestess inching towards the incident of that afternoon…

"He tried to kill me—" her words choked her as she heard a man snort. Then suddenly an eruption of laughter took hold of the room.

"She claims what? Dear, you must be confused, if he tried to kill you, you would be dead." The fatherly voice was of no help as she clutched at the sheets tightly. Her eyes eerily roved the room, as if it pained her to keep them focused at one place. She had not known that the very person she was talking about was in the room.

"She was." It was the first time Kenshin spoke since. He then told the rest of the story. Her eyes, her healing, the sky, and how he brought her in. By the time he was finished, the room had gone deathly quiet.

"Well that's it," said one elder too nervously. "We cannot keep her here, she's obviously a liability. She should be executed." Murmurs of agreement derived from fear filled the room. Kaoru brought the sheets tighter around her body, her mouth set in a grim stubborn line and her eyes opened wider than possible.

"Let us move the meeting outside, elders." Himura marched and opened the shoji door.

However, a very young elder started to move towards her. Kaoru sensing his presence, edged away from the approaching man. "Don't—" Kenshin warned, but it was too late. The man grabbed Kaoru's shoulder and was shocked by her electric aura. No one could get near enough except Kenshin to help him, and when he did, he purposefully took a long time in separating the man from her. The man lay unconscious on the ground.

"Were any of you listening? Did you not hear that I did execute her? She has great power. We shouldn't see her as an omen but a blessing. She'll help us." Kenshin shouted frustratingly at the dimwitted men.

"What? After you tried to kill me?" Kaoru faced the impetulant lord, and despite her lack of sight, threw the most murderous glare she could.

"Listen, priestess, let's get past that okay? I did save you. And clothed you. Fed you. Bathed you. I was your servant for the past week. You are going to help me take back my lands."

"Bathed me?" She was screaming back, her embarrassment flushing her skin.

"Believe me it wasn't a pleasant experience. After three days, you were disgusting." A bowl flew past Kenshin's face, had she been able to see he wouldn't have been able to say another word. The elders watched on, amused that the priestess knew many colorful words despite her chosen occupation. Kenshin matched his vocabulary with hers and would have gone on for hours had not one of the elders interrupt their little verbal joust.

"I think we should let our Lord Battousai decide. Please inform us of your decision and your plan afterwards at tomorrow's meeting." The fatherly elder stood up and started to usher the others out, laughing inwardly at the scene. It reminded him too much of a lover's quarrel to take it seriously.

When all of the men were out, Kenshin took hold of her wrists and brought her up to his face. He hissed at her, "You will help me take my land back." Kaoru tried to break free but when she couldn't she lashed out at him, biting his cheek hard. Kenshin howled and pushed her back on the bed. Kaoru panicked, not noticing the surge of energy that started to rise in her heeding the call of danger.

Kenshin grabbed her neck, trying to keep her down but a shockwave started to go through him repeatedly, shocking his body and the organs inside. He tried to hold on but her power didn't stop. Her eyes glowed blue again as she lost control of her power. Kenshin couldn't let go as the electricity passed through his heart a million times, stopping and starting it again. He shut his eyes closed as he felt his essence let go.

In the nothingness of her mind, Kaoru was assailed with a dark glow. She couldn't see but she could see the light in the emptiness of her mind. Kenshin squeezed her neck and growled. Kaoru's power started to fade, the blue light diminishing into light crackles as another form of light started to emerge.

Kaoru screamed and lost consciousness in the ominous glow that enveloped her. In her mind, she saw staring back at her, two orbs of amber. Two bleeding suns.