A/N- Hey guys. Thank you for your patience and kind comments. This chapter took a while because, in addition to being incredibly busy, I ended up scrapping the original and completely rewriting. Enjoy.

Chapter Two: Rainfall

The dark sky was a perfect reflection of the brooding expression on the Battousai's face as he walked hurriedly down the glistening, wet street. Sayuri trudged along a step behind him, both of them moving at a sluggish pace in their sodden clothes. Kenshin maintained a stony silence, refusing to make eye contact with the woman who was trying desperately to rectify the situation. He was incensed that she had tracked him down, arriving at the most inopportune moment possible and getting in the way during his fight. She had accosted him, even had the audacity to mention Tomoe. She couldn't even begin to understand all he had been through in the four years that had passed since his departure. Sayuri had no right to pass judgment on him; she barely knew him anymore. And yet, he couldn't forget her words, her accusations.

What have you become?

As they walked, Sayuri touched her hand lightly to Kenshin's arm, where he had been wounded, startling him from his reverie.

"You're bleeding," she said softly, feeling a strange sense of guilt for the night's events. He flinched at her touch and she quickly withdrew her hand, feeling discomfited. She had missed him greatly in his long absence, and seeing how he had changed made her heart sink. She had hoped against all hope that the rumors about him were false. The Kenshin she knew was not a cold-blooded killer. But the truth was written on his cheek in the form of a cross-shaped scar; there was no denying that he was not the boy she used to know. Unsure of what to say to him, Sayuri fell silent, leaving the manslayer alone with his thoughts.

As they neared the inn, Kenshin was struck by the sudden realization that he could no longer stay there. He had left his job unfinished and soon the men he had fought would be looking for him, out for his blood. The manslayer quickened his pace, ignoring the fatigue that racked his entire body. He passed the inn without so much as a glance, ignoring the questioning look Sayuri gave him and making for the forest outside the small town. There he would be able to lie low until he was rested enough to Kyoto and to the revolution that had consumed his life.

They traveled in silence until they had reached the outskirts of the town where the rain was coming down in torrents, moving with the gales of wind that had picked up. When her companion still kept to his morose silence, she was unable to restrain her curiosity any longer, bursting out, "Where the hell are we going?"

"I," Kenshin replied sharply, putting an emphasis on the word, "am going back to Kyoto. You should go home." Sayuri looked cynically at the mingled coagulation of blood, sweat, and water that covered his arm, shaking her head in disbelief. Despite his quick gait, she could see by the pained way that he moved that he was in no condition to be traveling.

"Idiot," she muttered, though inwardly she was impressed by his strength to keep moving after sustaining injuries during his fights. The stubborn woman's mind was made up; she was not leaving her childhood companion to the elements.

When rain came to an abrupt halt, Sayuri looked up, realizing that they had made it into the forest. They continued further inward until Kenshin collapsed on the damp ground, leaning his battered body against a large black pine tree. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, his breath visible in the cool night air. Sayuri kneeled on the ground next to him, looking concernedly at his wounds, but before she could speak, he headed her off, posing the same question as he had earlier that night.

"Why have you come here?"

The woman shifted to a sitting position, not answering the question immediately. After a few moments of silence, Kenshin opened his eyes, watching her impatiently. Her eyes were unfocused as she stared into the darkness in front of her, recalling her journey to find the man who had changed so much in the long years he had been gone.

Unwilling to deliberate the point, she said simply, "Hiko is gone." Her tone was steady, but the pain was clearly visible in her eyes as she spoke about her brother. Though it was only of many reason she had sought the Battousai, she fell silent, leaving him to decipher the statement on his own.

With a note of trepidation in his voice, Kenshin questioned, "Dead?"

He had not seen Master Hiko since he had walked out of his house to fight in the revolution. Hiko had taken him in when he had no family and been like a father to him, training him in the Hiten Mitsurugi style. Sayuri, Hiko's younger sister, had always worshipped her brother. His departure from the place he had come to know as home had been an angry one, but he still had the utmost respect for the man who had taken him in and imparted to him his knowledge of swordsmanship. Seijuro Hiko had always impressed upon him that swordsmanship was the art of taking lives, no matter how you tried to avoid it. But for some reason, thinking of the man flooded his mind with guilt, something he hadn't allowed himself to feel in years.

"No! No . . . he can't be," Sayuri cried out, "I- I don't know." She paused, taking a deep breath to compose herself. Sayuri stared into Kenshin's blue eyes with her green ones, a somber expression on her delicate face.

"I went after you," she said, a hollow tone to her words.

"What?"

"When you left. I went after you. I thought . . . I thought I'd never see you again," Sayuri confessed, her voice shaking slightly. She had been deeply wounded when Kenshin left. At the tender age of fourteen, she loved him with her whole heart, as both her friend and something deeper. A misty look crossed her countenance as she remembered finding out that Kenshin was married, and then that he had been betrayed by his wife. She had grown since then, rejecting her feelings and relying on her memories to keep Kenshin in her heart, but seeing him now made her wish she had stopped him when she had the chance.

"I was naïve to think that you would be around forever. And I was a fool to come looking for you, but . . ." she trailed off, her voice barely audible. As she looked up at him, Kenshin was struck by how lost she looked. Did he look that way now? He had descended into a deep pit of sin, taking lives because he could. Had he really fallen so far?

"Do you remember what you said to me six years ago?" she asked, her eyes alight with a fervent need to know that he had not forgotten. When he looked confused, she prompted, "Under the waterfall." Recognition dawned in Kenshin's eyes, but he remained silent. It had been so long since he had accessed the memories of his adolescence, and he barely recognized the person he had been in those days.

"You made a promise," she said slowly. "'I'm going to use my sword to be a hero,'" she quoted, both of them recalling the scene with vivid clarity. That day, they had been jumping into the lake from the top of the waterfall, with no trace of the cares they now carried. The future had seemed so far away, and the possibilities endless. With a heartbreaking smile that was a mixture of bittersweet longing and sadness, Sayuri said softly, "I came here because I want you to keep that promise."

[I don't like this chapter as much as the last one. I know this has quite a bit of dialogue and it's also a bit emotional for my tastes, but don't worry, we'll have more action soon. The transitions suck, I'm sorry. I'd love to hear your opinions and ideas, so please R&R!]