A/N : Second chapters are great. It means a multi-chaptered story is in progress. I was also SO happy with all the positive feeback.

Thank you, again, to Seinakyou, who betas for me and still talks to me even if she thinks I'm crazy. She's writing something called Firebird. It's GakuRin. It's suspenseful. Can you say "awesome-sauce?"

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Chapter 2:

The sun was set to rise in about an hour.

Gakupo's troops were set to attack now, but there had been some flaws and complications.

The large, injured group of men slowly made their way to where the rebels were supposedly hiding out. Various wounds marking the warriors made them unable to speed up. They were still more or less a mile away. Their schedule stated that they should have been at their destination at leasta half hour before, but not everything goes according to plan. The warriors were still wounded, and the fact just that they were even willing to fight was something to be proud of, Gakupo supposed. He wishes they could be a little faster about it.

After what seemed like hours, the Samurai arrived. Faint lights outlined the large compound. Silently, the purple-haired leader motioned to the building, and half of the men separated, intent on going towards the back of the building to block off all the exits as per plan.

However, a loud gong sounded through the silent night, and the Samurai all glanced up at the same moment to see a man hitting it furiously, swaying slightly on his feet. He was no doubt hung-over. He was standing on a high platform above the building, appearing half asleep. Not so much that he didn't hear them, though.

Commotion started from inside the fort, the curses of men and the pounding of footsteps ringing out into the clear night. They emerged from the building all at once, creating a stampede that was dead set on getting through the opposing warriors, who were eagerly getting into formation for battle.

There were battle cries from both sides. Just as Gakupo thought, the rebels were sloppy. They were all tired and still suffering from the night's previous events.

"Retreat!" Gakupo glanced up from the enemy he was engaging to see Shion Kaito standing on the front porch of the cabin, yelling at his men. He held a lantern in his hand. "Fall back!" he shouted. The blue-haired man turned, as if he were to go back inside. Instead, he threw the lantern in the cabin, setting the fort to flames.

Kaito leapt from the porch, and he and his men start running towards the opposite direction, tripping over themselves and their weapons.

Gakupo prepared to take off after them when a faint screaming started from inside the fort.

He remembered Ted saying that there had been women here, and Gakupo felt anger boil up inside him from the debauched nature Kaito had to set fire to a building housing his own females. How dishonorable.

The shrieks increased in intensity, and the leader of the Samurai swore to himself. He ordered those men who had split off earlier to give chase to the rebels, and the rest to follow him inside and gather the people and anything else that may have been of importance that had been left behind.

He wondered vaguely, as he ran into the burning building, if these women were indeed worth saving. He had heard that they were kidnapped, but whose side were they really on?

Ignoring the thought, he opened a sliding door that lead to a bathing room. It was quite extravagant, with rose petals set around the tub and candles that were still lit. The beauty of the room was quickly forgotten about, however, when gray smoke curled into it, making it hard for Gakupo to breathe.

Seeing as the room was a dead end, he turned and checked another. This one looked like a makeshift kitchen. Glass bottles were strewn hazardously across the floor and littered the counter. Frowning, he spotted a door at the far end of the room and headed for it.

It lead to another hallway, and the fire had spread here, it seemed. Orange and red flames licked at the walls. In his peripheral vision, Gakupo saw Len carefully guiding a woman down the hallway with bright, teal hair. She was coughing, and mumbling something that he couldn't quite catch. Len hushed her and they kept stumbling through the halls until they were out of Gakupo's sight.

He heard the voices of the women and his men coming from that direction, so he assumed that they had been found. Gakupo still hoped that he could find something useful, like possible battle plans. So he headed down the hall in the opposite direction, the smoke making it difficult to see.

There was only one door at the edge of the hall, and Gakupo opened it without much thought, thinking that whatever was in there hadto be preferable to the smoke and flames he was faced with now.

When he slid the door open, however, he saw that he might have preferred the sight of the flames engulfing the buildings to this.

The room was dark. It held no windows for the faint, dawn light to seep through. However, there were enough lanterns lit for Gakupo to make out the person chained to the wall. The figure seemed to be only kept up by the fixtures on their wrists, slumping forward with bent knees. They seemed to be sleeping, which was beyond strange, as that position looked more than a little uncomfortable.

Moving closer, he made out that the figure was a small, young girl. She looked frail in every sense of the word. Her eyes were closed and partially hidden under he short hair. She was too thin, and angry bruises marked her body.

Which he could only see because she was stark naked.

Surprising himself, Gakupo felt heat rise to his cheeks in a blush. It was neither the time nor nor place for that, and he shook his head before closing the door behind him to prevent more smoke from entering and started approaching the girl, footsteps resonating throughout the small room.

As he got closer, he realized that her hair was blonde and, like the rest of her, dirty.

He had to crouch so that he was eye-level with her slumping form, and try his damnedest to keep his gaze from straying. He was a gentleman, yes—but he was still a man.

"Girl," he said awkwardly, voice cracking. He coughed, tried again. "Wake up, girl."

Gakupo wasn't sure what he was expecting, but it wasn't for her to actually listen. Her head snapped up and her eyes locked with his. They were a blue, and as cold as ice. She froze for a moment before those eye widened, seeming to finally grasp his presence.

She made a strange sound and jerked against her bonds, looking genuinely frightened. Icy eyes darted, seeming to be searching for an escape. He held out his hand in what he hoped was a comforting manner. "I'm not here to hurt you," he stated gently.

"Hah! I believe that," she snapped, and then fear crossed her once again and she tensed up even more so. Did she think he would hit her?

He furrowed his eyebrows. "What's your name?" He waited a moment, but she didn't answer. He asked again, and she glared at him. "You can tell me your name, girl," he started, "Or I can call you something I'm sure you wouldn't appreciate."

Icy eyes narrowed at him. "Rin." The word was short and clipped. Her voice sounded funny, as if she didn't use it often enough.

"Rin," Gakupo repeated. She nodded. "What's this room used for, Rin?" he asked.

She bit her lip and her forehead creased in worry. "Please let me out," she whispered. "I-I'll tell you anything you want, but you have to let me go."

Gakupo wasn't sure if he should believe Rin or not, but he nodded nevertheless. They probably didn't have a lot of time, and his troupe was probably wondering what was taking him. He looked at her closely. She looked a lot like Len...

Shaking the thought, he rose. "Where are the keys?" he asked. It was like an interrogation. He just kept questioning her.

"Under the sleeping p-pallet."

Sure enough, he found them and returned to Rin. She stood straight up, not seeming to care in the least that she was nude. Gakupo supposed she was used to it. He reached up and undid the fixtures at her wrists.

Without the chains to hold her up, she flew forward into his chest, face burying into the material of his shirt. By instinct, he took hold of her shoulders.

She immediately recoiled backwards and landed on her rear. She scrambled backwards until she was once again against the wall. At this moment, she seemed to realize she was bare and wrapped her arms around her torso and pulled her legs to her chest.

Sighing, Gakupo turned away from her. It's a little late for that. "Where are your clothes, Rin?" he questioned.

Before she could answer, the material of the door started smoking, curling away to reveal the inferno that was engulfing the building.

Rin gasped. "T-There's a fire!"

Gakupo turned back to her with a raised brow. Hadn't she smelled the smoke earlier? It had been suffocation to him.

"No time for clothing," he ground out, whipping off his shirt and throwing it over her head. He pulled her up to stand, and the material draped on her, too large for her slight frame. He fastened the front of it, ignoring her weak protests. "Let's go," he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the door.

"H-Hey!" she called from behind him. "I can't—"

Suddenly, she dropped to the ground, biting her lip. Mumbling curses softly to himself, Gakupo knelt next to her. "What is it?"

"I'm sorry," Rin whispered. "My ankle..." She trailed off, but she didn't need to say anything. Gakupo inspected at her foot and saw that her ankle was swollen, probably sprained if not broken.

"What happened?" he asked.

She didn't answer, and he glanced up to find her gawking at his bare chest. Not at the skin itself, he knew, but the large scar that formed an X, the middle of it where his heart was located.

Gakupo hated it when people stared at his scars. He knew he was imperfect. No one needed to remind him.

Scowling, he swept her off the ground and started towards the inferno again.

"N-No!" Rin shrieked. "I do not know who you are, but, personally, Ido not have a suicide wish!"

She was once again ignored. He cradled her small form to his chest, hunching over slightly as to protect her from falling debris, he ran out of the door, past the fire.

He couldn't see once he got out into the hallway. He turned in the general direction where he had seen Len and the others go, and hoped for the best.

Rin was coughing, and his eyes were watering from all the smoke. He cursed to himself when he reached a dead end, back tracking until he got into the kitchen.

Finally, he knew where he was. Still clutching the blonde girl to his chest, he staggered out onto the porch where half his men were waiting with the other woman.

Gakupo looked down at the girl in his arms to see that she had passed out, soot covering her pale skin. He sighed to himself, and stumbled towards the others. The teal-haired female he had seen earlier broke away from a group and approached him cautiously.

"E-Excuse me," she mumbled meekly, staring at her hands. Why were these girls so damn frightened all the time? What had happened to them? "That girl. Is she...?"

"Fine," Gakupo muttered. A look of relief passed over her features as the teal-haired girl looked to the brightening sky, muttering thanks and rubbing eyes that were, surprisingly, not overflowing with tears as expected of young women in times of crisis.

Still carrying Rin, he told his men that they would head back to camp to wait for the others and see what had happened with the rebels.

Until then...

Gakupo felt exhausted. This had gone completely wrong.

As per usual, he supposed.

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A/N : Yep. On a roll.

Review Responses:

Xander Cruize: I'm happy to hear from you again! I hope you liked this next chapter as well as the first.

Black snow rose: Another person who read me before! And you still use caps lock~ Hope you liked this chapter! (And I didn't know about the Len/Kaito one, ha ha).

Maiden Of The Heavens: Glad you liked it! And I have been researching Geisha, and why it isn't like how the "geisha" are in here is... well, you'll have to wait and see to find out :3

Seinakyou: Silly. You've read this already~ I appreciate it thought!

Klemiel: Ah, I'm happy you're following me onto this story. Can't wait to hear what you thought of this!

Reviews are pretty.