RUROUNI KENSHIN IS NOT MINE!
Well I got the second chapter out. Still sucks. I have absolutely no idea where this story is going!
Hey, So I did some reformatting of how this chapter is laid out because I was getting some complaints about it. Please tell me if I made it better or if I should just find another way.
Chapter 2: Shocks
The early morning light peeked through the slit between the sliding doors landing right over one eye causing it to twitch occasionally.
"Time to get up, that it is" murmured Kenshin.
Opening one eye she glared at the man sitting across the room with his back against the wall, his katana propped up next to him. "Must you always ruin my sleep too" muttered the sleepy eyed girl, throwing off the covers and rising to her feet.
"You have an errant to do today, that you do." Kenshin the stood and walked to the door.
"Wait a second" Kaoru said to the disappearing figure, "what errant are you talki…OH SHIT! You're right!" As soon as the door closed she scurried around the room trying to find her clothes, all tiredness forgotten. In her rush she had gotten dressed, but had in turn forgotten where one of her white tabi had been misplaced to. After a minuet of frantic searching, it was found under the table in the corner of the room. Not even bothering to fold her futon, kaoru rushed out of the room with the door slamming behind her.
Grabbing the tofu bucket on the way out, kaoru headed down the road for the town, hoping to get to the market before the crowds got too bad. The crowds were always bad on Mondays. Thankfully, Kenshins reminder had gotten her out of the house in time, because there were only three people in front of her in the line. Once she paid for the tofu, she sauntered back to the dojo to put the tofu down. Then remembering the other two reasons she had gone to town, Kaoru started the mile and a half trek back to the town. The walk always put her mind at ease, knowing that she could just walk and let her mind wander. She still had to go buy some cloth to cover the flower, and she was going to have lunch with her friend Dr. Genzai. She passed an old building that had long ago been burned by one of the many fires that had plagued the town, its scorched walls looming in the shadows of a large willow. 'That place is just too creepy' thought Kaoru as she stopped to look at it.
"You should keep moving, that you should." Kaoru started, having not seen Kenshin appear behind her.
"Too right, this place has a really bad feeling about it," murmured Kaoru, who started to walk again. "Still, did you have to scare me like that? You have some of the worst timing!" Kaoru, still fuming, threw a punch that connected squarely with the mans head.
"OROROO" sputtered the starry eyed ginger. "This one is sorry, that he is. This one just felt it would be better to keep moving than to linger in a place with such negative ki." He lead the way back into the main therefore of the town, stopping in front of a store that had a plaque advertising cloth. "Here we are" stated kenshin. A large throng of people surged by just then, surrounding them. The next minuet he just disappeared from in front of her.
The sharp flash of flaming hair drew her attention to a man surrounded by the crowd that looked a lot like Kenshin. 'Wait a sec, that is Kenshin' She would have known him anywhere from the large cross shaped scar on his left cheek. "Kenshin…" murmured Kaoru, straining her neck to see his figure disappear from sight.
"Yes?"
Kaoru jumped again. 'How did he disappear way over there and then reappear right here a few seconds later' mused the ever confused Kaoru. The crowd had thinned enough to manuver, so weaving between people, they made their way over to the door of the shop.
"This shop has always had good cloth for a budget friendly price, that it has" said kenshin as he walked up to a green silk fabric with small sakura blossoms embroidered on it. "This one thinks she would like this green one," he stated.
"Wow," breathed Kaoru, "Its gorgeous!" Moving to stand next to him, her arm brushing him on her way there. Shocks sparked their way up her arm, and then continued their way through out her body. Heart beating fast, she quickly looked away. 'What was that?' To hide her growing blush she grabbed some of the fabric and briskly strode over to the man running the shop to pay. Irritated by her silly reaction, she grabbed Kenshin by his low tied ponytail and dragged him out of the shop. "You can hold the fabric" she said as she handed him the parcel, and headed off in the direction of Dr. Genzai's clinic. Still keeping up the fast pace, the walk didn't take very long, but they did run into a little trouble about a block away from their original destination.
It looked like a group of teenage boys was hassling a woman outside of a shop, and not a soul was there to help. "This is wrong! Lets just go and tell Matsu that we didn't find anyone worth stealing from," cried a boy that looked to be about twelve with shaggy black hair and stubborn eyes.
The leader of the boys whipped around to face him, a sneer on his pointed face. "You little wimp, you're just too scared to do it! Just wait till I tell the boss, he'll make you go without food for a week!" his fist swung around and smashed the boy in the face.
Striding up to the group, fierce scowl on her face, Kaoru stood between the felled boy and the beauty. "What you are doing is wrong, and if you feel the need to continue I will stop you in the name of Kamia Kasshin Ryu" she growled out fiercely as she swung the practice boken she always carried with her into ready.
"Great, another dumb do-gooder come to wreak havoc on our fun" drawled the head boy. He reached into his kimono and took out a knife. Kaoru sized up her enemy.
He looked to be about seventeen, well muscled, and quick-tempered. 'Shouldn't be too hard to beat'.
"Stay out of this you ugly" sniffed the boy, who was starting to pick himself and dust himself off.
"Go sit in the corner and learn a thing or two about humility" she replied, giving him a withering look. Looking again at the leader, she sprung. She whipped the boken over her head, aiming at his collarbone. He side stepped, but was not expecting her to whip the bokken to the side after she landed. The bamboo sword must have hit a vital organ, seeing as how the boy staggered and was having a hard time recovering.
Just then he made a motion to someone standing behind her. The rest of the boys had grabbed the lady and the kinder young man and were dragging them into the shop. Soon the leader made a break for it and joined them. Running after them, she found herself in what must have actually been a yakuza hideout. The moment she closed the sliding door behind her men sprang at her from the shadows on either side of the door. They wrestled her to the floor and bound her hands and feet with a length of cord.
They dragged her down the hall and deposited her at the feet of a man who was sitting in a large room. They were surrounded on all sides by what must have been his gang. Looking down at her prone form a smile spread across his face. "Well look at what we have here," he drawled. "You seem to have a problem with some of my boys. And you, Yahiko, I can't believe you would turn against us, not after all we did for you. We took you in after your fool of a father was slaughtered and that whore of a mother of yours died from syphilis. We fed you, gave you a home, we even taught you our trade" the man spat at boy the called Yahiko, who was on the floor next to her. "But if you beg I might reconsider killing you, and letting you work for us again."
"Shut UP! My father died a samurai; he protected this country till his very last breath. My mother worked hard to put food on the table to feed me, even if it meant sacrificing herself in the process. They were more honorable then you yakuza thugs will EVER be! And I, Tokyo samurai Myojin Yahiko, would rather die than work for scum like you." At this point the boy's chest was heaving in his anger filled state.
'He would have made a fine samurai if the revolution had not happened" thought Kaoru. But her thoughts were short-lived, as another thug came up, and in his fury, began kicking the boy.
"I'll grant your wish then! Say goodbye" yelled the man.
He had only gotten in a few well-aimed blows before a sandal clad foot smashed into the mans face. Kenshin stood before the boy, his magenta gi billowing in the breeze.
"That's enough, that it is. This one will ask you to let these two come with me, and to release the other woman" Kenshin said slowly.
One thug yelled, "just who are you that we should listen to you, if you value your life you should start begging for your life". Kenshin's eyes narrowed into a deathly glare.
"Kenshin, get out of here! You can't kill anything with that sword of yours, you'll just get yourself killed!" yelled Kaoru.
"Do not be worried, this one will not have any injuries," said Kenshin as he put his hand onto the hilt of his sakabato and crouched.
"Kill him," yelled one thug as he rushed forward.
Kenshins small form disappeared, and then reappeared behind the man, still in mid spin, he hit the man in the back of the head a split second later and landed gracefully on the ground behind him. Everyone just stared at the speed. "Its magic!" one thug yelled.
'No, that's not magic. He's moving so fast that you can barely see him. God-like speed'. Kaoru just lie there, mouth agape at the spectacle. She had only heard of it, but never thought she would ever see it preformed. 'The only one capable of such speed and skill was the legendary manslaughterer Hitokiri Battosai.
"Everybody STOP" yelled the boss. "Let them go, let them go". Kenshin put his sword away. He walked over to Kaoru and cut the ties that bound her movements. She stood, arms and legs cramping in the process from being in such an uncomfortable position for so long.
"Are you all right?" he asked looking her over to make sure she had sustained no injury.
"I'm fine". Then walking over to Yahiko he cut the ropes and picked up the boy, who must have fainted during the fight. They then brought out the woman who they had originally been hassling. The ropes binding her hands were cut, and the three of them walked out, Yahiko still unconscious, was on Kenshin's back.
After they got out of site one man asked, "Why did you let them go"?
The boss just shivered and said, "That was no ordinary man, he had the eyes of a hitokiri, a killer, we got lucky he let us go!"
They walked the last block or so to Dr Genzai's clinic. "Dr Genzai, could you come here for a minuet" hollered Kaoru. Waiting for the middle-aged man to open the door she asked the tall black haired woman, "What is your name?"
She looked at her for a minuet then said, "My name is Takano Megumi. Thank you very much for helping me". Just then Dr Genzai walked out.
"I know we were supposed to go get lunch, but could you take a look at the boy first, he's injured," said Kaoru. He looked over at Yahiko, who Kenshin had put down, and nodded. They deposited him in one of the rooms and then went back to the waiting room.
After standing about in awkward silence for a while Dr. Genzai came out, helping the boy hobbling after him. "Well, You have always had a knack of getting yourself into trouble, ne kaoru?
Blushing slightly she just turned her head to the side and sniffed. "Not on purpose!"
"Anyway, his injuries aren't that bad and certainly aren't fatal, but he does need to rest. I'm sorry to postpone our lunch to a later date, but could you keep him at the dojo and keep an eye on him to make sure his injuries don't get any worse."
"OK" sighed kaoru as kenshin came forward to pick the boy up and take him home. It was starting to get late already.
Turning to Megumi Kaoru said "Why don't you stay with us too, you can tell us about yourself in the morning. "Fine" she said as she sauntered out the door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~Later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After finally getting home and getting Megumi situated in her room, Yahiko in his, and saying goodnight to Kenshin it was already very late. Too tired to take a bath AGAIN, she only slipped into bed in a clean yukata. 'I really need to take a bath tomorrow!' she thought to herself. As she started to let the drowsiness take over she started to reflect on the events of the day. The incident with kenshin at the fabric shop, buying the fabric, Kenshin, helping Megumi and Yahiko, meeting Dr. Genzai, Kenshin…..Kenshin! What was wrong with her? Lately all she could think about was Kenshin! And what was that at the shop, when I brushed up against him it felt like I got shocked! Wait, brushed up against him? He's a figment of my imagination! A ghost of my mind! How could I touch him? When I have tried in the past I only went right through him. And he was seen by all of the thugs, Yahiko, Megumi, and Dr. Genzai! No one but me has ever seen him before!
With such troubling thoughts plaguing her mind, sleep did not come easily for the girl, and for a few hours she was left to her toils. Until a presence at the door finally calmed her down, and sleep came at last.
Ok, second chapter is now out, again comments on how to make it better are appreciated! I know I promised to make it longer but I think I went a bit overboard on this one. And wtf is kenshin? I have such weird ideas!