[A/N] I'm sorry for the short chapter...but I just had to end it on a cliffhanger, and besides the next chapter should be out more quickly.

The Battousai, In Plain Sight

"Open up!" The voice called more loudly. All of the girls stood, frozen, save Naomi who bustled back in without her medical suitcase, and Cho, who leapt next to the Battousai with an elegant lily to place in his hair.

"NO!" The Battousai growled, sounding very masculine.

"You'll give yourself away in a heartbeat!" Cho hissed, placing the lily in her own hair. "Fine, then. Let me do the talking, and do not, under any circumstances, say anything, understand?"

"I'm going to open the door," Naomi said, her authoritative gaze landing on everyone. "Sit down on the cushions. Behave naturally." Within five seconds, everyone had obeyed. With steady hands, she undid the latch and pulled the door open.

"Hello," the Battousai heard Naomi say calmly. "How may I help you?"

"Step aside!" A policeman ordered, roughly pushing Naomi to the side and striding in. Four more followed behind him. A hard anger flashed in Naomi's eyes, but she somehow maintained her unflappable demeanor.

I could take them, the Battousai thought. They wouldn't be a problem for me. But what about afterwards, when I'm on the run? I've lost enough blood that fighting another army would be suicide. Besides, I'll evade suspicion much longer if I remain as a girl... As embarrassing as it is.

"You four take those corridors, I'll question these," the leader of the officers ordered his subordinates, and then faced the group. "Did any of you see a swordsman walking by? Long red hair in a high ponytail, golden eyes, lean and muscular but small in stature? He would be injured with cuts and blood all over his body."

"No, I don't think so," Reika said. "Who's he?"

"Battousai the manslayer, an assassin who has killed hundreds of high-ranking government officials and thousands of their bodyguards," the policeman said, his tone in itself a warning. "He cannot be trusted. He'd sooner kill you than talk to you."

The Battousai noticed a couple of the girls exchange suspicious glances. No, he thought firmly. If I'm captured here, without my sword, dressed as a girl, I'd be an embarrassment of an assassin. Man card revoked permanently. I'd be the shining example of what-not-to-do-when-you-are-on-the-run, the poster boy of failure WHO ALSO HAPPENS TO WEAR A KIMONO. Embarrassment of the century.

It cannot end this way.

"They'd better not have said anything!" Kaoru said, although her tone was more worried than furious. Despite Kenshin's humorous, quirky way of telling the story, she couldn't help but feel frightened for him. "What did you do?"

Kenshin smiled. "Well, Miss Kaoru, there wasn't much I could have done but sit and wait."

"Keep going, I want to know what happens next!"

"What are you doing now?" The officer demanded.

"Usually this is a brothel," Naomi answered evenly. "We're oiran, and we usually entertain our guests here. Today, we took a night off work to celebrate Sayuri's birthday."

The police officer inspected each of them in turn, declining to respond to her answer.

"You, there." The Battousai tried to keep his expression soft and sweet and his gaze fixed on the floor, feigning shyness. Over the policeman's shoulder, Cho smirked.

"What's your name?" The officer asked. A flurry of curses ran on the tip of the Battousai's tongue, but thankfully he managed to remain silent.

"Oh, uh, her name is...uh, Bat...um, Baku." Cho said quickly, bounding to his side. Nice save, Cho, the Battousai thought. "She doesn't speak much."

"And why is that?"

"She's shy! You're scaring her!" Cho said, putting an arm around the Battousai and patting him on the head fondly with the other hand. Inwardly, the Battousai wanted to rip something to pieces, fight a duel, do something, anything, to reassert his manliness.

"Odd for a prostitute." The officer muttered. "I thought for a moment...because of the hair color..." the officer hesitated, and then shrugged. "Huh. Don't know what I was thinking. All right, then."

The Battousai's fingers itched for his sword, for some form of protection after that close call. Why had he, so stupidly, hidden his sword away? If they found it, he would be defenseless!

"No threats here." The officer said finally. "Move on to the next house. Be warned, girls. We know that the Battousai is in this area, and other units are searching the houses nearby as we speak. You should be safe if you remain indoors here. Understand?"

"Did they stay much longer?" Kaoru asked anxiously. "Is that it? Did they question you?"

"It wasn't over," Kenshin shook his head. "That it wasn't."

"Well, you passed the test, didn't you?" Kaoru queried. "They thought you belonged with the rest of the oiran, and didn't they say there were no threats there? What else could possibly have happened?"

"I found something, sir!" An officer called, striding to the main room. "Look!" In his hands rested an elegant sword still in its sheath.

The Battousai could not breathe, and the air that he had been about to exhale sat frozen in his chest.

"Ah." The officer strode over and picked up the sword. "I do not know if this is the Battousai's...but it could be." He murmured under his breath. "Certainly a suspicious object to find in a so-called brothel. Where did you find it?"

"In a closet, sir. As if someone had tried to hide it."