How the Past can Change
A K&K Rurouni Kenshin Romance FanFiction
by: bunny ;D
Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin is the creation of Nobuhiro Watsuki, with the manga and anime rights belonging to Jump Comics and Sony Entertainment, respectively. I do not own and did not create the series or its characters...I'm just a fan, and I have no money anyways, so NO SUING ME!! :D
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A/N: This story is altering the original story of Rurouni Kenshin / Samurai X. It also has some OOCness, (especially with Battousai.) If you don't like that idea, or can't handle it…I would advise you not to read this fic. If you are a hard-core Tomoe and Kenshin forever kind of person, I would advise you to not read this fic. Don't get me wrong, I like Tomoe, this is just a different story ok?
Ja ne,
Bunny ;D
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"I just wanted to let you know I was headed into town to buy some food at the market for dinner tonight." He paused, "would you like anything?"
"No, that's ok. I'll see you soon then. Take care." Kaoru replied with a smile.
About 10 minutes after Kenshin walked out of the dojo gates, a lone Kaoru paused suddenly in her practice and turned towards the dojo entrance. "YOU!" she hissed, immediately getting into a defensive stance.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA" her intruder replied menacingly.
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Chapter Thirty-Six - Hitokiri Battousai
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Breif A/N: I used a lot of lines from the manga translations on Anna-neko's site, RK Dreams to write this chapter. Many thanks to her for having those available, although this chapter was difficult to write, it helped me out a lot. ;D
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Kaoru's eyes narrowed dangerously at her intruders. 'I'm SO not in the mood for this. And of course they come when Kenshin goes out…figures, they think I'll be easy prey just because I'm a woman. OOOHHHH!! Those kind of guys make me so MAD!' she thought becoming furious at the whole situation. Kaoru adjusted her stance to an aggressive one, and prepared herself to attack the closest member of the Battousai's gang that had been nice enough to crash her personal training time. A second before launching her attack, a short old man stepped out from behind Battousai holding up a document.
"Miss Kamiya Kaoru. The paperwork is completed. All we need is your seal to complete the transaction." He said to Kaoru, slowly approaching the now somewhat confused teacher of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu.
"What transaction?" Kaoru spat, maintaining her aggressive stance, preparing to strike out at her intruders at any moment.
"Why, selling your dojo to us of course." The man replied.
"WHAT!???" Kaoru shrieked. "I'm not selling my dojo! Are you crazy?!?!" she yelled to the man.
"Yes, you are. You're selling it to us." Battousai growled to a now completely fuming Kaoru.
"Not in MY lifetime will MY dojo ever be owned by murdering SCUM like you!" Kaoru yelled to the large form that claimed he was the legendary manslayer.
"On the contrary young lady," the older man continued, "you will be selling this property to us, the easy way, or the hard way. Either way, this dojo will soon be property of Kihei-kan, owned solely by myself, Hiruma Kihei, and my younger brother Gohei." He said gesturing behind him to the large Battousai impersonator behind him.
Now completely beyond furious, Kaoru launched her attack on the gang. Leaping into the air, she quickly came crashing down on the older man who she had been speaking with, immediately knocking him unconscious with a swift blow to the crown of his head. She proceeded onward attacking all of Battousai's underlings hoping to take them out so she would be able to have a fair fight with the large man she now knew was Hiruma Gohei, owner of a rival dojo. As his brother fell to the ground, Gohei yelled to Kaoru, "how dare you hurt my brother!" Before chasing after the young woman who was quickly going through his gang, dislocating shoulders and knocking out the less powerful of her many opponents. After handling about 5 of the gang, Kaoru was abruptly grabbed from the back of her gi and lifted up high into the air.
"ACK!" she screamed at her abrupt halt in momentum and the pull of the cloth tight against her throat. 'That…was careless of me.' She thought to herself as she breathed heavily, trying to compensate for the slight choking from her current position.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" Gohei laughed as he held Kaoru's small form high up above his head with his overly large arm. "Serves you right!" he yelled. "A woman, teaching kenjutsu!" he added mockingly.
Kaoru cringed at the insults she was now quite accustomed to. It was true, a woman kenjutsu instructor was not well accepted or common in a male dominated society, but hearing it from someone who killed for pleasure made her sick. "BETTER than a cold blooded KILLER like YOU!" Kaoru choked out.
A now recovered Kihei stood in front of Kaoru and gloated. "Kamiya Kasshin is no longer. This property now belongs to us." He grabbed for Kaoru's wrist and Kaoru began to squirm frantically, kicking her legs back towards Gohei, hoping his enormous hand would lose it's grip on her back.
Just as things were about to go completely out of control, a started gasp was heard from the entrance of the dojo. All activity within the dojo stopped and all eyes turned to the lone figure standing in front of the opened doors.
"S-S-S-Strong." The figure choked out before collapsing face forward onto the dojo floor.
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While walking back towards the dojo, bags of groceries in tow, Kenshin took special care to be aware of all of his surroundings. As soon as he had reached the market, he had had a bad feeling, almost like a sixth sense that something very bad was happening. Assuming that the Battousai impersonator was up to no good again, Kenshin was especially careful to observe everything as he made his way back home, hoping to track down the manslayer using his past alias, and take him out. His nerves on edge, and the feeling growing more urgent with each passing minute that he didn't track down the source of his distress, Kenshin began to grow worried that perhaps Kaoru was in some sort of danger.
Finally arriving at the dojo gates, Kenshin cautiously entered the property and called out, "I'm home." A moment of complete silence passed before Kenshin's ears heard Kaoru's voice and a man's voice yelling.
'He didn't.' Kenshin thought as he dropped the groceries in the courtyard and sprinted to the dojo entrance. Without making a sound Kenshin snuck up on the man standing guard at the dojo entrance whom stupidly had his back to him. He took a moment to take in the scene of Kaoru being held like a puppy by the back of her gi, by the fake Battousai, and a older, shorter man standing in front of them, surrounded by a group of men with swords.
Kenshin heard the older man say, "Kamiya Kasshin is no longer. This property now belongs to us." In a low menacing voice to Kaoru. As the man reached for Kaoru's wrist and Kaoru began struggling frantically, 'you are a dead man,' Kenshin thought viciously as he moved into action. He plunged the dull edge of his sakabato into the back of the lousy guard, causing him to gasp from surprise, which stopped all activity in the entire dojo. Kenshin couldn't help but smirk in satisfaction as the guard choked out "strong" before collapsing face first onto the floor and revealing him to all the inhabitants of the room.
"Kenshin!" Kaoru gasped as she saw his lone figure standing in the lighted entrance of the dojo. "Get out of here!" she added.
"And leave my wife here with a bunch of good-for-nothing swordsmen who are attempting thievery? I don't think so." Kenshin said darkly, his eyes narrowing menacingly. "This should prove to be rather interesting." Kenshin added. "It's been awhile since I've had a good fight. I hope you won't disappoint me, as so many have."
'Wife?' Kaoru thought puzzled. 'How dare he say that!' she fumed as an afterthought. "Kenshin, you idiot! Get out of here, you're going to get yourself killed!" Kaoru yelled to him.
Ignoring Kaoru's cry out, Gohei laughed maniacally. "Well, you heard him boys, get 'em!" he yelled as his entire gang rushed towards Kenshin.
With incredible speed, Kenshin charged forward to meet them head on. The clank of his sword exiting it's sheath was heard and after a few quick large arcs, barely able to be seen by the eye, all of the swordsmen from Gohei's gang lay sprawled out on the dojo floor, badly injured and incapable of moving. Only Kihei, who was cowering in the corner, Kenshin and Gohei remained standing, while Kaoru was still hanging in Gohei's hand by her top. Kenshin stood in the midst of the sprawled bodies facing Gohei and Kaoru, disbelief written on both of their faces at how quickly all of Gohei's allies had been immobilized.
'The speed he reads his enemy's moves, the speed of his movement, the speed of his sword, all of it lets him get as many blows in without moving much.' Gohei thought in amazement.
'Amazing speed…'Kaoru thought in a complete daze.
"I'm terribly sorry you had to find out this way Kaoru." Kenshin said, the regret evident in his tone of voice.
'What's going on?' Kaoru wondered in complete shock as she realized what Kenshin had just done, his voice waking her from her daze.
"If it were not for my sakabato, all of your men would have died with an unparalleled swiftness." Kenshin said to Gohei through narrowed violet eyes. "These techniques are part of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu." He continued. "The Hitokiri Battousai did not use the sword techniques of the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu when he was an assassin during the Bakumatsu, but rather the technique of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, which was developed in the warring states era, designed to combat multiple enemies at once." He finished accompanied by a started gasp from Kaoru.
'K-K-Ken…shin…is the Hitokiri Battousai?!?!' Kaoru wondered in complete shock. 'NO WAY!' her mind screamed denial immediately. 'There is no way he would have kept something like that from me!' she thought. She locked eyes with Kenshin's narrowed violet orbs. 'No. He is. He's deadly serious…and he's pissed about all this too. No wonder he's been acting so strangely since we first found out about Gohei.' Kaoru concluded.
"Well, well, well…" Gohei said as he tossed Kaoru to the side.
Kenshin watched Kaoru to make sure she was ok before turning back to Gohei. "Unlike you, I prefer to not use violence. However, now I very much regret not ridding the world of you the other day when you confronted Kaoru in the streets." Kenshin said, his eyes beginning to turn an amber color in his apparent anger at Gohei's treatment of Kaoru.
"The world doesn't need two Battousai's, so I think I'll just kill you now and take the name for myself." Gohei yelled as he raised his sword high into the air and lunged at Kenshin's much smaller form.
Kenshin immediately disappeared from Gohei's sight, causing a look of bafflement to overtake his face, and a pause in his vicious attack.
"Up here." Kenshin taunted his impersonator a moment before he came sailing down from above Gohei and with great force smashed the large man through the dojo floor, head first.
"I don't like the name Hitokiri Battousai, nor am I proud of my bloodied past. However, I would never allow someone like you to use it to kill innocent people and place fear into the hearts of those who do not know anything about the name Hitokiri Battousai except for the ugly rumors." Kenshin said, venom dripping through his cold voice as he strolled casually across the dojo, not even out of breath and pointed his sword at Kihei.
"So…only you are left then." Kenshin said to Kihei.
Kihei began to sweat in fear and cowered even more than he was previously while Kenshin was dealing with Gohei.
Kenshin's eyes glinted in an almost sick amusement. "Perhaps…I should use the other edge of my sword for you, as you are the one behind the plot to take this dojo away from my Kaoru. Therefore, your punishment should be the worst." He said.
Kihei ran into the dojo wall, and fell to the ground, wetting his pants in fear.
Kenshin chuckled. "What a coward you are." He bent down and picked up the document Kihei had dropped when he fell and shredded it with the sharp edge of his sword.
"Kenshin?!?" Kaoru finally questioned as she stood from where Gohei had tossed her aside.
Extremely reminiscent of his first meeting with Kaoru, where his name from her lips had caught him off guard, likewise Kenshin froze at the sound of Kaoru's voice questioning him by his name.
"Kaoru?" Kenshin questioned back as he slowly turned to face her.
"Is…is it really true? Everything you said?" she asked, although she already knew the answer. It explained so many things about Kenshin. The dreams, his eyes, his random comments…
Kenshin hung his head in shame. "Yes, it's true. I'm sorry you had to find out this way. I'v-"
"HOW COULD YOU!! HOW COULD YOU KEEP SOMETHING LIKE THAT FROM ME?!" Kaoru yelled cutting him off. With tears in her eyes, she ran past him and out of the dojo towards the house.
Kenshin sighed. "I knew it. She hates me now." He said to himself as he began to gather up Kaoru's intruders in order to turn them over to the local police.
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A/N: Wow…I didn't have an AN for the last chapter. I know, you're all shocked. I'm sorry because I usually take the time to personally thank all my reviewers. (Don't worry, I still read each and every one of them and I'm very thankful to you all for your encouragement and support!)
In anycase, this is definitely record time for me- a chapter a day. Whoo-hoo!! I've had this chapter and the next chapter all written out in my head for like A YEAR anyways, so yeah…
I was thinking about making a mailing list to notify my readers when I update. Maybe if enough people would like me to do that, I can. If you would like to be on the list, mention it in your review, or send me an email at Usagi@PrincessSerenity.net.
As for the 750 reviewers party…O_o;; I know…I've been slacking on that. Probably by the time I get it together we'll be at 1000 reviews. So I think maybe I'll just wait until I have 1000 reviews before throwing another party. If you guys are unhappy with that decision, then I'll do a 750 party okie dokie? Since, you know, the parties are for the reviewers, not for me, although I do have fun writing them.
Well, that's about all for now. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. (Things have got quite interesting haven't they? ::laughs maniacally:: You haven't seen anything yet!!)
Please leave me a review, I'll be most grateful. ^_^