.
Kenshin left, so certain of the coming deaths, and Kaoru felt her entire body grow cold.
She didn't want to survive with a slaughter all around her. She didn't want to watch as everyone else fell. She didn't want to watch him drive his sword into a dozen men, fighting to his last breath, until he was cut down.
So many people.
It wasn't right, to wait like this. These wars would never end. She hated to see the warmth drain out of his eyes. She hated thinking of the bodies she had seen. She hated thinking of all the defenseless people who would die.
There must be something someone could do. Someone had to do something.
Kaoru couldn't sit and wait for death to come.
So she moved. Before she thought of what she was doing, she was walking, and when she opened her mouth to people, the words simply came.
She said, "We must get away. This is not your battle. There must be somewhere to get away, someplace for the servants to hide." Kaoru went to the kitchens and the stables and the servants' quarters. Some of them frowned at her or cursed her for her disloyalty, but some narrowed their eyes and nodded. Some had already taken their belongings and fled.
Everyone was frantic preparing for battle or praying. Courtiers hurried from building to building along the walkways damp from the mists and the sprinkling rain. The samurai plodded through the courtyards with their armor and their swords, wearing paths of mud through the gardens.
With so many servants and noblewomen running around, Kaoru imagined that no one took notice of her wandering, until a shadow fell over her. White garments. A long sweep of black hair. The lingering scent of incense. The shaman.
"Where do you think you're going?" Megumi demanded.
"I don't know," Kaoru answered.
Megumi peered down at her in silence, blocking her way, until Kaoru felt the urge to simply shove the other woman aside. She had no time for this.
"You will all starve," Megumi finally said, "if you aren't slaughtered first. You will find no comfort in the villages. They will be too frightened to help you." Then, worse, she began to smile, and Kaoru felt her heart throb in hopelessness and anger and she wanted to strike the priestess.
"...I underestimated you," the shaman continued. "I never guessed you would try to help these people who mean nothing to you. You are a strange girl, foundling."
Then she turned around abruptly and began walking toward the storage sheds. She called without turning, "Come with me."
Kaoru hesitated, and Megumi slowed. She turned. "Come with me," she spoke again. "You'll only get everyone killed doing it your way. I can see to it that you and your flock of traitors at least have a chance to survive."
.