The Faerie Chronicles of Kenshin & Kaoru: Immortality, a Rurouni Kenshin fanfic by Raberba girl
Chapter 2
On Monday morning, Kaoru woke up too late to accompany her friends to school, but luckily, she managed to at least catch the bus on time. This meant that she had a minute to pause and look at Himura Castle instead of tearing frantically past it.
Her eyes traveled slowly over the well-known contours, every turret and window familiar. Perhaps because she was staring so hard, her eyes suddenly seemed to go funny - for a split second, she thought she saw something. She was not sure what it was - some kind of outline around the castle, a shimmer in the air that seemed to arch over the structure like a bubble. She got an impression of brick, chain link; of fire, of rose petals. Yet it was so quick, she blinked and it was as if there was nothing there. 'Huh. Weird.' She rubbed her eyes, but the strange air distortion did not appear again. Kaoru shrugged and continued on to school.
Later that afternoon, as she and her friends were on their way back, their interest was piqued by some sort of commotion around the castle. A truck was parked half on the sidewalk, blocking both ambulatory traffic and one of the lanes on the street. Cars were irritably edging around, and pedestrians were unhappily forced to squeeze past men unloading crates.
"What is going on here?" one of Kaoru's friends, Mika, exclaimed in amazement. "Are they crazy, blocking everything up like this?"
A fussy-looking man in a fancy uniform was yelling at one of the people carrying boxes back and forth. "...highly irregular! Unprofessional in the extreme! Mr. O'Neill will have your head for this, Kiyosato!"
"Will he?" The man he had been haranguing paused, glancing over his shoulder in mild annoyance. "I doubt it, since it's not my fault they've locked the delivery lanes. Believe me, Kenshin's not going to want this stuff lying around."
Kaoru liked Kiyosato's face, which seemed almost boyishly sweet, and strangely self-assured for a common laborer being yelled at. Even so, she was not sure what sort of impulse sent her right up to him to ask politely, "Excuse me, sir, but did you need any help?"
She got stared at for her trouble, by her friends as well as the yelling man and Kiyosato. The yelling man simply looked annoyed that a bystander had gotten involved in his affairs, but Kiyosato's eyes were widening in a way that was getting entirely too familiar. "H...Hi," he stammered softly, looking as if he'd seen a ghost.
Kaoru held out her arms pointedly. "Would you like me to take that for you?"
"Uh..." He glanced around, finally realizing that she was offering to help. "Well, uh, I've got this one, but you might, uh...that is, if you don't mind..."
Kaoru went over to the truck he was staring at (in between staring at her), and picked up one of the boxes. It was heavy, but not unmanageable. Kiyosato was still staring at her when she came back. "Where do we put these?" she prompted.
"Oh! Right." He seemed to be regaining his composure. "We're just putting them in the foyer. Sanosuke's got people taking it from there."
"I'm Arai Kaoru, by the way," she offered testingly.
He frowned. "Arai? ...Oh, right." He finally smiled, a very sweet smile that made Kaoru melt a little. "I'm Kiyosato Akira. It's good to meet you, uh, Arai-san."
It was all hustle and bustle inside, with museum patrons staring as they edged around the people working to transport Kiyosato's boxes elsewhere. Sagara moved in the midst of it all, looking a little amused as he gave instructions. His face lit up when he turned to see Kaoru. "Oi, Jouchan! What's up?"
"She's helping me bring boxes in," Kiyosato told him, sounding like an excited puppy.
"Is she." Sagara gave her a slow, lazy smile. "Good to see you back, Jouchan."
At that moment, Mr. O'Neill (or Kenshin, whatever) came hurrying into the foyer, looking almost windblown in his rush. "Akira! This one is so sorry, the key was finally found and they've gone around to open the gates-" He came to a dead halt when he saw Kaoru.
"Hi," she said, shifting uneasily from foot to foot.
"Ah...hello."
After a moment, Sagara leaned over and elbowed him in the ribs. "Take the box, o paragon of courtesy."
Kenshin flushed a cute shade of pink and stumbled forward. "Ah...apologies...allow this one to...ah..." In order for him to take the box out of her arms, their skin had to touch. Kaoru found herself staring at him during the awkward transfer, wondering why she was enjoying this.
"Uh...you got it?" she finally said. "I wanna make sure you don't drop it or anything."
"...Hm...? Oh! Yes, I've got it, that I do. Thank you, Kaoru-dono." Then he stood for another moment or so, clutching the box and grinning stupidly at her. Sagara rolled his eyes and actually grasped his boss's shoulders to propel him away. Kenshin handed the box off to someone else and came back, looking a little sheepish. "Er...sorry you had to get involved, Kaoru-dono."
"It's no trouble," she assured him. "Um...well, I'd better get going..."
"Perhaps you'd like to invite her to take some refreshment, Kenshin-kun." Both Kenshin and Kaoru jumped as a woman seemed to materialize beside them. Kaoru was startled at the woman's beauty, her pale face and floating garments almost ethereal in the midst of these working men.
"Tomoe-dono," Kenshin fumbled. "Ah...right. Kaoru-dono, would you and your friends like something to eat or drink before you go? We really appreciate the help."
And so Kaoru found herself and her friends sitting in an employee lounge with Kenshin, the mysterious 'Tomoe-dono,' Sagara, and Kiyosato, eating cookies and drinking juice. People on break kept coming in and out, stopping to chat with Kenshin or tease Sagara or nod respectfully to Tomoe before heading out again.
"I hope we're not holding you back from your work," Kaoru apologized.
"Don't worry about it," Kenshin assured her, "we have time."
"Especially the lady here," Sagara said in a teasing voice, indicating Tomoe. "Seeing as how she gets paid to just sit around and watch for danger."
Mimi laughed. "So she's like a security system."
Kaoru noticed that Kenshin and Akira had odd looks on their faces, though Tomoe remained as unperturbed as ever.
"Pretty much, yeah," Sagara chuckled. "Oh, and the cooking! She cooks, too. Oi, Kiyosato, when are you gonna invite me over for dinner again?"
"Invite you?" the man said in disbelief. "Since when have we ever invited your freeloading butt?"
"Of course you're always welcome, Sagara-san, freeloading or no," Tomoe murmured, smiling a little.
"This one does pay you enough to afford food these days, Sano," Kenshin pointed out.
"What? Just food?" Mika spoke up indignantly. "People use money for other stuff too, you know!"
"Yeah, really!" Sagara agreed, laughing. "Like a new zanbatô. That'd be nice. Give me one next Christmas, all right, Kenshin?"
Kenshin rolled his eyes. "As if you need it."
"What's a zanbatô?" Mimi wanted to know.
"Huge sword," Sagara said gleefully, "Way fun. You can use 'em to unseat a rider from his horse in one swing!"
"A horse?" Mika said. "Swords? What is this, the dark ages?"
"Oh, I get it," Mimi teased. "You all play RPGs at Himura Castle, props and all, right?"
Tomoe simply ate another cookie and Sagara carried on with the girls as if it was all a big joke, but Kaoru noted that Kenshin and Akira looked distinctly uncomfortable. It didn't surprise her when Kenshin broke in to change the subject. "You've been quiet, Kaoru-dono. Is something wrong?"
Kaoru grinned. "Nah, I was just thinking wistfully that it'd be nice to join in on one of your RPG sessions."
Sagara burst into laughter, and Kenshin actually looked wounded. "They're just joking...we don't play RPGs."
"There's the re-enactments," Tomoe offered. Both Kenshin and Akira shot her incredulous looks.
"Re-enactments?" Kaoru prompted.
"Like The Victory of the Seelie Court," Tomoe explained. "You saw the paintings when Kenshin-kun took you through last time, right, Arai-san?"
"Yeah. So you...?"
"Re-enact scenes like that for tourists. I like to film them - some of the better performances are on sale in the gift shop." She smiled. "Would you like to come see one, Arai-san? The next one is this Friday evening. Bring your family, it's free." She nodded at Mimi and Mika. "Your friends are welcome too, of course."
"Tomoe-dono...the re-enactments?" Kenshin pleaded, looking pained. "That might not be a good...ah..." He trailed off.
"What's the Seelie Court?" Mika wanted to know.
"The court of the good fairies."
"Fairies? What do fairies have to do with historical re-enactments?" she said with a frown.
Sagara chuckled. "They're not exactly historical re-enactments..."
"So they're fiction," Mika pushed. "Like fantasy plays or something."
Sagara shrugged. "Sure."
"But that doesn't make any sense!"
"The tourists like it."
Mika grinned. "All right, then. Friday night, Mimi-chan and Kaoru-chan and I will come watch your fairy play."
Kenshin closed his eyes, and Kaoru noted that he looked distinctly apprehensive.
o.o.o.o.o
"...abuzz with the news that 'Hitokiri Battousai' has struck again, though it's unclear whether the damage was actually caused by Battousai or by an unknown group..."
"Battousai, Battousai," Kaoru mumbled into her pillow. "Shut up about Battousai already." For all the bad reputation of the mysterious 'hitokiri,' Kaoru had never heard of him actually killing anyone, or at least not with his distinctive attack style. It didn't make sense for someone to use a reverse-bladed sword to fight, but then kill people by other methods; a sakabatô could always be turned over, after all. There were constant arguments over which deeds were actually done by Battousai and which had merely been attributed to an infamous name.
Why the heck was she thinking about Battousai this early in the morning?
Why the heck was the radio on?
Kaoru groggily lifted her head and saw that somehow, she had set her clock to play the radio instead of the alarm, which meant that it had taken twenty minutes for the much less jarring noise to wake her up. "WHY AM I ALWAYS, ALWAYS LATE THESE DAYS?!"
She wasn't the only one. As Kaoru rushed through the school gates and hurried up to the school, she saw a familiar figure loping up the steps before her, nonchalant even though the bell had rung ten minutes ago. Kaoru slowed, her breath coming fast, wondering whether or not she should call out to him.
The decision was made for her when Ishida Yamato caught sight of her out of the corner of his eye as he opened the door. "Yo, Arai. You late, too?"
"Yeah," she said breathlessly, her heart fluttering. She had had a crush on this boy since sophomore year. "You, uh...you, uh...yeah, I'm late, too." Heaven help her, she was never going to get a boyfriend. At least she wasn't crying all over his shirt, like she had with a certain other handsome male.
"Well, see you around," Yamato said with a shrug, heading off to get a tardy slip. Kaoru knocked herself hard on the head before following.
When she got home that day, her mother rushed to great her with a huge smile. "Kaoru-chan! How long were you planning to keep this little secret from us?"
Kaoru stared at her, confused, wondering if she was talking about her crush on Yamato. "Huh?"
Mrs. Arai proudly brandished a typed letter at her daughter. "The Himura scholarship! You got it!"
"Oh. Oh, right." Himura? The Castle, Kenshin, weird people who already knew her...
"The acceptance letter has been sitting on your desk all this time. Why didn't you tell us, sweetie? This is wonderful news! We might not even have to pay a dime for your college education!"
"Well, I- Wait, what?" Kaoru snatched the letter from her mother's hand and scanned it in disbelief. When she had been applying for scholarships, she had been sure that the Himura one covered tuition, housing, and books for the first year of school, as long as she was signed up full-time. The letter, though, claimed that she had a full four years' free ride to any institution she wanted. 'A mistake. Something's not right. I have to talk to Kenshin.' Kaoru found herself staring at his messy signature at the bottom, scrawled directly on the paper next to the imprint of his hanko.
"We ought to go out to celebrate, perhaps dinner at that restaurant downtown you like so much..."
Speaking of Himura, "By the way, Mom, I've actually talked to Ken- To Mr. O'Neill, and he sounds like he wants to meet you and Dad. He keeps inviting us to things."
Her mother blinked. "Inviting us? Mr. O'Neill? Surely not the Mr. O'Neill...?"
"Yes, Mom," Kaoru said firmly, "the Mr. O'Neill. He's kind of weird but really nice at the same time, and he..." She sighed. "I have to talk to him. There's got to be a mistake."
Mrs. Arai frowned. "A mistake? What do you mean?"
"I mean the scholarship, Mom. It was just supposed to be for the first year."
"Are you sure, honey? You applied for so many, maybe you got them mixed up-"
"No." Kaoru was shaking her head. "I need to talk to him." Something was up about all this, and she had the feeling it was about more than just scholarships. "They're having some sort of re-enactment on Friday night. Can we go, Mom?" Maybe Kaoru would be able to find a chance to catch Kenshin alone.
"Friday night?" her mother was saying doubtfully. "That was the same evening as your father's business dinner..."
"Oh, no," Kaoru gasped. "Don't tell me I have to baby-sit!"
"Oh, sweetheart," Mrs. Arai said pleadingly. "It's just for a few hours. You can put Iori to bed early and have the house to yourself. Please, dear? It's just the one night."
Kaoru sighed. "Fine."
o.o.o.o.o
"Kaoru-chan! You made it on time today!"
"Yeah, yeah, shut up," Kaoru mumbled in embarrassment. For a few minutes, she had to endure some good-natured teasing from her friends as they waited for the bus, but soon enough they had moved on to other subjects. Unfortunately, they were not subjects that made Kaoru feel any more comfortable.
"Look what we made for you, Kaoru-chan!"
"What is-" she started, then her mouth dropped open as she saw what Mimi was gleefully holding out to her as the other two giggled. "Is that a love note?!"
"Don't worry, Mimi-chan's a good writer, she made you sound wonderful," Mika said with a wink.
"I am NOT giving that to Ishida-kun, are you crazy?!" Kaoru cried in horror, her cheeks burning.
"You have to, Kaoru-chan!" they started, but just then, the bus pulled up. It didn't stop them from bugging her about it all the way to their stop, no matter how hard Kaoru tried to distract them with apprehensions about the next math test or the latest news headlines about Battousai.
"Do you know how many love notes he probably gets? He'll think I'm just another idiot like the rest!" she was crying in exasperation as they clattered down the steps, then suddenly paused.
"Kaoru-chan?"
"Huh?" she murmured. Himura Castle... She found herself glaring at the stone walls. 'You have secrets, don't you,' she thought at it. 'What's the big deal? Why are you suddenly becoming so important in my life?'
"Kaoru-chan, we're going to be late!"
"All right," she said finally, turning to follow her friends down the street.
The sound of a motorcycle soon approached. The girls stopped talking and winced at the sound, but only Kaoru, reacting to some instinct, actually looked over at the street and saw the man when he pulled up right next to them. "Jouchan!"
"Officer Sagara," Kaoru said with a helpless smile.
Sagara grinned, his uniform shirt still unbuttoned as if he had intended to finish dressing when he got to work. He leaned back and fixed her with a gaze of pleased laziness. "Off to school?"
"Yes," she said, a little defensively.
He laughed to himself. "Oh man, that's hilarious..." Then he cleared his throat. "Anyway, you gonna stop by on the way home?"
Her friends were giggling as they watched. Kaoru shrugged. "Maybe. I do need to talk to Kenshin, but I might not have time today."
"You coming Friday night?"
Kaoru blew out a guilty breath. "Well...actually, I don't think I'll be able to make it."
"What?" her friends yelped. "You're not coming, Kaoru-chan?!"
Sagara's expression had sobered. "Something wrong?"
"No," she said hurriedly. "It's just that my parents already had plans, and I need to baby-sit." For some reason, she heard herself quickly adding, "I'll come to the next one."
To her relief, he smiled again. "I'll hold you to that, Jouchan."
"And this is sooo important because...?" she teased, though she was also truly curious.
Sagara studied her thoughtfully. "Kenshin's real impressed with you, you know." The grin began to steal back. "Come on, you wanna keep the man happy, right? He's giving you a full four years' free ride, after all."
Kaoru blinked, and swallowed. "About that...I thought it was just the first year. Not all four."
"Was it?" Sagara adopted a careless look, but Kaoru couldn't help feeling that he was using the expression as a cover. "Ah, I don't keep track of that stuff. I just know that if you stay on Kenshin's good side, you'll have a heck of an easy time with-" he paused again, looking unaccountably amused, "-school. Princess Kaoru, trotting off to high school, hahaha..."
"What did you call her?" Mimi asked interestedly.
"Nothing." He leaned forward again, resting his arms on the handlebars and smiling at Kaoru in narrow-eyed challenge. "Just a bit of advice, Jouchan. About Kenshin...make it worth his time." He straightened up again before she could think of an answer. "See you around!" With that, he waved cheerily and revved off.
o.o.o.o.o
The acceptance letter had Kenshin's phone number at the bottom. After Kaoru put Iori to bed on Friday night, the thought of what she was missing reminded her of the whole Himura Castle weirdness and the scholarship mess. She called the number to leave a message for Kenshin, intending to clarify things with him (or his secretary, more likely) the next business day or whatever. She was startled when the phone rang five minutes later.
"Hello?"
"Kaoru-dono?"
Her mouth dropped open. "Kenshin?!" she exclaimed.
"Hello." He sounded apprehensive. "This one hopes he is not calling too late."
"Uh...well, no...I mean, I just called," she pointed out.
"Right. Of course."
Kaoru had to repress a sudden urge to giggle. He sounded almost like a nervous schoolboy calling up a girl he had a crush on. "Um...so, did you get my message?"
"Ah - no. It probably would have been a good idea to listen to message before calling back, that it would..." The sheepish note in his voice made him sound so cute.
'Get a grip, Kaoru,' she growled silently at herself. 'He's an adult! Stop acting like he's Ishida-kun or something!' "No, it's all right," she said out loud. "I've been meaning to ask you- Oh! But aren't you doing the re-enactment or something now?"
"It can wait."
Kaoru's mouth dropped open. There was absolutely no hesitation at all, as if she really was the center of his attention. It would have been more creepy if he wasn't so shy about it. All the same, "No," she said firmly. "You should concentrate on your work, Mr. O'Neill. I'm just some upstart schoolgirl who can definitely wait 'til Monday."
There was a long silence. "As you wish," he finally said, sounding cowed. "Kaoru-dono..." Another long pause. "Good night."
She was pretty sure that that was not at all what he had been going to say, but she was glad that he had decided to respect her wishes. "Good night."
To be continued...
Author's Notes: A hanko is a kind of stamp that they use in Japan to sign documents and stuff. Writing your name as well would be redundant, but it was a slightly intimate touch I wanted to slip in.