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"Stop glaring at me like that little girl, I didn't bring you here to eat you." Jin-E takes a long drag from his cigarette, smirking from under the brim of his wide hat.
Kaoru's glower does not lessen.
"Why did you take me?" she demands, struggling against her tightly bound wrists. They are becoming slick with blood; the rough weave scraps and burns painfully, but Kaoru thinks the blood may help her slip her hands free. What she will do then she isn't sure (she can't run with her feet bound, and Jin-E will surely notice when her hands come free), but she will face that obsticale when it appears.
"The war is ending." Jin-E sneers darkly, his disgust laid bare. "This glorious time of blood and death...in all these years, I have not been able to face the hitokiri Battousai. I have not been given the oppertunity to slay the most feared man of the revolution; yesterday they sent for him, as I planned, when I attacked one of the last living leaders of this revolution. Such power! Such strength! He burned with hatred, yet dared to face me with a sword that does not kill." A bark of crazed, hateful laughter leaves Jin-E's throat, and Kaoru shivers. This man...he is insane.
"I do not want a hitokiri who refuses to kill; such ideals are worthless. I want a hitokiri who will fight me as we are meant to fight! By taking his young wife, I have insured that he will attack me with all his strength. And here he comes now..." Jin-E flicks his cigarette, crunching out the blazing ember with one foot. "Come to save his precious woman!"
Kenshin steps into the half over grown clearing, part of a long ago abandoned shrine. Kaoru struggles strength when he comes into her line of vision. The cuts her wrists and hands become deeper, but she doesn't care.
She won't allow Kenshin to spill blood for her.
"Jin-E." Kenshin's voice is like far off thunder, a dark, ominious rumble. "I will give you one chance to release my wife."
"Take her from me, Battousai! Fight me under this beautiful moon, spill my blood and save your precious woman. If you don't, I will keep you alive long enough to watch me tear her open. If her heart is so precious to you..." Jin-E draws his sword, leering. "Perhaps you would like to hold it in your hands?"
Kaoru has no chance to scream before Kenshin disappears - he is so fast, faster even than Jin-E! - and blood flies across the clearing.