Chapter Ninety-One

Bright orange light from a bonfire lit up the darkness of the forest up ahead, and Ayame slid to a stop behind a tree to gauge the situation from a safe distance. Vague shadows behind the fire revealed the presence of four figures, and two were strung up by the wrists from the branches of a large tree. From that distance, Ayame could just discern the characteristics of Kaoru's features on one of the hanging shapes.

It was pure luck that Suzume, Kenshin, and herself had all chosen the wrong paths to follow. After running full tilt down the three she had taken on, only to find nothing, she had gone back to the start. From the pattern of footprints, it was easy to tell that Suzume was still down her single path, and Kenshin was on his second. That left only one, and Ayame had taken off down the last one without hesitation. Luckily, her location meant she was directly between both Suzume and Kenshin, and it would take little time to alert them both to Kaoru's whereabouts. Taking a step back, Ayame made sure that she had gone unnoticed before immediately turning to run back for Kenshin first. She wasn't sure who the other person was hanging from the tree, but if there were two enemies and two hostages, then they needed to come up with a game plan on how to approach the situation in a way that would not put Kaoru in danger.

Two steps into her departure, and Ayame tripped. Something that felt like razor wire tightened around her ankles, and she yelped involuntarily as it lifted her upside down into the air. Pain burned where her ankles were slammed together, and she reached quickly for whatever had detained her to free herself as fast as possible. The spider web had already eaten through her clothes, however, and she hesitated to touch it with her hand. Leaving it was not a viable option, either. Growling like an angry wild cat, she snapped open her claws and swiped at the offensive spider silk before it could draw her any higher. Twisting to land on all fours, she bared her teeth as Gein's laughter mocked her through the trees.

"How interesting. I seem to have caught a kitten by mistake." Screeching like taught wire, a barrier of spider webbing barred Ayame from escaping, and her pale golden eyes darted from side to side to study her situation and determine from where she would be attacked next. "I'm sorry, little kitty. You're not who I was expecting, but I'm afraid I can't just let you go. I suppose you could say, curiosity really did kill the cat."

Pouncing forward to bound off a tree trunk, Ayame swiped at a large shadow that had appeared to her left. Her opponent seemed to be bulky and awkward, but he moved much more lithely than she assumed he could. He could not match her speed, however, and she grinned impishly when her claws connected for a deep gash in his arm.

"But satisfaction brought it back." The return quip was full of that same self-proclaimed satisfaction as she corrected his unfinished adage.

At the same time, the obscure form of her opponent disappeared into the darkness, and even with her enhanced night vision, she had a hard time keeping track of where he had gone. Strangely, her claws were dry, as well, and she glanced at them with a frown to find she had not drawn blood. Not only was her opponent quicker than his enormous, round body should have been, he was silent, and he didn't bleed.

"Ah, yes. I seem to remember the full quote was something along those lines. Not that it matters. No one knows that part, or cares to know it. The first part, that's the part that sticks."

The second strike blindsided her by coming from behind a tree, and his thick arm tore straight through the trunk before connecting with the shoulder she turned to block it. It was a punch that rivaled her sister's, and it shattered her left arm even as it threw her like a rag doll through the air. Slamming into another tree, the air was knocked from her lungs, and she landed flat on her face with a thump. The tree that had been damaged crashed into the ones nearest to it, and the sound of its destruction echoed loudly in the still night air.

"You are quick little kitten. If you had not reacted at all, you would be dead right now. I wonder if you would make a good doll. You're a little small, but I bet I could make it work."

A foot rolled her over, and she grinned a bloody smile up at the rotund idiot standing over her.

"What do you find so amusing?" For some reason, his voice didn't match his face, but Ayame reasoned that an idiot was an idiot no matter what they looked like or how they sounded.

"Oh, I was just thinking how grateful I was that you're making so much noise." Her sweet voice sounded much more innocent than her demeanor suggested.

Like a cat in the dark, Suzume appeared mid-pounce and connected her fist square into his jaw. The hit knocked him back, but her attack was nearly piercing as it continued until she smashed into the ground. Rumbling dispersed like a shockwave from her point of impact, and she stood with a menacing scowl.

"Don't you dare touch my big sister!"

"I'm okay, little sis." Standing to her feet and leaving her left arm to hang by her side, Ayame tilted her head and lowered her voice. "He has Kaoru-san back by the fire. We need to keep him occupied until Ken-nii gets here. There're two others, and at least one might be hostile."

"Got it."

"A second kitty." Gein's voice was not as amused this time. "I suppose a pair of you would make up for how small you are."

With a little more light from the bonfire, and a little more time to study the form of their opponent, the komainu strained their necks upward to find that he was over seven feet tall. His body wasn't just fat, either, but had hard, thick arms, short stalky legs, and no neck. His head…

Ayame and Suzume both blinked, and the youngest of the komainu pointed.

"Um… you do know your neck's broken, right?"

"How are you even standing?"

Huge hands lifted and grasped the backwards head before twisting it slowly so that it once more faced forward. Unsettling cracks and pops filled the air, and Ayame winced.

"I'm not sure our opponent is actually alive, Sis."

"I was thinking the same thing."

"Oh no. What gave you such a ludicrous idea? Iwanbo is my weapon, and he's very efficient at it." Iwanbo's right arm twisted, and twisted, and twisted into the shape of a drill until the thick skin of its outer shell was pulled so taught that it creaked under the pressure. The strike was quick when it came, and Ayame grabbed her sister to jump them both safely out of the way.

"Don't let that hit you!" The attack tore through the tree behind them like nothing. "You can't counter it, either."

"Oh, come on! You don't know that. I could beat him." Suzume argued with her, and Ayame pouted as she let her go.

"Fine, but if you break your arm, don't come crying to me."

The second strike came fast on the heels of the first, and Iwanbo's heavy body crashed through the woods like a bulldozer coming for them. While Ayame dodged through his feet as a distraction, Suzume met the hit straight on with her own punch. The weight of Iwanbo pushed her back, but she was able to absorb most of the twisting force with her own blow. Digging in with her feet, she was grinning until she heard the grind of wire behind her announce Gein had erected a barrier of spider webbing for her to be pushed into. Half a second before her back was slammed into the cutting wire, Ayame grabbed her by the ankle and she was flattened to the ground fast enough that Iwanbo lurched into the webbing in her place.

"That was close!"

Suzume's exclamation as she bounced back to her feet earned her a droll look from Ayame, but the sudden and bright appearance of multiple pillars of violet-colored fire distracted them both. Grinning, they now shared a look as the flames encircled the entire area, effectively trapping everyone inside of the fifty-yard radius around Gein's bonfire.

"Ken-nii/Nii-san is here!"

Without even parting the fire, Kenshin stepped through the flames, and the komainu ran to follow him as he marched towards where Kaoru could be seen hanging from a tree. Not even a glance was thrown at where Iwanbo struggled to untangle himself from the spider wire.

"Are you two alright?"

Words spoken over his shoulder made them both smile happily.

"Yep!" Ayame's broken arm went unmentioned.

"Good." The dark tenor of his voice deepened to a baritone. "You may want to keep your distance. I'm not confidant I'll be able to control my temper."

"Don't worry about us, Nii-san. Just focus on saving Kaoru-san. We'll handle the big guy behind us."

They both turned to face off with the massive Iwanbo standing behind them, and Kenshin walked away without looking back. He had full confidence that they could handle themselves against what was obviously a mere mechanical puppet.

"Welcome, Himura Kenshin! Welcome! Welcome!" The voice echoed in the woods, and violet eyes swept cautiously across the clearing around the bonfire in search of the source. "I've long waited to meet you!"

"I'm only here for Kaoru."

"Of course! Of course!" Without missing a beat, the voice accepted his short response in stride. "I've heard how attached you've become to my doll, and she's imprinted on you rather hard, as well. Usually, I make sure that my dolls answer only to me, but Master Sōjirō insisted that she be special. She's remarkable, hmm? The way she mimics human behaviors and real emotions? She can even feel pain. Isn't that wonderful?" There was a long pause as the twisted words hung in the air, and then a sigh.

"But I digress."

The closer Kenshin came to the bonfire, the easier it was for his eyes to adjust to the flush of light meant to obscure their vision. It was only then that he saw that there were two figures dangling from either side of the trunk of a great tree. They were stuck along the edges of a massive spider web, but it was their appearance that startled him the most.

Lowering himself slowly to the center of that spider web, Gein chuckled long and low. Each of his eight spider legs spanned the entire width between both captured figures, and the sound of his laughter echoed hollowly behind the human skull mask that he wore.

"Go on, Himura-san. Take your Kaoru back."

Violet eyes darted between the two figures, both blind-folded, both gagged, and both wearing the same clothes, down the shoes on their feet. Even their hair had been fixed the same, and fell over the left shoulder of each to reveal the healthy blue sheen of her tresses. Kenshin could not understand what his eyes were seeing, but it appeared that there were two Kaorus. Two Kaorus that looked exactly the same.

"What's wrong. Don't tell me you can't tell the difference? Or is it that you truly thought Kaoru was human?"

Lowering his chin to allow his bangs to shield his gaze, the pressure around Kenshin became thick and threatening. "I think I understand now, why my kindhearted Miss Kaoru feels no compassion for spiders." Small puffs of fire filled the air around him, and, at the same time, he snuffed the bonfire before him out. "Your arrogance alone is disgusting." In the web, Gein spread two legs out to hook over both of the dolls' necks, and he clicked his tongue.

"Careful with your intentions. Whichever doll you go for, I will remove its head."

The threat made him hesitate, the way that it was meant to. It was obvious Kaoru had been either knocked unconscious or drugged, which meant calling out to her would be useless. All that he could do was treat both as if they were the real Kaoru. Which would make rescuing her harder. It was fairly obvious that his opponent had no qualms about using her as leverage for manipulation or a shield for safety, even if it ended up killing her.

While he debated what to do, the light from his perimeter of fire pillars flickered, and Kenshin frowned as something that appeared to be snow fell from the heavens. It was greyer than snow, however, and practically weightless on the wind. Collecting like fog, the air became filled with the scent of ash moments before the cloud-like substance crashed like a wave onto his pillars of fire… and everything went dark.

"Ken-nii! Look out!"

The shouted warning coupled with his sharpened hearing gave him just enough time to dodge to one side, but the shrill song of steel that slashed past his right ear cautioned at how close he had come to being injured. The new enemy came at him relentlessly, and Kenshin was forced to go on the defensive as he avoided taking any damage from the unknown weapon. Every new skill he had honed by training with Hiko came into play, and he was grateful for his heightened senses as he was essentially blind in the darkness. Unfortunately, he could feel the wear of exhaustion weighing him down. The quicker he ended this fight, the better. Drawing it out or letting his enemies dictate the flow of the fight would cost him dearly.

To buy himself some time, as well as illuminate this skilled attacker, Kenshin reignited the bonfire in a blast of flames. The sudden blaze effectively forced his opponent to back off cautiously, and Kenshin circled the bonfire until it was between them as he caught his breath. With his features exposed, Kenshin was unnerved to find his opponent appeared to be already injured. His body was wrapped in bandages from head to toe, and they were dirty. Each linen wrapping was soaked with congealed blood and bore the color of rotten flesh. Even his eyes appeared dead in his sunken skull, and what hair escaped the bandages was stringy and thin. Despite his state of decay, his mouth smiled at him with repulsive delight, each yellowed tooth stained by blood and cavities.

"Is it you?" The deep rasp of his voice sounded watery like gurgling sewage, and he laughed in excitement. "Are you his son?!"

Something clenched hard in Kenshin's chest, and he scowled across the flicker of angry fire between them. Again he studied his adversary's appearance, and noted how his body was wrapped in bandages. Perhaps the same way someone covered in burns might be.

"Who are you?"

"Fight me!" The non-responsive demand screamed into the air, and Kenshin felt strangely unnerved. His presence was threatening and warned that he should not be taken lightly, but his demeanor was childish, as if he were throwing a tantrum to get what he wanted. Still, that tightness in his heart turned Kenshin's stomach, and his hands shook as he yelled back.

"Who are you?!"

"Very good, Master Shishio." Gein cut into the moment, and his words were slimy and manipulative. "You recognized him immediately, didn't you? But look at how confused he is. He must not know the truth. Why don't you introduce yourself so he understands?"

"No! My name means nothing!" For a brief moment, Shishio's voice sounded like his own, and he stood tall and proud as the convictions he had once lived by were shouted to the night sky. "Only what I have accomplished will live forever." Grinning again, the sword in Shishio's hand lifted to angle level with his nose. "I killed Himura Takibi with this sword. Me! I did it!" Sadistic laughter released from a wide-open mouth, and Shishio threw his head back to roar the offensive sound directly at the overhead clouds.

Violet eyes stared in slackened shock, and his brain was slow to process what he had just learned. Somehow, he had found himself face-to-face with his father's true murderer, and he felt… foolish. More foolish than he had ever felt in his life. This was the type of man, the type of demon, that was capable of killing the strongest fire demon in history. This was what that type of power looked like. How could he have ever naively assumed that a human could accomplish such a feat? Not even the human's strongest weapon could have harmed his father, and as he stared at the sword responsible for his father's death, he knew without a doubt that they never could have.

The loud pump of blood in his ears resounded the hard thud of each painful heartbeat in his chest. As Shishio's laughter tapered off and the long moment came to a sluggish end, Kenshin blinked. A slow, agonizing blink. The blazing fire in his core raged with the demanding wrath of revenge, but his emotions were cold. Cold like death. And it reflected off of his blank expression. From far away, several high-pitched screeches pierced through the air, announcing the arrival of something falling fast through the atmosphere. A second later, a flash of light speared through the low clouds and slammed into the bonfire, throwing debris and still smoldering coal in all directions. Almost immediately, another hit slammed into a nearby tree, and a third crashed hard into the dirt. Staring down Shishio's still grinning face, Kenshin remained unmoving as the meteor shower rained havoc upon the forest.

Thinking himself in danger, Gein pulled Iwanbo back to act as a shield, but Kenshin would have never aimed one of the missile-like meteors near Kaoru. The large mechanical doll looked a bit worse for wear, as it was missing an arm and was covered in claw marks, but it was a strong puppet and still moved with a great amount of agility. With its withdraw from the fight, the komainu were free to assist him now, and they appeared immediately to flank him at a generous distance.

"Stay back." Growling the command without looking away from his new target, Kenshin held out a hand to stall their advance.

"But, Nii-san…" Casting a worried glance at Ayame, Suzume watched as her sister frowned and her shoulders slumped. He was using too much of his power after already pushing himself during his training, and they both knew he wouldn't last if he kept it up.

"I have unfinished business with this one."

"But what about Kaoru?!" The shouted beratement went unheeded as Kenshin launched himself into a fight with Shishio.

There was nothing restrained about his attacks now. There was no reservation or even attempt to save his strength. If anything, each strike was more violent and powerful than the last. Each burst of flame and light something reminiscent of the war. Something inside of him had shifted, leaving him just slightly off-kilter and less than the tempered control he had worked so hard to achieve.

"What is he thinking?!" Suzume spoke aloud their frustrations, but Ayame's tan eyes had looked away to watch the spider puppet-master hanging from his web. Though his face was hidden by a skull-bone mask, his eyes could be seen staring at the fight between Kenshin and the bandaged one. In the background, almost happy laughter echoed from the forest to announce Shishio's enjoyment, and it was drowned out only by the explosion of intense flames.

"Come on." Taking Suzume by the hand, Ayame pulled her towards where Kaoru was being held. "It is apparent that Ken-nii is still learning. He will regret his actions later, but we cannot let it be at the expense of Kaoru's life."

"Now, now. Don't think I don't see you two little kittens." Gein spoke down at them, and Iwanbo hunched forward to signal it was ready to defend. "Perhaps you did not hear me the first time. I will remove the head of whichever of my dolls you try to rescue. I have no qualms in removing both."

Looking between the two bound and gagged Kaorus hanging on either side of the large spider, the komainu both tilted their heads. "But then what leverage would you have?" One hand covered the other as Suzume cracked her knuckles, but Gein only laughed.

"You misunderstand. Removing her head won't kill her. Kaoru's only a puppet." The patronizing words birthed a sour mass in both of the komainu's stomachs. "Of course, no one else would be able to put her head back on but me. I did create her body, after all. And without her head, you surely wouldn't be able to tell which one is the Kaoru you want."

On its face, Gein's threat had sounded fairly straight-forward, but it was slightly more clever than that. He was making sure that he had insurance, even if he was overpowered. They would obviously prefer to have Kaoru back in one piece, and neither wished to test to see if what he said was true or not.

Ayame and Suzume looked at each other, and spoke in tandem. "We would ask what it is that you want, but… we don't really care. If we can't tell which Kaoru is the real one, we'll just have to take them both."

A long-suffering sigh issued from Gein's nose, and he waved a hand.

"Iwanbo, kill these two, won't you? They're starting to bore me."

The blade of Shishio's sword was wild and deadly, and Kenshin knew better than to let it touch him. He knew what that sword was. He recognized it in a deep and feral part of his gut. He didn't understand how it had come to be in the places it had been, or know how many hands it had been passed through, but he now knew where it had come from. And everything made sense.

Countering the sword strikes with flames thick enough to be solid, Kenshin ignored how his breathing was becoming labored. Shishio's power seemed to be centered around an ash-type substance that was capable of thwarting his flames. Worse, he had experience fighting against fire elementals, and despite the ferocity of his attacks, Kenshin was finding himself at a disadvantage. On the surface, Kenshin appeared to be overpowering him, but his enemy wasn't fazed. Instead, he laughed almost continuously. He was enjoying their fight. He felt no fear. Even more degrading, not one of Kenshin's attacks had landed.

A small, panicked part of Kenshin's mind was starting to wonder if he was capable of defeating him. Could he win against the monster who had murdered his father?

"You're starting to wane, little candle! Are you not taking me seriously?!" The taunting shout strengthened as Shishio came at him from out of the darkness, and Kenshin blocked his attack with a dense shield of fire. A snarl pulled at Shishio's mouth as Kenshin grunted. "Shall I give you some incentive?!"

The foreshadowing of energy tensed Kenshin's muscles a moment before Shishio's attack fully formed. Jumping back, Kenshin surrounded himself in a wall of the hottest fire he could manage. It was barely enough to fully cover his body, and he felt the strength drain from his limbs as a result of its use. A second later, the wave of Shishio's power sloshed over him like a bucket of dirty mop water. Fortunately, whatever attack he had used burnt up in Kenshin's barrier of protection, and Kenshin released the shelter almost immediately in an effort to preserve his strength. His eyes widened, however, as soon as the wall vanished and he was able to see what Shishio had done. At the same time, screams of pain and outrage filled the air.

Like a sickening blanket over the forest, a layer of rot spread out around them. It ate through the trees like acid, and turned the ground into a dangerous swamp. The smell was horrendous and the taste it left in his mouth was even worse. Without having to confirm, Kenshin could feel that this was a Death Power, which meant this man was like Kaoru. He had been revived from death, and somehow that made the rage in his heart extinguish.

Turning to leap for the screams, Kenshin found that the rot had reached all the way to the bonfire. It had stopped short of the spider demon and Kaoru, but it had taken the komainu by surprise. Sweeping them into his arms, he shot off to one side in an attempt to put distance between them and the deranged Shishio. Behind a tree, he laid them down to assess the damage, and found both had been touched by the rot. Ayame had taken the brunt of it, and Suzume cried about her sister being an idiot for covering her. Some had still landed on Suzume's right shoulder and arm, but Ayame's back down to her thigh was drenched in the hungry substance. Kenshin knew instantly what he needed to do, and it needed to be done fast before any more damage was caused.

"I have to burn it off." Both sets of eyes shot to him, and there was a moment of fear in their gaze. Barely half a second later, they nodded, but tears shimmered in Suzume's tan irises.

"Be careful with my sister, ok?"

Because of the nature of the rot, Kenshin had to be thorough as well as careful about what he burned. It had already started to eat into their skin, and whatever flesh had been contaminated had to be removed. The komainu were tough, but no one Kenshin had met could withstand being burned without crying out. The sound of their pain tore at his stomach in guilt and shame. He shouldn't have let them come.

"Ken-nii." Heavy breathing filled the air, but it took him a moment to realize that it was his own breaths and not theirs. "Don't forget… Kaoru-san."

Frowning, Kenshin answered defensively. "I haven't."

"But you thought… she would be fine… while you handled your business with that… other man, didn't you?"

Ayame's accusation was uncomfortably close to the truth, but Suzume's contribution solidified his foolishness.

"We don't even know what they did to her, or if she's even here. If that spider could… create another body that looks like Kaoru, why couldn't he have made two?"

The color drained from his face, and he thought about the two Kaorus hanging from that spider web. What if neither was her? What if this was all a farse to keep him busy?

He shot to his feet, but had to brace a hand against the tree trunk to steady the abrupt vertigo that nearly threw him back to the ground.

"Wait, Ken-nii." Ayame lifted a hand, and her voice was now concerned. "You're using too much of your power…"

"I'll be fine." The words were a growl as his self-anger took hold to lecture him.

Shaking her head, Ayame sighed.

"No. You're using too much power… and not enough of what makes that power strong." Kenshin frowned as Suzume nodded from where she had tucked her head on Ayame's shoulder. A half smile was offered him before Ayame closed her eyes. "Don't hold your strength back anymore. You're… choking your power."

"Yeah, Nii-san. Do like you did before. It was… perfect then."

The pain finally became too much, and both komainu succumbed to unconsciousness.

Before?

Back by the destroyed bonfire, Shishio was screaming for him to come out and face him. Clenching his eyes shut to shake the buzzing from his head, Kenshin steadied his equilibrium and stepped around the tree. As soon as he was spotted, a twisted grin pulled at the cracked and pitted lips between Shishio's bandages.

"There you are! Do you see now what I'm capable of?!"

Walking at a steady pace to hide his shaky muscles, his iridescent violet eyes flickered up to the twin bodies dangling from the spider web. Directly behind his ribcage, his heart clenched as a reminder of why he was there. Not for revenge, but for rescue. Holding his hand out to one side, he called the Kagu-tsuchi to his palm and released the power holding back his markers. Instantly, the heavy pressure of his presence slammed down upon the forest, and the dark shadows of night scurried away from him like frightened insects. Somewhere, deep in the back of his mind, he had subconsciously decided that he would only use the Kagu-tsuchi for her.

Without realizing it, the Kagu-tsuchi had agreed.

The release of power was not without consequence, however, as a spurt of blood gushed from the crossed wound on his check as a reminder of his limitations. The horns on his head were even larger than before, but dripped molten lava down his temples and the back of his neck from where they struggled to maintain their shape. The scales on his knuckles, jawline, and brow ridge shimmered red like hot coals, but were also darkened by soot. In the fist of his fingers around the golden wrappings of the Kagu-tsuchi, his own incomplete dragon claws of obsidian glass dug into the heel of his hand. Finally, when he spoke, two voices, one tenor and one a deep bass, echoed the words in tandem.

"I have no more time to waste on you."

X

Something hot and heavy was pounding against her chest. The rhythm was erratic, slightly frantic, but consistent. It pulled her up from the black and obscure world of nothingness and dangled her just on the edge of full awareness. Struggling, to breathe and to open her eyes, her lashes flickered and fluttered like heavy curtains in a strong breeze. The fight was terrible and tiring, but the glimmer of color and light that she caught from the world around her started to piece together images against the back of her eyelids. Somehow, Kaoru had found herself under a clear blue sky. A sky that was home to a sun so large it dominated over half of the overhead atmosphere.

The foreign world was warm, but not hot, and though the sun was massively large, it was not so bright that it hurt her eyes to look at it. Grass tickled her cheeks, or what she assumed was grass, and the air was slightly dry. The hottest part of the experience was what continued to beat on her chest in anxious demand. The blows weren't painful, but her chest did feel bruised. There was also a tickling heat developing in her lungs that was reminiscent of what irritated her throat directly before an episode of coughing. It took a few long minutes, but she eventually realized that her assault was being made by two tiny fists.

"Wake up! Yo_ have to _ke up!"

Both eyelids fought to open, but they were so unbelievably heavy. The voice was familiar! She knew that voice! It was broken and muffled, as if her ears were stuffed with gauze, but it wasn't only the sound of the voice that alerted her. She remembered that voice by feel and by love. Twitching and fighting, she managed to jerk one hand into the air, and the beating paused. She couldn't get her hand to move again, though, and a few seconds later, the pounding resumed.

"Ple_se… _my! Don't lea_ me…!"

Just at the edge of her flashing vision, through obstinate eyelashes and crossed eyes, a small head of red hair knelt next to her. His tiny little fists beat desperately against her chest, and he sniffled as he cried for her to not forget he was there.

X

Love Song #8

Yuna: Forever (In My Mind) - Malinda