Chapter One Hundred Seventeen

Straight and unmoving, Kaoru's body stood upon the roof of a seven-story building in the heart of Neo-Tokyo. She went unnoticed, as the chaos happening in the streets below and the war raging along the coast were a more pressing concern than someone alone upon a rooftop. For nearly twenty minutes, that was where she remained, blindfolded but still gazing out over the city as if watching everything. Even when the Sky Palace came crashing down upon the coast below, she did not move, despite the building directly in front of her collapsing under the weight of a large chunk of palace foundation. It was not Sōjirō's plan for her to have remained there. Somehow, his control over her had been broken by an external interference, causing a lag between her unconscious and conscious states.

The dust had already settled when a soft, inhaled breath finally drug Kaoru back into reality. The scent of concrete and earth filled her lungs, and the taste of it sat thickly at the back of her tongue. Chill air ghosted over her exposed cheeks and her numbed fingers, and the raucous noise of intense battle filled her ears. Curious, but strangely unbothered, Kaoru turned her head and walked over to the rooftop ledge of the building she stood upon. Behind the barrier of her blindfold, Kaoru's pure black lashes blinked in slow, feathery sweeps, up and down, as she calmly studied her surroundings.

Her eyes perceived no color, only a sprawling world of black, white, and grey. In much the same fashion as Death's Veil appeared.

The absence of color did not startle her, though, or feel unnatural, nor did the fact that she could see the world through the fabric meant to blind her to it feel wrong. If anything was frightening to Kaoru in that moment, it was how tranquil and composed she felt. Frowning, she slowly lifted a hand to touch her face, and pressed her fingertips gingerly into the scarf tied around her eyes. She was indeed blindfolded, but still she could see. With the exception of the lack of color, everything appeared normal to her, and even closing her eyes brought about the familiar curtain of darkness that was the back of her eyelids. Curling her knuckles, she snagged the warm cloth to pull it down over her nose. Light pierced her strangely sensitive retinas, and she squinted in the muted light of the overcast, winter day. Colors flooded back into the world, but the transition rolled her stomach with nausea, forcing her to quickly tighten the blindfold up around her throbbing eyes.

As the knot retightened at the back of her head, a shot of color sparked just at the periphery of her once again muted vision. Lifting her chin, her lips parted, and she rose up onto her tiptoes. Far out between the city buildings and over the water, a distant silhouette of violet flames undulated like a warm campfire. Because of their marriage seal, she knew instantly that it was Kenshin. She could feel his presence there. The fact that she perceived him as a color in her black and white world also felt right.

A part of her wanted to call out to him, but there was something else inside of her that urged her towards another direction. It was foreign and familiar at the same time. Foreign to her human being, but now very much who she was. Kenshin was now her other half. They would always find each other. Right then, he was handling what he needed to handle. Kaoru had a mission of her own.

Averting her eyes back to her immediate surroundings, her expression remained stoic as she finally studied in detail the destruction that had been caused by the collapse and fall of the Sky Palace. The largest, most intact portion of the palace had landed in the sea, where she could see and sense Kenshin to be, but smaller chunks of it had rained down upon the cityscape. No doubt, the ruin would have been much more devastating had the Sky Palace fallen as one large mass. Without having to even guess or speculate, Kaoru knew that Kenshin was the reason the city-side section of the fallen palace had been broken into lesser pieces. He would have wished to save those below from being crushed, and to provide them a better chance of survival by breaking up as much of the falling rock as possible. All while in the midst of his own intense battle.

Intuitively, sapphire eyes swung to her right only seconds before rumbling trembled the foundations of the buildings nearby. Faint shouting drifted up to her from down below, and she vaguely witnessed four men digging out a fifth from the rubble while two others guarded them with bared weapons. Their apprehension and haste became known when a large chunk of rock quaked, lifted, and then was pushed to one side. The hunk of what was once palace foundation was roughly half the size of Kenshin's apartment complex, and was nearly as tall as the skeletal creature that emerged from underneath it.

The creature was massive, with thick yellow bones and a rib cage the size of a grain silo. Its eyes glowed a neon sort of green, and its solid jaws parted wide to roar in an aggressive show of power. From the street, the shouting became frantic as the giant skeleton caught sight of their party and began stomping towards them. Swinging sickeningly from the skeleton's back, was the dead body of a crushed imp. What most interested her about the creature, however, was that she could see him in clear color, unlike the rest of her current vision. Even with Kenshin, she could see only the strong color of his core. Placing a hand over her chest, Kaoru's lips tugged downward compassionately, and she walked closer to meet the creature before he could pass her by. His head was level with her rooftop, and her unexpected presence startled him into growling at her in warning. Keeping her body language unthreatening, Kaoru tilted her head at him and placed both hands on the ledge so he could see them clearly.

"Are you frightened?" Like a mother trying to calm a child, her voice reached for him warmly. "It's okay. I won't hurt you." Hesitantly, the growling lessened until it disappeared, and the hostile green of his eyes brightened to an almost sorrowful expression.

"Hun-gry…"

Kaoru smiled gently and nodded her head. "It's scary, isn't it?" Reaching out a hand in offering, she spread her fingers wide. "Would you like to rest?"

"Must… do as… Rōjin says."

Dark brows furrowed, and Kaoru's arm relaxed. "But… he's kept you here so much longer than he should have. It's hurting you." Softly, her smile came back. "What is it that you want, Fuji?" Without realizing it, without asking for it or questioning where it came from, Kaoru knew his name, and spoke it as if she had known it forever. "Aren't you tired of being hungry?"

"So tired." He stepped closer and settled both of his bony hands on the ledge to either side of her. His head was larger than her body. "So… hungry. Want… rest."

"Would you like me to sing you to sleep?" Placing both palms flat to his wide forehead, Kaoru sang him a soft and gentle tune. Far below at Fuji's feet, the party of onlookers had finally freed their friend from the rubble, but with no reason to now run, they watched the spectacle in suspicious awe.

"What's going on?"

"I don't know, he stopped. I think he's talking to someone."

"Is there someone up there? I can't see."

"I hear singing." The party whispered amongst themselves, and only Cho and Okita remained silent observers.

"Should we go while he's occupied, Commander Okita? The warden's dead, and we still need to locate the Prime Minister." Pulling his eyes from the roof, Okita nodded in agreement.

"Wait…" As the body of the mighty skeleton disintegrated into dust, everyone stepped back, but Cho had finally recognized the figure standing on the roof. "Kaoru?!"

Cradled in her hands was a ball of blue flames. After a few moments, that globe was released into the air where it drifted upwards before blanking out of their plane of existence. Lost soul freed, Kaoru turned and walked from sight.

"Did you say something?" Okita was looking at him expectantly, and Cho blinked before shaking his head with an easy grin. "Nope. Just ready to follow orders, sir." Glancing back up at the empty ledge, Cho let out long breath. Could I have ended up like that at the summer festival? Glad I got off easy. Probably good to steer clear of her from now on.

X

Ducked around the interior of a broken door, Yahiko peered out into the solid sheet of acid rain that dumped onto the five square blocks surrounding them. Just within his line of sight was the half-melted body of a dead civilian. It was just their luck that they had run into one of the Kaoru dolls on their way towards their destination. Briefly he hoped that Tsubame and Yūtarō had taken a more southern path and were clear of the corrosive power. On his shoulder, Misao, in her sylph form, was cursing under her breath and buzzing her dragonfly wings as hard as she could to fling even the tiniest film of moisture away.

"Could you stop that? It sounds like a damn bee in my ear." Annoyed but still whispering, Yahiko ignored the small kick this earned him to instead search for the Kaoru doll through the portion of the outside that he could see.

"My wings aren't exactly invincible, you know." Hissing back, Misao wormed her way behind his neck to his other shoulder, where she too leaned out to have a look. "Are you sure that's not the real Kaoru?" The biggest problem with crossing paths with one of the Kaoru dolls was that they could not simply attack indiscriminately for fear that it might be the real one.

Casting her a look, Yahiko shook his head, his features pinched. "No. I'm not sure."

"I thought you were friends?" It was Misao's turn to be annoyed.

"With Kenshin. I've only met ugly like three times. You seemed pretty chummy with her earlier. Can't you tell?"

"Me? I've only met her twice myself!" Misao's fervent whispers were gradually growing louder. Grunting low in his chest, Yahiko leaned out into the doorway to give himself a better angle. "Can you see what she's wearing?" Crossing her arms, Misao tapped her foot impatiently as she asked the question.

Yahiko scoffed, "Do you remember what she was wearing?"

"No." Instead of sheepish, Misao sounded defensive.

"Then what the hell good is that going to do?!" Now Yahiko's voice was gaining volume.

"I don't know! But if we get it wrong, that fire demon will light our asses up!"

A sudden realization brightened Yahiko's black eyes like a light bulb. "Hey… what about their marriage seal? We should be able to tell with that, right?"

"Sure. If we could get close enough." Droll, Misao rubbed both hands over her face in exasperation. "Argh! Even then she's under some asshole's control, right?"

"I heeeear you." Sadistic giggles rang through the empty street outside, but fell flat under the weight of the rain. "You two don't really work very well together, do ya?" A second before a wall of acid hit the doorway, Yahiko and Misao slammed it back with a rush of nearly solid air. The collision exploded the water into the building across from them, and shook the ground with a loud boom. Concrete and broken metal rebar crumbled into the street, but the rain only let up briefly.

Mocking applause accompanied by outright laughter still provided no definite location of their opponent. Arguing and trying to come up with some kind of plan on how best to handle their current situation, Yahiko's senses abruptly tingled in warning. Whipping his head around at the same time that Misao buzzed into the air, black eyes locked in surprise onto a second Kaoru doll standing calmly behind them. Somehow, without even a sound, this second doll had snuck up on them from inside of the building, and now stood merely paces away. What was most unnerving, however, was the blindfold covering her eyes.

"Shit."

"Kaoru-san!"

Blatant and humming like a happy fire, her marriage seal announced clearly that this was the true Kaoru. That did not necessarily clear them of danger, though. If anything, it could mean they were in even more danger than before.

"Ah. Did the master send you over to me?" Appearing like a wraith from out of the rain, the imposter Kaoru stood on the sidewalk just outside, an umbrella shielding her from her own acid rain. "I'm having so much fun, and I'd rather not babysit." Sighing dramatically, the imposter tilted her head sickeningly to one side. "Oh well. It might be fun to watch you kill these two." Waving a coaxing hand, the imposter grinned. "Dying was so boring the first time around. Now I can't be entertained enough. Go on. Show me something exciting."

Readying himself to attack the imposter, now that they knew without a doubt who was who, Yahiko nodded his head imperceptibly when Misao whispered her plan in his ear. A moment before that plan could be enacted, however, the true Kaoru halted them with a smile. It was a soft, pleasant smile that distracted them from the hand she used to pull the blindfold down and release her eyes. Without realizing what had happened, they, and the time around them, stopped.

Sapphire irises of undulating combustion consumed the world of the imposter Kaoru. The globes surrounding her eyes were not white nor black, but were instead golden like the sun. Frozen in place, individual droplets of rain hanging suspended in the air like fairy lights, the imposter could do nothing but allow Kaoru's power to overwhelm her. Unaffected by her own ability to stop time, Kaoru traversed the space between them with slow, purposeful steps. Standing now under the same cover of her umbrella, Kaoru gazed upon the replica doll's lax expression with something like pity.

"You, too, are lost." Unable to recognize herself in the foreign yet mirrorlike features of the doll before her, Kaoru's smile melted away. "But it is not just your dead presence among the living that makes you that way. You are lost in morals, in compassion, and in your own selfish lust and greed. You have no compass to guide you, and so have become lost in the twisted desire of your final longing. It is a monstrous thing, what Sōjirō has done to us, but you have also done monstrous things in a place you do not belong. This is no longer your world." The edges of Kaoru's almond-shaped eyes dipped with sorrow. "The dead do not belong among the living. No matter how much we wish it to be so."

Gentle yet firm, Kaoru placed one hand flat upon the sternum of the imposter doll, and with an ease that still felt unsettlingly comfortable, she coaxed the unclean soul out with the turn of her wrist. Grasping the umbrella before the now empty doll could fall to the ground, Kaoru closed her eyes and time once more resumed. Like the sudden rush of water from a hose, the floating raindrops peppered the waterproof material over her head for several long seconds before abruptly stopping as the rainclouds dispersed.

Back inside the building, Yahiko blinked to find the spot where Kaoru had been was now empty, and that she was instead outside where the other had once stood. At her feet, the imposter doll had begun to disintegrate into dust, and from her hand, a ball of blue flames drifted into the air before vanishing.

"What the fuck?"

"Kaoru-san!" Zipping by him, Misao morphed into her human-sized form and finished her approach of Kaoru on two legs before stopping herself just short of reaching her. Kaoru turned, and it was then that they noticed her eyes were closed despite the blindfold now hanging limply about her neck. "Is that really you?"

As if coming back to herself, Kaoru's mouth opened on a gasp and she proceeded to struggle one-handed with pulling her blindfold back up over her nose while still holding the umbrella with her other. "H-hey." She sounded almost embarrassed. "L-let me just…" Her occupied left hand moved back and forth, as if she were uncertain what to do with the useless umbrella. Watching her struggle for several, comical seconds, Yahiko relaxed when it became clear that they had nothing to worry about. Only the real Kaoru would act this flustered and silly. Finally, Kaoru collected herself with a short, exhaled breath before dropping the umbrella to the ground and using both hands to resituate the blindfold over her eyes. "Sorry. Are you both alright? Were you hurt?"

Misao, though, was a little more skeptical. "Say something only you would know. Something about my grandma."

The instant smile that tugged onto Kaoru's mouth was so obviously real, in contrast to her expressions after getting off the train, that Misao and Yahiko felt a bit silly for falling for them, even minutely. "Did you know her favorite music was Japanese hip hop? She even wanted to be a rapper when she grew up. She had pages and pages of songs she wrote herself."

"That's… not what I expected. My grandma was kinda weird." Taking that last step forward, Misao fisted her fingers into the ribcage of Kaoru's coat. "I like it." Her aquamarine irises briefly sparkled as she stared up at Kaoru with interest, before jerking her arms away not a moment later as if remembering that she did not really know this human all that well. Kaoru seemed unfazed and unoffended, but her crinkled nose was slightly red from blushing happily.

"She sounds cooler than some other ugly hag I know."

Kaoru's smile pursed, but was more amused than pouty. "If you keep flirting like a little brat, I'm going to keep calling you a little brat." Yahiko blustered as he was not sure what to be offended by, being called a little brat or being accused of flirting. Patting Misao on the head, Kaoru's smile turned sad. "I'm sorry if I scared you earlier. I needed… her to think I wasn't a threat."

"Yeah, we thought you were under the control of some necromancer. How did you get free?" Crossing his arms, Yahiko snapped out of his offense quick enough to hint that he was not as much of a brat as Kaoru liked to tease him for being. "And what's up with the blindfold?"

"I'm not sure how I was freed. I don't really remember being taken over." Creases formed along Kaoru's forehead, and she took a small step back. "It's probably best if we don't stay together, just to be safe. I don't know if or when he'll do it again. My blindfold…" Touching it briefly, Kaoru breathed deep in through her nose and caught the scent of familiar shampoo. "Is just a precaution for now." Deep throbbing pounded just behind her eyes, hinting that she was not used to the strength of her current power. Even using it for only those few seconds had drained her strength and produced a migraine level headache that felt like needles piercing her retinas. This power was so very strange and different than before. It was much more potent and frighteningly easy to initiate.

"We could at least take you to Himura-san. He went to the palace to get you." Following Kaoru step for step, Misao advanced with an expression of stubbornness that reminded them of her status as a princess.

"No. Kenshin's fighting right now. I'd only get in his way. Besides…" One had rested over her sternum. "He knows where I am. And I have other business to take care of."

A few more words were traded before Misao and Yahiko went on their way. Watching them until they disappeared, Kaoru turned herself towards the Northern Wards. She had one more stop to make before she could direct her attention on Sōjirō. One more lost soul to offer guidance before she could focus on the source of her strings. Fierce heat abruptly speared through her chest, as a reminder that she had another, more important time-limit to remember, and Kaoru went briefly down on one knee.

"Easy, Kenji. I need you to hold on for me. Just a little longer."

The spell eased quickly, but the aftereffect lingered in the quiver of her inhales. Each deep breath softened the pain, but thickened the perfume now lodged into her nostrils. Wafting about the soft fabric covering her eyes, the lingering scent from the scarf sunk Kaoru's stomach into the floor of her pelvis. Her hands trembled with fear and anger. She recalled that aroma easing her into sleep many a night while cuddled against Tomoe's chest. It was a warm scent, a happy memory, and she was scared by what it could mean for the owner of that scarf.