Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Blood and Amber ❯ Kidnapped ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Kenshin walked. It seemed like he had been doing nothing else for.... well, for forever.
Wait. Didn't he recognize this place? Kenshin's steps slowed, but they didn't stop. Slowly, a snowy clearing came into view. It was then that he became dimly aware of the cold and biting wind, as well as the lightly falling snow.
Where did he remember this scene from? Suddenly he heard a voice he recognized, for it was so much like his own, but this voice wasn't light and cheerful.
No, this was the voice of his other half- the one that had stained his hands with blood. The Battousai's voice was thck with anger. He was fighting, but Kenshin could sense that this was a fight of his own doing. It was his fault that this fight was taking place. He hadn't been able to protect.... someone.... who was it?
He heard a tortured scream that he dimly recognized as the Battousai's, still searching for where he knew this from. With amazing swiftness, everything came back to him with a sickening rush.
'Tomoe.......' Once again, he was hit by his own guilt. He had killed her..... it had been all his fault, all his.....
He once again remembered himself, and realized that he was moving closer to Tomoe and himself. He was there, watching as he cried over the body of his wife.
The scene flickered.
It wasn't winter anymore- it was spring. He wasn't in a forest anymore, but near a dojo, running towards the building that served as the training hall. His memories shocked him and he tried to get the memory of what happened next out of his head, but then he heard himself saying the words that would echo in his mind, because they accompained the sight he hated most......
"What good is Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu..... what good is Himura Kenshin......Again I failed to protect the one most important to me......." Kenshin found himself unwillingly looking at the doll that he had at first mistaken for Kaoru.
'No!' his mind screamed. There was something different about this one...... All the nightmares he had been having lately flooded back, and he tried in vain to get himself to stop before he saw it again.
Kaoru was stabbed to the wall, like in the memory, but this was different. This Kaoru was still squirming, like a worm on a fishhook.
This Kaoru was the real Kaoru. Kenshin watched, frozen with pain and fear, as the light went out of Kaoru's eyes and her body stopped it's struggle against the sword that had pinned it there.
"NO!" Kenshin screamed out loud, his own voice jolting him awake. He sat up and tried to calm his loud breathing and racing heart. He was drenched in the cold sweat that the nightmare always brought. Eventually, his breathing slowed to normal, and he felt like he could lay back down, which he did.
The nightmares were getting worse.
'Two months have passed since Enishi's attack....... why does this one still have these dreams?' Kenshin wondered, using his rurouni language.
'I should have killed Enishi for what he did.....' Kenshin mentally stopped himself, not letting his Battousai side out. That way lay madness- if he killed again, neither Kaoru nor he himself would ever forgive him. Kenshin reached for Kaoru's blue hair ribbon- the one she had given him before Jin'e had kidnapped her to bring out the Battousai in Kenshin.
He sniffed it. No matter how bloodstained it was with his blood, it still held her scent. He had kept the ribbon, even after Kaoru had told him to throw it out, it being unfit for a lady's hair.
He wrapped the ribbon around his wrist, taking a small measure of comfort from the small cloth. He inhaled again, the ribbon close to his nose. He relaxed slowly, allowing the scent to make him drift off. If he tried, he could almost imagine Kaoru with him. He smiled at the thought, but instantly felt guilty.
'How could this one admit that he has feelings for Kaoru when his hands are so stained?' If only in his thoughts, Kenshin had the courage to call her by her name, instead of the Kaoru-dono he constantly used out loud.
'She is mine.' Kenshin shook his head again. His Battousai half always wanted to possess the things he held most dear, and Kenshin hadn't even worked up the courage to say anything about how he felt.
'Kaoru is not this one's woman, she is her own person.'
'She is mine.....' Kenshin shook his head firmly. His desire for Kaoru- among other things- were just beyond the surface tonight, just behind his face. He mentally slapped himself for thinking that way about Kaoru...... again.....
He sighed and closed his eyes, attempting to sleep.
Just outside the door, someone listened.
Kaoru turned her ear from the door. She had been listening to the rurouni's breathing, making sure that he was still safe and sound.
'Like anything could surprise Kenshin...' she thought, a small smile on her face. She had come running at his scream- it had woken her up- and had been listening to him breathe ever since. It was oddly comforting. Sometimes when she'd find herself unable to sleep, she'd come to his door and just listen. He was so peaceful... content.. quiet....handsome, charming, sweet, caring....
'Stop it Kaoru.' she warned herself. 'Bad, bad idea......' What right had she for... liking Kenshin that way? He hadn't shown any interest in her at all, showing her only the same rurouni smile that he showed everyone, extending the same kindness, looking at her with the same eyes...... his beautiful, beautiful eyes.......
Kaoru practically slapped herself to stop her mind from wandering down that track again. It had been doing that often enough lately. She pressed her ear to the door.
Kenshin was asleep- she could tell by his even breathing. She smiled with contentment. Just seeing -or listening to, in this case- her Kenshin happy was enough for her. She blinked. Her Kenshin? Since when was he hers?
"Stop it Kaoru, not again......." she whispered to herself, she stood up and turned around, back to her own room, unaware of the danger that presented. She opened the screen door and stepped inside, closing the door firmly but quietly. Her feeling of contentment waned, then stopped altogether, the feeling of a foreign prescense throwing her mood off.
"Who's there?" she asked, wishing that she wore more then her sleeping yukata....... inside, her stomach twisted in fear. She had no bokuto, nothing to defend herself with...
No one answered her question, but the feeling of being watched didn't go away.
"Come out and face me. Who are you? I know that someone's there!" Kaoru called, unwilling to yell- it might wake the others.
Even worse, this feeling may be nothing more then the hallucination of a sleep-deprived brain, and then Kenshin would know that she was just a little girl, scared of all the monsters in her closet and under her futon.
A low laugh echoed from the corner of her room. She whirled to face it, wishing desperately that she had some sort of a weapon and that her fear didn't show too much.
"Heheheh...... Battousai's lady, I take it?" Kaoru winced a bit inside- oh, how she wished for that to be true- and denied it.
"I am not his lady. Who are you? I'll call the police- this is private property!" Kaoru said, taking a step closer, feeling her limbs shake with fear. This man....... he reminded her of someone that she had seen once or twice, and hoped that she wouldn't have to meet again, because he took away the person she held most dear.
It was almost as if the man and Battousai had been in the same profession- but weren't all the hitokiri in the government now?
"Who I am is irrevelent." The voice was behind her now. She whirled to face it, a sinking sensation in her stomach. She hadn't even noticed him move. Her knees shook, and now her voice betrayed a hint of the fear she felt.
"Wh-why are you here?"
"I am representing my associates....." behind her, again, but much too close this time. Much, much too close. He was breathing down her neck......
".....Kamiya Kaoru." Kaoru froze. The man was after her and Kenshin? She suddenly felt his hands grab her arms and pull them behind her back, tying them with what felt like rope. She opened her mouth wide to scream, but only to find it filled with a piece of cloth, acting as a gag. She struggled, hoping to throw the man off, now afraid for her life. Tears ran slowly down her cheeks, the only indication of how terrified she actually was.
"Kenshin!" she tried to call out through the gag. Nothing but a muffled scream came out. Very abruptly, she was aware that her feet no longer touched the floor, feeling a sharp pain in her arms. The man was taking her! She tried desperately to spit out the gag, but only actually go a corner of it out. She watched the floor of the dojo, then the grounds, go by at a rapid pace, but then she jerked to a stop.
Apparently her muffled screaming had woken one of the heaviest sleepers in the dojo.
Either that, or he was sneaking in late. Far more likely that he was coming in late.
"Missy!" Sano yelled, grasping the situation quickly. This guy was trying to take Missy. He cracked his knuckles.
"Put her down!" he instructed, his most threatening look on his face.
'If I let this guy walk out with her, Kenshin will never forgive me.....' The man smirked, his stoic eyes staring at the street fighter. He practically dropped Kaoru, not seeming to care that she'd bruise. Kaoru let out a small yelp at the rough treatment, but then got back to work on the gag. She tried pushing it out with her tongue, ignoring the coppery taste that could only be blood.
"Who are you, and what are you doing with Missy?" Sano asked, glaring at the man while sizing him up. The man carried a sword at his side, and was at least a head shorter then Sano, and obviously had less muscle. The man drew out the blade and it gleamed in the moonlight.
"Street fighter Zanza- we've heard about you." Sano kept glaring, but his glare changed to shock as the man rushed him, nearly as fast as Kenshin. Sano didn't dodge in time, and the sharp steel cut into his shoulder. Sango grabbed the wound, losing balance and dropping to one knee.
"Boring." Sano gritted his teeth. This wasn't the first sword wound he had recieved, and wouldn't be the last. He stood, ignoring his shoulder's complaint. That single move had cut his flesh to the bone- not good. Sano rushed forward, fists flying. He actually managed to score a hit before the sword came back up. Sano blocked with his bare arms, ignoring the pain as the blade bit deep and tasted his blood once more. Out of the corner of his eye, Sano saw Kaoru working frantically at her gag.
'Good girl Missy.... keep that up and yell for Kenshin. This guy's good.......'