Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Blood and Amber ❯ Blood ( Chapter 3 )

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

Battousai watched as the men fell before him. None were a match for his blade, reversed or not.
He had been a fool to think that they were.
"Where is my Kaoru?" he asked one man, flipping his blade over and holding it at the man's throat. The poor man had already been beaten to a bloody pulp, compliments of the dull edge of the sakabato. A thin line of blood fell from the man's neck as he swallowed.
"I-I'll see you in H-Hell before I tell you that, B-Battousai." the man stuttered. Battousai closed his eyes and hit the man upside the head, quickly flipping the blade back to the dull edge up. These men weren't worthy to die by his sword. Battousai turned and left the men's bodies where they were- he had more important things to do.
It wasn't long before he came upon his next room of opponents.
"Where is my Kaoru?" he demanded, not caring that they were staring at him. some screamed outright. I mean, he was an impressive sight. He was drenched in other men's blood, his once white sleeping yukata completely red. Even his sword dripped. He hefted said sword and leveled it at them, his grip and blade steady.
"I'll ask once more: Where is my Kaoru?" No one spoke. They must be at least a tiny bit scared of the bloody creature in front of them- they wouldn't be human otherwise.
Unfortunately for them, they chose to attack.
"Hurgggh!" the leader yelled, bringing his katana down in a left to right motion, aiming to cut Battousai in two. The obvious strike was easily evaded, Battousai striking on his way back down and whirling to face the next opponent. The next was a skinny man, of no more then Battousai's age.
'He, too, must have been around 14 when he was called to war.'
"Where is Kaoru?" he demanded of every person in the room, knocking them out one after the other. He had barely spent a half hour in that room, and was more drenched then ever before. He went to the next room and put his hand on the knob...suddenly, something screamed at him that something was wrong.
He turned the door handle, only to find a chamber of gas, designed not to kill, but to nearly paralyze. He'd be nearly unable to move after just one lungful.
'Chi....kuso.....' Battousai swore in his mind, but covered his nose and mouth with his gi and went through the room as quickly as he could, but he would have a devestating handicap from this point forward.
He managed to get through the next two rooms, but at a terrible price. His lungs burned and he was exhausted to the point of death, but he kept moving. He had quite a few wounds, not all of them minor.
"Damn..it...." he leane dagainst the wall of the latest room, ripping his gi a bit so that he'd have some kind of a bandage for the gash across his chest. While he robotically bandaged the wound, he wondered why the gas hadn't come earlier.
'They were testing my skill. If I could get past the first few rooms, then I was worth using the gas on. The gas wasn't meant to kill- their leader wants me to die at his hands.... he'll die at mine, for having my Kaoru kidnapped.' His amber eyes regained their fire and he tried to stand up.
Big mistake.
The room swayed for a few minutes, then Battousai collapsed onto the ground, completely out.
Outside the window, the sun peaked over the horizen.

Kaoru's eyes widened in fear as she saw the man who had kidnapped her walk over to her, a knife in his hand. He made a big show of looking out the window, but that's all it was- a show. He knew that it was dawn, and Battousai was nowhere in sight.
"Looks like your man isn't here." Kaoru's heart gave a small flutter at Kenshin being called her man, but she knew it wasn't true. As well, her heart fluttered from something other then love. It was fear. It was dawn, and all she knew was that Kenshin was supposed to be here, with her. If he wasn't here, something bad would happen.....
"Wh-what that's got to do with anything?" she asked, as the man advanced on her again.
"We have to teach Battousai a lesson. If he's not here on time....... he gets punished." Then man drew the knife out into the early morning light, the blade glinting eviliy. He grabbed one of Kaoru's arms roughly and laid it on a nearby table. He slowly moved the knife down to her pinky finger. Kaoru was stiff with shock and fear.
"No... no!" Kaoru cried, trying with renewed vigor to get herself free from her bounds. " Get off of me!" The man didn't even pay attention to her- he was too busy looking at the small cut that had appeared on her finger. It was just a tiny, superficial cut, but it was bleeding. He smiled. It was time to return to what he truly loved- killing. But now he could take his time, unlike during the revolution- then he had always had to kill quickly, silently, and efficently. Here he could inflict maximum pain.
Kaoru whimpered as the blade cut into her skin, resolving not to scream.
She lost that resolve as soon as he started sawing the bone.
"KENSHIN!" she shrieked. She wiggled and twisted, but that didn't help. Tears poured openly down her face now- it was no use holding them back.
"NO!"

Kenshin sat up, holding his head until the ache subsided. He looked around. This wasn't the dojo, no indeed not.
His memories flooded back and he glanced despairingly out the nearby window.
Dawn. As if on cue, he heard Kaoru's scream tear through the flimsy walls.
"Kaoru!" he yelled in reply. She hadn't heard him- there was no way. Her screams were drowning out every noise. He raced towards the sound, praying that he wasn't too late. Even though his eyes had been purple when he had woken up, they were dotted with gold now. Molten gold, aflame with anger.

Kaoru kept on screaming as the man sawed the bone- it was nearly in two! The doors at the end of the room burst open, surprising the man enough to stop sawing the bone. Kaoru nearly sighed in relief, then turned to see who it was.
"Kenshin!" she exclaimed happily, noting the red hair and the cross scar, which were obvious from here. Then her blood ran cold.
Something was wrong with him. At first, she had thought that he had been wearing a red yukata, but now she realized that more then the yukata was red. He was stained, just covered in blood. She bit her lip in an effort not to scream at the sight. It was making her stomach turn........
Not even a quarter of it was his own. She was both grateful that he hadn't been hurt and worried about those that he had hurt, even though they were the reason for her pain.
"Ken.....shin......." she whispered, catching sight of his eyes- the golden violet pools radiating anger. She shook. She had no doubt that that anger was at the man who had just been slicing open her finger.
"Battousai, we finally meet." The man beside her grinned. Ken- no, Battousai- met his gaze head on, staring steadily at the man, without blinking once.
"Give Kaoru back." Then his eyes rested on her, and seemed to soften a bit, but regained that intense look when his eyes landed on her pinky finger, transforming to pure gold. Kaoru cried, hating herself for the weakness, but needing to let her emotions out.
Her tears were the only noises in the room. She thought while she cried, wondering if she had ever been this hurt before, terrorized and having a finger nearly sliced off. Never.......

Kenshin burst into the room, ready to spill blood as long as he upheld his vow. So far, he had managed to restrain his darker side from killing, but he desperately wanted to see this man's lifeblood pooling on the ground around him, hear as his breathing grew weak, then stopped altogether. He would pay for kidnapping Kaoru.
He faintly heard Kaoru whisper his name.
"Battousai, we finally meet." the man said- the man that was kneeling beside his Kaoru, who didn't looked harme din any way......
"Give Kaoru back." He let his eyes do a through scan of her, and he realized that she was hurt.
'Her finger.....' He saw bone, then he saw red and we're not talking about blood. His eyes transformed into liquid gold, and he didn't even try to supress his desire to kill the man kneeling before him.
"You hurt her."
"You knew what would happen were you not here by dawn." the man answered cooly, holding up the knife he had been using on Kaoru. Then the man made a big mistake.
He licked the knife, commenting on the taste.
"Ah, so sweet....." That was as far as the man got. Battousai's eyes literally glowed, his rage being enough to make his chi explode with a force, smothering those he considered enemies. The man's smile dropped off his face as he felt the energy pour from Battousai. A few objects- small ones- exploded by themselves at feeling the tension in the room.
"Let. Her. Go." Battousai said, narrowing his eyes into a glare that had reduced many men into fetal positions, begging for their lives. He could see that the man in front of him was sorely tempted to try that fetal-position trick too, not that he'd let him live anyway.
"Ah, but, Battousai.... isn't it y-your fault that she's here?" the man said, his stutter and sweat betraying his emotions.
"It is your fault. I'll make you pay dearly for that mistake." He noticed Kaoru staring at him wordlessly. He couldn't read her face very well, but then again, he had his mind on other things.
"If you let her go now I won't draw your death out too long." Battousai said, face and voice expressionless. Kaoru stared at him, a look of horror on her face.

"No......" Kaoru whispered, watching the two men before her. "No....."
And the battle erupted around her.

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