Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Shinkan ❯ All the lies we say ( Chapter 3 )

 

 

 

Kaoru, Kenshin, and Dr. Gensai sat together on the porch. Kaoru had just taken a bath and changed into a blue and white kimono. Her hair was only partially pinned up with a black barrette that had a white dragon carved into it. Kenshin sat next to her with his customary Rurouni smile in place a teacup cradled in his hand. Of all the things the young kendo instructor hated it was that smile. It was a lie. That smile spoke of an absentminded fool who had naught a care in the world. Kaoru was sure that the former hitokiri was a bit of a fool at times but absentminded Kenshin was not.

 

And his concerns ran deep even deeper than her own terrorized nightmares. Kaoru forced herself not to drop her own bubbly mask and smiled at Gensai who watched her with his own pretense.

 

“So how did you session go Miss Kaoru?” inquired the old doctor.

 

“It went well Gensai sensei though it was my last trip I'm glad that the students were able to learn there last lesson excellently”

 

It was a signal between the two of them. Should they have company yet needed to speak of the `family' Gensai would ask how was her trip and Kaoru would respond in kind on whether she was successful or not. The fact that the daughter of the late Michikin said it was her `last trip' meant that her last target had finally fallen.

 

Gensai sighed, “I suppose it's for the best”

 

“Is the master of the dojo you went to closing Kaoru dono?” asked Kenshin

 

“Mou! Kenshin call me Kaoru but yes the dojo is closing”

 

Kenshin looked puzzled but the almost causal tone in which Kaoru used. He expected the usually happy yet hot tempered young woman to be angry at such turns of events. The former assassin stored this information away for another time.

 

“Where is everyone today, I expected at least Yahiko or Sano to be here today”?

 

“I believe Megumi let them go with her to Akabeko to treat Ayame and Suzume”

 

And so their conversation dragged on. No one ever said anything that they truly meant and they used the mundane to cover up for something they didn't want the other to know. It took Kaoru exactly five minutes to get tired of it. If all they were going to do was lie than there was no point in even speaking.

 

“I'm going to practice,” she said curtly before leaving

 

Kenshin stared after her, startled by Kaoru's abruptness. Gensai sighed and shook his head. He knew all to well why the young kendo instructor was frustrated. And as much as the old doctor burned to tell Kenshin and the others the truth about the hotheaded Kamiya Gensai knew better. Kaoru may not kill him but she wasn't above a little torture. Not to mention it wasn't his secret to tell. Again he sighed. Looking at the obviously love struck duo was starting to make him feel nauseous. For it seemed that everyone but the couple themselves knew that they were truly in love.

 

It was then that Gensai had a sort of epiphany. His gazed narrowed and a sly smirk came to his wrinkled face reminiscent of his assistant the kitsune. His plan could very well back fire but the end result outweighed the repercussions should they ever come. Now usually the old doctor was anything but devious but `desperate times call for desperate measures'.

 

“Kenshin would you be as so kind to get some ointment from the clinic for me”?

 

The red haired Rurouni stared at Gensai for a moment but nodded slowly. Kenshin had a sinking suspicion that the old man was up to something.

 

“I will return with the ointment soon, that I will” he said

 

Gensai waited a few minutes to make sure that Kenshin was gone before going to Kaoru. He padded over to the training hall ever mindful of the lack of sound coming from the room. That's how one truly knew the shinkan was training. You see there was a reason Michikin had christened her child shinkan. For indeed when Kaoru fought she made no noise. And she never gives her `victim' the opportunity to make a sound. And so Michikin had named Kaoru thusly for shinkan literally meant silence.

 

Even now as he quietly opened the shoji and could clearly see Kaoru doing the gymnastic portion of her kata with bells tied to her wrist, ankles, neck, and hips she still made no sound.

 

“Sound is the first thing that registers when you're in danger, if the opponent makes no sound they usually believe there is no danger”

 

“And what about the ones you kill, why do you take away their right to express pain”!

 

Kaoru shrugged, “their screams get irritating after awhile”

 

Gensai shivered. In his opinion when the fourteen-year-old Kaoru had almost cheerily explained why she made no sound while she was `hunting' was disturbing. Kaoru continued to practice perfectly aware that the old doctor was watching her. But she didn't really care; there was no point in hiding it from him anyway. Inhaling softly Kaoru cart wheeled forward twice and hand sprigged into three back flips before landing into a split. Gensai was both amazed and annoyed.

 

`And still there is silence'.

 

Like all the other times Gensai saw Kaoru do this routine he knew that Kaoru Kamiya was taking the back seat and now Shinkan was driving. The shinkan was nothing more than a puppet that had cut its strings. A murderer with little to no remorse and an innocence that is so eerie that even the most hardened of warriors would quake with fear. He watched as she stood effortlessly and began to go into her fighting stance. It was the same as her mother's low to the ground with her left hand as a shield and her right hand meant for striking.

 

Suddenly she sprang to her feet and began to fight an imaginary foe. Her movements were swift and sure. Never once did Kaoru falter and never once did the bells make a sound. Even as she punched, kicked, slapped, kneed, and elbowed repeatedly not one note escaped the musical instruments attached to her. Smoothly Kaoru ended her `sparing match in favor of sitting on the ground once more. Gensai knew better than to speak, the shinkan wasn't done yet.

 

Kaoru shifted so that both her legs were curled under her before she used her arms to lift herself off the ground. Then the young kendo instructor extended her legs upward so that she was doing a handstand. She held herself in this position with perfect balance not moving once. After awhile sweat began to bead upon her upper body, which was bare, save the bindings on her breast. By the time Kaoru lowered herself into an upright position she was passed the habit of concentrating so that she didn't make the bells tied to her person ring.

 

Gensai watched as his young friend fall to the floor unceremoniously jostling the bells and making them jingle with her every movement. Finally exhausted Kaoru had regained control. She gulped down lungful of air trying to calm down her heart. She rolled her head to the side looking at him her eyes brimmed with stubborn tears.

 

“What do you want”?

 

Gensai stared at Kaoru not at all surprised by the bitterness that was in her tone.

 

“Why do you lie to them”?

 

For a moment Gensai was afraid that she wouldn't answer. They way her night blue eyes fluttered closed spoke of a pain too great to bear alone. Yet shinkan or not Kaoru was stubborn.

 

“The same reason you lie, necessity”

 

“You're lying,” he said dryly

 

“Heh, no shit”

 

“Your slipping up Kaoru, your lying skills aren't very good”

 

“Murderers don't usually need that skill Gensai sensei, only politicians do”

 

He smiled weakly, “sometimes I wonder what's the difference”

 

Kaoru laughed her voice cracking under the strain of her own internalized pain. The last of her `family' was gone yet the wound was still fresh.

 

Gensai watched her intently, “But that still doesn't answer my question”

 

Kaoru opened her eyes and glared at the old doctor. Seeing the stubborn set of his jaw Michikin's daughter knew that she didn't have the energy to argue with him.

 

She sighed, “Your not going to leave this alone are you”

 

“No I am not,” he agreed

 

At this Kaoru pouted cutely at him.

 

“I lie to them because I don't want them to know, and even if I did I wouldn't know how to tell them”

 

Gensai walked over to Kaoru and sat a few feet away from her. Tired or not she was still dangerous.

 

“You could just come out and say it”

 

Kaoru raised an incredulous eyebrow, “Yeah right”

 

“And what would I say, hey guys I almost forgot to tell you not only am I the assistant master of the Kamiya Kaashin Ryu I'm also secretly mind you a vengeful semi psychotic not to mention deadly efficient killing machine whose been trained to torture and execute by the time I was able to walk and spent the better part the last ten years of my life silencing any and all my `relatives', ah yes Gensai sensei that would work wanders”

 

With each statement the venerable doctor did his best not to flinch. The cold sarcasm in her voice was biting at his nerves.

 

“Well lying isn't getting you anywhere but an early grave”

 

“Good, cause I could use the reprieve” she replied tartly

 

He sighed, “Don't be so quick to crave death Kaoru as you said before it comes for all of us in the end”

 

She rolled on her side facing away from him. It was time for this conversation to end. Kaoru just simply couldn't take it anymore and if Gensai continued down this path tired or not Kaoru would rip him limb from bloody limb. Seeing that he had reached his objective Gensai left. Besides Kenshin should be returning now and it was time to put his second stage of his plan on. Just as he reached the gate Gensai was met by Kenshin who held a small tube of ointment in his hand. Not in the least trying to cover up his weariness the old doctor spoke to the former hitokiri softly.

 

“That ointment is for Kaoru, when she said she was going to practice I knew that she would need it”

 

Kenshin looked at him worriedly.

 

“Don't worry Kenshin she didn't hurt herself that's for her back she's bound to overdo it again”

 

“You must rub this thoroughly onto her back so that she doesn't wake up unable to move, its not a pleasant way to wake up trust me” he said dryly

 

For moment amber flashed in violet depths, but it was enough for the old doctor to catch it.

 

“Can't she do this herself, I hardly think that Kaoru dono would take kindly to me helping her, that she won't”

 

Gensai sighed, “She needs help Kenshin and right now she's not very happy with me”

 

Kenshin winced in sympathy. He bid the old man a good afternoon just in time to see the object of his conversation exit the training hall. The rurouni's world automatically narrowed to the beauty that was walking bare foot to her house. Midnight tresses were loose and swaying with rhythm of her tightly gray clad hips. Bells that were strapped onto various places on her person rang along with her movements. She wore a baggy white gi that was left carelessly open showing off her bound breast. Not for the first time Himura the Battousai wished he could see all of Kaoru.

 

(Oro, stop it)

 

The sooner you admit that she is ours than the sooner I will stop

 

(We cannot have her, and why the hell am I arguing with myself)

 

You're in denial

 

(I am not)

 

Yes you are and stop trying to lie, you keep forgetting I'm you

 

(Whatever look we both know that nothing good can come of this)

 

Yes there is

 

(Oh, name one thing)

 

You see this is what its come to, ten years of not getting laid all because we listened to you

 

(Oro! Don't you dare go there or I'll-)

 

Or what you'll kill me? AGAIN YOU HALF WIT I AM YOU. You'd have better luck saying shut up bitch

 

Growl (Shut up bitch)

 

Touché, but no.

 

Sigh (What will it take to shut you up)

 

Just do what the good doctor instructed and I'll behave just this once

 

(Fine)

 

Kenshin sighed in exasperation. The Battousai in him was restless today. Gensai had already left and Kaoru was now at her room. With no other way to settle his lusting counterpart short of killing something Kenshin went to fulfill what doctor Gensai instructed him to do. Hiko's former apprentice stalked silently into the house tracking Kaoru's ki to her room. Composing himself Kenshin put on his Rurouni smile and knocked on her door.

 

“Come in”

 

Kenshin entered and was once again stunned by Kaoru's utter magnificence. He never tired of looking at the woman he knew he would never have. She had removed the bells and her gi that she used to wipe the sweat from her face and torso. Dark lashes fluttered over alabaster skin flushed in exhaustion. But true to his word Kenshin's alter ego did not emerge though the Rurouni could feel he was sorely tempted.

 

“Gensai sensei said that you needed this ointment so that you can move without pain in the morning, that you do”

 

Too tired both mentally and physically to argue Kaoru merely nodded. Turning away from him, the exhausted kendo teacher loosened the binds that held her breast. The bandages fluttered to the floor and Kaoru pulled her knees to her chest, she wrapped her arms around them, and then rested her chin on her knees. Looking at the plains of Kaoru's back Kenshin fought back the urge to ravish her. He kneeled down in back of her and opened the tube of ointment. Kaoru swept her hair over her left shoulder allowing the ex-manslayer access to her back.

 

He didn't need any further prompting. Kenshin coated a liberal amount of ointment on his hand began to rub Kaoru's back. Working his way from Kaoru's collarbone to the middle of her back Kenshin encountered a thin almost invisible scar. It extended from her right shoulder to her left hip.

 

“Where did you get this from Kaoru dono”

 

“Hmm?”

 

Kenshin traced the scar with feather like precision making Kaoru unconsciously shiver. From dread or arousal the young kendo instructor's sleep muddled mind still didn't want to find out.

 

“Accident, practice” she replied sleepily.

 

But before Kenshin could question her further. Kaoru fell asleep. The Rurouni frowned but recapped the ointment and helped Kaoru lie down on her futon and pulled the covers over her. He did all this with averted eyes. For had he looked up Kenshin knew that he would be unable to resist. Once done Kenshin reluctantly pulled away from the sleeping angel before him. He went to the kitchen and began to cook. Kaoru would be hungry once she awakened

 

The End