Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Time Changes All ❯ Blind Obsession ( Chapter 26 )

Author's Notes: I dedicate this fanfiction to the Spaniards that died on March 11, 2004. We are strong we will make it through this. Con las palmas blancas al cielos, queremos paz. No llueva en Espana hoy, son los espanoles llorando. Basta ya, asesinos! Estamos unidos en Espana. Viva Espana!

Disclaimer: RK doesn't belong to me, if it did I would be a middle-aged male living in Japan. I fit none of those criteria.

". . ." dialogue

`. . .' thoughts

(. . .) author's useless commentary

Blind Obsession

By Hoshi-ni-Onegai

"Hey Misao, where's Kaoru?" Kenshin asked the short girl that was making her way out of the locker room.

"She was taking too long so I left without her. She'll be coming out soon. Stop worrying so much Kenshin!"

Kenshin blushed at that comment, "I'm not worrying!"

Sano, who had been standing next to Kenshin, slung his arm across the short redhead's shoulder and grinned. "Of course you're worrying Kenshin. You always worry about Jou-chan. You're like a mother hen!"

"I'm a chicken now?!"

"A skilled sword fighting chicken though." Aoshi was standing behind Misao now with his hand resting on either side of her shoulders. She smiled up at the tall boy by tilting her head back and leaned back into him. Kenshin smiled, happy for them, as Sano quirked a confused eyebrow.

"Thanks Aoshi, that just makes me feel so much better."

Like any other day when they have practice the gymnasium doors slammed open and in walked in Saitou.

"Two hundred strokes! Start quickly and we'll start class level sparring so hurry up."

Everyone shuffled around and spread out across gym and so club began. An hour into sparring Kenshin showed signs of worrying again.

"What happened to Kaoru? She didn't end up coming out of there." Kenshin looked over at the girls' locker room door which head yet to open or close since Misao came out.

Seeing the concern in her friend's eyes Misao pat him on the back. "I'm sure she's fine! I'll go check on her." She gave a nervous laugh, "She probably just locked herself in one of the stalls."

Turning around she ran over to the locker room with a look on her face that matched Kenshin's in worry. She was about to swing the door open when the door wouldn't budge.

"What the?" She tried pushing at it again but yet again it would not open. She put all her weight into it but the door seemed to be locked. Banging on the wooden door with the flat side of her fist she called out her name. "Kaoru! Kaoru! Unlock the door! This isn't funny!"

"What are you doing Makimachi?!" Saitou was now making his way over to her as were Kenshin, Aoshi, Sano, and Soujiro.

"The girls locker room is locked! Kaoru's still in there but she won't come and unlock the door!" Misao was now banging even harder against the door.

Aoshi went up to Misao and pulled her away from the door giving her arms a reassuring squeeze. "I'm sure Kamiya-san is fine." He tried to calm her down as he looked over at Saitou, "Shihan, don't you have the key to locker rooms?"

"Yeah." Saitou mumbled as he dug into his pockets for the keys. Taking them out he went over to the door and unlocked it. "Makimachi, go check. I don't want anyone walking in on her if she isn't decent."

Stepping into the locker room that was now unusually filled with steam from the showers. Looking through the aisles of lockers Misao called for her friend. "Kaoru? Are you in here? Kaoru?"

At the end of the row of lockers she could see that all the showers were turned on with only hot water streaming out them. She decided not to turn them off in fear that the water might scald her. Her back against the lockers she scooted over to where the bathroom stalls were located. Checking under the stall doors for any signs of feet she called her name again. "Kaoru? Where are you? Kao-" She chocked on the rest of the words as she looked up at the long mirror that ran across the whole line of sinks. Her eyes widened and for a long moment the only sound that could be heard were the showers that incessantly sprayed out onto the water upon the floor. Suddenly a shrill scream could be heard echoing out of the steam-fogged room.

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Throbbing. That's what Kaoru woke up to and incessant throbbing in her head. It was like someone had swung around a hammer and accidentally hit her. . . a hundred times. She brought a hand up to her throbbing temple and tried to sit up from what felt like the floor. Getting a head rush, despite her slow attempt at getting up, she groaned in protest as the throbbing seemed to worsen. She cracked open her eyes but the brightness of the room did not help her aching head and she immediately shut them tightly cradling her head once again. This time she opened her eyes more carefully but wince them shut a couple times before she had them open far enough so that she was comfortable. Looking around the room she realized that it was one of the infrequently used storage rooms in her school. The room was filled with odds and ends from events held in the past year at the school. In one corner a mountain of stuff from theatre department was stored away: costumes, props, sets, etc. In another corner there was a metal basket filled with flat basketballs and soccer balls. There were about ten boxes that took up another area of the room filled with streamers, large poster board, and any other stuff that could decorate the hallways when the annual school festival came around. Finally her eyes rested upon her exit. She looked around her once again, then at her unbound arms. She shrugged and got up from her place on the floor and walked over to the door. She tugged at it to slide it open but it wouldn't budge. She gave out a frustrated sigh and rubbed at her still hurting temple.

"Hello? Is anyone out there? Can anyone open this door for me?" She waited for a response but none came. "Hello?" Seeing that no one was there to open the door and come to her rescue she turned around again.

The only light in the room was pathetic looking light bulb that hung haphazardly from a broken off light fixture from the ceiling. Kaoru glared at it for a few moments, not really understanding how this pathetic little light bulb was able to make her squint and possibly worsen her headache. Shrugging it off to make way for more important questions she leaned against the door and let the question arise and swim in her head.

The most important one being: "How in the world did I end up here?"

She tried to dig back into her most recent memories but her headache hindered any task to be done by the brain. Instead she looked down at her clothes.

"Okay. . . it looks like I was at kendo practice. . . or going to practice or coming back from it." She had her white gi and blue hakama donned on and saw that it was slightly dirty and wrinkled from her little nap on the floor.

`Why was I on the floor? More importantly why am I in a storage closet at school in my gi and hakama?' She was pulled out of her reverie when she felt the door opening from behind her. She stepped away from it to let it fully slide open when her blue eyes met with turquoise.

"Hey honey, sleep well?"

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"What is it Misao?!" Aoshi came skidding in on the slippery locker room floor with Kenshin, Saitou, Sano, and Soujiro at his heels. They looked at Misao who had her hands covering her mouth in shock and staring at the long mirror above the line of sinks. Following where her eyes were landed upon the mirror. There was no blood, no body parts strewn ritualistically, but what was there was possibly worse. A message.

There was a short blade katana, the type used by the assassins in the past that accompanied the long blade katana. The sword was stabbed into the now shattered mirror with a Polaroid picture using the sword as a large tack. Written in permanent marker on the mirror next to the sword and photograph was: "Let's call it a fair trade."

Aoshi stepped up toward the mirror and ripped the Polaroid away from the katana and his eyes widened with fury. He quickly flicked the picture over to Kenshin who deftly caught it between his fingers. The picture was that of Kaoru dressed in her kendo training clothes hoisted up against the lockers unconscious. Sano went over to the short red head to peer over his shoulder, "J-jou-chan?"

Sano quickly grabbed the Polaroid out of Kenshin's hands but the redhead didn't even notice. He was glaring at the short blade katana that was stabbed in the mirror. He walked up to it and saw that Kaoru's necklace was hanging from the hilt. The cheap aluminum ring dangled from the ring next to its long time companion, the locker key. Kenshin reached for the necklace and laced it through his fingers staring at the ring and key as if looking for answers. After a moment of pause he unclasped the hook of the chain and put it around his neck. Sano and Misao were still looking disbelievingly at the picture while Saitou, Soujiro, and Aoshi stared sternly at the message on the mirror and Kenshin.

"Do you know what this is about Kenshin?" Soujiro asked coldly as all of Kaoru's close friends and one teacher glared at the redhead. With the expression upon Kenshin's face it seemed the most logical for it to be him to blame.

The short boy didn't know how to answer the clearly upset occupants of the room. He avoided eye contact with any of them and gripped his hand around the short blade katana. He deftly tugged it out of the wall and held it in front of his faced so that the blade reflected back his eyes. He stared at the gleam of the blade for a while then swung it down in a motion of chiburi. (a/n: chiburi is something you do after you kill someone, you flick your sword very quickly so that the blood gets off before sheathing your sword) Everyone saw the action but only Saitou truly noticed, but made no comment on it. Kenshin held the sword with his left hand at his hip as for he had no sheath and didn't wish to slide it through his belt. Saitou took note of Kenshin's stance with the sword at his hip, he could tell that the boy was not as innocent as he let on to be. That he was hiding something from the rest of them, but also from Kamiya.

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"Who are you? Why do you keep following me?" Kaoru was trying to back away from the white-haired turquoise-eyed man as quickly as possible.

"It's nothing personal. . . actually it is, but that's beside the point isn't it?"

"How do you know me? Have we met before?"

The man stepped toward her for every step she took away from him with a smirk on his face. "Let's say I'm a friend of a friend. Now, let's stop with all these useless questions and get down to business." Kaoru getting nervous and near a cold sweat continued to back away until her foot hit the box of costumes making her tumble into the pile. The man continued to smirk down at her. "I see you have found the costumes. Pick one out and put it on. You don't want to be a damsel in distress in a hakama and gi do you? Takes away from the whole damsel look."

"Who said I am a damsel in distress?! I can take care of myself thank you very much!" She glared at the man, feeling him hitting blows at her pride.

"I'm a lot stronger than you, and more skilled a swordsman. I could have killed you three times over just with a single blink." He turned his back toward her and headed for the door. Sliding it open and stepping out, he turned back to her. "Count yourself lucky that you're still alive." With that he snapped the door shut.

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"What's the fair trade?" The questioned seemed to ring around them. The question inevitably needed to be answered by Kenshin, but the boy stayed silent.

"Answer us Kenshin!" Misao frantically was pulling at his sleeve to get his attention that seemed to be focused on a scene going on elsewhere. "If this has anything to do with Kaoru we have a right to know!"

But the boy stayed silent.

"Kenshin," Soujiro spoke, "if you won't tell us anything. . . please answer this one question: is she safe?"

But the boy stayed silent.

"What is wrong with you?! This is Jou-chan we're talking about?! You know, the girl that means so much to us and everything to you? I swear to god, if anything happened to her I'll come after you, kill you, and make it look like suicide."

But the boy stayed silent.

The usually quiet Aoshi stepped forward, "All of you must calm down. There are things that go on that we do not know about. . . but Kenshin, isn't there anything we could do to get her back? Isn't there anything you could be doing?"

But the boy stayed silent.

Saitou smirked slightly than leaned against the locker room wall, his arms crossed before him. "You going to answer them?" Kenshin finally turned his head toward his teacher and shihan. Eyes of the past locking with his own, the two men stared off. "So, are you? Hitokiri Battousai."

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"So, you picked the Cinderella dress."

Kaoru turned around glaring at the white-haired man. "Like I had a choice?! This is the only costume that was in my size and wasn't ripped in the most inappropriate of places, I don't even want to know how they got ripped there."

The dress was sky-blue with a glitter dusted white sheen flowing over it, the sleeves extended to the elbows then flared out in the same white sheen material. She had decided to keep the hair still in a high ponytail and her feet were now bare.

"If it's any consolation you look lovely."

She just looked at him flatly, "Oh goody."

"Sarcasm doesn't suite you."

"Yeah, but insanity seems to suite you just fine."

"As much as I love having these talks with you Kao-chan we need to get going to the rendezvous point." With that the tall man tugged at Kaoru's hand and dragged her out into the hallway.

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"How do you know that name?" Kenshin glared coldly at Saitou. But before Saitou could answer, a resounded punch from Sano collided with the side of Kenshin's face making him skid against the locker room floor to hit the sink below the broken mirror. The shards sprinkled down upon him, as he gathered himself and tried to brush the shards off, one of them caught on his cheek ripping upon one slash of his crossed-shaped scar. As blood dribbled down from his cheek he tentatively touched it to see the red liquid sticking to the pads of his fingers. "I made a promise to myself long ago. Kaoru and I. . . we were in the park. Two boys, older than us, were making fun of her. Calling her a tomboy because her best friend was a boy and she always wore pants, never a skirt. You could never get Kaoru into a skirt. . . she would run around in her shorts and t-shirt, scraping her knees and palms, her hair whipping around in a messy high ponytail. . . when the two boys went up to her and pointed and laughed I stood up for her, I was so stupid. Kaoru could handle herself, but I stepped in front of her, foolishly guarding her from view. They whipped out exacto-knives, I'm not exactly sure why they had them, and they each slashed me across the cheek. I fainted soon after. . . but before everything went black I promised myself that I would protect her. I would get stronger and protect her from the wrongs of the world. Then my parents died, I left, I learned the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, and I came back here. I have to protect her. I will."

The short redhead stood up, harshly wiping the blood from his face with the sleeve of his gi. He marched forward, brushing past everyone and out the door. The rest of the group quickly followed him. Kenshin picked up his bag that lay on the gym floor and headed out the doors. Before leaving along with the rest of the young group Saitou turned around and yelled at the class, "One thousand strokes!"

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"Where the hell are you dragging me?!"

If anyone were to come across the two they would have come across a comical or a highly disturbing sight. A uncommonly tall Japanese man with shock-white hair and piercing turquoise eyes in blue slacks with an orange and blue china shirt carrying around a sword that had a Chinese style hilt with a Japanese blade. The man was dragging a black haired blue eyed Cinderella dressed teenage girl that was struggling in his grip that was firmly upon her upper arm.

"This is getting seriously ridiculous! I keep on getting dragged into the most unbelievable of situations! You would not believe what my life has been like! It's been one freaky adventure after another!"

"I can take you away from that."

Kaoru froze, as did he. She stared up at him with a partly scared look that was also filled with surprise. "W-what do you mean by that?"

He gazed down at her with an indefinable longing behind them. "We're meant to be Kao-chan. This is it. This is what people go through life looking for."

Now she tried even harder to step away from him. "I don't know where you're getting your delusions but this is definitely not IT."

"Delusions? Delusions?! People have been saying that I've been having those since HE came along! My life was FINE! He had no right!" When he noticed that she was frantically trying to get out of his hold he immediately calmed down. "I'm sorry I scared you Kao-chan," he gently brushed her bangs away from her frightened eyes, "it's just that you mean so much to me. I've been through so much too Kao-chan, you'll be good for me, I'll be perfect for you."

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"Where the hell are you going?!" Sano yelled at Kenshin as they continued following him through the now dark streets of Tokyo. It seemed to be an oddly quiet night in their district as the footsteps of the five men plus now two women group. Megumi had caught up with them at the front gate at the school and followed them without much question. "Kenshin!"

"Home." Kenshin answered sternly reaching the stairs of this apartment and took the steps quickly two by two.

"Home?! We need to be saving Jou-chan!"

They reached the apartment door as he deftly pulled out his keys and unlocked the door he told the group to wait there while he went to get something. Approximately two minutes later Kenshin came out dressed in worn out black clothes and carrying the sword he took from the mirror at school and another hilted basic length katana.

"I see we have the Hitokiri Battousai back in full force." Saitou stated as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it .

"How do you know that name?"

He took a long drag then he blew it out just as slowly, while flicking the cig he answered, "Ever heard of Mibu no Ookami?"

Kenshin's eyes widened, "Senpai?" (a/n: Senpai can be roughly translated to veteran, or someone that held a position before you in life)

"Took you long enough to realize." He took another drag going down the hall and down the steps of the apartment, Kenshin close at his heels and the rest near his.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Didn't really see it as a normal topic of conversation between a teacher and student."

They continued walking on, down the street with a confused group trailing behind them.

"So the great Mibu no Ookami retired and became a high school teacher?"

"Hey, at least I get paid. You're a high school student."

"Did you know about this?"

"I knew something like this would happen eventually, but never thought it would be se soon after your leave. Lucky for you I think the only one after you is that psycho anyways."

"What about the new guy?"

"Who Shishio Makoto? I wouldn't worry about his sadistic ass, he seems to be enjoying putting his hobby of killing people to good use."

"Killing people?" Misao softly questioned out. Kenshin and Saitou looked back at her then noticed that everyone was looking at them, waiting for them to explain their conversation or go on with it.

Kenshin glanced over at Saitou but the guy simple took a drag then answered calmly, "They're your friends, I don't owe them a single explanation."

Kenshin glared at Saitou then gave out a sigh, "Fine." He looked back at his friends and gestured for them to continue following, an indication that he would walk and explain at the same time. He took in a deep breath and decided to give the much-edited version. "When my parents died I left to be with my new legal guardian that taught me a kendo style called the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu. Essentially it's a style that is designed for killing, and the Japanese government saw potential in the thirteen year old me and recruited me as their underground assassin. They knew ahead of time that I would refuse, I didn't think I had the right to take anyone's life and I still don't think I do. So they found out that I had nothing really dear to me, I had no relatives and friends but no one really close. Shishou was the only one, but he could defend himself if ever threatened. Well, he wasn't the only one, Kaoru still held an important place to me. . . and they used that against me. They threatened to kill her if I didn't comply with their wishes, so I did.

"In reality I wasn't supposed to be the next one in line to be the head assassin for the government. They have a secret training program where they gather fifty orphans from a very young age and teach them the deadly styles of kendo. Before I came along that had been the way the head was chosen, and the rest of the forty-nine kids would become what you might think of as a `sub-assassin.' The thing was, these kids were taken into this hideous world at seventeen, but when they saw thirteen-year-old-me they put me as head. They saw my younger age and my lethalness as great assets than the guy they had in line to be head. The guy got insanely jealous and pissed, so the government gave him a different job that would have him stationed far from me. I was in Kyoto, they stationed him in Tokyo. They assigned him the job of monitoring Kaoru. His job was to kill her at the very moment I stepped out of line or tried to get away from my new dark life. The guy fell in love with Kaoru. I guess watching her through the windows or from a hidden angle, in the shadows got to him. He didn't just love her, he became completely obsessed, but Kaoru never knew. I had caught wind of the guy's obsession, having met him once or twice in the years, but I wasn't allowed within the city limits of Tokyo. That was the reason why I never visited, it would have meant her life. Then, when I got unexpectedly released from my job a few months ago, I knew the place I needed to be was in Tokyo protecting Kaoru. With my services no longer needed in the government they didn't need the guy stationed to watch Kaoru anymore. I thought it was over. It seems to be have been far from it."

The group took all the information in with silence surrounding them until Soujiro asked, "How does Saitou Sensei play into this?"

"I'm the former head of the assassin group for the government."

"I have a question." Aoshi said from the back.

"Yeah?" The younger assassin answered as he and Saitou continued on to a familiar destination to the two of them.

"Where are we going?"

". . . To the rendezvous point."

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A/N: The mystery of the locker key WILL be answered. I know, I know I have dropped zero hints on what it is but this will NOT be a plot whole. NOT TO WORRY! I think are only two chapter left. Oh, I know a bunch of you have been wondering where I have been. And I am blessed to have many patient readers, some, which I think just gave up on waiting for me to update. But I've had some medical problems. My left hand. . . I did SOMETHING to it, I'm not sure what the doc's note sure what but I couldn't type because my it hurt so much to move it the slightest bit. And it was just hilarious watching me type with one hand, but I did for about half of this chapter. Seeing that it didn't really work out for my benefit I decided `I'll write it out by hand.' Since I'm right-handed I'm okay with writing. . . but for some odd and probably insane reason I strained my right hand from using it too much. Have you ever heard of that? Straining your dominant hand? Well, I magically and freakishly did it. So, I was on a temporary leave form typing and writing. I could only do it when it truly called for it, like on assignments or tests. Then after resting it for about a month and a half it was okay, so I came back to typing this story. Which I knew was coming to an end, but due to my long absence I had no idea where I was headed. I'm the type of person that never writes any of her ideas down, so there was me trying to rack my brains for what it was about. Since I couldn't, I fit into my already busy schedule I reread my story. And I must say, it made me so ashamed to have written the earlier chapters! How horrible were those? My God! After reading it over and typing out most of the chapter the thing in Madrid, Spain happened on Thursday. I stopped breathing when I heard the news. As many of you know I'm Japanese, but am also half Spaniard. I was worry-stricken about if my family was okay and if anyone was caught in the explosion. When I learned everyone in my family was alright I gave out a sigh of relief, but I shut down as a person. I just couldn't handle it. It was such a large blow, so close to home. So, today I slowly came out of it and finished the chapter (today=Sunday) and so here I am. I know it's been a long wait. But thank you all who have waited patiently. Thank you all so much.