Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Voix ❯ Absence ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter Four- Absence

Kaoru was almost in a panic.

She ran through the dojo, searching desperately for the red-haired angel. "Kenshin!" She cried.

For the moment, she did not care if her parents heard her frantic calls. She knew they were worried about her relationship with him as it was, but it meant nothing to her as she dashed from room to room, searching.

"Kaoru?" Her mother had heard her, and was gently formal as she addressed her only child.

Kaoru shook her head. "He's gone, Okaa-san… He's just… gone…"

Her mother sighed. She had, perhaps, always known it would come down to this. "Kaoru-chan… I think he was always going to leave."

Kaoru closed her eyes. There was no way her mother could understand what she was feeling, or what was really going on. Her breathing was shallow, but he had told her he was leaving. He had told her, just before they…

"I know…" She whispered. "I know…" She brushed past the woman, feeling her eyes fill.

I won't cry! I can't cry! She told herself forcefully, slipping back into her room. The rain had left both of them soaking the night before when they pulled apart, breathless. She closed her eyes.

She stared at him as he caught his breath, not once moving his eyes from hers. She swallowed.

"I still have to go." His voice was low and… pained?

The rain was still falling around them, thunder pounding over their heads. The storm was still rampaging around them. She pulled her soaked yukata closer around her, unwilling to pull her eyes from his.

He sighed, just audibly over the storm. "You need to go inside…" His hands pushed her drenched hair away from her cheeks. "I don't want you to get sick…"

She took his hands. "I…" She found herself unable to put together the words.

He smiled faintly at her. "Come on…" He whispered, lifting her gently into his arms, causing her to let out a small squeak. "Shh…" He told her, stepping onto the porch.

As he set her down in front of her room, she turned to look into his eyes again. "I don't want you to go."

He nodded, turning away from her. "I know."

He had warned her. She knew all the reasons why, but she still hated the empty feeling that lived in her heart since he was gone. She curled up on her futon, staring at her hands.

The sound of her father opening the shoji did not surprise her, nor did she turn to look at him.

"The boy was going to leave anyway." He told her quietly.

She nodded very slowly. "He told me he was… I just… didn't think he would."

Kamiya Koshijirou had never seen his daughter as distraught as that moment. He reached over and pushed her hair away from her eyes. "Kaoru-chan… I know he meant a lot to you… as much as your mother and I disapproved of your close relationship with him, I can only extend my apologies to you now."

She looked up at him, fighting the tears that threatened to spill over. "You don't understand! He… he wasn't what you think he was… he was a friend. A very wonderful friend." Kaoru thought better of telling her father of the night before, or of the thing she felt in her heart when she thought of him. It would only further complicate the matter.

Koshijirou reached out and rubbed her back slowly. "Kaoru-chan… I know what you really felt. I know it's hurting you, and all you can do is let him go."

"I would come back… It hurts someone with a lifebond to be separated from that person, they are so tightly connected by loyalty."

Kaoru curled up, letting her father's hands comfort her in her pain. He'll be back, once he's taken care of things… She told herself, just as a pessimistic thought crossed her mind.

What if he can't come back?

((()))

The night was quiet.

Too quiet. Kaoru thought, climbing off her futon. She slid open the shoji and stepped into the night.

The eerie sound of nothing crawled on her skin, and she shuddered. It was too creepy…

She stepped further out into the yard, bravely ignoring the itch in the back of her mind that told her to run. "Who's there?" She called, wary of the fact that it did not echo.

She heard the rustling of wings, like she had heard from Kenshin so many times.

Except there were more.

She stepped back into something- no, someone. She let out a sharp scream, only to have a cold hand clamped over her mouth.

"Silence." A voice hissed from the shadows in front of her.

Where is the moon? She thought desperately as more angels stepped from the shadows.

There was the angel who had attacked them when Kenshin had taken her flying. Yuichi, was it? There were at least ten in her yard, stepping from shadows. They had different hair colors, different eye colors, but only one thing in common.

None of them have black wings… She thought, her heart falling through. There… Yuichi's white wings. There was another with pale silver wings. The one that had ordered her silent had just stepped from the darkest shadows to reveal his deep, blood red wings. Many had white, off-white, or variations thereof, but her eyes fell on the red-winged angel.

He smiled, a smile she did not trust. A smile she had seen before, on the faces of men who would do more than sell her vegetables, if ever given the chance. If Kenshin were never to come along with her. "Where is he?" He asked silkily.

She shuddered as her captor removed his hand from her mouth, keeping hold of her hands. "I don't know." She retorted angrily.

"Are you sure?" His tone implied that he did not believe her.

"If I knew, I would be sure not to tell you. If I knew… I would be with him." Her tone was icy, but she remained quiet. Not only because it had been requested of her, but also because she did not want her parents to emerge from their room and see.

Don't let them wake up… She thought in desperation.

The angel laughed. "They won't wake."

She stood still, mind racing. "What are you talking about?" She whispered hoarsely, though she could already feel that she knew the answer. She would dwell later on the fact that the angel had read her thoughts. There was a rushing void in her heart. "You didn't…" She whispered.

"I didn't." The smirk told her that he had watched her parents die.

She screamed, fighting the grasp of the angel that held her tightly. "Let me go!" She shrieked, crying and fighting him at the same time. The blood-winged angel stepped forward and pressed a long knife to her throat.

"Silence. They died quickly. If we didn't need you, I would do the same for you." She swallowed, feeling a bead of her own blood slide onto the blade. A rage flew up in her, and she swung her legs up, using the binding hold of her captor to anchor her, pushing him back with her feet.

He held his chest, having only stumbled back a few feet, and glared at her. "I can certainly see why the two of you are bound… Both of you are a definite nuisance." He strode over to her; his fist clenched, and struck her.

She fell back into the arms of the angel holding her back. His distinctive white hair stood out in the black of the night, blue-green eyes watching her almost sadly. Her cheek smarting, she turned back to stare at the one who had hit her. Tears still fell down her cheeks.

"We have her now. Let's go." He said calmly, spreading his wings.

She felt the same rush of air as when Kenshin had lifted her into the night, but the arms that held her this time weren't as kind. She felt the white-haired angel keep her held tightly as they rushed higher and higher. Through the rush of wind, she felt him lean down to her ear.

"You might want to be careful of him…" His voice was low enough so that only she could hear. "Kero isn't anyone you want to mess with…"

She began to look up at him, but his voice filled her ear again. "No… don't look at me." He ordered quietly. "I made you inhale a drug that will make you sleep on the way… it's a rough trip for humans… it will be better for you."

She could already feel herself sliding away as he spoke. Her eyes slid shut, tears still wet on her cheeks. "Ken…shin…" She whispered as her consciousness was robbed from her.