I know that last one was pretty standard. I have to warn you that you might think this next one's kinda standard too. Just please, don't be too hard on me. If any of the characters go OOC, I am the only one to blame. I like it when they go OCC, in fact. It adds spice. I'd also like to warn you that this fic is mostly centered on Kaoru and Kenshin. Don't kill me if it lacks more parts for the others.
This chapter has some R-rated stuff. For words and violence, I think, so if you're not old enough to read stuff like this, you must STOP right now. For those of you who are considered "mature audience", I hope you like this next one.
Standard disclaimers apply. "Rurouni Kenshin" (c) Watsuki Nobuhiro, Shuiesha, Shounen Jump, and Sony. I do not own RK, pray as I might, every night, it just wouldn't happen that way. No matter how many candles I light, no matter how many chickens I decapitate…
BRING OUT THE DRAGON
By anna-neko
Chapter Three
Kenshin, Yahiko and Sano were startled out of their morning reverie when they heard an urgent banging on the gate.
"Himura-san! Himura-san!" a small voice squeaked at the top of his lungs.
Fear knotted Kenshin's belly. His first thought went to Kaoru. She wasn't home yet. It has not been very long, but the fact that she was not with him was enough cause for worry. He rushed to the gate with Yahiko and Sano in tow. Why did peace always elude them?
When Kenshin opened the gate, he discovered one of Kaoru's new pupils impatiently bouncing on his heels and toes. The blood drained from Kenshin's face.
"Shiro-kun!" he gasped. "What is wrong, little one?"
"The Sensei!" Shiro cried, tears suddenly flowing from his eyes. "Somebody attacked Teacher!" he shrieked. "Then he took her! Took her!" he yelled, waving his arms about.
"Show me," Kenshin said, keeping his panic from overwhelming him.
The little boy took off and Kenshin bounded right after him, his hand to the hilt of his reversed edge sword, his sakabatou.
"Kenshin!" Yahiko yelled. "Shit! Sano, get a move on!"
Kenshin did not even look back as he scooped little Shiro in his arms, ordering the boy to tell him where to go. He summoned his god-like speed and left everyone behind in a flash.
They were at the scene of the attack in no time.
Kenshin saw the parasol and the bucket. There was tofu everywhere, and the marks on the dirt showed evidence of a struggle.
Putting Shiro down, he turned to the crowd with a glare. "Where did he go?" he asked, scaring half of the on-lookers away.
They all knew who he was, and they knew the Kamiya girl's relationship with him. Nobody wanted to get in his way.
With shaky hands, a few people pointed to the direction of the river.
Leaving Shiro behind, Kenshin sped to the direction he had been led until he reached the banks of the river. He looked around him, frantically searching for clues: A depression in the grass, or perhaps a print in the moist soil…anything!
Kenshin's trained eye found a trail of crushed leaves and the subtle imprint of a foot. Like a wild animal in search of prey, he followed the lead, thinking of nothing but the demise of whomever had dared to take his Kaoru.
"Where are you?" he growled to himself, his feet barely touching the ground. He fought his inner ghosts, his rurouni self warring with the spirit of Battousai. He could usually contain the assassin, but during times like these, anxious, frightened, angry, it was difficult to stay in control.
About a mile through his trek, the trail stopped, and out in the distance, he saw a boat riding the current of the river.
A man stood almost at the hull of the boat in perfect balance. He had a triumphant smile on his face. "Battousai!" the man shouted above the din of the water. "This yours?"
The man raised a body in his arms.
The kimono, the raven hair, the blue ribbon…it was Kaoru, unconscious and limp.
This is too much. He had just gotten her back from Enishi, and now it was happening again! All those times when she had been kidnapped, he couldn't even remember being so pissed! Why were they always involving her? Why? No more! He will take no more of it! This time, he was not going to stand for it. His eyes flashed, losing his hold on his sanity faster than he ever did, and his eyes turned amber.
"YOU," Kenshin murmured in fury, half of his anger directed at the man and half at himself for being so helpless once again. His golden eyes glinted in the sunlight. "If you harm her, I swear…"
The man's maniacal laugh carried itself to Kenshin's ears, and it was almost as if he had heard Kenshin's words through the pounding of the river. "You'll get her back, but maybe after I'm through with her, yes?"
Kenshin was ready to go on a rampage. His breathing had gone ragged and his mind was spinning on images of blood, and a severed head. One head in particular. "I'll see you dead! By my soul I'll see you dead if you harm her!" he growled in wrath.
A mist rose out of nowhere, impossibly defying the heat of the sun. The strange fog engulfed the boat like a blanket, then as quickly as the fog came, it dissipated. The boat was nowhere in sight.
The Hitokiri Battousai stared in disbelief. Where had it gone? Where did that mist come from? What sort of magic was this?
Unable to contain any more of the rage, Kenshin pulled out his sword and swung at an unsuspecting tree with the sharp edge of his sakabatou.
The tree, which had been in existence for a hundred years, ceased to be as it fell, trunk and all to the ground. It toppled with a crash in a cloud of dust and debris.
In a mingling of frustration, wrath and sorrow, Kenshin screamed Kaoru's name to the heavens.
Sano and Yahiko heard the scream as it reached the streets of Edo. It sounded like the wail of a beast, made human only by the torrent of emotions.
"Damn!" Sano hissed, breaking off into a faster run to follow the sound. "That was horrible!"
Yahiko bravely stunted his tears as he struggled to keep pace with Sano's large strides. "Ugly has to be okay. Kami-sama!" It was a little more than a prayer, Yahiko fashion. His fear of losing his dearest hag was rivaled only by Kenshin's. He would not know what to do without Kaoru taking care of him, beating the crap out of him, come to that.
It took them quite a while to get to Kenshin, but when they did, he was still panting with rage.
He was hunched menacingly on the trunk of a felled tree, apparently just recently cut down judging by the color of its leaves, very recently.
The sight was frightening. The amber-eyed ex-assassin looked anything but a retiree from the Ishinshishi. At that very moment, he was the Hitokiri, and if anyone had been unfortunate, or stupid enough to stumble upon him during the height of his rampage, it might not be a tree that Kenshin would be standing on.
"Damn!" Sano said, backing away slightly.
"W-where's Kaoru?" Yahiko asked hesitantly, too scared to try his luck with calling her names.
Kenshin turned away from them, looking over his shoulder to the river. "Taken," he simply replied.
A deathly quiet ensued.
After a while, Sano found the courage to speak. "Who took her, Kenshin?"
"Some nobody," Kenshin replied in a low growl. "I've never seen him in my life, but I have no need of knowing him. He shall die for this."
The death sentence churned Sano and Yahiko's insides, sending prickles down their backs. It was terrifying to hear Kenshin speak so coldly about killing. The rurouni was never this bloodthirsty. He was not even like this when they found the Kaoru-doll in the dojo.
"Kenshin, we have to report this to the cops," Sano said cautiously.
"You report it," Kenshin snapped icily as he stood up to full height. "I'm finding a boat and I'm going into that river," he said with finality.
He hopped from the tree trunk and proceeded farther along the riverbank to the nearest boat station.
Ludlow burst into Janek's office in a great flurry through the window. His parrot form settled on a chair and began to talk. "Yasanari has kidnapped Kamiya Kaoru!" He cried, flapping his wings and scattering a few feathers around in the process. He instantly took the shape of the man he was.
Janek leaned back calmly on his seat. "Did she actually take Kaoru?"
"Well, her ghoul did," Ludlow said. "But she did a transport. She took her ghoul and Kaoru by magic."
Janek sighed and shook his head. "Not good enough. The ghoul's a Walker, and too many Walkers stumble accidentally into transports to consider it as anything more than another mishap."
"But we know Yasanari took them deliberately!" Ludlow argued.
"It's insubstantial. It wouldn't hold up for a warrant," Janek said. "As of this moment, it's still the affair of the Walkers."
"A revelation then," insisted Ludlow.
"Wouldn't do. Yasanari herself hasn't done anything," replied Janek. "You said so yourself that it was the ghoul that did it all," Janek pointed out.
"But she used magic!"
"Technically, not on Kaoru."
Ludlow swore vehemently before becoming coherent again. "Those Mitsumos have been riding on technicalities since day one."
"Well, at least they know their law," Janek said optimistically.
"Right. A little too much, I think."
Kaoru felt Kenshin's fingers slip through hers under the table at the Akabeko. He was smiling at her with the most loving eyes. She blushed but smiled back.
They were celebrating her safe return from Enishi's island, as well as Kenshin's recovery from the battle after Rakuninmura.
"Hey!" Sano suddenly called to them from across the table. "In case you've forgotten, you're not the only two people here!"
Kenshin's face turned red and Kaoru's turned even redder.
"Shut-up and leave them alone, Rooster-head!" Megumi said, more for a desire to chastise him than a compulsion to be the advocate of Kaoru and Kenshin's romance. The inevitable fact that her dear Ken-san ended up with Racoon-girl still stung. "I'd be all lovey-dovey too if the person I love came back from the dead."
"Oro!"
"I'd be freaked out if you asked me," Yahiko said, stuffing his face with rice. "Zombies aren't exactly romantic."
Kaoru glared and her fist tensed. Her knuckle had Yahiko's name written all over it.
Kenshin grinned and wisely decided to attempt withdrawing her fangs. "Kaoru isn't a zombie," he told Yahiko calmly. "Zombies are never this beautiful, if you'll allow me to be frank."
Kaoru gave Kenshin a delighted smile.
Sano's face screwed up. "Bleh…spoken like a true boyfriend. Careful Kenshin, we can't have Kaoru going into sugar-shock, can we?"
Everyone else laughed and Kaoru gave her rurouni a loving gaze.
The way back home had become much quieter on account of the fact that Sano, Yahiko and Megumi had gone on ahead to have a gambling spree.
Kenshin and Kaoru walked home hand in hand, enjoying the lulling sounds of the night.
Kenshin suddenly smiled and stopped walking. Kaoru blinked at him in surprise.
"Kenshin?" she inquired, uncertain about whether she should be worried. She never took anything Kenshin did for granted. Apart from his domestic habits at the Kamiya-dojo, everything else he did had purpose, calculated, one of the many characteristics he carried on from being Battousai to a Rurouni.
"Beloved," he practically whispered, pulling her close to him. "Do you remember this place as I do?" he asked, caressing her cheek.
Kaoru reluctantly left the touch of his hand and brought her gaze to her surroundings. It was the pond of the fireflies, as lonely as it had been the last time she stopped to look at it during the night. The fireflies flickered about it lazily, enlivening the dreary scene to some degree.
Her stomach twisted as the memory became more vivid in her mind. It was the evening Kenshin said goodbye to her so he could go to Kyoto.
She nodded sadly. "Y-Yes," she replied softly. "And it still hurts me."
An apologetic smile, mingling with his own pain, touched his face. "As it does I," he replied tenderly. "Leaving you tore me apart inside, but I had to go. I would do it the same way if time were turned back."
A tear rolled down her face at his words, the hurt surfacing anew. Did it mean that he could still leave her? In spite of what they shared the night before Enishi's attack? Or the intimate love they shared after they got him back home? They had made love. Doesn't that count for something? Would she have to fear his leaving her all her life?
He kissed the path of the teardrop on her cheek. "Do not cry, Kaoru. That was then, this is now. I would never leave you again. At least, not like that. As long as I live, I will always come back to you, and if I had to go for good, I'd take you with me."
Happiness welled inside her at his words, her sadness leaving her in cascades. A smile crept into her lips where it threatened to tremble just a few minutes before. His promise meant so much to her, and Kenshin would always speak true. She inched forward and kissed him. There was no resistance and Kenshin cupped her face in his hands.
When they parted, Kenshin gazed at her lovingly, quite in a daze. "Er…I'm not finished talking yet, that is…" he said, catching his breath.
Kaoru gave a mild giggle and an impish stare. "Then finish."
He smiled and gathered his senses. "This place was not meant to have bad memories. You had such good ones before I ruined it for you."
She made a motion to protest but he stopped her with a quick kiss. She blinked in surprise, then she smiled, conceding silently.
"I want to give you back the good memories," he said, caressing her chin with his thumb. With deliberate grace, he reached into his sleeve and pulled something out. It glinted in the moonlight.
"Kenshin…" Kaoru gasped as he took her hand.
"Will you marry me, Kaoru? With all my faults…with my past?"
She looked deeply into his eyes. "Kenshin…yes. With all the faults I do not see and the past that made you the man I love. I want to marry all of you."
A flush of happiness came over his face, and slipping the ring around her finger, he took her into his arms and kissed her with all the longing and passion that never seemed to abate.
When they separated, Kaoru snuggled her head in the hollow of his shoulder and began to kiss his neck. "How shall we celebrate this, Kenshin?" she purred.
Kenshin grinned and picked her up into his arms. She did not protest. "This unworthy one has a good idea."
"Is that so, good sir?" she asked, mischievously imitating his speech pattern.
"Yes. This unworthy one has a very good idea."
With godlike speed, he brought them back to the dojo where they made love in sweet surrender.
Kaoru opened her eyes and saw the ring on her hand. She smiled and half-expected to find Kenshin snuggled up against her, but when she shifted to take a more comfortable position, she realized that she couldn't move. Her hands and feet were bound by rope.
Her head throbbed painfully and with a sinking heart, she realized what had happened to her. Kidnapped…again! When will it stop?
Containing a sob, she looked at her surroundings.
The place looked like a shanty, complete with small holes on the walls and ceiling. Except for a few piles of rotten wood, the place was bare.
Her gaze fell on a figure standing a few feet away. She saw his face through the meager lighting and recognized him as the man who had attacked her.
Kaoru glared at him angrily. "Bastard! Let me go!" she yelled from the floor.
The man chuckled. "You're as foul-mouthed as that lover of yours, girl."
A woman, with blue flowing hair and wearing an uncompromisingly black kimono, emerged from behind him. She smiled placidly, saying nothing and doing nothing. She just grinned and knelt comfortably on the floor.
"I am Bushio Desuke," said the man with a patronizing bow. "And you, Kamiya Kaoru, are mine!"
Kaoru watched in horror as he approached her. How did he know my name? Of course, she shouldn't be very surprised. The lunatics usually knew her. What was it this time? Revenge for some relative of his that Battousai had killed? Or was this her enemy? That was entirely possible. "Stay away from me," she growled, wriggling away a bit.
Desuke crouched down before her and traced her face delicately with his finger. "So pretty…" He smiled, then without warning, he grabbed a fist full of her hair and drew her up.
Kaoru hissed, getting to her feet to support her own weight. Her scalp stung from the rude handling.
"You must forgive me, but I have to do this," said Desuke without a hint of apology in his tone to match his words.
He gave a mocking grin, and to Kaoru's surprise, he buried a heavy fist on her gut. Her vision blurred at the pain, and she fell to the ground on her hands and knees, coughing and gasping for breath. Her eyes watered involuntarily.
No sooner had she began to breathe properly when she felt his foot slam savagely against her ribs. The force of it practically lifted her off the floor. She felt and heard something crack inside her.
Unable to have the breath to cry out, she slumped silently, face down on the rotting floorboards. She struggled for air, but even that gave her discomfort. It hurt to breathe.
He gave her another kick on the same spot and the stabbing pain forced a wail from her lungs.
She lay wincing on the ground as her captor circled her.
"I'm sorry, but did that hurt?" he asked sardonically.
Grabbing her by her hair and the fabric of her kimono, he continued to beat her, aggravating the agony of her ribs and hitting her within every inch of her body. Pain exploded within her at every blow, and unable to defend herself, she could do nothing but shriek in torment.
"Why?" she sobbed as he dropped her to the floor. "Why are you doing this?"
"It's my job," he simply replied.
Whimpering, she struggled to turn around and face him but was met by a staggering blow to her arm. She emitted a scream as her arm snapped, broken at the forearm. She rolled into a protective ball.
"S-Stop!" she pleaded, blood oozing from her nose and mouth. "Please…"
Desuke grinned and savagely took her by the shoulders, forcing her on her back. He sat on top of her, straddling her between his legs. Her attempts to get out from beneath him were futile. Apart from her weakened, bound and battered state, he was strong and heavy.
"This is the best part," he said wickedly. He took a knife tucked into his sash and cut her bindings. Even without the restraints, Kaoru hadn't the strength to put up a decent fight. Try as she might to hit him or shove him off her, she dealt herself more pain than she did her abuser.
With the same knife, he sliced her obi. Roughly, he undid her kimono.
"N-No!!" Kaoru screamed, sobbing for mercy. "Please! Stop! Stop!"
"Shut up!" Desuke hissed, gripping her by the neck.
Kaoru was exposed in her undergarments and she whimpered against the force. She tried to kick, but her thighs were too sore to possess any force.
As he parted her legs and held her down, she continued to plead for relief.
"God, you're one beautiful bitch," Desuke said in sincerity. "I'm getting hard just looking at you!"
A sob rose in her throat. She tried to cover herself but she failed miserably against his strength.
Consistent to his un-delicate handling of her, he cut the cloth covering her womanhood.
She screamed. No! Is he going to…? He will! Oh, please no!
Desuke laughed, taking something from his sleeve. Bringing it to his mouth, he bit it. It was a corked vial, and he blew the stopper from between his teeth. Without ceremony, he poured the liquid into her mouth.
It tasted foul, and she gagged. She would have gladly spat it out if Desuke had not forced her jaw shut and pinched her nose.
"Swallow!" he ordered her.
She had little choice in the matter. The moment the liquid went down her throat, she blacked out without a thought.
Desuke relaxed upon seeing her body go limp and he stood up. "Well, that was easy. I should have prolonged it," he said with a chortle of delight.
"You did well, as always," Yasanari said. "Phase one is done. Now all we have to do is wait."
Desuke nodded and skimmed his eyes over Kaoru's body. "Can't I do her just once, Yasanari-sama? She's really…desirable."
Yasanari frowned. "Touch her and you'll never be able to get it up again, you hear? I can't have her tainted."
"But she isn't a virgin!" Desuke protested. "Battousai's had his way with her already!"
"Idiot!" Yasanari hissed. "Battousai does not make her impure. He loves her too much, but if you rape her, she will be violated. The dragon will not take her like that and it will kill all of us. Now give me that knife. I have to do a bit of surgery."
Knife in hand, Yasanari bent over Kaoru and knicked her privates. When there was enough blood to simulate an actual rape, she stood up and smiled at her handy work. "That'll do. Let's go. It's time for Battousai to find her."
Haze or true? Kaoru thought as she opened her eyes. Voice…she could hear it. No, just one voice, echoing unnaturally. And breathing, rapid breathing.
Then she…felt something? Shoving…her…no, shoving in and out of her…
Her eyes widened as the form of Desuke appeared on top of her, grinning in ecstasy, pushing himself inside her, cupping her breasts and shouting profanities.
"You’re MY whore now!" he said, laughing as he raped her viciously.
She tried to scream, but no sound would escape. Illusion? Nightmare? No…real…but it can't be! It's real, it's just that she had lost her voice.
Tears spilled from her eyes. His ministrations hurt. It hurt so much, and she could only pray that it would be over soon.
A few minutes later, he groaned in pleasure, shuddering.
He pulled out of her and he stood up, leaving her on the floor.
She felt something trickling down from the apex of her thighs. Blood, perhaps, and she whimpered in agony. She tried to roll to her side but she could not move. It hurt too much to move.
With trembling fingers, she used her good arm to pull her kimono closed.
"G-God!" she sobbed, her voice returning.
"That'll do," said his woman companion. "Let's go. It's time for Battousai to find her."
Their forms disappeared into thin air, but Kaoru did not give a damn.
All she could comprehend were the woman's words. "It's time for Battousai to find her."
Kaoru shook her head. No! Her mind shouted in shame. Not like this! Not like this!
"NOOOOOO!" Kaoru screamed
Kenshin heard the scream, filled with so much agony, and it was Kaoru. He turned his ear, desperately trying to pin point where it had come from.
His heart slammed into his chest as he searched frantically for a clue.
"Kaoru!" he called, hoping she was near enough for him to hear. There was no response. "KAORU!" he called again.
A mist crept out from nowhere under the light of the moon. It looked like the same kind of mist that had taken Kaoru and her captor earlier.
In a split second, the mist dissipated, pulling away as if someone had summoned it back, and Kenshin's eyes widened at what he saw. There was the kidnapper's boat, pulled up on the bank. Beyond that was a shanty, and it looked deserted.
With all his strength, he pushed his boat to the bank, and barely on shore, he jumped out of the boat. Splashing through the shallow water, he headed straight for the shanty.
He burst through the door, and at the center of the room was Kaoru, staring at him with horror-stricken eyes.
Terms:
- "San" - Honorific. Considered a polite form of address. Almost like Mr. or Ms. depending on whether you're addressing a man or a woman.
- "Kun" - Another honorific, used to address boys; those of lower rank if it's a man using it; or a close friend, if it’s a girl addressing a boy. This can also be used on a woman of lower rank (but I've only heard this used on women in a military set-up, so I don't know if this always applies.)
- "Battousai" - Unsheathed sword
- "Hitokiri" - Assassin
- "Hitokiri Battousai" - Kenshin's name during the Boshin Civil Wars
