Athick hand picked her up by her left shoulder and threw her. Kaoru hit the ground with a roll, her body hitting several stiff and unforgiving objects along the way. She gasped in pain as she finally stopped moving and she looked up and sucked in deep breaths of air as she watched the man in front of her bare his teeth at her. She had the vague impression that she couldn't take to many more hits to her body like that. Not with the baby. She could loose the baby. Like hell.
It was amazing, how each man who attacked her, always wore that expression. Except for Kamatari of course…this would have been beneath him…
“You have cost me three of my men and given me far too much trouble.” He picked up his sheathed Katana and smiled at her. The bottom of her stomach dropped out. “I am going to teach you how a real man responds to a woman like you, and then I am going to leave bits and pieces of you floating around for the Battousai to find.”
She was weaponless. He was three times as big as she was. The only thing she had was her own temper and…
‘I told you…’
and…
‘If you misjudge the situation, it's certain death, but . . .’
Kaoru swallowed. Her eyes dropped away from him and quickly scanned the ground. She found what she was looking for in a small pile of wood that appeared to have been a pile of wood at one point.
‘Even your adjunct master has never used it successfully in a match, let alone a real fight…’
Standing up she tossed her hair back, clutching something roughly the size of her hilt, maybe longer, in her hands, she let the dim lit and her Kimono hide the stance of her feet. She knew he thought she was helpless now, and that she was defeated. It was the arrogance of his shoulders and the way he moved. He was going to attempt to stun her with one hit and then…there wasn’t going to be a then.
“You can try,” Kaoru sneered at him, forcing bravado into her voice.“But it won’t work.” She wouldn’t fail. Her life, her baby’s life, depended on it. She watched him; concentrating on the way he moved, the way his body would move with the strike.
‘Unlike the usual way of blocking with your hands, you do it with your sword still in your grip. Restraining your opponent's sword is the main point of this form, Defense succession technique Hadome. Then, you move to the second form, Attack succession technique. The faster you move, the more of your opponent's strength can be used against him! It's an extreme sword technique. If you misjudge the situation, it's certain death…’ Kaoru reminded herself fiercely, the speech she had given Yahiko so long ago echoing in her memory.
Right…so don’t screw up.
His strike was hard, and everything was slow motion. She watched her hands, someone else’s hands, rise up and twist as the blade sheathed Katana hit the hilt, and she carried through the motions as if she had practiced them a hundred times. The man made a noise of surprise, but she didn’t have time to think. She hit him so hard with the hilt into the section between the belly and the sternum she wasn’t aware she had done it until the air rose from his lungs like one of those curious whales surfacing she had seen once.
Then she caught him in the temple.
It was really quite.
Sitting down on nerveless knees she felt the burning behind her eyes that had nothing to do with soot and debris and sake. Taking deep breaths she forced herself to think. These guys were only knocked out…standing up, aware that her body was shaking, she moved back into the hut, one hand pressing into her tummy. Half-way to the shack she was sick to her stomach, and dizzy from her excertion.
Some time later, the moon was already beginning to lower, she sat back and admired her handy work. Taking a deep breath she turned over her options. She could wait here, until someone found her and risk being here if her knots failed or she could attempted to figure out her location by the stars and get back to Tokyo, and possible the dojo, by morning.
Looking up she searched the skies until she found something familiar and felt her eyes prickle so that the stars blurred. She was suddenly very thankful for her Rurouni’s habit of stargazing and his willingness to teach her the constellations on cold nights.
Her tabi-clad feet protested and she realized it was going to be a long, long walk back to the dojo.
Kenshin stood at the gate and watched as Yahiko helped Tokio down. It was growing late, the sun having reached the tree-line and sinking fast. “Yahiko….” His mouth was a thin line that spoke far more about his mental state than anything else could. “Yahiko,” His words were tight. “I have a favor to ask.”
Yahiko frowned as he attempted to read Kenshin’s voice. Tokio was watching the men with something in her eyes that might have understanding, but Kenshin never turned in her direction. He frowned as he put the pieces together. “You want me to stay here.” There was an edge in his voice.
“Yes,” He agreed without hesitation. There was no sugarcoating and Yahiko found he had to respect him for it. Give him all hell and brimstone, but respect him for it. “But not for the reasons you think.”
Yahiko shifted his weight a bit, suddenly understanding.
“You need to stay and make sure…”
“That Tokio gets home safely.” Yahiko sighed. “And to check on the Akebeko because they hit there once thinking they could find one of us and if something goes wrong they will hit there again.”
Saitoh blew out a cloud of smoke. “This one has a few more brains than your pet rooster.”
There was another reason. Yahiko knew it to well but was unwilling to say it if Kenshin wasn’t going to. It was going to be dark as night in that forested area that Saitoh had tracked them to. Except for the few patches of starlight and moonlight, it was going to be almost impossible to keep up if he couldn’t read Ki. Kenshin was fast enough and quick enough to track them with all the speed from the Bakumatsu and Saitoh was good enough to at least keep an eye on his trail. Assuming Kenshin left one.
Yahiko raised his eyes. “I will stay with Tokio as long as necessary…just…send word if she is alright?” His voice was soft and the nod from Kenshin was all he needed. If he was needed he would know.
“Tokio,” Saitoh softly interrupted. “Take the kids and go to your mothers.”
Tokio’s mouth hardened. “We will be waiting for you when you get back.” Her tone was firm.
“Tokio,” his voice was a warning and Tokio mutely shook her head. “We will be fine. They have what they want with Kaoru-san and Yahiko will be keeping an eye on things. Get back soon, anata. You know I can’t sleep without you.”
Yahiko restrained his twitching as he helped Tokio onto the street with only the most supreme of efforts.
“Think you can find their tracks in this murk?” Saitoh ask amused.
Kenshin turned and offered him a moon lit glance. “I hunted your people on nights darker than this through wind, rain and snow. I can find four measly men who can’t cover their tracks.” He paused from where his body was moving forward. “Keep up.”
Then Saitoh was alone.
Taking another long pull on his cigarette, he dropped it onto the dirt and squished it with the toe of his boot, and then he followed.
Kenshin cursed lightly as he realized how late it had grown. He had never once really stopped moving, not the race across Tokyp or the trails he had followed through the woods. Tracking the men had taken the better part of the night and the idea that Kaoru had been in there hands for this long infuriated him.
“I smell smoke.”
Kenshin nodded in agreement. He had been forced to deal with Saitoh several different times as they were forced to search out the trail as it simple disappeared once or twice. He had to give the men a bit of credit, but all it was going to do was increase the amount of time he spent beating on them once they found them. There was the faintest glow, as if the embers of a firewere just dying out. Moving forward silently he knew that the Wolf would follow. He moved like a shadow and searched for some sign of life.
All he saw were faint lumps in the moonlight.
“What do we have here?” Saitoh mused softly as he followed, both been seemingly coming to the same conclusion at the same time. The men had been cold-clocked quite soundly. Kenshin found three men outside, all with various knots on there heads, one witha possible broken jaw, and Saitoh kicked another man out of the rickety little hut.
“Looks like someone got here first,” Saitoh calmly stating the obvious, lighting up another cigarette.
“There was a fight,” Kenshin agreed as he paced around the little fire’s remains. He looked into the fire and his brows rose when he found little pottery bits in the fire.
“The question is, Himura, is where the girl is.” Saitoh informed him lightly, kicking one of the men when they started too groan. “And if she was taken by someone else, who took her.”
Kenshin frowned darkly and took a menacing step towards one of the men and stilled when he caught sight of the man’s wounds and what had been nagging at him finally registered. “Saitoh, does this look like it was done by a blunt object?”
Saitoh looked down. “Unusual, for a katana sheath to leave such a mark.”
Kenshin’s eyes swung around. The place was littered with various sizes of firewood and other debris and he frowned. Then he smiled. It was more of a baring of teeth, but it was the closet thing he had come to one since that afternoon. “It wasn’t a katana sheath. Kaoru got her hands on something like a bokken, with all this wood lying around it would be easy.”
Saitoh paused. “You think the girl managed to defeat these louts?”
Kenshin shrugged. “Ask them when they wake up.” He walked along until he found what he was looking for. A pair of prints moving away from the site into the woods. Light prints, the prints of a woman. “She is missing a shoe." His voice was absent as he made that statment. "When you get back to Tokio, tell Yahiko to stay at the Akebeko until further notice and that she is alright and will be home soon. I have a Shihandai to find.”
Saitoh grunted. “So you want me to clean up the mess.”
He was already talking to thin air.
“Its almost surprising that the girl managed to hold her own against you louts, but I suppose it should have been expected,” he drawled as he watched them start to wake. His eyes gleamed in the light of his smoke. “I am looking forward to getting all the information I need to make my kill out of you idiots.”
They men groaned a bit as they began to wake and Saitoh allowed himself the rare pleasure of a feral grin.
Kaoru stumbled back into the dojo just as pre-dawn began. It was in the utter pitch of the night sky. Giving a moaning sob of relief she stumbled into the dojo. Her body and mind ached with weariness and she knew she was close to being hysterical and hated herself for it. She was filthy.
She latched onto that thought and switched directions. The dojo was silent. Either everyone was sleeping or they were out looking for her and she needed to be clean. She was utterly weary to the bone and completely ignored the firewood pile Kenshin had stacked at some point.
Dumping the cold rinse-water over her head she shivered but soaped herself up and scrubbed herself until her scratches sung and burned and bled. She didn't care.The scent ofsake and sweat left her, leaving behind jasmine. Dumping another bucked of water that had almost not been worth pulling from the well, she rinsed the soap and stood there, dripping. How she wished the water was warm and she could slid into its welcoming depths and never leave. Reaching blindly in the dark she groped for a towel and roughly dried herself.
She was afraid she would drop the lantern.
Now that she was clean she could see how things were inside the dojo. Stumbling, still barefoot, she was going to have to buy new shoes; she walked into the dojo, bypassing the kitchen area completely. Desperately, as if she was afraid of what she would see, she jerked on Kenshin’s shoji and stilled at the sight.
The first thought was simple.
‘He’s ruined another futon.’
The second wasn’t quite so simple.
‘He left. He is gone. Just like last time. With the doll.’
She was aware that she was tired and she wasn’t thinking clearly and that she was pregnant and that her hormones were off, but even by stuffing a fist into her mouth she couldn’t seem to stop the high pitched wail that broke from her throat. Stumbling into her room she stumbled to her futon, ripped it open, and collapsed.
Exhausted and cold and terrified that she was alone again, rationale or not, she broke down and sobbed. It shook her frame and made her teeth chatter and shegave great wails of pain. It was a like a damn that had broken, tears that had built up in her heart from the time the Rurouni left that she had never allowed herself to shed. When it was over, the birds were chirping there greeting to the dawn and she was lying there, boneless and hurting and wiping swollen eyes. Pulling the covers back, she crawled into them, tears still drizzling down the corners of her eyes, and pulled the covers over her head like a little child hiding from a ghost and hiccupped until she fell asleep.
Yahiko sat on the porch with Tokio, watching as the sun began to rise. He hadn’t managed to sleep and was surprisingly aware. His eyes burned a little in the morning sun and Tokio had disappeared and come back with some tea.
“You know, Kaoru is going to be fine.” Tokio told him gently. “You have confedence in yourself, but you have to think where you got it. If Kaoru is strong enough to teach you to defend yourself, she is strong enough to defend herself.”
Yahiko nodded. “I know. I am worried about the baby.” There was a spark of wonder in his eyes. “She is having a baby. Why didn’t she say anything?”
Tokio sipped her tea. “I think that is something she is going to have to tell. However, I can tell you it wasn’t because she was ashamed of having it. You know how much Kaoru adores the idea of a family.”
Yahiko nodded, shifting his weight a little when he became aware that parts of him ewre going numb. “I know. I don’t think I am going to stay at the dojo much longer.”
Tokio turned to him surprised. “You think its not your home anymore?”
Yahiko grinned at her, and it was surprisingly boyish. Tokio was suddenly reminded at exactly how young he was. “No, not that. It’s just that Kenshin is going to drag Karou towards the nearest temple and marry her as soon as she is rested and there going to want some privacy.”
Tokio looked amused. “Is he now?”
Yahiko shrugged. “It’s a direct quote. You didn’t see his face when we took everything inside so it would be out of the way. He is going to do everything in his power to keep her and if that means dragging her to temple without her consent I think he would do it.”
Tokio looked thoughtful. “It might just be what she needs.”
Yahiko gave her a questioning look but she didn’t elaborate, instead she took another sip of her tea.
Sunshine was pouring into the Dojo by the time he made it back. He wasn’t breathing hard, afraid he would loose her faint trail that he had been forced to take it slow. She had lead him around and around so that he had been forced to pay careful attention to her steps. He had found signs of her loosing herself and it looked like she had even climbed a tree once to figure out her location.
He admired her determination but when he got his hands on her he was either going to shake her or kiss her until she was breathless and clinging. He might not be able to stop what that would bring about, but one way or another he was going to get his answers.
First being about his child. There child. The life growing inside her this instant. Then he was going to find out what the hell she thought she was doing, going with the men who had taken her. Carrying his child.
Then he was going to find out if they hurt her and if they had even touched her once he was going to break into their jail cells and butcher them like the cattle they were.
Then he was going to drag her to a temple and bind her to him legally.
Leaping over the locked Dojo gate he headed towards the slightly, steady pulse of her Ki.
Bet you weren’t expecting that, were you?
Hadome-- Defense Succession technique. The act of restraining the opponent's weapon.
Hawatari-- Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu's Succession Technique; the user crosses his arms when his opponent's weapon is coming towards him. Once the weapon is near, the user brings his hands together to trap the weapon in between them. Following, the user must quickly disarm his opponent, leaving the opponent wide open for an attack. If the user fails to do so, he is left wide open instead. User(s): Kamiya Kaoru and Myoujin Yahiko
Kecho Giri-- flying kick to the head
Kuzu Ryu Sen (9 head dragon flash-- Hits 9 vital points of the body at the same time. Karatake (downward stroke) Kesagiri, the slantwise downward stroke to the shoulder Reverse Kesagiri Right Nagi (belly stroke) Left Nagi (reverse belly stroke) Right upward cut Left upward cut Sakakaze, upward stroke Tsuki, the stroke that pierces at the shortest range to the chest
This last bit I used in the story but is actually part of Hiten Mitsurgi Ryu. However, I decided that the names of the hit would be one of those things everyone knows, or something like that. If I am completely wrong, please correct me. Otherwise things are staying as they are.
I think thats everything. A big thanks to J.D. for supplying the dialouge from the practice session before Enishi came when Karou was attempting to teach Yahiko the Succession Techniques. I will post a link for that bit as well once I get it from her.