Chapter 33

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Kaoru awoke once more in her bed. She chuckled an ran a hand through her tangled hair, wondering how many times that had happened now, Enishi carrying her to her bed. If only the connotations were as people would usually assume, rather than all these unusual situations that had led to it.

Kaoru sighed. A small sound that could only be described as a mix between a laugh and a ‘hmph’ came from the other side of the room. Kaoru looked over, seeing Enishi perched lazily in a chair against the wall.

She looked at him curiously, not quite certain how he could manage to sit so strait yet still look so relaxed. Maybe it was just an illusion caused by his height. She stifled a snicker, gaining a raised eyebrow from Enishi, his deadpan bored looking eyes peering over the rims of his dark glasses.

He had started wearing them again as soon as they’d gotten back from

the north. With the glasses his expression had changed back to the one she'd often seen him wear on the island when he’d kidnapped her, and for that matter, also on the ship. She wondered if they weren’t some form of a mask, even if it was mostly a mental one. She was a different person when she wore a kimono, so she knew how it could very well be likely.

Kaoru watched him watch her, the thought itself making her smile slightly at him. He wore a slack expression that made his mouth fall easily into a natural frown, despite that slight upturn at the corners of his mouth that she remembered noticing before.

Only Enishi could look relaxed and tense at the same time in every aspect, including his facial expression. He always moved about with so much ease, it wasn’t hard to believe he would sit still the same way.

Kaoru began to sit up but was halted by a sharp pain in her side. She winced and fell back with a hiss of air. She’d forgotten she’d been stabbed. Now how could such a thing escape her memory... Well the same way Enishi’s being there in the first place had escaped her notice... ok, not quite. Enishi was good at not being noticed when he didn’t want to be.

"I was waiting around to tell you to stay still, or you’ll tear the wound open again." Enishi spoke, his voice heavy, breaking but not quite shattering the silence, as it was not a displeasing sound. Kaoru glared at him.

"Well why couldn’t you have warned me before I moved" she said a little painfully.

"You seemed so busy staring at me, I was loath to interrupt" He replied, sounding completely serious, yet Kaoru got the distinct impression that he was making fun of her. How did he do that! She thought furiously as she was content to just glare at him for now. She’d get him back later.

She turned her head to the side with a snort, but not before seeing the corner of Enishi’s mouth twitch. She smiled into the wall, certain now, that he had been making fun of her. She heard him get up and leave, and turned her head towards the door, disappointed to loose his company.

Enishi walked into the lobby, only to find Mao surrounded by girls. He had an amused look on his face as he chatted with them, although it seemed more like they were fawning over him than anything else. Enishi almost choked at the sight. He’d never expected Mao to be a playboy. He admitted that he'd even wondered if Mao was interested in girls at all.

Mao finally noticed him, after a couple minutes, and excused himself from the girls walking towards Enishi with a slightly concerned look on his face. The girls hovered where he left them tittering and giggling as they watched him, exchanging looks between each other.

"Is she alright?" Mao asked sincerely as he stood in front of Enishi. Enishi nodded, looking over at the girls with a raised eyebrow.

"I never thought you were the type" Enishi said. Mao grinned.

"It’s fun, you should try it sometime, oh wait.. you already have excusive rights to one don’t you" Mao finished his grin even wider. Enishi frowned down at him, which wasn’t hard to do, as Mao was almost a foot shorter than him. His frown widened as he looked over at the girls, and a few were staring at him quite intently, making ‘eye’s at him.

"I have no interest in things like that" he said, clearing his throat as he all but stormed off... or rather walked off with the impression of storming

Mao grinned as he watched Enishi leave.

Sano stared down at Kenshin, who was going into convulsions muttering all sorts of nonsense as he clutched at his bandaged right hand. He hadn’t been there to protect him, although Kenshin had been there for him so many times. He punched the wall, cursing as his hand went through. He’d have to fix that later.

He’d almost attacked the man that had brought Kenshin back, but the look he’d given him was so frightening it had paralyzed him. The man didn’t say much... or rather the boy didn’t as he had looked no older than sixteen. He had only told Sano that Kenshin had tried to kill Kaoru on purpose this time.

Sano had been surprised at that, and hadn’t gotten a chance to ask any questions before the bloody Kenshin was dumped in his arms and the boy took off. The most surprising thing that day though, was the glimpse he thought he’d caught of Saitoh, smoking lazily at a corner as he leaned against the wall. But when Sano looked back, he wasn’t there.

Nothing was right this week. He frowned. Wei Li had been locked up in her room crying since she saw Kenshin come back all bloody. She was afraid her life might be falling apart all over again. And rightly so, they’d had so much blissful happiness that it was only to be expected that something would go wrong.

And then today Yahiko confessed that he’d suspected it for quite some time. He told Sano that he’d been quiet about it, but they’d been watched by one of Enishi’s minions, and also, he’d discovered just recently, by Saitoh.

Sano had been in a daze ever since. So it was true... seeing Saitoh hadn’t just been some delusion, unlike the haunting Sano had at night in his sleep, Saitoh was really here. Sano didn’t know what to think. He didn’t even know that he should be thinking anything.

Why did ‘Jime have to torment him so much, his mind mused as he clutched at his bandana with one hand, tearing it off and watching the fabric flutter, red against his callused, but pale hand.

"I don’t deserve this" he muttered, "Or do I..." He said afterwards, sinking his forehead into his hands. "I must be in hell" he said to the ground.

Wei Li sat in her room leaning against the wall, out of view of the window, the knife shaking in her grasp. Did she really have the courage to do this? She thought, did she really have a choice, her mind finished for her as she sighed.

‘Even if my soul is damned for this, there’s still a chance that afterwards there is nothing. Blissful nothing... I’m already damned anyway.’ she thought as the cold steel touched her wrists.

‘Kenshin will remember everything soon, and I don’t want Sano to know that... what I did’ she squinted her eyes as a red bead appeared on one wrist, quickly expanding into a stream. It wasn’t fast enough.. She

cut the other wrist quickly, and it flowed freely. She watched it pool on he ground.

"He hasn’t come to see me" she whispered to the empty air "Does

that mean he already knows? She sobbed into her hands why hadn’t she died yet. Why was it taking so long? He wouldn’t come.

She lifted the knife once more as it almost fell from her grasp, the handle slick with blood and sorrow. With one last cut, another stream of blood joined the rest, falling from her neck to pool above her breasts before trailing between them.

The life faded out of her eyes as she slumped against the wall, sliding to the side to rest with a final thud on the ground.

Sanosuke was interrupted from his daze by a muffled thud from upstairs. He glanced up from his hands, and then looked at the stairs blankly for a minute. Finally it dawned on him and he stood up, rushing up the stairs towards Wei Li’s room.

"Are you ok?" He shouted into the door as he jiggled the locked doorknob. There was no response. He paused falling into silence as he listened for any movement.

"Wei Li?" He queried quietly, then again more desperately. Still no response was forthcoming.

He burst open the door frantically and rushed into the room, peering about until his eyes rested on her, covered in blood, her skin sickly sticking out, swollen and festering around the cuts on her body. It seemed more like she had been dead for hours, or perhaps days, with the grayish pallor that her face took Sano wondered if that wasn’t in fact the case, as he sunk slowly on his knees besides her, too upset to even weep.

He collected her body to him, The blood clinging to his skin stickily like so much poison. He wondered if it was because he had left her so long, neglected her in favor of taking care of the crazed and injured Kenshin.

He had thought she wanted to be alone, and now, he was alone, without his... without his.. He paused, a new thought occurring to him. Was it because he hadn’t married her? Made an honest woman out of her as she’d so often joked?

He should have taken the clue then, He didn’t know why he’d hesitated

to tie the knot in the first place. A child was as good as one, he’d often reasoned to himself. The child.. the girl... his little girl would grow up without a mother now. He clinched his eyes shut as he clasped Wei Li tighter to him, oblivious of the footsteps behind him.

"My dear precious Sano" A voice spoke behind him. He froze, he knew that voice. He shivered, afraid to let go of the dead girl in his arms and face the terror behind him. But the next words shook him.

"If you’re reading this, than the guilt finally overtook me" Saitoh read smoothly. "I couldn’t stand it anymore, but this is the only way I could bear to tell you." Saitoh stopped as the note was snatched out of his hands by an angry Sano. Saitoh smiled to know he still caused the same reaction in the rooster head as before. He looked disdainfully at the body on the ground, sunk in it’s own blood, that was also starting to soak into the wood.

He leaned against the wall, watching Sano’s eyes brush over the words on the letter. Saitoh was surprised he even knew how to read, being a low class brat. 'So the girl had betrayed him.' Saitoh thought, recalling the words in the letter that he’d read to himself before reading aloud, knowing it would be snatched from him soon after.

Kenshin had mental lapses, and apparently the girl had noticed and taken advantage of it one night when Sano was out working. Saitoh was surprised that Sano hadn’t noticed that his daughter had violet eyes. Maybe the boy was colorblind.

Saitoh stared apathetically as a furious Sano stood before him, note crumbled in his hand. He didn’t even Flinch as Sano punched right through the wall, barely a centimeter from Saitoh’s head. Sano clenched his teeth, although it seemed like he wanted to say something, but his eyes betrayed him as tears formed in the corners and started to fall down his cheeks.

Saitoh thought to himself that Sano never looked younger or more fragile than that moment. His hair was falling softly about his face, since he wasn’t wearing the usual bandana. Saitoh continued to stare coldly,

when Sano fell against his chest, sobbing.

"Jime?" he whispered forlornly "Why do people I love keep on dying on me?" he spoke even as he soaked the uniform of the former Shinsengumi member.

"Ahou" Saitoh said as he lit a cigarette and looked off over Sano’s head. "People Die" he answered simply, inhaling deeply and blowing out a puff of smoke. This wasn’t exactly as he’d imagined his next meeting with the thick- brained Rooster head would be. Oh well, there was nothing to be done for it now. He continued to stare off at the wall while the young Sano sobbed deeply into his chest.