You name it, I disclaim it, especially where Buffy and Kenshin are concerned. Edodale By wombat Chapter 9 Yumi grinned, delighted. "Battousai! It really is you out here! Where the hell've you been?" The moonlight outlined her as a sheaf of silver curves, as sleek and deadly as her weapon's edge, but she held that aside as she walked forward to embrace him tightly. "I'm so glad to see you again, Bats," she breathed, nuzzling his face with hers before pulling back. "But-- oh no, your eyes changed too, didn't they. Are we all stuck like this now?" "You're looking very well, Yumi." Kenshin's smile was sincere, if not as exuberant as hers. He didn't know how he would have dealt with Jineh or Enishi, neither of whom was likely to trust him now; open combat would've likely been the only option then. But on the other hand, while he knew Yumi or Tomoe would be easier to approach, it would ultimately be a greater betrayal because of the trust they had in him. "Did you come out to find me?" "Nah. The boys've been saying you had to be around here somewhere, but I'm just coming home from work. A girl's gotta eat, y'know." "Work?" He surveyed her outfit, brow furrowed. She shimmied demonstratively. "A little song, a little dance, a little booty up against the pants. I can even work the naginata into the act, like my own private stage pole. Good clean money for part-time work, no fluid exchange involved, and they even have a benefits package. And hell, it gets me out of here and away from the others." "You're not getting along well, then?" Kenshin relaxed enough to pull some rice paper out of his back pocket. He handed one sheet to Yumi for her naginata and used the other to wipe his katana's blade clean. Casually, he led her toward a dead tree that had fallen to the gully floor, only a few yards from where he knew Kaoru and Hiko were hidden, and motioned for her to sit down on its trunk before he did. "Thanks. No, Tomoe went nuts after you left, and she's all Enishi cares about any more. The only getting along now is Jineh trying to get into my underkimono, same as ever. What's so funny?" He couldn't keep himself from laughing. "Yumi, I don't think I ever saw you wear an underkimono after the first time we met." "You're right. Oh, Bats," she sighed, high spirits suddenly drooping. "I've missed you so much. I didn't believe Jineh when he said he killed you, but the next thing I knew, our weapons didn't have the old bang zoom and we got dusted all over the place. So now you're back, and we're back, but what do we do now?" "All of your weapons are dead?" "We all tried. Except for Tomoe, because Enishi's afraid she might hurt herself, so he hangs onto her tanto now. But the rest of us three-- yeah, we can kill with them just fine, but the souls go off to never-never land instead of doing us any good. You too?" "Mine's been just the same," he not-quite-lied. "But I think I know a remedy." --- At Kaoru's side in the shrubbery, Hiko was scanning their quickest path down from the embankment. "Stay focused," he reminded her. "Once he gets their weapons down, wait until they have either enough distance or distraction that we can reach the sword and naginata before they can. Hold your bokken until you actually have his katana in hand. Even then, return your bokken to your hip in case you need it again. And above all, make sure your gloves stay on." He had already pulled on his own pair, a set of chainmail gauntlets with the mellow sheen of tarnished silver. They looked much more substantial than the ring-sewn gloves Kenshin had improvised for her, but also much heavier. "You're sure this is the only way?" Even to herself, her tone sounded hopeless. "It's far too late for any of us to back out now." Hiko turned back toward the two on the fallen tree. "No. I'll do it." Kaoru swallowed hard when Kenshin finished speaking to Yumi and stood to face her, letting her pull his shirt out from his waistband as he'd refused to let Kaoru do, just a few hours before. Even as she raised her naginata's blade against his chest and he poised his katana's point in the moonlit shadow of her cleavage, Yumi was looking up at him with trust, hope, and love, all the things he had already rejected from Kaoru. --- "It's risky," Kenshin said, sitting beside Yumi on the log. His katana lay across both their laps, and she was tracing her fingers around the emerald in its tsuba that had once adorned the ishizuki of her naginata, which leaned beside her. "I don't know if it will work, and you needn't consent to it." She nudged him fondly with a bare shoulder. "Bats, you tease. Here you go telling me your idea, and then you don't want to do it? It makes sense to me. Come on, let's try it." "If it doesn't work, you could die. Forever. Not just turned to dust that can come back together again. Are you sure?" "Y'know, I'd forgotten how much of a sweetie you can be when you want to. Listen," she said, suddenly serious, "I can't stand living halfway like this. I thought that's why Jineh wanted the sakabatou, so we could die right this time. Either way this goes, I'll be better off. And even if I don't make it, you'll be back to your old self again. It'll be worth it just to know you're going to go rip him apart. So do it." "All right." Kenshin took a deep breath and stood before her, closing his eyes as she tugged his shirt free. The night air was cool against his skin, and her naginata's blade was even colder as he helped her rest the point between his ribs, beneath the loose cloth. Yumi shivered too as he raised his katana above her and down into the front of her bodice, sliding the tip across the delicate flesh between her breasts. Kaoru, he thought. Kaoru, I'm so sorry. --- Disgusted, Jineh stalked out of the crypt. Enish was nursemaiding Tomoe again, sparing scarcely enough attention to confirm that yes, he had finished the new group of flesh- puppets, nearly emptying the cemetery's grounds to do so, he'd sent them off on the hunt for the night, and would Jineh please sod off now? There was going to be more friction once they got hold of Battousai, Jineh could tell. He suspected that Enishi's ultimate motive was far different from his own, and was bound to involve Tomoe. But at least both men had the same means in mind: draining the red- haired brat's power with the black sword, and then vaporizing his body with the sakabatou. He narrowed his eyes at the angle of the moon. Yumi should have returned long ago. Perhaps he would enjoy a private hunt for her tonight. He set off among the rustling trees. --- With a firm thrust, Kenshin plunged the katana into Yumi's body. Her hands clenched on the naginata's pole, but otherwise she didn't move, still gazing up into his face. He could feel her life pouring into the black blade, rousing the demon within. And at last, just when he thought he must have killed her, Yumi smiled as she saw his eyes blaze into Battousai's fiery gold, and she drove her naginata up into his heart. He pulled his blade out of her at once, letting her weapon drink its fill of him. As Yumi's eyes blazed golden as well, she pulled the naginata back and away, stabbing its blade down into the ground. He planted his katana in the log, placing his tsuba at the same level as her ishizuki. Her emerald had returned there to its former place. She leaned forward as she rose, pressing her body up against the length of his. "We're back," she said, nipping his chin. "And I'm hungry." He smiled his old cruel smile at her. "I'm hungry too," he said. Languidly, she caressed the pole of her naginata, not drawing it back up yet. "Do you want to go out and hunt in the city, or should we find Jineh and share him between us?" He caught her wrist, bringing it to his mouth to rake his teeth across it and retrace it with his tongue. His other hand slid down her side and her taut narrow waist, over the curve of her hip to the high slit in her leather skirt, and then inside it to pull her hard against him. "Not that kind of hungry," he said. "Mmm." She rubbed herself against him, rising up on her toes like a cat being stroked. "It has been a long time. And getting longer every second, right?" "Bad girl," he chided, and pulled her down with him. The wrestling match that followed rolled them farther away until he was sitting upright over her, trapping her body between his knees. They were back in the charnel zone now, where the parched earth had been watered with the flesh-puppets' spillage. "Who's my bad girl, then?" "You know I am, Bats." She writhed at him invitingly, slippery with mud, and pulled one hand free to stroke his face. "And bad girls have to be punished, don't they? I've got a knife. I might be dangerous. You'd better teach me a lesson." Her hand went to her belt, where a small sheath had hung unnoticed. --- Hiko breathed a faint sigh of relief. "He's put a fair amount of distance between us. Perhaps now-- damn it all, is that a knife?" Narrowing her eyes through the leaves, Kaoru nodded tentatively. "It has that pointy look to it. Pretty small, though. More like a tanto than a wakizashi. Think we need to worry about it?" "If it's a hellblade, then we certainly do. It could have the same soul-destroying powers as any of their other weapons. Remember what Kenshin said about the first half of his scar? The thrown wakizashi? We'd be vulnerable to them outside our attack range, because if we throw the katana or naginata at them and miss..." "Then it's major bad juju. He's getting it away from her, though-- ow, she cut him!" Kaoru sat back suddenly, startled at the trickle of pale fire down the shadow of Kenshin's side. It came and went so quickly that anyone at a further distance might have mistaken it for a flash of reflected moonlight. "He's-- that's not normal blood, is it?" "No. And the wound is already healing, too. If that blade wasn't black before, it will be now. Damn," Hiko said again. "Well, what do you think? Should we risk it now, or wait to see whether he can disarm her?" "I think-- " She winced again, watching, and then froze. "I think he's letting her cut him. Look." Hiko looked. "What's that stupid pup playing at now? He's putting himself at more risk than we need from him." Yumi was tracing her hand up Kenshin's arm in a slow caress, pushing his unfastened sleeve nearly up to his shoulder while pulling her knife's blade through his flesh. A comet's tail of light flickered and faded down toward his wrist. As he leaned to kiss her, her arms slid up his back beneath his shirt, which began to bloom bright nebulae. "Maybe... maybe he's letting her drain off more of Battousai's power from him, so he'll be less of a threat to us?" Kaoru suggested hopefully. "Do you think Kenshin's still in control?" "We can only hope so. Ah, he's finally taken the knife from her," Hiko said, but pressed Kaoru back down when she tried to rise. "Wait. We must be completely certain, or risk everything." "Certain of what?" "Whether he is still Kenshin, or whether he's been overtaken by--" If not for the firm grip Hiko still had on her arm, Kaoru might have succumbed to her sudden urge to get up and run, as far and fast as possible, from what was starting to happen on the gully floor. Even with her face turned desperately away, she could still hear the moans and love-whispers: Yumi gasping out, "Harder. Cut me harder," followed by a low laugh that was even more terrifying because it was in Kenshin's voice. Hiko exhaled slowly and finished his sentence. "--Battousai." Slowly, he relaxed his grip on Kaoru's sleeve from a restrictive pinion to a steadying hand. "You don't have to look at them." His voice had lost all expression again. "Keep your eyes on their weapons. Don't think about anything else. I'll watch them and tell you when it's time." --- Sano jerked backwards from his peephole, startling Megumi. For the past ten minutes or so, she had resigned herself to pondering ways to use the test-tube ofuda: was the vapor pressure of sake enough to actually shoot out the mochi plugs like little sticky missiles if she heated the tubes? Or would the mochi just trap the expanding vapor until the glass shattered, or was there not enough sake in each tube to make a difference? "Had enough of the show?" she asked, a little crossly. And then she got a good look at his face, or as good as she could get in the leaf-dappled moonlight. "Don't tell me things got too hentai even for you, Mr. Overfiend." "Take a look for yourself." She couldn't make anything out at first. Compared to the shadowed shrubbery she and Sano were concealed in, even the full moon's pale radiance was glaringly bright, and the two figures of interest were some distance away. "Where are they? Oh, okay, I can see something moving now. Hey, Kenshin's got Yumi pinned down. Go Kenshin! But what's he..." Her voice trailed off as the tableau fell into place. "Oh," she breathed, sitting back. "Oh, jeepers haploid crikey. Um. Maybe it's not as bad as it looks, though. Maybe it's just--" "Just something that makes it look like he's using a knife the way some people use flavored love oils? It's a good thing Kaoru hasn't snuggled up to him after all." "But that's got to be Battousai out there now, not the real Kenshin. Our guy Kenshin still apologizes every time he hits you in sparring practice, you know that. Sano, you can't think-- Sano, where are you going?" "I'm going to help Kaoru kill this thing." She smacked him across the back of his knees with her backpack, making him stumble to the ground among the trees. "Mr. Hiko told us to stay here so we can see whether this works and go tell people if it doesn't. You're definitely getting a D in Remedial Staying- Here right now." "Dunno about you, but I can't just sit here and watch this." "But Sano, all you've got is a couple of fishbones, and that won't-- hey! Let go of my backpack!" His face was grimmer than she had ever seen it, all of his usual carefree air entirely gone. "You let go, or I'm going to drag you all the way there." --- Almost to himself, Hiko murmured, "He's tossed the knife aside. Good lad." Kaoru hazarded another look, but ducked away again. She hardly recognized her own voice. The words emerged flatly distorted by the effort to keep them free of tears or nausea, she wasn't sure which. "It's about time. He's being very thorough, isn't he?" He checked the silver wire wrapped around his katana blade one last time, occasionally glancing over it into the gully. "A bit longer, if you please. We need both of them to be thoroughly distracted to minimize the risk of them killing us or worse. If we're fortunate, the naginata will drain them both. If not, you must use his sword to kill him." "Why me?" she asked again, as if this time he might change the answer. Patiently, he repeated, "Because whether Kenshin or Battousai, he'll likely be unwilling to kill you. That will inhibit his side of the duel, or at least so we hope. I assure you that if he shows no softness toward you, I'll take over as soon as I can. Remember, without the sakabatou, this will only be a temporary death for him. He'll be alive again by sunrise. The alternative is that by then, we'll all be dead." "If I'd known all of this when you suggested bringing him tonight, I wouldn't've let you." "The choice was not entirely yours," Hiko said. "Kenshin was the one who refused to let me tell you or Megumi about this last phase of it. Are you ready?" "As ready as I'm going to be." Hiko turned to look at her with narrowed eyes, but said only one word in response. "Now." --- He grabbed Kaoru by the arm and half-dragged her up from the shrubbery, leaping down to the gully floor and softening her fall. His long strides outstripped her; by the time she had reached the log, he had already pulled the naginata free, whirled to cross the further distance needed, and plunged it straight through the passionately entangled pair on the ground. He leaned his entire weight down into them, keeping the blade's point from slipping or jerking free in the death-struggle. Yumi shrieked in anguish, golden eyes wide and terrified. And yet her arms were still protectively cradling the red-haired form that had already fallen limp above her, even as an eerie fountain of light pulsed up from her body and through his back. The light welled up into the naginata, making its emerald blaze like a green sun, and a shower of sparks sizzled out from Hiko's silver gauntlets as Yumi's eyes began to fade. The naginata was glowing soft red now, both the metal blade and wooden shaft consuming themselves and crumbling apart. As it disintegrated into ash, Yumi sprawled back, still and silent. The emerald's light went out as it tumbled onto the ground, the only part that remained. Hiko closed his eyes for a moment to readjust to the darkness, drawing his katana just in case. When he opened them again, both bodies before him were still lying equally motionless. "Kaoru," he called behind him. She ran up to join him, the black sword in hand. "His katana was stuck pretty deep into the log. Took a mo to pull it back out." "Perhaps we won't need it after all, at least not tonight. Would you like to check on Kenshin?" "Um. That's okay, you can do it for me. I'll just go sit down over there for a while." He shrugged sardonically. Perhaps alienation of affection hadn't been part of Kenshin's plan, but it would be likely better for Kaoru in the long run. Hiko nudged the toe of his boot between the two bodies and rolled them apart. The naginata holes in both of them had vanished when the weapon did. After a minute or two, Hiko thoughtfully inserted his toe under the boy's back and gave his kidney some extra nudges until a groan came out the other end. "Your fly is open," Hiko reminded him. One nerveless arm flopped up to refasten it, but nothing else moved, not so much as an eyelash. "Did everything proceed as you expected? I assume that with the others, direct combat would have been more likely, and we would have had to finish you off afterward. Kaoru seems a bit nonplussed by your choice of tactics in this case." Another groan, then feebly, "How does Yumi look?" "Remarkably indecent, but otherwise intact. I assume she'll regain consciousness as well eventually." "Her naginata's gone?" "Indeed." Hiko folded his arms and tapped his toe for a bit. "Do you require any assistance for the return journey? Or perhaps for sitting up?" "No." He was still lying flat on his back. The one hand he had managed to move was now draped limply over his stomach, and the other one twitched at his side. "Just give me a moment. I-- I'd like to speak with Kaoru, if she'll let me." Hiko replaced his katana in the looped hook that held it at his hip. "I'll ask her. But don't expect much." He considered the still-unconscious Yumi, draped his coat over her as the best effort that could be made toward decency, and carried her back to the fallen tree to wait until she and Kenshin could walk by themselves again. There were a number of sacrifices he'd been prepared to make tonight. A hernia from carrying two people was not one of them. --- Kaoru left Battousai's sword with Hiko. As she approached, she could see a faint glow from the charred hole in Kenshin's pink shirt-- its color was luridly evident, even when moon-bleached. The edges of the cloth must still be smoldering, she thought with a twinge of sympathy. She knelt at his side and slipped her forearm behind him, levering him partially upright. He still seemed pathetically wiggly, so she sat behind him to prop him up with her shoulder against his back. She faced resolutely to the side as she poked at the dirt with the tip of her bokken. Her hands felt sweaty inside her gloves, but she didn't take them off. "I hope you're happy," she said. "Not only did your plan work, but now you'll have one of your old girlfriends back with you again. Guess you won't need to put up with a stupid little girl like me any more, will you?" His head was bowed down to his chest, apparently as much at gravity's mercy as the rest of him, but she could feel a ripple of tension slide through him like a garter snake passing half-seen through a meadow. "Don't talk like that," he said. "There's nothing left now between Yumi and me. Not the way things could be between the two of us." "There isn't anything between us. There can't ever be. You said so yourself just a few hours ago." Despite herself, she had a little shiver of sensation at the memory, caught between the warmth of his body on one side and the cool night breeze on the other. "Definitely not anything like you've been doing out here for the past hour." "It worked, didn't it?" He was definitely recovering his strength now, with enough energy to gather his legs beneath him. "Far easier than fighting an all-out duel with Jineh or Enishi, anyway. Think of it as psychological warfare on Yumi." She thought this over. "I guess so," she said reluctantly. "I'm sorry if you were caught in the backblast, and I promise I won't be doing that again with either of the boys once we meet them." Reaching over his shoulder, he ran one hand over Kaoru's mouth in an unexpected rough caress. "Oh!" A little gasp jerked out as she involuntarily turned her head to follow it. Past him, she saw Hiko look up at the sound, raise his eyebrows, and then deliberately angle his seat on the log away from them. She felt as if she might die from shame, not so much from Hiko's brief glimpse, but for simply still wanting Kenshin's touch despite what she'd seen of Battousai. Dark red hair sluiced across her face like torn silk as he tilted his topknot against her, teasingly. "Do you want me to do that again?" The bokken shaking in one hand, she lifted the other to trace the curve of his neck. And for a moment, she didn't understand what she was seeing as a black streak followed her fingers. When she lifted them away, there was a pattern seared into his skin like a snake's scales, left by the silver rings sewn onto her gloves. He had turned to watch her touch him, and now he raised his head and smiled at her with cool golden eyes. --- "See, I told you this was a bad idea," Megumi whispered at Sano. They were halfway up a large tree, awkwardly clinging to footholds and peering down at the man leaning against the trunk, a black sword in his hand. "At least you listened to me about creeping quietly through the underbrush instead of just crashing straight through it like he did, or we wouldn't've heard him coming." "Maybe if we'd crashed straight through it, we'd've been down in the gully before he got here," Sano whispered back around the fishbone clenched in his teeth. "Now we can't even tell what's going on down there. Why didn't you pick a tree that had enough leaves fall out of it already that we could see out?" "Because that would've been enough leaves fallen out that he could see us? I think he's another one of those hellblade guys, and we really don't want to mess with him. How long is he going to stay here anyway? And what's he doing here?" She shifted her backpack uncomfortably. "Same thing we were doing-- looking down into the gully. Gah, there's sap all over my hands now." "Sano, will you be quiet before you spit your fishbone onto his head?" Megumi shifted one branch over, accidentally knocking a pine cone from it to fall down right beside the man. They froze, but he simply muttered something under his breath about squirrels, and they relaxed. Sano took the fishbone out of his mouth and started to poke at the bark with it out of boredom while Megumi started to fiddle around inside her backpack. After a while, she said, "Hey, can you climb a little higher?" "Branches are looking kind of bendy up there." "I want them to be bendy. Um, I think you'd really better keep your fishbone out of your mouth for this. Can you grab the end of this string and pass it around to me? Careful, don't make them clink!" Sano obediently passed the string so she could tie it around the trunk. It had something like puffy white pods tied along it every few inches. "What the heck is this arts and crafts project?" "Hush! And hang onto my backpack straps for a minute so I don't fall, okay?" As silently as possible, Megumi clapped her hands twice, barely touching the palms together, and bowed her head. "Okay, so when I light this match, I want you to hang onto a branch and let it drop you into that nice puffy-looking bush over there." "What it's actually thin moss over a puffy-looking but very hard rock?" "Fine! Just tell me which direction you want to jump then so I can follow you!" "You wanna tell me why I'm jumping?" She lit the match and gave him a hard shove, which he barely converted into a distance jump. She landed in the bush next to him, not quite on the opposite side of the trunk from the man. He jerked toward the loud crash they'd made, but then up to look at the yellow glow that was running around the pine tree. The ring of flame suddenly began to spit tiny fireballs of mochi and scraped pine resin down at him, shooting out of the test tubes' mouths through their tissue-paper wrappings. Nonplussed and slightly on fire, he fled. Megumi clapped twice again and bowed, and the flames winked out as if she'd turned a switch. Only a few faint embers lingered in the dead needles around the trunk, flickering and dying even as they watched. "Okay, he's gone now. So now what?" Sano pulled the fishbone back out of his pocket and put it back between his teeth as he prepared to resume crawling quietly through the brush. Grinning, he said, "We came this way to burn mochi and kick ass, and we're all out of mochi. Let's go." After a moment, he added, "My fishbone tastes like pine sap now. This better be worth it." --- Hiko looked back up at the sudden flurry of motion: Kaoru scrambling upright, silver- wrapped bokken raised before her at the slight, red-haired figure in the torn pink shirt, and the flash of gold as the latter glanced toward him. In a single motion, Hiko took up the black sword and lunged straight forward. The night wind rushed around him, carrying with it a small splinter of night itself. Thrown cleanly from Battousai's hand, Yumi's little black knife went deep into his shoulder. It was just as Kenshin had described, as if his heart were being pulled up through his throat. He managed to stay upright, though, wrenching the knife out and flinging it far aside. "We'll see who's the stupid pup now. My sword was made for better things than being used as a cane. Stop leaning on it, and I'll show you." "Kenshin, don't!" With an effort, Hiko stumbled out of reach. "You know who that is, Kaoru. It isn't Kenshin." Eyes as golden as the harvest moon, as the last autumn leaves he might ever see, and that small terrible smile. "Does it matter? Kaoru, you know this is the only way I'll ever touch you again. If you stay with me, I can teach you things Yumi never knew." "No thank you." Her voice was miraculously steady, coming nearer. Hiko felt the silver gauntlets hanging heavy on his hands, almost as heavy as the sword. When the sword's weight suddenly lifted from him, he felt set free to float into the wind. --- Battousai cocked his head at Kaoru, then took another step toward her. "Don't come any closer," she told him, making sure she stayed between him and Hiko. The black sword had a strange feel in her hands, a deep electric thrum that grew stronger as Battousai approached. She couldn't believe Hiko had just collapsed like that. Was he even breathing? "Get back, I said!" "Give me my sword, Kaoru. It wants to be with me nearly as much as you do." Another step. "Don't make me kill you." The wind suddenly felt colder on her face. She couldn't be crying again. "Oh, I think you have to. It's all part of their plan. First this time, and then three more, and finally the one that lasts. Or you can turn your back on them and come with me." He was only a few paces away from her now, his fingers skimming his sword's point more gently than they had touched her mouth. Anguished, Kaoru looked toward the shrubs where they'd left Sano and Megumi. Battousai languidly turned in that direction as well. "Ah yes. The hot-spurred cockerel and the little vixen in his henhouse. It wouldn't do to forget about them, would it?" That casual dismissal of her friends-- of Kenshin's friends!-- finally broke down her last barrier. A half-step back and a lunge forward, and she stabbed him straight through the heart. She stood there trembling, the sword's hilt pulsing against her gloves as if with its own heartbeat, and Battousai still stood there, smiling. He leaned forward across the blade, liquid fire trickling from his mouth like blood as he whispered. "Little bluebird, I'll tell you a secret, or else you'll just botch this up the next three times as well." His eyes were flickering strangely like heat lightning in reverse, the golden flame going dark for fractions of a second. "With me, it's not enough to stab me with my sword. You have to do something else that would kill me on its own. I'll give you one minute, and then you're coming with me." "I don't need a minute." She drew her bokken from her side with one hand. He tilted his head at her again, watching her raise the silver-wrapped wood to shoulder height. "I suppose it's the best you can manage for now, though I was hoping for something more exciting. Ah well. Until next time, then." When she let go of his sword's hilt, he simply stood there and blew her a kiss as she whipped the bokken sideways at him with the full strength of both arms and broke his neck. As his body crumpled, she dropped the bokken and grabbed the black hilt again. As she'd seen Hiko do, she drove the point into the ground to pin his body flat. The white fire swirled up and out of him, even more than had come from Yumi. The blade was glowing hot, rising from the golden-yellow of his eyes to an eerie blue-white brighter than the moon, and the hilt seemed to hiss and rattle in her gloved hands. Between them, the ruby flared laser-bright, its light flooding the gully like a river of blood. Inside its silver wire, her bokken began to burn. --- "Kaoru!" Sano called as he scrambled down to join her. "Hey, Kaoru, are you okay? We saw all this freaky-ass stuff going on down here with Kenshin--" Megumi slid down behind him and whacked him on the head. "I mean Battousai and Yumi, and I thought we'd better-- whoa, what the hey?" Megumi's backpack had spilled open at the bottom, and she had to gather her remaining supplies back up into it. Without looking up yet, she said, "I told Sano that Mr. Hiko told us to stay there and he was going to be really cheesed off if we didn't, but at least we scared off that other guy with a black sword who was lurking around just watching. I don't know if you even saw him down here, but he-- oh, gosh." Carefully, she picked her way around a few stray body parts to join Kaoru and Sano near the fallen tree. Kaoru was sitting on the trunk, not looking at the three bodies at her feet, just the black sword in her hands. "I didn't know what else to do, so I dragged them over here. It took a while, especially Hiko. He's even heavier than he looks. I think he's okay. Or at least he's alive. Megumi, could you check on all of them?" Megumi knelt down with her first-aid kit. When she moved aside Hiko's coat to examine Yumi, Sano leaned a little too close and then whipped back, rubbing his head. "Ow! What was that for?" "You're blocking my light," Megumi tersely said. "Here, at least hold the flashlight for me, and no moving the spotlight around to whatever you want to look at instead of what I need to. Well, she looks fine--" "I'll say. Ow!" "--I mean, I don't see any injuries at all, she's just passed out." "You said there was another guy around but he's gone?" Kaoru's gloves tightened on the hilt. "Hope he stays gone. I don't know if I can do this twice in one night. And it's getting close to our curfews, too." Sano surveyed the zombie parts scattered farther down the gully. "Oh well. I don't know if I could've handled beef bowl tonight anyway. Jeez, don't tell me you're stripping down Hiko?" "Hand me an ofuda, will you? No, one of the last few test-tubes." Megumi pulled out the mochi plug and carefully dripped the sake into the shoulder wound as a disinfectant. The pain roused Hiko back into consciousness. "Kaoru," he rasped, casting about. Megumi tried to hold him still to fix a bandage in place. "Did she-- ?" "Yes," Kaoru said from her perch above him. "He's lying there next to you. I had to break his neck. I don't know if Megumi should set it or anything, but I probably bounced it around a lot when I was dragging him." "Ooh." Megumi shuddered. "Well, it feels like his headbone is connected to his neckbone just fine. That's a really nasty hole through his chest, though. And he hasn't got a pulse." "Well, when he does, make sure he bleeds real blood," Hiko said. "In the meantime, we must find that knife so we can deal with it later." He pulled his shirt and jacket back over his shoulder, fastened them, and braced himself up with his sword. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to test your latest improvement, Miss Rosenberg. Perhaps next month. In the meantime, may we borrow your flashlight?" He and Sano set off, slowly scanning the ground for Yumi's knife. Megumi sat beside Kaoru. "Hey," she said. "You okay there? Want a little pep talk about how virtue is its own reward even if it feels really sucky at the time when you do what's right?" Kaoru's smile was a little torn and dog-eared around the edges. "No, I'll probably get that from Hiko in the morning. I think I'd just like to be alone for a bit." "You sure?" "Well, okay, maybe not completely alone," Kaoru admitted. "Can you help me drag him over into the corner, out of the way? And have you got any of Sano's spare fishbones in your bag?" --- After helping her, Megumi went off to join the others in their search, leaving Kaoru in the nook between the fallen tree and the gully wall. She sank to her knees and put the sword down as if it might break. She pulled off her gloves and laid them neatly on the hilt. Taking hold of the shoulders, she dragged the supine body toward her until its head lay sideways in her lap. She untied the dark red hair and combed it smooth with a wooden fishbone before retying it. And finally, with Hiko's handkerchief, she wiped his face clean of dust and streaked mud. It was calm now, with no hint of scorn or anguish, no sign of breath or life. When she touched the char-edged hole in his shirt, her fingers sank into the wound she had made. The surface was cool and slightly sticky. It wasn't bleeding. He was dead. She had killed him. Hiko's voice was sounding very stern on the other side of the tree. Evidently Sano and Megumi had told him about leaving their post, and were occasionally interrupting him with feeble protests. She couldn't understand a word they said. She reached for the other fishbone Megumi had left with her, one of the metal ones Sano had machined from something he'd improvised from one of Hiko's pottery wheels. The silver-plating didn't make it any less sharp, and she still pricked her fingers as she pressed it to his throat. The glove-burned streak down the side of his neck was still there, but no new one appeared where the fish touched him. But then, perhaps it didn't work while he was dead. She curled herself down and laid her face above his, her cheek against his forehead. If she moved just a little bit, her lips would touch his eyelids, or the faint trace of his scar. Slowly, she covered his face with soft kisses, as closely set as the rings he had sewn on her gloves, until she reached his mouth. She pulled back then, not wanting to feel it as cool and still against hers, instead of warm and alive. Instead, she traced the parted curve of his lips with her fingers. They left a dark smear from one of her fishbone cuts. Mechanically, she wiped it away. And then, despite herself, she kissed him as Kenshin had told her they never could again, pressing her lips helplessly against his and tasting the ghost of green tea mochi and her own blood, washing the last traces of dust away from his face with her tears. A great shuddering gasp shook his body, making her jerk up to look at him. The holes in his shirt from her sword showed only smooth skin. The burns on his neck were gone. When his eyes flew open, they were blue-violet, and Kenshin's, and alive. Awkwardly, he reached up to touch her cheek. "Miss Kaoru. Please don't cry," he whispered. "Not for me." She caught his hand in one of hers to hold it against her heart, feeling his pulse beat against hers. With her other hand, she picked up the fishbone again and pricked his wrist. He winced, but didn't pull back, and a dark bead of blood welled up from his unburned skin. She cast the fishbone aside and bent her head to his wrist to kiss the hurt away. "Idiot," she said tenderly. "You can't tell me who to cry for." When she leaned down again to his mouth, the only reason he pulled his hand free from hers was to reach up behind her and untie her ponytail, letting her hair fall down to cover both their faces. ----- (And so endeth chapter the ninth. Phew. Early reviews that seem to refer to this chapter were actually based on a waff-biscuit that now lives at the end of chapter 8. The marsupial brain cell is feeling slightly tapped out, so there may be a certain pause before the party resumes with chapter 10. We'll see. Reviews might speed things up a bit ^_^ )