Crossover With Non-anime Series Fan Fiction / Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Aka Tenshi ❯ Vol. three, Chap. seventeen: The Hand that Feeds ( Chapter 17 )

The Hand That Feeds

Kaoru awoke in a hostile-like shelter. She looked around in the hazy blue light. The girl was alone at the moment. The only source of light came from a tiny window high up. “What happened to me?” she thought. Nothing looked familiar at all. The stone walls leaked a little bit. Her thin futon's cotton poked her in the lower back, making it itch. Kaoru scratched it a bit before looking down. She saw Aka-Kenshin's gi draping over her thin pale body. A sense of warmth filled her. “Aka-Kenshin…” she thought happily.

“Oh good, you're awake!” someone said to her. Kaoru looked up at the doorway. A young man about nineteen-years-old stood looking at her. His lightly blonde-chestnut brown hair looked like it had just been cut recently. He had a freshly made bento in his hands. His jeans and leather jacket needed to be cleaned. Kaoru looked at him oddly.

“Who are you?” she asked half-sleep like. “And where is this place?” The boy walked over to her and knelt down beside the futon.

“This is an old abandoned hostile that I live in at the moment,” he replied. “I found you lying out in the woods when I was on my way back from school. What happened to you?” Kaoru thought about all of this for a moment. Piece by piece her memory slowly came back to her. She had been torture almost to a slow death by the military angels. Aka-Kenshin must have saved her from them and left her out in the woods. It's shame that he left alone once again. Kaoru looked away a little bit.

“Aka-Kenshin…” she mumbled under her breath. The boy looked at her slightly confused.

“Aka-who?” he asked. The girl turned around to him and shook her head.

“Nothing, nothing important,” she replied. “Thanks for being me here, uh…” The boy smiled at her kindly.

“Joshua,” he answered. “My name is Joshua.”

“I'm Kaoru,” the girl answered back. They bowed their heads to each other. Joshua slid the bento over to his guest.

“Here,” he said. “I brought you something to eat. It's not much, but I scraped up enough money to buy food for two meals.” Kaoru looked at him uncertain at first.

“I can't take this!” she exclaimed. “You worked so hard to buy it!”

“It's alright,” Joshua insisted. “I can just work to make more money for food later.” Kaoru still looked at him uneasily. She slowly took the bento. Joshua watched as she opened the lid. The food looked really delicious this morning. Tendon was the meal of choice this morning. The vessel had no idea that stalls sold this meal so early in the morning. She took a bite out of the still heated meal. The girl couldn't believe how good it was! Her reaction showed in her eyes. Joshua chuckled at her. Kaoru looked up at him caught off guard.

“You like it, huh?” he asked. The girl slightly blushed embarrassed as she nodded. Her host chuckled again.

“Fair enough,” he replied. “Fair enough.” It took Kaoru a few seconds for her to start eating again. Joshua opened up his Unadon bento, broke apart his chopsticks, and started eating. Breakfast was mostly quiet from there. Neither guest nor host spoke a single word while they ate. They set the boxes and chopsticks aside when they had finished. Host and guest stared at each other for a long time. One little question nagged her in the back of her mind ever since they first spoke. She didn't know how to word her thoughts, but they just slipped out anyway.

“Joshua,” Kaoru spoke up.

“Hm?” he asked. His guest sat up some.

“Why do you live in this place all alone?” she blurted out. “Where are your parents? Why not live in somewhere much nicer?” Joshua stared at her with his inviting ice blue eyes. She could see a little pain in them. Something tell her to prepare for a sad tale to flow from her host's lips. The boy shrugged at her.

“After my parents two years ago, I just had to live on my own,” he answered her in a calm tone. “I didn't have any other relatives or money to survive. I ended up wandering until I came here. It's okay now. I work during the day to support myself. I put that money to support myself and put me through school.”

“But don't you get lonely out here all by yourself?” his guest asked him.

“No,” Joshua replied. “I have managed on my own for two years now. And besides, I run into runaways and the injured like you almost every other week. You just got to keep trying to survive and living through almost anything.” Kaoru watched on speechless. His words really hit her at home. Joshua smiled as he rose to his feet.

“I've got to go to work now,” he said. “Maybe I'll see you around.”

“Yeah,” Kaoru replied with a nod. Joshua waved goodbye and walked out of the hostile. For the rest of the morning, the vessel sat all alone. Her host's words really sank into her heart and head. If Joshua could survive two years on his own with school and work under his feet, then she could survive the angels and help Aka-Kenshin in any way possible. That led to a dangerous idea in Kaoru's mind. “I'm going to be Kenshin-sama's shield no matter what!” the girl thought in determination. “I will lay down my live all in the name of love!” Too bad no one was there to stop her.

By sundown, Kaoru got up and left to find her beloved Aka-Kenshin. Here she started her death-wish quest for love.

Flirting with Death