Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ There Must Be No Witnesses ❯ chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

disclaimer: these Rurouni Kenshin characters aren't mine, ok?

There Must Be No Witnesses

"Hitokiri Battousai."

She rose to her feet, head still bowed.She was tall, a couple of inches taller than Kenshin, and slender.Her long lean muscles were visible through the close fitting pants and Chinese shirt.Her long dark hair was bound in a tight braid that came down to her waist.

The sheath which carried her sword was held ceremoniously by the hilt.She stood straight, casually.But a trained eye, such as Kenshin's, would recognize the alertness of a skilled fighter.

Kaoru walked up to Kenshin and stood behind him quietly.The woman ignored her.Her head was still bent.When she finally spoke again her voice was low and beautiful, and full of hate.

"I have waited patiently in this dojo, all day.Since this morning, when you left.I have seen what your life is like;The woman, Kaoru, the child,Yahiko.Your family?You don't deserve happiness,Battousai.In your hand lies the blood of Mitaki Henma and Mitaki Kai.

After eleven years,I, Mitaki Seya have come to avenge them."

She lifted her head up sowly.Her green eyes met his,and he found no hate or anger in them, despite the passion of her low voice.No pain , no sorrow.Nothing.He recognized that emptiness;Battousai had seen it many times in the mirror.

He studied those eyes, losing himself in them, green pools of nothingness,and his mind travelled back to that April night, in Kyoto.He felt the sword in his hand, the fresh Spring breeze in his face. And once again he stood at the door of the house where Henma Mitaki lived.The man he had been sent to kill.He didn't know why.It was just an order to be carried out, like so many others.His blade had cut swiftly through the man's neck.

"There must be no witnesses."

He had followed the woman, her desperate steps echoing loudly in front of him, through the house, finally cornering her in the bedroom.She stood silently in front of a closet door she had just shut, her back to him.He did not need to see her eyes to know the fear that was in them.

"Battousai!" someone called from outside.Time to leave.He brought his sword down quickly, a clean slice.

As he turned to leave his eyes fell casually on the rice paper screen of the closet door.There was a hole, a tearing, in the exact spot his eyes had fallen upon.And a small face showed through it, two large green eyes…

"There must be no witnesses."

But he had turned away.Why?He had certaintly killed children before.Why had he not killed her?

There must be no witnesses, a golden rule he had only broken twice.He remembered the first time,how her presence had soothed him.Remembered the scent of her on his skin.It had been her.The one who never smiled.Tomoe.And the second time, this girl, who now stood before him, eleven years later.

It was a Summer afternoon.The sun was dying out, soon night would fall.He walked slowly.He had left very early in the morning,gone out fishing, and he was finally returning home after a long day, with a bucket full of fish.He hoped it would be enough for dinner, what with Sano's appetite.

He headed towards the kitchen, past the open doors of the dojo,and that's when he saw her, out of the corner of his eye.A girl in the dojo.Not Kaoru his mind registered.He had set the bucket and the fishing rod down.There had been nothing hostile in the way she sat, her back to him , legs bent beneath her,sword resting on her thighs.But he knew.She had come to kill him.

And now she stood before him, with her sword, with her empty eyes, dragging the past, a trail of blood behind her.Reminding him, as if he could ever forget, what he had been, what he was, even now.Battousai.

The scraping sound of her sword leaving its sheath slowly broke the heavy silence of the room, interrupting his thoughts.

A.N; so there you have it.Come on, people, speak your mind! This is my first attempt at non WAFF, tell me what you think.Should I keep writing or what?