Hey all! I'm back and in action finally! Right as I am hopefully about to get a new job. Hopefully. We shall see! I have an interview tomorrow, so send prayers and thoughts my way, please!

Anyway, I really didn't want to go into too much detail about what Kenshin does and does not know. But, since everyone is beginning to wonder if he's gay… here's the next chapter! Hopefully it'll clear a few things up for you, but not all. If everything became clear we would no longer have a story, would we? ~.^

Enjoy!

I do not own these Rurouni Kenshin characters.

To Bare Witness

(I really should have put a 'the' in there. Oh, well.)

Chapter 6

"Report."

The dry tone on the other line was somehow able to maintain both boredom and impatience in that singular word. Kenshin Himura blinked, gaze swiveling around the vacant area of roof very few had access to. This was the place he chose for these phone conversations—lest any of the students overhear. Heaving a soft sigh, Kenshin slowly and calculatingly walked toward the edge of the roof, stopping just short of anyone's sight if they happened to be passersby and gazing up at the sky from four floors below.

"There have been sixteen attempts at murder this past month alone. Pardon. Sixteen attempts recorded. There may be more if victims refused or have not had the opportunity to step forward."

"Hn…" Came the deep voice from the other end, lazy yet calculatingly soft.

"Of the sixteen victims to come forward, Aoshi and I have noticed a distinct pattern. Each victim is female. Approximately 5'4 in height. Long, dark hair. Physically lean or fit. Ages of the victims very from eighteen to twenty-four. There is also a pattern of location. Most attacks are taking place at other universities or academies within a two-hundred mile radius. Lately that radius has been honing in on our location. Each attack made on the women who survived were attacked unaware, or from behind. Not one of them saw their attacker. In the past three months, there have been a total of five deaths of women also fitting this description. If their attacker was this very same serial killer, one can only assume these girls saw their attacker, and thus were sentenced to death."

"Hnn…" Came the self-same tone again, this time with an added impression the speaker was unimpressed by this information. "That is all?"

If Kenshin Himura didn't know any better, he would swear the man on the other end of the line was laughing at him. Kenshin nearly growled his frustration aloud.

"With all due respect, it would be much easier for both Aoshi and myself to gather the appropriate amount of information if we were not stuck at this University, playing the part of both student and resident assistant."

There. He said it—what had really been on his mind. If there was a serial killer out there with a penchant for running first politicians, then college age women through with swords, Kenshin honestly believed he would better serve out in the field. He could track the mad man down, and prevent other needless deaths from taking place. He did not understand why their base of operations had to be here.

A slow inhalation was heard on the line, followed by the lazy sound of a good stretch. "If that is the conclusion of your report?"

Kenshin's hands fisted at his sides before he forced his stance to relax—the muscles in his shoulders to ease. Rubbing his free hand over his eyes, he sighed. He had not received a good night's rest the past couple of nights, and was honestly glad that Sano's girlfriend would be returning to med school later that day. It had been a long weekend, and for some reason Kenshin hadn't fully been able to completely relax.

"Not quite. If we do not have a copy-cat on our hands, one can only assume the killer is looking for someone. The murdered politicians were stabbed in the very same place as the female victims. Either someone is copying our original serial killer, or there is only one killer and he has switched victims. Again, if that is the case our best assumption is that he is looking for a particular girl who meets the description I told you. From the wide and varied way he is searching for her, there is no personal connection. Perhaps he glimpsed this girl, or she caught a glimpse of him, and now he must finish what he started."

"Hnnn…"

Drawn out, Kenshin could only wonder if he finally touched upon something. His grip on his cell tightened, and he waited with baited breath for a reply.

"We just received information that the stab wounds from the late politicians exactly match the wounds of the female victims."

Gaze narrowed to slits, Kenshin's voice deepened to an angered, lethal tone. "And just when were you going to tell us?" He hissed into the mouthpiece of his phone.

A grunt. "Our factions have agreed to work together for the sake of this case, Himura. You forget—there was no connection between my case and yours until now. No proof of cold, hard facts, anyway."

Pursing his lips in displeasure, Kenshin again had the feeling Saitou was withholding some pertinent information from him.

"If you aren't telling me everything, Saitou…" Kenshin practically growled the words.

"Relax, Battousai." Kenshin flinched. "You and Shinomori are supposed to be the best in your respective divisions. I have complete faith he will collect all the needed information, and you will close up this case with clean efficiency."

If Kenshin heard the sardonic undertone, he decided not to comment upon it. Reporting back to and gaining further information from Saitou still didn't sit well with him.

"You have your orders, Battousai. You are to remain in that University with Shinomori, and you are to complete the task handed to you. As far as information gathering and piecing together the rest of this case, I suggest you hurry. Time is of the essence, and your killer is closing in."

Saitou didn't even have the good graces to say goodbye. There was a dial tone, then Kenshin's phone bleeped and cut off his side of the connection in return. The red-head stood on the roof for a moment, feeling now more than ever that there were aspects to this case Saitou was aware of that he was missing. With a deeply indrawn breath, Kenshin decided it was time to get back to work. While he and Shinomori had never worked a case together before, it was time Kenshin attempted to find out his own information. It was time to start pouring over newspaper articles like Shinomori was doing.

Lost in thought, Kenshin wasn't aware he had left the dorm roof until his feet brought him to Aoshi'a door. With a heavy sigh, Kenshin knocked once before entering. Something unsettling in the pit of Kenshin's stomach refused to allow Kenshin to return to his own room. Lately Kenshin couldn't seem to stop thinking about the young resident—Kaoru. There was something about his friend that Kenshin couldn't quite put his finger on, but it had been consuming him more often as of late—especially these past two nights when Kaoru had stayed in his room.

"Himura."

Blinking, Kenshin returned from far away thoughts and offered an awkward grin to the stoic man rifling through papers at his desk. Closing the door behind him, Kenshin moved farther into the room before leaning against the wall a few feet from Aoshi's desk.

"I just got off the phone with Saitou," Kenshin began, getting straight to business.

Aoshi's gaze flicked up to Kenshin's, then darted back down to the papers before him. "Aa."

"He didn't have much information for us, that he did not."

Aoshi's laptop was open and next to him on his desk. He started typing away for a moment, then hit enter. "Aa."

"Do you think he's withholding information from us?"

Pausing, Aoshi finally turned to face the red-haired man in his room, expression unreadable. "Did he give that impression?"

Kenshin paused, thinking back to it. With a self-depreciating chuckle, he passed it off as nothing and Aoshi turned back to what he had been doing before. Deciding not to interrupt, Kenshin headed to the door to let himself out. He was reaching for the handle when another thought occurred to him, and he turned back to Aoshi once again.

"Do you think Kaoru is keeping something from us?"

Fingers flying over the keys of his keyboard, Aoshi once again froze his movements and turned to face Kenshin, face unreadable.

Feeling somewhat sheepish for his random question, Kenshin couldn't help but wonder why the thought consumed him. It was not healthy, that it was not.

"Himura?"

"Something doesn't sit right. I can almost put my finger on it, but then the thought is gone, or there is something to distract me from that line of thinking."

"Hn."

So like Saitou—a man of many words.

"It's almost as if—"

Aoshi interrupted him. "Does this have any pertinence to our case?"

"Oro?! Ah—no, I do not believe so…"

"Then it matters not." Turning back to his work, Aoshi presented his back to Kenshin in clear dismissal.

Taking a hint, Kenshin turned to leave once more before Aoshi's soft words stopped him.

"What was the conclusion of your report?"

"Pardon?" Glancing over his shoulder, confusion bubbled forth in Kenshin's lavender eyes.

"Your report. What was the conclusion you came to?"

Turning to face Aoshi once more, Kenshin briefly wondered what point Shinomori was getting at. "The descriptions of the killer's victims suggest he is looking for something; or more specifically, someone. The amount of victims left alive suggests he has yet to find what he is looking for. Saitou confirmed our killer is the same serial killer whom had been going after politicians all summer. Seeing how there are so many female victims, it is easy to surmise there is no intimate connection between killer and victim, or he wouldn't be making so many mistakes."

"Why are those other victims mistakes?"

Why was Aoshi asking him questions they both already knew the answer to?

"They are mistakes because the killer rarely follows through. Most of his victims are still alive."

"And the women he killed?"

Shaking his head, Kenshin was once again mystified at what Shinomori was getting at.

"He probably felt he had to kill them. Perhaps they saw him, or knew too much."

Shinomori nodded, and Kenshin felt as though he was left behind in the dust. What was it? What was he missing?

"I wonder…" Aoshi drawled out, attention once more on a news article before him. "I wonder if that is truly the reason those women had to die. If, perhaps, that very same reason is why some other unfortunate woman is being hunted down—why she also must die."

Paling, Kenshin numbly moved toward the desk to see what news article Aoshi was holding. It was a report on the first known attack of a woman matching the description of all the other female victims. She was the first—but got away. Why? Why was she the first victim that went against this particular serial killer's method?

And why wasn't she dead?

"Where would one hide, if a serial killer was after that person?" Aoshi continued, leaning back in his chair as Kenshin perused the article, reading quickly from start to finish. "How would one kill someone when there are hundreds of surrounding witnesses? How would a killer be certain their victim was without a doubt, the woman they caught a single glimpse of?"

"You think she's here…" Kenshin breathed, eyes growing wide. It would certainly make sense—and it was a good cover, so long as the serial killer didn't want eye witnesses. The facts were too hard to refute. He and Shinomori were placed here for a reason. No wonder Saitou always seemed to be laughing at him. He was withholding the most important piece of information—information he challenged them to find on their own. Kenshin almost growled with his fury. There were lives at stake here! The killer was closing in! What if this information came too late? He had been wasting time looking into this unknown killer when he should have been focused on finding and protecting the young woman he was after!

"I have to find her!" He seethed, eyes flashing amber as his hands gripped aimlessly for the sword he was not carrying. He moved toward the exit, ready to tear the University to bits in his efforts.

"Himura."

"What?"

A calm, calculatingly cool look was his response.

"Hi-mu-ra." It was coldly articulated—enough to calm the raging inferno clamoring for Kenshin's attention.

He turned to face the stoic man before him. "What."

Aoshi arched a single brow. "The killer's first victim comes from a very traditional Japanese family. She is an assistant master in Kendo, teaching her father's family style: Kamiya Kasshin Ryu."

Kenshin turned to face his comrade once again, soaking up every seed of information Shinomori had to offer.

"She is an only child—has no family. I wonder… what she had to do when this information was released in the paper?"

Eyes narrowing, Kenshin was finally ready and able to put the dots together. "She would have to change her name. Hide." Nodding his thanks, Kenshin turned once more to the door. He wondered why every part of his being was telling him to hurry. To find her.

As Kenshin turned the handle to exit the room, Aoshi inclined his head. "I wondered why the killer didn't take into account the fact that she might have cut, or colored her hair."

The door paused after opening a two inch gap.

"Shinomori?"

"If the girl's life was truly important to her—which, judging by her kendo school, it is—I often wondered why our killer would not think she would cut or color her hair."

"Coming from a very traditional family—"

"Aa. That is it. There lies your answer, Kenshin."

Kenshin. Shinomori called him Kenshin, not Battousai. His eyes widened in no small amount of surprise.

"You already found the one you need to protect—you just haven't consciously realized it, yet." This time, Aoshi smirked. Heart rising up in his throat, Kenshin briefly wondered what the other man was getting at, and why it made him so nervous suddenly.

"O-oro?!"

"How would a young, traditional Japanese girl hide if life was something she valued above all else? If cutting her hair never crossed her mind? If the heart of a samurai lives on through her, passed down from her late father?"

Gaping, Kenshin slowly shook his head in complete silence, though internally he felt an extreme sense of foreboding settling in his heart and stomach. He knew the answer already. Something innate within him simply knew. He didn't know enough to put words to it, though. There was still hesitance—that sense of doubt he carries in his mind.

But he knows. He knows even if he hadn't completely been able to openly admit it. Not to himself—not to anyone. Why? For her safety? Oh, kami. It must be true.

Judging from the gleam in Shinomori's knowing eyes, it had to be true.

"I wonder how she does it—hiding with such a well-placed disguise. After all, there is one absolute truth: the killer is solely looking for a young woman."

Kenshin paled, his grip tightening on the knob of the door. Bowing his head, he made an effort to control his breathing. He made a vow to protect, this is true. He could not lose his new sense of calm this job brought to him, though. He didn't want to scare the students. He didn't want to case fear in the hearts of his new friends.

In the heart of…

"Still…" Shinomori's musing brought Kenshin out of the darkness of his mind. "I do wonder how a woman like that survived. It's bound to have left… scars."

With that one word, Kenshin's hold on his barely controlled temper snapped. Amethyst eyes bled to a burnished gold as Kenshin honed in on the back of the door inches from his face. His glare could strip wood. Muscles tensed, it took more control than Kenshin wanted to admit to slowly open the door the rest of the way and make his tightly clenched fist release the doorknob.

"No one else can know."

Blessedly, the fourth floor hallway was empty. No one would overhear this conversation.

"Aa."

As Kenshin made his way down the hall, his mind began working a mile a minute. Cataloguing every moment he spent together with Kaoru—it all began to make sense. His natural affinity to stay near her was his subconscious telling him to protect her. Somehow, some part of him had known she was in danger. He didn't know if it was her body language, the trepidation he sometimes saw in her expressive blue eyes, or the way they seems to perfectly work harmoniously. Whatever it was, he would never forget the soft whimpers she made when dreams haunted her.

Something about her called to him in a new way that night. He should have realized right away that the sounds she made were nowhere near masculine. How his mind could be so oblivious—yet his heart and soul were trying to prepare him all this while.

Coming to a halt before a door, Kenshin lifted his hand to knock without even realizing his actions. Tensing, he stood perfectly still as surprised amethyst eyes stared in complete bafflement at the new problem to arise.

Two names rested on the door. Kaoru 'Kato,' and Sanosuke Sagara. With a loud groan, Kenshin closed his eyes and turned, lightly banging his head on the cement wall.

How was he supposed to behave around her now?

"Kenshin?" The softly spoken, somewhat breathy voice was far from masculine. How could it have taken him so long to recognize such a thing?

Turning, Kenshin noticed how soft her face looked—how open her expression was; the sincerity in her gaze. He noting all these things—catalogued them unconsciously. Yet somehow he had also been blinded—not by her act or any certain words, but perhaps by himself.

Color swiftly rising to his cheeks, Kenshin could only shrink into the wall at his back. Heart pounding, nerves buzzing, he was only able to voice one thing.

"O-o-o-oro?!"