Well . . . I'm back because it seems that a lot of you have had a bit of problem following the story line. I believe that might be my fault for not putting up the chapters up sooner and so a lot of you have probably forgotten some key moments in the story that become relevant at the very end.
Now, I won't go through all of it because it seems a waist of time. But I can however, add the small notes to chapters 25-28. I will go in order and from there you can pick up from where you got lost, yes.
All right.
ּ
ּ
ּ
ּ ּ ּ
ּ
ּ
ּ
Small Notes
ּ
ּ
Chapter 25
Begins some days after x-mas . . . at the end of the year. Kenshin has gone off to work. Despite Kaoru's sudden request to stay behind, he leaves the apartment and resumes his duty as head of security. Working almost up until a quarter past eleven before he can no longer stand it. He's suspicious. Wondering if she's alone . . . He becomes angry, just the thought of her being unfaithful is enough to drive him mad. She is his. And by Kami, he would rather kill the obstacle between them than to ever give her up. As he has warned her before. He wouldn't just let her go, more to the point there wasn't any place she could go where he wouldn't follow and bring her back. In time, he knew, 'she'd realize just how much.'
That line, specifically, reveals just how much he can still feel, not just their past but the tumultuous strings of their love. Now, he might not be able to remember, why or how the feeling of love ever came to be so strong but he knows, beyond a doubt that Kaoru was meant just for him.
It's this that drives, him forward.
As he leaves the gala, hoping he won't be too late, he sighs. Clearly seeing the image of her face, in the park as she danced around in his arms. He remembers only how much in love with him she had seem. And would hopefully always be.
· · · · ·
When he finally arrives, he is surprised to find her on the phone, even more when he hears her say she loves the other person on the phone. More so, because he himself, has not been so fortunate. Despite her obvious affection towards him, she has never said the words.
As Kaoru turns, happy to seem him. She immediately becomes aware of his anger. But as to why . . . She approaches him slowly, asking him what's wrong. When he reveals his reasons, asking her why she'd stayed at home. She can't help but laugh. She wouldn't have thought he'd be insecure . . . For someone whose been with as many women . . . She thinks it's ironic.
Her laughter, however innocent, is immediately misinterpreted. As he looks at her, an icy barrier already built between them, her laughter subsides. As she reaches for him, meaning to soothe rather than further provoke. She smiles, revealing to him a apart of her reason; to tell her father.
Which proves, not just how much she cares for him but how much she is willing to do to prove her love. As he looks at her, reaffirmed in his believes once more, he does that which he'd planned to do at the ball. He proposes.
Which is so unexpected, Kaoru can't help but faint. As she lies there, caught between reality and her haven, constructed out need and a selfish wish to bind him. The Kenshin of her past returns. Hiding within the shadows, her mind has created, for what purposes, Kaoru doesn't think. She only wants—and needs, more than anything for him to remain within her grasp. So much, she could cry. When he avoids her, teasing her with his nearness. She comes to realizes, he's doing it on purpose. And still, she wants him. More than life and more than breath . . .
Kaoru is reawakened by something in his voice. Something so close to despair and grief, it calls her back to him. Though she does not know this when she awakens, she does feel the shift his question provoked.
As she looks at him, not quite sure if he's asked. She begins to tremble. And though he reaffirms her, lightly, kissing her as she accepts. Kaoru still can't help but feel the first pang of pain, as she realizes, at last how inevitable it will all be. Because where there is a beginning . . . there must all be an end. No matter how much it hurts . . . Kaoru accepts her fate. Though as tears, bloom and fall down her face, Kenshin pulls away. At once, worried, feeling the underlining guilt for her pain. Kaoru tactilely draws his attention away.
Asking him when he wishes for them to be married. Does indeed draw him away. As he becomes lost, in the comfort of her arms. Kaoru comes to realize just how much control over her emotions she has lost—with the fracture of that first bind. Kaoru becomes lost. Even with him that close, nuzzling against her throat, she felt distress. Until she realizes, that the only way she'll manage is by somehow finding herself again. Asking him to kiss and love her, then, were only intended for that purpose. Having him claim her . . . as he did, was too much for heart to take, as he shattered her resolve. Kaoru accepted; whatever pain her loving him could mean, she would not run away.
· · · · ·
The very next day, just as he had wanted, they were married. No matter how anxious she might have been the night before. Kaoru was happy now. As she looked at the marriage certificate. Reading and reading her name;
Kamiya Kaoru had officially become Himura Kaoru.
Just as she had always wanted, no matter what lifetime they stood in or in between. He was hers. And bound to her now by something concrete. And that, she thought would surely keep him with her . . . this time.
As she cried, Kenshin came back to the car. Surprised, to find her in such a state, still. He had thought, after she had cried so much through out the ceremony she'd be fine . . . And as he asked her, watching her smile, and smooth out the paper in her hands. He realized she was . . . just happy.
Knowing his heart echoed her joy, he started up the car. Glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, they drove in silence. At least, for a while, as either stole a glance of the other. Kaoru thought of his rings . . . a symbol of their love now, both in the past and present. As she sighed, happily twirling her ring, she remembered she hadn't eaten.
Reminding him of that, only made him laugh. Suspecting, that be the case. He had already been on the road, to what she'd once mention, had always been her favorite restaurant.
Eating there was a bit of a revelation for him. As she interacted with Maekawa, watching her smile and talk. He knew he was in love with her, had maybe even known so, right from the start but admitting it. What that meant for someone, with now parents or siblings. For someone who'd only had acquaintances and never any real friends. It had been hard for him to realize, just how deep . . . that feeling went. How it revolved around her and the means to her happiness. He had not been able to admit, as right away as the idea that he was infatuated with her. And later on, when the feeling grew so great, when he realized he was in love with her. He had only thoughts of making her fall in love with him.
When that soon came to be the case, when he admitted how much he loved her and she collapsed against him, crying because she did too. He thought only of how to keep her. Wishing she would tell her father, he had realized was but a means of asserting a stake in a heart that had only ever loved one man. Even if he was her father. He had wanted to know that she loved him more.
Going against her father's wishes and marrying him anyways—he now had what he'd wanted all along and so, could no longer deny. How much that truly meant to him.
For all he'd promised her; for today, tomorrow and everyday after—for all the days of his life now . . . she was his as he was hers. Kami only knew, after finding her—there wasn't much of anything he wouldn't do to keep that. "Not anything."
Falling asleep that night, with him drifting off before her. Kaoru had but a few seconds before a deep sleep, slithered across her conscious as it stole away the whispers of her abyss, encompassed in an all surrounding warmth—Kaoru didn't dream at all.
· · · · ·
Now threes days after. On a cold Thursday afternoon, Kenshin has stopped off at her old house to pick up her mail. Which she seems really grateful for after she opens her fathers' present. Not all surprised, Kenshin refrained from comment. He knew how she'd been brought up. So, as one of those who would now be competing in the events of this grand gestures, he merely paid attention to what she liked. As they drove back home, with her avid descriptions and few glances, Kenshin kept an eye on what she got.
It was when he was watching the road and switching lanes, that she turned to him. Stating confusion, as she handed him the package with the black baccara inside. She did not know what to make of it. But he knew, though he was reluctant to admit it. Preferring to have the S-9 labs look at it first. He switched lanes and ramps, heading downtown as she read her letter from Misao . . .
It wasn't till the car came to a stop that she noticed. Wondering what they were doing in Shinjuku still, he stated something vague, telling her he needed to drop something of was the easiest way he could tell her and still not lie. As he kissed her, distracting her while he hid the package behind his back was enough.
As she watched him leave her, distracted by the way his hair seem to waver in the breeze. She didn't notice the fading light too much until she turned back in her seat and tried to continue reading. When that was obviously not possible, she looked around, wondering where they were until she spotted her bank. And since it was but a few steps, she decided she'd just deposit her cousins check now.
It was oddly cold when she opened the door, despite it been winter, she wasn't anywhere near the northern part of the state and couldn't help but shiver as the blanketing cold around her seemed to run inside her clothes. As she made her way over to the atm, grumbling though she might have been, it didn't take her long to finish.
It was as she turned around to get back in to the car that everything seemed to slow. As the doors to the back blew open and she staggered back, coughing. Watching a cloud of dust slowly setting. Having it dissipate just seconds before man ran. Kaoru's vision refocused. Watching wearily understanding the thread he might pose . . . She did as he was told. Though as he neared her, trying to take her keys by force. Kaoru reacted out of instinct, performing as she been taught, so long ago. Shortly after her mother was gone and her father, had promised never to loose her a man such as that . . .
Kaoru knocked him out. And tried to call the police when a second man came out. Much more careful than the first, as he made her drop her phone before shooting. Trying to get her to toss her keys instead. She became worried. Maybe even a little more as he put his gun to the hollow of her throat.
But even as he took the keys from her. Kaoru's worry vanished with the sight of Kenshin. Watching him catch sight of them, seeing him draw out his gun. She could only think to call to him. Whispering his name . . .
Caught the thieves attention. As he turned, immediately seeing the red headed man. He hid behind her. Using her as a shield, while he figured out what car she'd been driven in. The idea to check the alarm came to him and once seeing the black sports cars' flashing light. He slowly made her walk out in front of him. Carefully, hidden just from view, he was smart enough to keep her angled just right. It wasn't till the very last moment, when he was getting ready to get into the car and was having a final look around that he peeked out from behind her.
And as the breeze slowed, catching sight of Kenshin hateful yellow gaze, Kaoru could only close her eyes. As the shot rang out, Kenshin's voice overshadowing the thick wet splash the bullet made behind her. She ran to him as he called her.
Though it was then, when his face suddenly changed. His expression becoming pale and horrified, that she stopped. Wondering why . . . he would at her like that when . . . Something caught her in the back. It must have . . . though she didn't understand. She was falling. As he shouted, running towards her as fast he could . . . in this life.
Her world suddenly lurched and she understood only that something had gone horribly wrong. Something maybe fate had not intended . . . Her thoughts could not finish then, as pain exploded along her senses, the rest of everything faded into darkness.
· · · · ·
Now after having read the story and the small I think there are certain things that must have become obvious to you, ne?
The dream for instance. After Kenshin proposed, when she fainted in his arms and returned once again to that haven her memories had created . . . It should seem odd, no, that he should appear like that again, hidden beneath a dark blanketing darkness, so much like before . . . When they hadn't yet met and it could be said still, that a part of him called out to her at night. But now . . . She's met him, touched him and talked to him. She has loved him.
So why . . . was that other one even there. This shadow . . . this echo of his past. And why most importantly still does the dream Kenshin seem to remember more than her present one . . .
Amidst all of this, what does a black baccara have to with things. Is it an omen, a joke perhaps . . . who sent it.
Kenshin suspects . . . Something but his thoughts are never revealed as to who he might think could be sending her flowers. What he does know, and always keeps in mind, is the incident with Kaoru's mother. Despite the neighborhood they'd lived in, she'd been followed, attacked and killed.
After Kenshin found this out, a little before housing with Kaoru in Kyoto, he swore to himself to be more careful than Kaoru's father had been with her mum. Only now as history seems to be trying to repeat itself. All he can do is take the proper precautions.
Though sadly, it's this precaution that ultimately leads to Kaoru's . . . injury.
ּ
ּ
ּ
ּ
ּ ּ ּ
ּ
ּ
ּ
ּ
Small Notes
ּ
ּ
Chapter 26
Back tracks just a bit. Continuing from Kenshin's point of view . . . As the thieve peeks out from behind her. He takes his shot. Killing him on the spot. As he calls out to her, waiting for his body to hit floor. He keeps his gun raised, waiting for her to come to him . . . Though its then, in waiting for her to reach him, that a look of abject horror crosses his face . . . unable to believe . . . the bullet caught her.
And as she begins to tumble, slowly falling to the ground, he can only run towards her, as he picks her and turns over, he becomes overwhelmed by the sight of too much blood. As he cradles her, beginning to feel too much, of soon to be all consuming grief, all he can is put his hand over her breast, trying most desperately to hold her blood back.
Crying over her pales face, the paramedics suddenly arrive. Taking her away while in a moment of grief, he turns on the source of his pain . . . Killing him immediately. Leaves the rest of the world in silence. As they watch him, slowly turn, watching the ambulance drive away . . .
The media once again intrudes . . . Though they are silent, catching as much of the moment, as they can. Watching his distraught pale face . . . and the unmistakable hatred in the depths of his dark yellow gaze, they can only watch.
As he turns, intent clear as he heads for his car . . . He is stopped by surrounding agents; arms raised, guns loaded. The PSB will not let him go. Even as he threatens them, knowing what his capable of . . . they make him stay behind. His only fleeting thought, remain with Kaoru and the hope that she would be all right. Because anything else . . . he knew, he wouldn't be able to ever.
· · · · ·
Aa he arrives at the hospital, finding Kamiya Kenji already there; hostile and full of grief. He is both, stricken and suddenly angered. Overhearing his remarks to against her wishes . . .
Kaoru interrupts there argument, as her eyes flutter open, revealing sad, dark eyes. His heart is quieted. For a moment, watching her talk to her father . . . dismissing him to remain alone . . . He feels the sting of tears rising inside him again.
Watching her cry . . . openly confessing her love. He begins to cry as well, as the world fades away, leaving them alone . . . He knows he cannot bear this. To hear cry out in pain . . . speaking to him in riddles he doesn't understand.
Kaoru's binds finally shatter . . . and in that moment, as too much pain and love overwhelm her . . . She passes on. Taking with her, the need to live and love, as sanity overtakes him. He shakes her, crying and whispering, hoping to coax her eyes open. As he breaths in to her mouth, lips soft and caressing against . . . Until he's pulled off. And wrestled to the floor as the doctors Tae went to get, arrive in time to try to resuscitate her. He struggles, needing to be with her, to hold her hand . . . He can't stop fighting and it becomes only too obvious to the others as well.
When he's injected, realizing too late, he begins to fall, succumbing to the rising darkness all around him until he hears . . . the whispers of her voice . . . Her only breath upon being brought back annunciates his name. Giving him strength, in world turned cold. And something in her passing, begins to stirs his soul . . . Something in his previous lifetime, in knowing he was the cause . . . the Kenshin we know . . . the rurouni who'd love his Kaoru, releases himself in the present Kenshin. As his ki rises, unleashes the strength that once named him Battousai. Kenshin finds the will to rise. And return to her side.
But it's Kenji's which stops him, laying the blame solely on him. Kenshin wavers, knowing it to be at least partly true makes him suddenly angry. As he faces the older man, claiming her as his. He promises Kaoru would be buried with him and him alone.
As he leaves, stalking off in anger. Kenshin does not think, feeling the rising darkness trying to overcome him. He finds solace in the shadows of an empty chapel. Still quite unable to comprehend . . . the sudden turn of events.
Remembering her . . . only makes him want to die. And as he pulls out his gun, counting how many bullets he has left. He decides, without her . . . life would not be worth living so . . . as he's about to put the clip back in his gun and do it.
A little girl wonders in, offering him a treat that only makes things worse, as he chokes on memory of her love for sweets. The little introduces herself . . . as Kaiya, which is so familiar to him . . . He recognizes it as he remembers Kaoru once having said that had been her mothers name.
Insistent . . . the little girl got him to eat the cookie, promises it'd all be all right. Kenshin felt himself begin to drift, and as he turned towards the door, seeing the child he could have had with Kaoru . . . She smiles, calling by name . . . when he never introduced himself but it's too late to ask now . . . As Kenshin falls asleep, everything he knew, fades in to darkness . . .
· · · · ·
When he awakes again, feeling ghostly pain and grief, veil around him. Kenshin knows it was all a dream. Everything he had lived . . . her dying, it was all a dream that night but even while knowing it, it hadn't been enough to keep him from crying.
His thoughts are interrupted then as his unit is called out into the field and we see, as if a camera were zooming out. A thirty-six year old Kenshin, still a member of the Kagemusha. Leader now, as we see him reading off a clip, explaining there assignments as they drive off towards the embassy.
· · · · ·
And now, at the end of summer as Kaoru graduates a whole semester early. We see her father, sad and lonely, reminiscing about her youth . . . remembering when she was still just a child.
It's there, on top of a little hill that she finds him and smiles, comforting him as only she can. Before slowly leading him away back towards the car.
It's there however, on their drive to a celebratory dinner that she falls asleep and Keji realizes how selfish he must still be . . . keeping her out, when he knew she was so exhausted still. He sighs and decides to pick up take out instead. Before driving her back to her apartment.
When awakes from her nap, finding her father gone, she yawns and stretches, looking around to make sure he's got the keys before, rising and exiting the car.
As she stands outside, noting the oddity of the day. She feels a chill run through her. Feeling something . . . she couldn't quite place in to words. She sighs and dismisses the idea, entering the restaurant, greeting Maekawa as she takes a seat. She lets herself be cuddles by her father still.
· · · · ·
That same day, later in the afternoon, she realizes she still had the instructors book to buy. And so, dashes out of her house to the library she'd always bought her books from.
When she crashes into someone, she seems to almost fall back when a set of strong arms, grasp her suddenly, holding her securely a moment or so before slowly letting go. As she looks up at her rescuer, Kaoru is struck dumb by something in his eyes. And she gazes at the rest of him, something in her stirs. Watching his mouth curve into a smile.
He asks for her name.
Unaware of how much is revealed when she announces it's Kaoru. Like the empress, he can't help but say. As she watches, something, flicker across his gaze. She nods, smiling a most disarming smile. Asking him if he knows the story.
Sadly it seems, he does not.
Before she can think then, words of invite are coming out of her mouth. Asking him if he'd like to have dinner with her . . . He smiles and almost immediately agrees, answering her in such a dark silky tone. Kaoru feels her heart might actually stop.
As she turns, happily beginning to walk away. She realizes she does not know his name and turns back. Asking him.
He answered her simply; Himura . . . Himura Kenshin. Wondering if she remembered . . . watching her test it. Saying it softly. He knew she did not.
But that didn't matter, anymore. She was alive and happy. Free of the pain he had caused her. Even at the expense of his own. He could not begrudge her. He already loved her.
And now, with this second chance handed down to him. He would make her fall in love with him before she even realized who he was. He thought, smiling. Before slowly turning away.
ּ
ּ
ּ
ּ
ּ ּ ּ
ּ
ּ
ּ
ּ
Small Notes
ּ
ּ
Epilogue
Begins with Kenshin being asleep and as Wei, Kaoru's old teacher (from DK:BB), and now friend finishes up a spell to bind his dream of their past.
While Kaoru can only watch from a distance. Waiting for her to join her, so that together they may walk out.
Outside the room, bidding each other farewell. Wei seems like she might tell Kaoru something else . . . When she turns to ask her about having her dream bound as well. She is wondering if she should tell her how he came to have that dream . . . But when Kaoru refuses, choosing to remember the ghostly pain of betrayal she once felt at being abandoned by him . . . Now healed by the torment she'd made him suffer . . . She would not let it go.
And so, Wei decided, since she had no memory really, of her other past self's it be safe enough to let it be. Hugging her goodbye. Wei left, knowing she wouldn't ever see her again until the next life, where even Wei couldn't imagine what the hands of destiny might reveal.
As Kaoru turned back, all ready preoccupied by thoughts of a red headed man. She slowly crept back into the room. Watching him asleep. She couldn't help but smile. Even more when he murmured her name and she realized he dreamt about her still. In what way . . . Kaoru did not bother to think about. As she jumped on him.
Starling him out of sleep. She began to laugh. As he turned angry eyes on her, she merely laughed a little louder, smiling against his throat until he physically removed her from her hiding spot.
And flung her on the bed, with such strength, her laughter subsided. Watching him, feeling his warmth suddenly all around her, she could barely comprehend him telling her she needed discipline. Before he crushed her down against the bed. Kissing her so passionately. She forgot why she'd woken him up in the first place.
Which wasn't so much what he'd intended to do. As he pulled back, asking her why she'd had to wake him in such a way . . . She was in no state to answer him, trying to draw him back instead. He laughed and rolled off of her before she coerced a different type of response.
More than a little annoyed, Kaoru begrudgingly rose off the bed and kicked his door before going out into the kitchen to stuff her face. She had but barely taken out her favorite box of donuts when he suddenly came up behind her, scaring her so much, she dropped her donut.
She would have gotten angry again if hadn't been so quick to silence the litany of words she'd had in mind. Though as he kissed, barely allowing her a chance to breath before he crushed his lips against her throat again. Kaoru seemed to loose all resistance. Even as he asked her about the bracelet, his insistence actions made her forget but his name . . .
Until hours later when she dragged him out of the house. Remembering they had planned to buy the babies furnishings that day. She dragged him around from store to store, until well into the night.
When they returned home, as he set down, many of the bags he'd carried around most of the day. He looked around at all the things she'd bought baby. Thinking about how much she loved the baby and all the siblings she'd promised him . . . He remembered what she'd always said about her name. The ways she'd always introduced herself . . .
He left the nursery hoping to finally hear the story. And as he entered their bedroom, watching her fold a couple of shirts into a drawer while he settle back against the bed. She began speaking to him about moving, which was find with him. As long they were together . . . He wouldn't have cared if she'd suddenly decided they go live in a dojo bearing her name.
When he didn't respond to her musings, she turned around regarding him a mere second before her brow began to crease. He knew something of his thoughts must have shown and immediately closed of his expression. As she neared him, he said it was fine. If she wanted to move. They could.
Wondering if he were really being sincere, Kaoru neared the bed a bit more, enough for him to grasp her arm and pull her down. As she landed on top of him, a little embarrassed by the shrill scream she'd just had scarred out of her. He smiled, using an oh-so-casual tone, he asked her to tell him the story about the Empress, she'd always mentioned.
After of moment of inner wandering, Kaoru decided he was merely curious and so, settled nicely against him before she began her story. Not exactly as it had been but more . . . in a sort of abbreviated type of summary. As she recounted bits of her childhood and then her departure from her fathers land. She watched him from the side of her eye.
Recounting her moments before being married to the emperor, her smile turned sad. Remembering, as she told him about their first introduction. As protector and sovereign, how her way of thinking had twisted their relationship to one of dominance and obedience. To a loyalty and love that would all later come. She remembered . . . how he didn't know. That her beauty, for all its revered account, hid something dark, a cruelty and temper, he would later come to know, but as it was, when they first met he felt his heart stop. She said, watching his eyes begin to close.
She knew he was tired.
Still, she continued telling him how despite being young . . . He was beautiful and how her smile, always just for him, was all it took to seal his fate. As he bowed to her . . . "the would–be–empress," she murmured, softly stroking his hair. "Is how the story truly began . . ."
ּ
ּ
ּ
ּ ּ ּ
ּ
ּ
ּ
There isn't much more I can say in regards to The Impious Empress without giving a way much of the beginning. Which of yet remains in my head and few pieces of paper. Which isn't too say I haven't written anything I have, I've just skipped tons of chapters, writing out certain other ones instead.
You'll see what I mean when you begin to read it.
All right, well that should have answered most of your questions but if you still any others please feel free to email me, okay. Ja!