Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin.
Being the Target
By: LilBlueFairy
The old 1992 Toyota Corolla named Rusty puttered happily down the darkened streets of Kyoto. Its cherry red coat was sadly chipping away and if you looked close enough you could see duck tape fastened to the side-view mirrors. But despite its ragged appearance it was still in good working condition, well good enough condition to get Kaoru out of the city.
Yep, Kaoru was leaving. It was just this afternoon that she finished her final exam for the year and called up her boss to declare that she would be using her vacation time that she had saved up all year.
Of course, she called Sano to make sure he would grab her mail and left a post-it note on Misao's forehead to let her know that Kaoru had taken her car and some money to make the trip.
Kaoru laughed happily as she recalled trying to wake the undead girl. Not even the smell of coffee woke the caffeine-addicted weasel. Kaoru finally gave up after a half-hour of attempts and merely left a post-it on the seemingly dead girl's face.
Kaoru's suddenly jovial mood soon faded away in to sorrow as she recalled her and her friend's new predicament. It hadn't even been a week since she met that fiery red-headed vamp and already her life was slowly dissolving away from her.
It seemed that supernatural forces were determined to break her. Only her love of peach rings were her saving grace. In fact, five bags of the sweet salvation sat in her front passenger's seat.
Kaoru's mouth soon filled with saliva at the thought of the sweetness that awaited her at the next stop light. Yes, she could make it to the next stop light before opening one of the bags!
Of course it hadn't been but five minutes since she left her friend's apartment but that wasn't the point! She could make it. But oh! How she longed to chew on the lovely gummy substance.
Seconds trinkled into a minute. Kaoru's blue eyes darted back and forth from the street to the siren-like candy. Her knuckles whitened as she tried to keep her resolve. It wasn't long before small beads of sweat began to form on Kaoru's brow.
That's it! Kaoru's hand shot out to grab one of the tempting bags. Kaoru's eyes never left the road till fate decided to laugh at her once again and send a deadly taxi whizzing infront of her.
Kaoru quickly stomped on the break, sending her sweet treats farther from her. Kaoru took in a large breath of air to calm her shaking nerves as she drove on to the rapidly approaching stop light.
When she finally reached the light and came to a stop, Kaoru glanced down to see that her precious cargo had fallen the farthest it could have possibly gone.
With a longing glance, Kaoru quickly looked at the light to see that it was still red. So with a new spirit filled with determination Kaoru quickly unbuckled herself and reached over into the floorboard to grab one of the tempting bags.
A loud obnoxious sound of a horn blaring quickly shocked Kaoru into sitting up, hitting her head on her steering wheel during the processes. Throwing a few choice words at the cars behind her, Kaoru lightly pressed on the gas and continued her journey down the road.
So far this road trip sucked, but Kaoru wasn't going to get down. Oh no! She had made sure to bring her favorite cassette tape of her favorite tunes. Happily loading the stereo, Kaoru pressed on in her journey to escape Kyoto.
Kenshin narrowed his cold eyes as he flicked the last remains of his target off of his sword. The silent scream that the unfortunate target tried to release would now never escape his features.
It was because of this imbecile that he had to put off his pursuit of his pet for a night. The traitor had managed to escape him briefly but only because he thought he had smelled a whiff of jasmine which temporarily broke his concentration. The thought of his unclaimed mate filled his head allowing the small amount of time to escape. But that was a terrible mistake.
A mistake of the target's that is.
By running like the coward he was proven to be, he only fueled the Battousai's anger, ensuring a slow, painful, and cruel death.
Enough of wasting our thoughts. We have more important matters to attend too. A dark voice muttered in Kenshin's head. Agreeing with the Battousai, Kenshin quickly made his way to Tsukikage.
Once arriving at the crowded bar, Kenshin allowed his dark presence to drift over the area, letting the vampires in the area know that he was around and was not to be messed with.
A small pathway formed, as he headed towards the dark bar in the back. A small smile played upon his lips as he thought about his pet's reaction to him coming to her place of work.
Of course, her reaction wouldn't matter because he would quickly toss her over his shoulder and take her to a more private place so that they could get better 'acquainted.'
As Kenshin's mood lightened with his thoughts, his steps became lighter and a more gentle mood settled over the place. Well, until he noticed a scrawny little man standing where his beautiful pet should have been.
His fangs lengthened and red began to creep into his vision. Where is she! He angrily thought as he searched for her aura. It wasn't until a tall well-built chest filled his vision that he was aware that he was growling.
"And what do I owe the pleasure, baka-denshi?" asked a gruff voice.
The low familiar voice filled Kenshin's clouded mind and soon Battousai was in control.
"Hiko."
The tall familiar drunk form of Hiko quickly led Kenshin into a secluded backroom. After shutting the door, Hiko made his way to a large desk placed in the center of the room with a large bottle of sake placed on top.
Hiko offered some to Kenshin, who coldly refused, and then downed part of the bottle himself. "So what can I do for you?"
"Where is your normal bartender?"
"Ah, you mean the raccoon-girl?"
Kenshin growled angrily. "Kaoru. I wish to know the whereabouts of Kaoru."
Hiko gave a mysterious smile and downed more of his drink. "She's gone."
Kenshin's muscles were drawn tightly from constraint. "Is that so?"
"Yes, baka-denshi, it is. So if you would please retract your aura and stop threatening my customers. It would be appreciated."
Hiko smiled smugly as he took another swig. Kenshin glared coldly at his former master. "Do you know where she has gone?"
"Nope. Just decided to suddenly get out of town. I wonder why…" He gave a pointed-look at Kenshin.
Kenshin clenched his fists so tightly that a small trail of blood leaked out from his fingers. He quickly turned around but stopped as he heard the jingling of keys.
"Just go easy on the girl. She's the best barkeep I've got. Not to mention, I've grown attached to her and her drinks."
Kenshin glanced back at Hiko with a cold but understanding glance. Before Hiko knew it, the keys had left his grasp, the door to the loud club was swinging open, and his baka-denshi was no where in sight.
Kenshin felt the Porsche Carrera GT roar to life and then settle down to a steady purr. He slammed upon the gas pedal and took off out of the nearby parking garage that Hiko had his car parked at. His fists tightly clutched the stick shift and the steering wheel.
How dare his pet leave him! She was HIS dammit! She could never escape him. When she decided to chuck that ridiculous bottle of Listerine at his head she had sealed her fate. It was either death or possession and the last idea seemed so much more pleasurable for once.
Kenshin's mental ranting continued until his mind started singing a strange tune.
"Ain't no valley low enough! Ain't no river wide enough! To keep me from getting to you baby!"
Wait a minute that isn't my voice… Kenshin's eyes shot open widely as he recognized the true owner's voice.
Kaoru.
Kaoru had finally achieved in her goal of grabbing her sweet temptationafter nearly crushing one unfortunate hobo and almost giving Rusty somenew paint designs from a lovely lightpole.But that wasn't even the best part!
Shehad made it past Misao's neighborhood relatively vampire free. Well, there was this one jerk with really creepy turquoise eyes that ran out in front of her car, but he ran off quickly when she laid into her horn.
It was when she passed her bar that she got some bad vibes. For some reason when she drove past her place of work her bracelet came unclasped and the cassette tape started skipping briefly. But the worst thing that had happened was when she dropped one of her sweet peach rings underneath the seat, forever loosing it to Rusty's grungy underworld.
If those weren't bad omens, then I don't know what is.
Karou decided to quickly speed past the bar and its negative vibes before she had to suffer through another loss of a peach ring.
As soon as she passed the bar her tape resumed its perfect quality and she was able to re-clasp her bracelet effectively without getting into a crash.
It was then that she noticed she had made it almost halfway through the city. Yes! I'm almost out!
Kaoru's light-heartiness soon seemed to burst out in song as she joined in with Diana Ross.
"If you need me, call me. No matter where you are, no matter how far. Just call my name. I'll be there in a hurry. On that you can depend and never worry," Kaoru sang loudly.
It didn't matter that she really couldn't keep pitch, hada mass of sugary goo dissolvingin her mouth,or made the local dogs howl when she drove by. She was just too happy.
Kaoru sang on as she sped through the night. Eventually her enthusiasm let to an impromptu dance in the seat of her car. Her arms swinging ridiculously back and forth to the beat and her head bouncing happily side to side. She was free!
Free from insanely hard exams! Free from dealing with perverted drunks! Free from pounding Rooster-headed freeloaders! Free from scary, obsessive red-heads! She was free!
Kaoru stopped at a busy intersection and began to pour her heart into her most favorite part of the song. With her body moving happily back and forth and a gigantic idiotic smile on her face, Kaoru sang and danced with all that she had.
"Ain't no mountain high enough! Ain't no valley low enough! Ain't no river wide enough! To keep me from you, baby!"
As the chorus came back in, Kaoru started singing and dancing once again but suddenly a weird shift in the atmosphere happened.
Kaoru started shifting her eyes around and noticed that the world seemed brighter. Maybe its my good mood! She thought happily. She noticed she could see people's faces inside their normally extremely dark cars and that she could tell what kind of people were walking the streets.
Fun! She thought innocently. She began to drive again and noticed that there was another stoplight coming up. She stopped happily and once again joined in with Diana Ross on the chorus.
"Ain't no mountain high enough! Ain't no valley low enough! Ain't no river wide enough! To keep me from you, baby!"
She was dancing around happily and started to look around again as she was sing and dancing, repeating the end of the song with Diana Ross.
"Ain't no mountain high enough! Ain't no valley low enough! Ain't no river wide enough! To keep me from you, ba…"
The words quickly died on her lips, her once active body suddenly sat rigid, and her heart seemed to thump even harder in fear. In the car right next to her sat Battousai.
And he was smiling.
Hi everyone! I'm back! Sorry for the extermely long wait. I hope there will never be a wait that long ever EVER again! I'm trying to update my stories so if you've read any other of my works you won't have to wait too long. I know this chapter is a bit short but I'm really trying so please forgive me. I'm also considering reworking the beginning before I continue on with the plotline. Some of my awesome readers have pointed out some mistakes that I really would like to correct and fix. Also, if I do this Imight change up the beginning as well. It doesn't seem to flow very well and that really bugs me. Well, I've missed you guys! And I promise that as soon as I have my stories updated that I will reply to your reviews. This includes the reviews from past chapters as well! Thanks for all your support.
Sincerely,
LilBlueFairy