The Kamiya Kasshin Ryu is based upon the principal that a sword should only 
ever be drawn in the act of protecting and a life should never be taken, 
right?  But, what if something went wrong... could you be forgiven?  Could 
you forgive yourself?

************************************

"Don't let the little bitch get away!"

A barrage of stomping feet passed just in front of the hiding spot where a 
timid girl lay in a huddled mass.  Her gasping breaths coming out in short 
spurts for she was afraid that any more sound would give off her cover.

"Down this way!"

She held her breath as two more of the thugs passed her hiding spot 
underneath the porch of a local business.

*I can't...,* she thought. *I can't be caught!  I can't go back... mama.*

She nearly jumped out of her skin as a hand grabbed at her throat, and two 
wicked looking eyes bore into her.

"So here you are you little slut! You think you could escape?  Think 
again...," the thug said as he smiled menacingly at the girl and closed in.

She tried to scream but the only sound she made was a pathetic choke and 
blackness covered her vision.

*Someone... Someone HELP ME!!*

************************************
Based on the anime/manga Rurouni Kenshin

Cruel Twist of Fate: Chapter 1
************************************

"Ja, Tae-san!  Thanks again for the great sukiyaki!"  Kaoru exclaimed 
happily as she exited the Akebeko.  A large smile had imprinted itself on 
her lips as she rubbed her full stomach in satisfaction.  A scowl crossed 
her face as she thought of the berate of insults she would get from her 
student. She could just imagine the mocking tone in Yahiko's voice when she 
stepped through the dojou gate, *You'll be too fat to teach me if you eat 
anymore!*

Kaoru clenched her fists in frustration.  *If he thinks he can say something 
like that to his instructor, he's got another thing coming!*she thought 
wickedly as images formed in her mind of the punishment she could dole out. 
*500 reps, cleaning the dojou... or even worse!  No visiting Tsubame-chan 
for two ENTIRE weeks!*

She was about to let out a laugh that would have put Megumi to shame, if two 
dirt laden gangsters nearly bowled her over while running past.  She flailed 
her arms wildly to keep her balance and finally achieved it after a moment.  
Once she regained her bearings, she let out a blood-chilling growl.

"MOU!  How dare they...!?" She stopped herself short as her acute sense of 
hearing picked up a small cry.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she tore off  after the two gangsters.

************************************

"Hey guys!  Found the little rat hiding under that porch right there.  She's 
more trouble than she's worth if you ask me!"  The brute called out to his 
fellow gang members, towing a girl behind him around the age of 14 who had 
now become limp with lack of oxygen.  The crude man threw her to the ground 
with and audible *thump* and kicked her in the ribs to prove his point.  The 
girl, despite her lack of consciousness, let out a moan of pain and a few 
tears spilled down her face.

"So what should we do with her, Mamiya-taicho??"  One of the gruff guys 
asked, eyeing the girl hungrily.

"The okashira wants her alive, but we do to her in the mean time is our own 
business," Mamiya finished, a lecherous grin spreading itself across his 
cracked lips.  He kneeled down and ran his fingers over her tear stained 
face, making his way down to her neck.

"This bitch caused me a lot of trouble.  Time to have some fun boys."

************************************

Kaoru's eyes widened in total disbelief as the men circled around the young 
girls prone body.

*No way!* she screamed through her mind  *Kenshin could help.  No, it will 
take to long.  I won't forgive them if they hurt her!*

Without anymore hesitation she stormed forward with a mighty battle cry, 
throwing herself into the nearest thug with the momentum she gained.  The 
burly man went flying past the girl and into two of his buddies.

"What the hell?!"

"It's another bitch!  Get her as well as the girl!  Okashira will pay us 
double!"

"That younger girl is not as hot as this one.  We'll have to have fun with 
her as well!"

Kaoru gulped.  Okay, so it wasn't such a good plan as she previously 
thought, but at least now the attention was off the younger girl which could 
give her a chance to get away.  The Kamiya Kasshin Ryu didn't just have 
attacks dealing with shinai or bokken anyway.  Her father had taught her a 
few kenpo and judo moves, and these guys didn't look like much.  But still, 
she was a little rusty with her martial arts, and her sword skills surpassed 
her hand-to-hand fighting any day.  Her kimono was also restricting her 
movements.  Still, she had to give the girl a chance to escape.

"You guys think I'm just some helpless woman?!" Kaoru cried out with as much 
courage as she could muster, "I'll show you what the beautiful master of 
Kasshin Ryu can really do!"

Kaoru counted six of them.  One armed with a wakizashi, some with brass 
knuckles, and a few with tants.  But one in particular caught her eye.  A 
man with a bokken strapped to his back.  If she could get to him and use the 
wooden sword, there was no way they could beat her.

"So, the woman wants a fight?  We'll give you one, and we'll take you in 
return!"

************************************

"Oro?"

"Che, Kenshin.  Listen to me for once!"  Sanosuke complained.

"Ah, forgive me, Sano.  What did you say de gozaru ka?" Kenshin asked 
politely as he snapped a piece of white cloth from the laundry.

"I SAID Jou-chan's been gone for a while.  Don't you think you should go 
look for her?"  Sano asked as he lounged back on his elbows, "She was going 
to buy tofu and she's been gone for a good 3 hours now!"

"Kaoru-dono probably just stopped in to see Tae-dono and Tsubame-dono.  I'm 
sure she'll be back soon de gozaru," Kenshin said contentedly as her went 
back to his laundry.

"Kenshin, you don't seem to understand me," Sanosuke said while grabbing 
Kenshin by the collar, "I'M HUNGRY!!"

"Maa maa," Kenshin sweatdropped, "We ARE freeloading here."

"KENSHIN!"

"OROoooo... I'll go I'll go!"  Kenshin sputtered as he took off through the 
dojou gates.

************************************

Kaoru smiled in triumph as the second man fell to the ground, moaning in 
pain.

*It's not so hard!  I can do this!*

"Y-you bitch!  GET HER!!"  Mamiya commanded, sending his men towards Kaoru 
in a blind rage.

*Him!* thought Kaoru as she dodged to the side just as the man with the 
bokken past her to the left.  She quickly made use of his distraction to 
snatch the wooden sword off his back, and with blurred movement hit the man 
at the nape of his neck.  The man fell down as fast as a pile of bricks.

"Well don't just stand there gawking!  Think of the money!!"  The leader 
yelled to his men who became weary as they eyed their two buddies who lay 
sprawled on the ground.

Kaoru grinned as she saw the apprehension on her attackers faces.  She knew 
the basic principles of battle like the back of her hand and she knew that 
if you were distracted by emotion, you were as good as defeated.

Three men down, only three to go.  Now that she had a bokken she could 
easily take the two henchmen out easily.  Which would only leave their boss. 
  This fight was hers.

************************************

Aya woke with the most excruciating pain surging through her entire body.  
It hurt to breath, let alone move.  She cautiously opened her eyes, not 
wanting the men who were chasing her know she was awake in fear that they 
might start to beat her again.  It was cowardly, but she couldn't do 
anything else.

"Well don't just stand there gawking!  Think of the money!!"

She blinked.  Okane?  What were they talking about?

She carefully moved her head to the side to see three of her attackers 
laying unconscious on the ground, the other three occupied with someone.  A 
beautiful woman with long, flowing black hair and the most azure blue eyes 
she had ever seen.  An angel of mercy?

Her thought quickly dissipated as the woman let out a ferocious battle cry 
and leapt towards the men with blinding speed.  The two men in front held up 
their hands in defense but were too slow to fight off their opponent as they 
slumped to the ground with big welts on the sides of their necks.

Someone had answered her call.

************************************

"I was in a bad mood since you guy ran into me!  Now I'll take out my 
frustrations on you," Kaoru said with a mocking smile.

"N-no way!  How could one woman take out my men?!  You'll pay for this!!" 
Mamiya screamed in rage while extracting a twin set of wicked looking 
daggers from his hakama.  "Now you'll see why the Okashira thinks so highly 
of me!  No one has ever been up against my Kurai ryu and survived to tell 
about it!  They thirst for your blood!!"

Kaoru dropped into a basic passive stance. *The principle of his attacks is 
to use force to get within an opponents defense and use incredible strength 
to attack.  So, to possibly get a chance to attack he has to be close.  His 
body mass won't let him move as fast as me, which means if he can't get 
close, he won't be able to touch me!*

Kaoru smirked.  "I'm ready!  I won't let some creep who has to pick on a 
defenseless child to show off beat me!"

"I'll show you who will win!  HYAAAAAAAAAAAA--!"

************************************

"Arigatou, Tae-dono," Kenshin bowed formally and took his leave from the 
Akebeko.  He had searched the market and even went to see if she was 
visiting Tae-dono, but Kaoru-dono was no where to be found.  Not that she 
couldn't take care of herself, but when you have a man like Sanosuke at your 
house with an empty stomach, it's not always pleasant.  It looked like it 
would be leftovers and pickles for dinner if Kaoru-dono didn't get back home 
soon.

"HYAAAAAAAAAAAA--!"

"Oro?"  Kenshin quirked in surprise as he heard a battle call from an 
adjacent alley.  Making his way stealthily to the corner he peaked around.  
To his horror he found Kaoru being charged at by another man with two nasty 
looking daggers.  His first instinct was to jump into the fight to protect 
her.  But, his second judgement kept him hidden.  He saw the men sprawled 
all around them, with exception of one girl and the man attacking Kaoru 
seemed unskilled and left a lot of openings.  If he jumped in now it would 
hurt Kaoru's pride as a budo master needlessly.  She was good with a bokken 
and could take the man out with minimal amount of skill.

He watched in anticipation as the man charged Kaoru, quite sloppily from his 
perspective it seemed.  But, from the eye of the Hitokiri Battousai, most 
seem sloppy.

Kaoru crouched lower as the man approached, the cocky smirk not leaving her 
face for a second, which made Kenshin slightly smile.  She was always 
confident, and cheerful.  He didn't mean to make her worry.  The last person 
on earth he would want to make worry was Kaoru...do...no...

There was a flash of steal.

"KAORU-DONO!!!!!"

************************************

Kaoru let her stance slip a little as her attacker neared.  His form was 
off, obviously enraged by her.  By getting himself worked up over Kaoru, his 
true ken-ki potential is hindered.

"KAORU-DONO!!!!!"

Once Mamiya was one meter away Kaoru spotted an opening in his mid-section 
and in one quick motion Kaoru was rolling past her attacker, while he was on 
the ground holding his stomach in pain.  Kaoru quickly raised to her feet 
after hearing Kenshin cry her name.

"Kenshin!" she said excitedly, "What are you doing...here...?  Kenshin?"

But Kenshin was motionless, his eyes wide with fright, his head shaking 
slowly from side to side.

Then she smelled it.  It filled her nose enough to make her stomach turn.  
Blood, the stench of blood.  Funny, she didn't hit that hard, so why...  
Kaoru turned to see the extent of the damage when Kenshin quickly stepped in 
front of her and spoke with fear in his voice.

"Kaoru-dono, don't look," he said while kneeling in front of her.  "Don't 
look."

Kaoru's eyebrows knotted as she tried to grasp exactly what was going on, 
"Kenshin, what?  I don't..." and then she spotted it.  The sword she still 
griped in her palm was laced with blood.  It's shiney surface only dulled by 
the crimson life that spread over it.  Wait.  Shiney?  She didn't get it.  A 
bokken was wood wasn't it?  She took a look past Kenshin to the back of the 
back who she had taken down and saw a wooden sheath laying just past him.  A 
concealed weapon.  What looked like a somewhat harmless looking wooden sword 
was a real katana.  A blood-covered one at that.

Kaoru's eyes widened as the realization of the situation sank in.  The man 
had long since stopped moving, his body surrounded in a thick pool of blood.

"No...," she whimpered.  It wasn't happening.  It just wasn't happening.  It 
was some horrible dream that she would wake up from, and she would here 
Yahiko calling her ugly and Kenshin calling from the kitchen that breakfast 
was ready.

But no matter how hard she wanted it to be only a dream, it wasn't.  This 
was real life, and she had just taken the life of another.  She numbly felt 
Kenshin's arms wrap around her shoulders, urging her to snap out of it and 
telling her to look away.  But she couldn't pry her eyes away from the 
morbid scene.  Then, as she finally slipped into the welcome arms of 
unconciousness, she could almost see her fathers face form in front of her.  
She reached her arms up to him, begging for his forgiveness, but the blood 
swallowed him up and he was gone.

So Kamiya Kaoru finally fell into waiting arms of Kenshin, with tears 
falling down her face and one question in her mind.  Could she be forgiven?


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