Disclaimer: I don’t own Rurouni Kenshin.

Well, my last chapter definitely sucked horrible. Apparently I can’t write in a five year old’s point of view. --

But anyway. I’m bored out of my mind. It’s mother’s day. A mother’s day from Hell. And no one’s read my story. –cries– But hopefully someone will soon. But I have a story line for the past anyway. Hope it’ll work out.

And the reason there are no breaks or squiggly dashes is because they won’t copy over to fanfiction. And if you hadn’t noticed, they story is largely focused on Tadae. I’ve had someone comment on that already, stupidly asking me why Sano isn’t there when it isn’t even his time frame. People can be idiots.

Kyoto

The night was darkened with rain. And with the rain, ran blood, coloring the water red. I was in an alley. Behind me, I heard the clash of swords. Every pathetic person I was told was evil and deserved to die fell dead in my wake. I was still getting used to the feeling again, the feeling of playing god. Who were we to decide who belong in Heaven or Hell, who was allowed to take another breath? But in the end there’s one thing I’ve truthfully realized.

Until the age comes, I won’t let myself care.

I looked over and watched and Tadae leaned herself against the brick wall of a building. Maybe a restaurant, maybe a school. But in the end, it didn’t matter. Tadae flicked the blood of her sword like it was no big deal. Her eyes held that cold look that probably never go away. So different. But she sure knew how to do it. Thirty men and together we took them down in under two minutes. I wasn’t even sure who hit who, but what was more important was the result.

“You live up to your name, Battousai-san,” she stated with a grin. She relaxed and she sheathed her katana the same time that I did. I smiled faintly as I looked down at myself. Not a drop of blood, which meant one less piece of clothing ruined. Choi, the woman in charge of the washing, would have personally had my head if I stained another thing.

“As do you, Kira-chan.” She smirked.

Katsura’s new clean-up-the-mess man came out of nowhere. “You two should go back to the inn,” he said, already worked up, directing the other three men about what to do and how to do and where to put what. Smart guy, new what he was doing. But so did the last one.

“Well, that was certainly easy,” Tadae commented lightly, reaching over with her hand to cover the cut. It wasn’t a bad wound, but it was still there. And there were various other small scars decorating her neck. Apparently being small wasn’t always a good thing. Not in her case anyway.

I shrugged. “I guess. At least we aren’t covered in blood.” Even at the statement, I inwardly shivered. As much as I tried to ignore it, I was a murder. A cold-blooded, heartless murder. There’s a thin line between a killer and an assassin. I’d crossed that line a while ago.

“You mean you aren’t.” Tadae pulled her hand away from her neck and looked at the red liquid seeping though her fingers. “That last bodyguard sliced straight down into my neck. I managed to trap myself in the corner of that alley. He was too big for me to get out.” A scowl decorated her features. I decided against pointing out the other scars I noticed in the same place. I had a feeling she’d been caught that way before.

We were quiet the rest of the way. I wasn’t much of a talker and I had discovered that she would talk a lot at one time, but after that, her mouth stayed shut. And she only ever talked to me. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was scared of everyone else. Katsura-san even pulled me aside one day to ask about it. People may have been afraid of me, but they just wondered what was wrong with her. A question I’d asked myself may times since we first met, since Hiko-sensei agreed to teach her. Something which took about two months of begging on her part. I used to think that teaching her was a good idea because I believed in revenge. But maybe it wasn’t after all.

The reprimands began the moment Achika and Choi saw the blood.

“I told you assassin to keep your clothes clean!” Choi yelled, right in Tadae’s face. I quietly sneaked away, unnoticed.

A small sigh escaped my lips as I entered my room. My eyes shut and I sunk down when I reached the window. I was so tired as of late. So ready to sleep. I was so scared of death, but I wished I could sleep forever. Sleep through this all, all this pain and misery. Just miss the cries of Japans as it falls to the ground, covered in its chaos. It was a world where the inhuman was considered human. I didn’t want to wake up until that new age was brought about. If it ever did. And maybe it wouldn’t. I wondered what it would be like to sleep forever. Not die, no go to Heaven or Hell, but just to sleep, to rest. Because even in Hell, there would be no rest. My fighting would go on, and it would turn into a constant battle with the Devil. A dance of deceptions, much like the ones I was living now.

So I shut my eyes and slowly, I drifted off. Nightmares took over. Even in sleep, Hell found its way to torture me.

A Week Later

Tadae and I were in the market around midday. When day was still light, Kyoto didn’t look like a city at war. Kids laughed, playing in the streets. Mothers gossiped as they watched, chatting on about anything and everything scandalizes. And there was quite a lot of that. I caught enough bits and pieces to pretty much know everything that went on in Kyoto. Though I avoided people as much as I possibly could, I found going to the market calming, usually just coming to buy food for the inn or something else to help out.

But today Okami-dono had demanded Tadae to buy herself new clothing and for me to occupy her. Only a month after her arrival and already Choi and Achika were fed up with the amount of blood that constantly bleed from her shoulder onto the kimonos. I was honestly started wondering if she purposely allowed herself to receive a cut in the same place time and time again. If so, whatever she was trying to achieve was working. The men we took down just assumed she was weak because she was a girl. And it was my guess that letting a hit be taken was meant to raise their cockiness. It made them so much easier to take down. Which honestly just meant one thing.

Manipulation and speed were what kept her going.

“You’re bleeding,” I stated bluntly, no real emotion there. I was used to the sight of blood, it tainting my past and my present. “Again.”

Tadae shrugged and shot me an easy-going smile. Maybe she really had snapped. There probably wouldn’t have been a way to tell. “Yeah, I know. But I’ll just re-bandage it later. For now, I guess I’ll just have to shop.” She made a face. “I hate shopping. It just has to make me go and realize how small I am. I mean, I only go up to your shoulder and you yourself is pretty short.” Well, that’s obviously a touchy subject.

“You are only twelve,” I pointed out, voice low as usual. “And I suggest you don’t let yourself get hurt if you don’t want to do this every few months. This is wasting Okami-dono’s money.”

She blinked at me. “I know. I would have just stuck with the old clothes though. They fit. And who said I’m letting myself get it?”

“It isn’t something that’s difficult to figure out. Always in the same place, always the same movement to kill before the sword can cut any deeper.”

Tadae just smiled again, looking laid-back and relaxed, more so than I ever would be, even in sleep, though I had seen her sleeping. Once, in all time she was here. “So you figured it out, big deal. As long as they don’t know, I’m fine with that.”

I just shook my head and laughed slightly, that easy-going smile making that slightly…off happiness contagious.