Ruroken One-shot: Caged
This one just walked into the ice cream section at the supermarket and decided to come home with me.
Summary: Miss Kaoru Kamiya is given the first important task of her fledgling career as a Justice officer. Her task entails enlisting the aid of Yukishiro Enishi to hunt for notorious rebel ronin Battousai and to keep the two renegades from killing each other before they are judged by the peers of the court of Freyde.
Rating: T
Characters: Kenshin, Kaoru and Enishi
Disclaimer: Anything you recognise here belongs to the one and only Watsuki Nobuhiro.
Caged
Kaoru shivered. The chains of the wooden portcullis creaked painfully, as they turned to reveal the water-logged central courtyard of the prison. The portcullis opened directly upon a balcony from which a wooden rampart was suspended by rope and chains above the wooden jetty below. A few boats were tethered here, intended to take guards further inside the confines of the prison. The pale-faced Captain of the Guard who had accompanied her thus far pointed a boat out. Kaoru followed his eyes and carefully gathered her skirts in her hand. Balancing the dossier of official papers in her other hand, she stepped out onto the balcony and waited patiently as the wooden rampart was lowered.
She could feel the captain’s eyes watching her, tracing the shape of her body with his eyes. She was a curiosity to these men. A woman of high birth and breeding as her clothes, and more importantly, as the blue sapphire on her middle finger told. Such a woman belonged in the glittering cotillions of the court, not on a mission to deliver one of the prison’s most deadliest and dangerous prisoners to freedom. Kaoru grasped the railing on the rampart and steadily planted her feet, quickly masking her surprise with ennui as the rampart landed with a thud on the jetty.
She ignored the questioning gaze of the boatswain as he scratched his head before doffing his cap and clumsily bowing to her.
“Captain, I hope you don’t expect me to sit in this boat. It looks just about ready to sink” she mused.
“Those boats are intended for prisoners. We did not take aesthetics much into account when ordering them.” The Captain replied somewhat testily. He did not appreciate intrusion upon his turf, least of all by a woman.
A shadow crossed her face. “No, of course not. But it seems strange that you did not even take functionality into account.” She shook her head. “It does not matter. My task is too grave to be postponed.” She lifted her skirts delicately and stepped inside the boat. Gingerly lowering herself onto the only dry plank in the boat, she nodded imperiously at the boatman. The boat was unfettered and pushed into the water passage by two boatmen standing on the jetty.
There was little light in the dungeons to begin, what made matters worse was the flickering of the lanterns all along the corridor that led to the stone cells beneath the castle. She glanced back towards the portcullis to the dungeons, where she had to leave Misao. The Count had agreed to just one visitor. Misao could not have come even if she somehow managed to override her instinctive fear of the dark.
Kaoru looked around. The stench of human waste and stagnant water seemed to merge in the air. She pressed a handkerchief to her nose, cursing her luck that this task should fall to her lot. Initiation was never meant to be so smelly. Her eyes smarted as the fumes of disinfectant wafted out from an adjacent passage.
“Fumigation.” The boatsman muttered. Kaoru nodded, acknowledging the man’s information.
The boastman dropped a thick length of rope on the stone paved floor before jumping out of the boat and firmly securing it to an iron ring in the stone. He straightened and doffed his hat, telling her he would wait for her here. Kaoru stepped out of the boat, thankful to be out of the purview of that filthy water. A guard held out his hand, pointing her in the direction of the cell.
“You’re the lawyer.” Another voice spoke to her back and sent her skittering across the narrow passage till her back was plastered against the wet, slimy wall of the dungeon. She bit the inside of her cheek, and curled her fingers into fists. She was ready for this. A dark dungeon was not going to make her throw away ten years of back-breaking effort as apprentice. She pursed her lips into a stern line and stepped towards him.
The weathered guard smirked. “You’re too fine for a lawyer. I didn’t know the aristocracy did anything beside drink and fornicate.” He leaned against the opposite wall, one hand resting comfortably on the hilt of his sword, oblivious to the indignant fire raging in her eyes. Dragging his eyes away from her pale face, he jerked his head towards the cell they were going to. “That’s the cell.”
At the end of the passage was a solitary door. It was at the very end; it looked positively tiny since it was so far. She glanced at the guard, but he made no move to follow her. She noticed that the passage delved deeper into the ground as she moved closer to the door. She turned to find the guard following her at what seemed like a brisk pace but strangely keeping a distance from her.
“Just keep walking. Stop when you reach the door.”
Kaoru rolled her eyes. Of course she’d stop when she reached the door. She stopped at the door. The guard dug into his pocket and pulled out a bunch of brass keys on a ring. He picked out the two largest keys. He put the first key in a slot at the top of the door, and the second one at the bottom. Then, he pulled out a black metal key and it into the slot in the middle of the door. Turning the keys one by one, he straightened and pushed the door open a crack.
“Yukishiro Enishi. There’s someone here to see you.”
X
Kaoru blinked at the darkness of the cell. She looked at the guard. “There’s no light. How am I supposed to go inside when there’s no light?”
A hoarse chuckle greeted her words. “I think you got the wrong cell, Joe.” The guard glared inside the darkness. Kaoru raised her eyebrows, wondering if he could even see anything inside, much less glare at it.
“You shut your mouth! This lady is here to see you by order of the Count.”
“But Joe, it’s late and I simply can’t find my good china. How am I ever going to keep her entertained?”
“I told you to shut your mouth!”
“Ohhh. Maybe, it’s not for me to entertain her. Why Joe, I didn’t know this sort of thing was legal. Is she here to entertain me?”
The guard went red in the face and Kaoru snapped her mouth shut. The guard clamped his fingers around the hilt of his sword and was about to go charging inside when Kaoru caught his arm and stopped him. “It’s alright. I just need some light. Can I take your lantern?”
He exhaled loudly. “Are you sure? I can come with you inside.”
Kaoru smiled icily. “It’s alright. He may not be the paragon of gentlemanly grace that you are but I’ll be fine.”
“If he should try something….” He trailed off and was interrupted once more by a scoff from the prisoner.
“I’m all chained up….but some girls like it that huh?” Kaoru grabbed a lantern from the guard and stepped into the cell. Swinging the lantern around, she finally spotted him - one of the most notorious and dangerous men that ever lived in the tiny duchy of Freyde - Yukishiro Enishi. Silvery white hair fell in bangs around his face, some of it matted with blood and dirt. His eyes blazed brilliantly. Her breath caught in her throat as she met his eyes, sizing her up as keenly.
“Well, I’d say I was disappointed but that’d be lying.” He whispered across the cell.
Kaoru set the lantern down on the floor. As she straightened, a faint prickle on her neck made her shiver. She looked up cautiously. He was staring at her hungrily. Clearing her throat, she pulled a dossier out of her bag. “Yukishiro Enishi, my name is Kamiya Kaoru and I….
“And what a lovely name it is.”
“I’m not finished yet. Don’t interrupt me.”
“Oooh, I love a woman in control. You know, it’s always a pleasant surprise when you approach…things….by a different angle.” He whispered silkily.
Kaoru snapped the dossier shut. The blatant innuendo was not lost on her. “Very well. I was willing to give you a chance and speak to you civilly but I see no reason to do so any longer. The Duke would like to offer you a deal.”
“What deal?”
“Help us find the Battousai and he’ll waive your sentence.” Kaoru noticed how his demeanor changed as soon as she took the famed swordsman’s name. His smile turned tight and his forehead twitched uncontrollably.
“Now why would I do that?” He spoke in the same raspy voice he had used when she had first heard him outside the cell.
“Your name is on a list of prisoners to be hanged next week. Help find Battousai, and you could be off that list. Not a bad deal, is it?”
Enishi looked away. She waited. After what seemed like an eternity in the dark, dingy cell, he turned and looked at her with a glint in his eyes. “I’ll take it.”
Kaoru nodded. “Good.” She turned to go.
“Just one thing.”
“What?”
“If I do this, when you get the Battousai, I get you…in chains.”
Kaoru banged on the door of the cell, fists shaking, cheeks burning. The guard appeared almost instantaneously. She slipped out the door and raced up the passage to the boat.
A/N
Please comment.
Summary: Miss Kaoru Kamiya is given the first important task of her fledgling career as a Justice officer. Her task entails enlisting the aid of Yukishiro Enishi to hunt for notorious rebel ronin Battousai and to keep the two renegades from killing each other before they are judged by the peers of the court of Freyde.
Rating: T
Characters: Kenshin, Kaoru and Enishi
Disclaimer: Anything you recognise here belongs to the one and only Watsuki Nobuhiro.
Caged
Kaoru shivered. The chains of the wooden portcullis creaked painfully, as they turned to reveal the water-logged central courtyard of the prison. The portcullis opened directly upon a balcony from which a wooden rampart was suspended by rope and chains above the wooden jetty below. A few boats were tethered here, intended to take guards further inside the confines of the prison. The pale-faced Captain of the Guard who had accompanied her thus far pointed a boat out. Kaoru followed his eyes and carefully gathered her skirts in her hand. Balancing the dossier of official papers in her other hand, she stepped out onto the balcony and waited patiently as the wooden rampart was lowered.
She could feel the captain’s eyes watching her, tracing the shape of her body with his eyes. She was a curiosity to these men. A woman of high birth and breeding as her clothes, and more importantly, as the blue sapphire on her middle finger told. Such a woman belonged in the glittering cotillions of the court, not on a mission to deliver one of the prison’s most deadliest and dangerous prisoners to freedom. Kaoru grasped the railing on the rampart and steadily planted her feet, quickly masking her surprise with ennui as the rampart landed with a thud on the jetty.
She ignored the questioning gaze of the boatswain as he scratched his head before doffing his cap and clumsily bowing to her.
“Captain, I hope you don’t expect me to sit in this boat. It looks just about ready to sink” she mused.
“Those boats are intended for prisoners. We did not take aesthetics much into account when ordering them.” The Captain replied somewhat testily. He did not appreciate intrusion upon his turf, least of all by a woman.
A shadow crossed her face. “No, of course not. But it seems strange that you did not even take functionality into account.” She shook her head. “It does not matter. My task is too grave to be postponed.” She lifted her skirts delicately and stepped inside the boat. Gingerly lowering herself onto the only dry plank in the boat, she nodded imperiously at the boatman. The boat was unfettered and pushed into the water passage by two boatmen standing on the jetty.
There was little light in the dungeons to begin, what made matters worse was the flickering of the lanterns all along the corridor that led to the stone cells beneath the castle. She glanced back towards the portcullis to the dungeons, where she had to leave Misao. The Count had agreed to just one visitor. Misao could not have come even if she somehow managed to override her instinctive fear of the dark.
Kaoru looked around. The stench of human waste and stagnant water seemed to merge in the air. She pressed a handkerchief to her nose, cursing her luck that this task should fall to her lot. Initiation was never meant to be so smelly. Her eyes smarted as the fumes of disinfectant wafted out from an adjacent passage.
“Fumigation.” The boatsman muttered. Kaoru nodded, acknowledging the man’s information.
The boastman dropped a thick length of rope on the stone paved floor before jumping out of the boat and firmly securing it to an iron ring in the stone. He straightened and doffed his hat, telling her he would wait for her here. Kaoru stepped out of the boat, thankful to be out of the purview of that filthy water. A guard held out his hand, pointing her in the direction of the cell.
“You’re the lawyer.” Another voice spoke to her back and sent her skittering across the narrow passage till her back was plastered against the wet, slimy wall of the dungeon. She bit the inside of her cheek, and curled her fingers into fists. She was ready for this. A dark dungeon was not going to make her throw away ten years of back-breaking effort as apprentice. She pursed her lips into a stern line and stepped towards him.
The weathered guard smirked. “You’re too fine for a lawyer. I didn’t know the aristocracy did anything beside drink and fornicate.” He leaned against the opposite wall, one hand resting comfortably on the hilt of his sword, oblivious to the indignant fire raging in her eyes. Dragging his eyes away from her pale face, he jerked his head towards the cell they were going to. “That’s the cell.”
At the end of the passage was a solitary door. It was at the very end; it looked positively tiny since it was so far. She glanced at the guard, but he made no move to follow her. She noticed that the passage delved deeper into the ground as she moved closer to the door. She turned to find the guard following her at what seemed like a brisk pace but strangely keeping a distance from her.
“Just keep walking. Stop when you reach the door.”
Kaoru rolled her eyes. Of course she’d stop when she reached the door. She stopped at the door. The guard dug into his pocket and pulled out a bunch of brass keys on a ring. He picked out the two largest keys. He put the first key in a slot at the top of the door, and the second one at the bottom. Then, he pulled out a black metal key and it into the slot in the middle of the door. Turning the keys one by one, he straightened and pushed the door open a crack.
“Yukishiro Enishi. There’s someone here to see you.”
X
Kaoru blinked at the darkness of the cell. She looked at the guard. “There’s no light. How am I supposed to go inside when there’s no light?”
A hoarse chuckle greeted her words. “I think you got the wrong cell, Joe.” The guard glared inside the darkness. Kaoru raised her eyebrows, wondering if he could even see anything inside, much less glare at it.
“You shut your mouth! This lady is here to see you by order of the Count.”
“But Joe, it’s late and I simply can’t find my good china. How am I ever going to keep her entertained?”
“I told you to shut your mouth!”
“Ohhh. Maybe, it’s not for me to entertain her. Why Joe, I didn’t know this sort of thing was legal. Is she here to entertain me?”
The guard went red in the face and Kaoru snapped her mouth shut. The guard clamped his fingers around the hilt of his sword and was about to go charging inside when Kaoru caught his arm and stopped him. “It’s alright. I just need some light. Can I take your lantern?”
He exhaled loudly. “Are you sure? I can come with you inside.”
Kaoru smiled icily. “It’s alright. He may not be the paragon of gentlemanly grace that you are but I’ll be fine.”
“If he should try something….” He trailed off and was interrupted once more by a scoff from the prisoner.
“I’m all chained up….but some girls like it that huh?” Kaoru grabbed a lantern from the guard and stepped into the cell. Swinging the lantern around, she finally spotted him - one of the most notorious and dangerous men that ever lived in the tiny duchy of Freyde - Yukishiro Enishi. Silvery white hair fell in bangs around his face, some of it matted with blood and dirt. His eyes blazed brilliantly. Her breath caught in her throat as she met his eyes, sizing her up as keenly.
“Well, I’d say I was disappointed but that’d be lying.” He whispered across the cell.
Kaoru set the lantern down on the floor. As she straightened, a faint prickle on her neck made her shiver. She looked up cautiously. He was staring at her hungrily. Clearing her throat, she pulled a dossier out of her bag. “Yukishiro Enishi, my name is Kamiya Kaoru and I….
“And what a lovely name it is.”
“I’m not finished yet. Don’t interrupt me.”
“Oooh, I love a woman in control. You know, it’s always a pleasant surprise when you approach…things….by a different angle.” He whispered silkily.
Kaoru snapped the dossier shut. The blatant innuendo was not lost on her. “Very well. I was willing to give you a chance and speak to you civilly but I see no reason to do so any longer. The Duke would like to offer you a deal.”
“What deal?”
“Help us find the Battousai and he’ll waive your sentence.” Kaoru noticed how his demeanor changed as soon as she took the famed swordsman’s name. His smile turned tight and his forehead twitched uncontrollably.
“Now why would I do that?” He spoke in the same raspy voice he had used when she had first heard him outside the cell.
“Your name is on a list of prisoners to be hanged next week. Help find Battousai, and you could be off that list. Not a bad deal, is it?”
Enishi looked away. She waited. After what seemed like an eternity in the dark, dingy cell, he turned and looked at her with a glint in his eyes. “I’ll take it.”
Kaoru nodded. “Good.” She turned to go.
“Just one thing.”
“What?”
“If I do this, when you get the Battousai, I get you…in chains.”
Kaoru banged on the door of the cell, fists shaking, cheeks burning. The guard appeared almost instantaneously. She slipped out the door and raced up the passage to the boat.
A/N
Please comment.