Summary- Princess Kaoru is saved by the savage Hikotiri Battousai. Law of the land gives him her hand in marriage. Kaoru hates the idea, and tries to run away, but guess who catches her? And wait Battousai has a split personality that is actually… nice? B/K

-The first of my many revisions- - Revamped my wacky way of saying Edited -

Chapter One [Revamped!]: The Savior

They pounded on the heavily on the stone floor with a rhythmic beat. They were almost in sync and they started a miniature song of their own. The gruff voices that no doubt came from the same bodies as the footsteps were malicious and taunting. They were having a jolly old time and they did not want the fun to end. In this atmosphere, Kaoru found herself, scared and alone.

She hid in the bathhouse and prayed that no one would hear her labored breathing. She could hear them outside, jeering and laughing. Kaoru coached herself to breathe in the smallest and quietest breaths possible. Kaoru could hear them talking, arguing was more like it, and there did not seem to be harmony among the men. Their voices were loud and boisterous, and Kaoru guessed they were raging in drunkenness. She did not understand what they were saying, because their voices were indistinct an incoherent, but their tones were so deviant that she had no doubt in her mind that if they found her, death would be certain. She didn't want to die, not when she hadn't learned the Kamiya Kasshin Style yet! If only she knew it, then she would not be in this chaos…If only she were allowed to be braver. She had never been taught to be, as a matter of sheer fact, she was not allowed do very much that involved using one's brain or one's courage.

In return, for letting her parents mold her into their ideal of what she should be, Kaoru was granted one single wish. She wished to stay an unmarried princess; Kaoru supposed it was a fair trade, one's mind for their future.

It seemed almost at once that the horrible voices faded away and their daunting footsteps seemed to stop making any sort of noise at all. The Princess let out a large sigh of relief, because her whereabouts had not yet been discovered. After another tense moment, Kaoru let her muscles relax and she decided to stay in the bathhouse, just to be certain.

She laid her head back against the bathhouse walls, and let her mind wander to her family, her father, her mother, her younger brother, Yahiko, and her sister, Misao. She was happy that Misao was safely tucked away in another province with her husband Aoshi that although he never showed it, loved her with all of his being. Yahiko was training in the mountains, and learning from the royal advisors. Only her mother, father, and herself were left at the palace. A few miserable tears rolled down her cheeks at the thought of her parents, where were they? Were they safe or had those invaders slaughtered them? If this were sadly true, what would become of her? How would she survive? Oh, if only she were allowed to be bolder as she once was, then she would know how to take care of this.

When Kaoru pulled all of her courage together, she left the safety of the bathhouse. As she neared the heavy wooden door, Kaoru could not help but wonder what she would find; would anything be left, had her palace been destroyed?

Every step felt like her last. What was waiting for her on the other side of this door? When she reached the door, her hand grasped the knob, and she softly pushed open the door. Her blue eyes were tightly shut, as she walked out, but she did force herself to open them. She looked around, and saw that almost nothing had changed! This was…

A large dirty hand clamped over the princess's mouth, and she felt hot breath on her neck. She wanted to cringe, at the thought of this creature that dared lay a hand on her. A hot passion to defend her body took over her, and she began to struggle. She had not felt that feeling in a long while. Her foe was too strong for her, because he already had the upper hand. He pulled her closer to his sweaty body, painfully. He dug his fingers into her cheeks, and she sadly knew that she was beaten. She soon felt hands tie her wrists together, with a rough piece of rope; the rope dug into her tender flesh and Kaoru knew she would get burn marks and her wrists would no doubt be swollen. The unknown person's breath was still on her neck, and Kaoru took the chance to sneak a peek at the man who held her, should she ever need to identify him for the royal court. But, Kaoru wished she hadn't, and forgot about the court and all she hoped they would do to him. The man had wild and bushy eyebrows that seemed to take over his entire head, his hazel deadly eyes were glinting devilishly, and his burnt face was much worse than any mask she had ever seen. She whipped her head around and did her best to keep her anger in check when taunted her obvious discomfort at his appearance.Kaoru would be happy never seeing him again.

She then heard the all too familiar voices of the men, echoing through the halls and bouncing off the walls, but this time they weren't so confident and sure. No, something had changed in their tones, they sounded scared, and troubled, a strong contrast to their confident deviance of before. She still couldn't understand what they were saying, but she certainly understood cries of anguish, and the smell of death, which hung in the air all around her, and choking her.

Princess Kaoru's kidnapper moved them back into the bathhouse, so stealthily that she barely realized their movements. It was past the witching hour with no moon to speak of, so no light peaked into the room. There she stood, and in the dark with a man she didn't know or trust, with no chance of being saved. Kaoru soon began to feel despair, and if only she could fight back! How different the situation would surely be! In the midst of her heart pounding in her ears, Kaoru could still hear the cries of the dying, and prayed that her father and mother weren't among those cries. She prayed that she wouldn't be among those cries, either.

What happened next occurred so rapidly that Kaoru didn't comprehend most of it. The door of the bathhouse swung open (and the sound it made!) crashing against the wall, made a strong contrast to the silence of the room. Dim light slightly brightened the room, and the outline of a figure could be seen in the doorway. Kaoru couldn't see the face or any important details, so she did not know if he was friend or foe. Her kidnapper tightened his grip on her mouth, and Kaoru gasped. In the blink of an eye, the hand that was over her mouth was gone, and the figure at the door was gone as well. She heard shuffles, grunts and chuckles, but she could see nothing, because the sounds came from the unlit side of the bathhouse. Kaoru did not move an inch, afraid that the two fighters would return their focus back to her. The princess could hear the clash of metal, and knew that the two mysterious figures were fighting one another, but all too soon the clashing ended, and silence filled the room. Kaoru stood uncertainly, not sure of what to do or where to go. Then, she felt the tight rope that bound her hands together fall from her wrists, and then she felt a hand grab her arm, and she found herself being pulled out of the room.

Kaoru was going so fast that everything around her was all a blur of colors and light. She was led through all of the hallways of the Kamiya Palace, until finally she and the winner of the fight were outside. She could barely hear the breathing of the fighter, which she found odd, because she could barely catch her lost breath, how was he able to breathe evenly after a run such as that? Kaoru then remembered that her captor had extremely heavy breathing, and she realized she was once again in undefined company. The princess was itching to know who he was, and eagerly raised her cerulean eyes, and gasped. The fighter wore a mask over his face, but kept his flaming locks in a ponytail. She could see that he was only a few inches higher off of the ground than herself, and he had [presumably] beaten a man in the likes of her towering captor! How extraordinary! Kaoru's amazement was quickly transferred, however, when her gaze slid up to his eyes. They instantly captured her, because of their bizarre color; they were amber, deep and smoldering amber.

The Akumi Tribe had tried to invade the Kamiya Palace. Tried, being the key word. The Akumi's had severely underestimated the soldiers of the land; the soldiers were well trained and loyal to their king. Also, the tribe was not much to gossip about as it were, and had not successfully invaded so much as a campfire in many years. Their golden days had come quickly and gone at an even faster rate. The tribe was barely holding their own against the soldiers, when the arrival of the Battousai [one of the most dangerous men in the world] tipped the balance out of their favor. For some reason, he had decided to help the Kamiya's and had scared off most of the men, and slain the rest. Why he had done the act of chivalry was a matter of opinion, but the Battousai had always done things by his own law book, which no one could ever quite understand.

Although, all of his efforts in recapturing the castle were noble, they paled vastly in comparison to his biggest feat. Saving the King's very beautiful and very eligible daughter was much more important to the people, because she was the land's pride and no harm could ever come to her. Heads would roll before that happened.

King and Queen Kamiya had managed to come out of the invasion fairly unscathed, and mostly in part of the Battousai. He had scared off all of the warriors that were trying to get to the pair. King Kamiya was so pleased and thankful of the man that he had, in the heat of brainless gratitude, given the swordsman the most precious gift that a king could give, his daughter's hand in marriage, and enough money and land to start a small republic.

Sadly, King Kamiya was blessed with only two daughters, one who was already married and another that had vowed to remain a virgin princess. Sadly, his options were few, so he gave over his unmarried daughter to the worldly legend.

King Kamiya was always known to go unnecessarily above and beyond the call of any duties.

Well that is the first chapter/ prologue. If you liked it or if you didn't review!

Glory