A/N: I vaguely remember writing this ages ago because I wanted to do something cannon, and Kenshin's past was the most interesting part of the manga to me. I'm really sorry if this is confusing. I haven't posted anything in a while, so I thought this'd do.

Disclaimer: Nope. I don't own everyone's favorite Rurouni OR the Kenshingumi. Darn it.

There sat the demon.

Flaming hair, slight figure, cold demeanor. Perhaps the men of Kenshin's battalion imagined a devil differently before the Bakumatsu, but now this Battosai—their ally, it was true, but a terror nonetheless—was the one who haunted their nightmares.

So, understandably, they were shocked when the killer let out an embarrassed squeak upon being teased by his superiors and when he blushed as scarlet as his hair the first time he heard a bawdy joke. They were surprised when he protected the women at the bars and inns he frequented. Their faces were incredulous when they realized the reason he spent nights scrubbing his hands or drowning in sake was all in an attempt to evade his own nightmares and demons…

Well, this revised image of the dreaded assassin was uncomfortable to say the least. Because if Battosai was really just an innocent kid in way over his head, if he was just a decent sort of guy, if he was just like them…

Then the rivers of blood that flowed during his nightly escapades, and the hundreds of lives that vanished in a single, painful instant would becomes more personal. The hitokori and the common soldier would be alike somehow, and in their similarity, there would be the knowledge that they too were capable of the savage indifference that the Battosai so "easily" affected.

And that was a frightening thought.

So, in their innermost mind, they branded him a demon and felt relief at the distinction.