A/N: I guess the shitty thing about writing several stories at a time, you get stuck on one and move to work on another and never come back to the ones you were stuck on. Or, you work on them for a really long time, then forget to write your ideas down and move on to another story and forget all of your ideas from before. For shame Nuclotei...I will try and do better!

Edit 6/23/14 : Minor edits, errors and grammar fixed!

Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin and Co. I only screw them up to entertain fans.

Dreams/Flashbacks

'…thoughts…'

"…speech…"

Which Way Is Up?

…

.

…

Chapter Five

…

She stood on the sidewalk as thunder rumbled in the distance, a quick flash of lightning causing her to blink rapidly as her eyes adjusted to the softly glowing screen of her phone.

Dr. Takani had been quick to respond.

Kamiya Kaoru,

Have you lost your mind? I mean seriously, are you mentally deficient? Of course I'm not going to let you run around looking for a SERIAL KILLER in the middle of the night whom the police haven't caught! Pick someone else you idiotic girl, and consider yourself lucky that I don't call someone to take you to the mental hospital.

-Takani

Kaoru blew out a breath, huffing as she read then re-read the scathing e-mail from the sharp tongued teacher. Shifting she snapped her cell phone closed and shoved it into the pocket of her jeans as she moved down the familiar sidewalk.

The irritation that had been so plain in the woman's e-mail was almost annoying enough to distract her from the fact that she was getting closer to the alley where Kinjo had been killed.

Almost.

She felt her stomach twist as bile rushed up to her throat as Kinjo's legs bucked a few times as he gurgled and choked on his own blood, the life draining from his eyes. She fought against unconsciousness as her mind rejected the scene, as black spots danced in her vision, tempting her to just let her world go dark.

Her hearing had seemed to have stopped working as she watched the red-headed murder stride over to the man, the sound of the dull buzz in her head wiping out even the sound of metal screeching against metal as he wrapped his hand around the hilt of the sword and yanked it away from the door and the body.

She coughed hard as she doubled over, putting her hands on her knees and struggled not to vomit, her hearing seeming to come back specifically so she could hear the sickening sound of Kinjo's body slapping down against the concrete, the skin on his forehead peeling away at the sudden contact.

Sucking in a breath she grabbed the broom handle she hadn't realized she had dropped as the man flung the blood from his sword, ignoring her.

Her hands shook, her body, even her very soul seemed to be quivering as she held the broom handle like her kendo stick she practiced with.

"Y-you." She managed to choke out. His shoulders straightened in response and he turned his head, looking at her from the corner of his eyes, the gold gaze sharp and cold.

Kaoru took a deep breath to steady herself as she walked to the entrance of the alley she had been the night before. Police tape covered the scene and Kaoru's mind shied away from what she thought was blood still covering the doorway.

A quick flash of lightning had her jumping then had relief flooding her, plainly showing her that all the evidence had been cleaned and taken away.

Her shoes moved too loudly across the asphalt to her own ears as she stepped into the alley, the rumbling sounds of thunder matching the turmoil in her chest.

He slowly turned his body towards her, black trench coat swaying in the breeze, a spray of blood covering one side of his face from removing the sword.

"Me?" His voice was soft, cold, and more frightening than anything she had ever heard before in her life, and she didn't have an answer to his question.

Without a sound she lunged, she wasn't going to die without a fight.

The feeling of the broom stick connecting with his scabbard vibrated through her muscles as she used her body weight to make the impact stronger.

The sound of wood cracking then snapping had her stumbling forward, closer than she'd ever want to be to the killer then in the next instant she was falling back hard, barely able to put her hands down to catch herself against the gravely pavement.

He watched her, arm outstretched still from the shove and moved over to her, crouching so his face was in hers.

"If you tell anyone you saw me. I'll kill every last person you love in this world, and then kill everyone you spoke to."

Kaoru looked around the alley as his voice seemed to echo in her head and she shuddered, pulling out her cell phone and pressing her finger against the button that could dial for help in an instant.

The fear of the memory, the fear of actually finding something almost caused her to turn and run for home, but instead she steeled herself and moved out of the alley and down the sidewalk to the one where she had first seen Kinjo.

The smell hit her first, caused her stomach to roll as she clamped her hand over her nose and moved into the alley, her other hand tightening on her cell phone.

She slowly lowered her hand, slipped a small flash light from her pocket and flicked it on.

The thunder rumbled again, closer now as she searched the alleyway slowly and carefully so she wouldn't contaminate the crime scene.

Turning a slow circle her flash light shined over a white surface, covered partially by the black plastic of a trash bag. Forcing her hand not to shake she moved slowly over to the pile of bags then looked away quickly, flipping open her cell phone and snapped a few pictures.

The corpse's eyes were still open, white and cloudy looking, the skin of the man's face as white as a piece of paper and his neck, partially covered was split wide. Red blood had turned black and crusty on the shriveled skin of the wounds from baking in the sun and the man's mouth was opened wide in a horrified look.

She choked back a noise of disgust and horror as she snapped a few more pictures, glancing at the corpse long enough to notice rigor mortis was still partially set in, his fingers gripping his cell phone tightly.

Moving out of the alley quickly and put her hands on her knees once she reached the other side of the street, taking calming breaths then turned and moved into a crowded bar like she had planned.

She moved to the back, grabbed the pay phone and called the police.

…

The phone rang shrilly on the nightstand next to his head and he opened his eyes quickly, scanning the room once out of habit then sat up, grabbing the phone.

"This better be damned good." He snapped into the receiver then paused and listened for a moment before hanging up.

He stood, pushing his hand through his dark hair to slick it back.

The bed creaked and he glanced back to the woman looking up at him sleepily.

"Tokio. I'm going out." He stated simply as he shrugged on a shirt and moved out of the bedroom.

…

Rain poured down heavily as thunder crashed loudly in the sky above. The flickering light from his lighter briefly lit his face and the soft glow of amber that followed it did little to calm Saito's irritation as he breathed the smoke in deeply then blew it out.

It was a corpse alright. But there were almost a dozen other homicide detectives, so why in the fuck did he get woken up at one in the morning to inspect someone that obviously wasn't going anywhere.

He shifted the umbrella, glanced down at the body, barely interested before moving to the bar.

If he was going to question someone, he mine as well get a drink as did.

Moving to the bar he nodded to the tender, a gruff looking man who was at least three times his size in weight alone.

"Give me a whiskey. And some information." He flashed his badge and the tender eyed it.

"We'll see." He sneered a bit, moving down the bar as Saito finished off his cigarette before lighting another. He was half way done with it by the time his whiskey, in a dirty glass, slid down the bar to him. Throwing it back quickly, carelessly, he stood straight.

"There was a murder across the street. A girl called it in from this bar. I need to know if anyone saw this woman."

"Don't know, don't really give a fuck either. Cops aren't really welcome here, so run along cupcake."

He briefly debated putting his cigarette out in the man's eye but thought better of it after realizing it would just mean more paper work and moved into the crowd of people.

…

As he stepped out into the rain he flicked his cigarette away, moved to his car and slid in.

The description he had gotten matched a person of interest in the murder from the night before, and he was very interested in finding out what the little girl had been doing, snooping around in alleys in the middle of the night.

Pulling up to the station he slid out, moved up to his office and paused as the door across from his opened and Irai stepped out, coffee and a file in his hand.

"I heard you got a call. Didn't think you'd actually go and check it out." Irai teased and Saito gave him a blank stare the other man dismissed easily. "I found my own body. A female vic, age 24, goes by the name of Hino Hikari. She was located in a medical clinic about ten miles down the road from where we found Kinjo. She was sliced down the middle by a long sharp object. Blood spray was wide and from the look on her face, she had seen it coming. She was stark naked. The M.E. is going to take a look at her to see if she had been sexually assaulted and put her time of death around midnight. No ties that I can find yet to Kinjo or the others but I'll be putting my money on the Battousai."

"The Battousai has yet to kill a woman." Saito watched him.

"Serial killers often times stray from their M.O. Maybe Battousai got bored of cutting up men, turned to women for some fun before slicing them up." Irai shrugged a bit. "Whatever the case he did a number on her. It was definitely the work of the Hitokiri Battousai."

Saito looked down at the file in his hand, inspected the pictures and the notes on Hino and silently disagreed.

…

The rain beat down harshly on his head, plastering his flaming red bangs to his forehead as he held his sword out, letting the water wash away the crimson stains of his latest kill. The man that lay at his feet looked peaceful, almost serene with the exception that his head was laying a few feet from his body,

He shifted his cloak, pulled out a dry cloth and wiped the blade of his sword quickly, then tucked it safely back into hits scabbard as he reflected on the chase.

The man ran blindly, hands out in front of him as the rain stung his wide, scared eyes. His breathing sounded like that of a trapped beast, wild and harsh and he whimpered in fear as he tripped, nearly fell.

Gold eyes watched him from the roof top as the man ran into a dead end alley.

They always ran.

They could never outrun him.

They always begged and pleaded.

It fell on deaf ears.

They always died, sobbing, whimpering, like the cowards that they were. Honor-less, sniveling little cowards.

His thoughts turned briefly to the raven haired girl, her stunning blue eyes both afraid and defiant as she challenged him head on with a flimsy piece of wood.

He shook his head at the thought, as if to clear it from his mind.

How absurd.

The man slammed hard into a chain link fence, grabbed onto it and shook it like it would just fall over at his desperate attempt.

He waited for a moment, calculated then leapt off of the roof.

The wind and rain beat against his face as he dropped to the ground, sword shining in the quick flash of lightning, a bright silver then a deep red as it cut through the man's skin, muscle, bone, like it was made of butter.

He was one of the lucky ones.

He never even saw it coming.

He lifted his head as blue flashing lights came into view at the end of the alley way. Moving easily he scaled the fence and disappeared into the darkness.

Goto Yamato would not be seeing the light of the morning.

…

Kaoru moved into her house quickly, slamming the door behind her and ran to the bathroom, collapsing painfully on her knees. Slamming the toilet seat up she quickly emptied the contents of her stomach with a sob.

She had to be insane. No one in their right mind would go looking for a corpse, or for a serial killer just to get a grade.

She retched again at the thought of Kinjo, the thought of the unknown corpse at the end of the alley, and at the thought that she could do nothing to save either of them.

Her energy spent, she managed to drag herself from the bathroom floor after some time had passed. Managed to plug her phone into her computer and download the pictures off of it, taking great care not to look at any of them, and to put them in a hidden locked folder.

She barely managed to pull off her soaking wet clothes, to pull back the covers and drop into bed.

As she fell asleep, dreams of a redheaded demon engulfed in flames plagued her.

…

A/N: Whew, there you have it. I hope it was okay for everyone! There will be more to come soon! No more waiting a year between updates! Let me know what you think!

…Nuclotei