Author's note: This hopefully will be the start of a series of "steampunk samurai" fanfic stories that I will be churning out. It has swords! And steampunk! And maybe a zombie or two (nah, better save the zombies for another story)! And Kenshin! And Kaoru! Yippee! Read and review, please!

Kaoru blinked as the intense sun beat down on her skin and the wind lashed her ponytail against her face. Underneath her feet, the deck of the airship Lucky dipped and swayed in the stiff wind, its propellers humming in a endless drone of sound that Kaoru found mind-numbing. But these trifle inconveniences were but a small irritation, nothing in comparison to the excitement of her first airship voyage. Kaoru could hardly believe it: as the sensei of a small, not-very-well-known dojo located in Hikone, she had nonetheless managed to attract the attention of the Ii clan's damiyo. Futaka Musashi had given Kaoru this important bodyguard assignment: to escort his daughter, the Lady Tsubame, on her way to join her future husband Maeda Yoshiyasu in the Ishikawa Prefecture.

Trying to contain her glee and show the zanshin appropriate for the master of Kamiya Kasshin-ryu. Kaoru hastily pulled down the corners of her broad smile and tried to adopt an implacable face. She needed to look strong, confident, mature. This wasn't a pleasure trip – it was a bodyguard assignment and danger was in high supply on the air.

Scanning the skies, Kaoru's eyes narrowed. Lucky was moving steadily through a low embankment of clouds, which she did not like: the visibility was poor, and there was no telling what dangers lurked in the puffy clouds. Dangers like the Battousai. Suppressing a shiver, Kaoru thought of what she had heard about the fearsome airship pirate, a fierce avenger and assassin whose ship, The Black Revenge, cut through the skies like a master blade, killing with swift, deadly accuracy. Not for profit but for power; the Battousai was a tool wielded by those questing for dominance, and his targets were political ones. Like Tsubame.

Kaoru turned her attention to the small, pale teenager at her side. Just fourteen years old and as delicate and frail as a doll, the lady Tsubame was nevertheless regal, every motion carefully trained and controlled. Her tiny shoulders seemed much too small to bear the burden she had been given: to strengthen the bonds between the Ii and Maeda clan by marrying aman she had never met before.

Kaoru sighed internally, remembering her own childhood: she had spent most of it training with the sword, but overall her life had been relatively free from restraint. Her father had been remarkably progressive in his ideas of how his daughter should behave, and Kaoru had been permitted freedom and opportunities denied to many young girls, no more so than the elegant creature at her side. Kaoru knew that practically since birth, Tsubame had been coached, disciplined, and drilled in an endless routine of court practices, graces, and social behaviors, all to fulfill her one mission in life: marry a powerful man and produce children. Kaoru's life had not been easy, not after losing her father at age sixteen and trying to keep his dojo alive since then, but compared to Tsubame, her path in life had been full of freedom.

Shaking herself from her morose thoughts, Kaoru forced cheerfulness in her voice and said brightly, "We won't be traveling a long time, my lady. Three days and we will be in the Ishikawa Prefecture." Although the danger from the air was great, traveling by land was also dangerous. Tsubame's father had decided that the safest route for his daughter was on board what appeared to be a common freighter. Nothing made it appear that the well-worn airship carried anything of significant value, much less a person of importance. A good disguise, Kaoru thought to herself, but was surprised when the thought Or a cheap one, popped into her mind. Kaoru had a fairly good suspicion that despite his precautions, Tsubame's father did not have that much interest in his daughter outside of her usefulness as a political tool. Tsubame was one of many daughters the damiyo had, and she was from one of his three concubines, therefore was not nearly as important as the children Musashi had sired on his wife. The damiyo may have put up the image of a doting father, but Kaoru nursed deep doubts about the level of his fatherly affection.

Tsubame was silent, peering out from under the shelter of the umbrella her maid held over her fair skin. Aside from five soldiers assigned to the ship and Kaoru, Tsubame had one maid to tend her needs and that was it for her entourage. All told, Kaoru thought that a daughter of the damiyo deserved better transport and attendance, but it was not her position to share that thought. Her job was to protect Tsubame, and she intended to do that.

The ship suddenly dipped downward at a rather steep angle. Tsubame staggered and leaned against Kaoru – Kaoru's training kept her upright but just barely. The captain, approaching Kaoru, bellowed, "Sorry about that, my lady. This fog is getting us all nervous. I want out of the clouds so we can better see what is around us. My lads were a bit eager to do so, and they took us down too fast."

Kaoru nodded, wondering if a lifetime of yelling at slacking sailors had permanently altered the man's vocal chords. He seemed incapable of speaking in normal tones and could not seem to communicate in anything but a bellow. Having said his piece, the captain turned and went back to yelling at sailors.

The ship soon righted itself and began riding lower, moving underneath the cloud cover. Kaoru breathed a sigh of relief that she could finally see more than ten feet around her. She took a brief panoramic view and saw that there was another airship off the portside. Stepping quickly, she moved towards the captain who already had it in his viewfinder.

He gave a grunt, "Doesn't look like anything we have to worry about." He passed the viewfinder to her. "That bird doesn't look like it should be aloft, let alone flying." Kaoru peered through the instrument at the other ship – it was indeed a poor-looking vessel: tattered sails flapping forlornly in the breeze, cracked propellers sputtering, broken spars and splintered wood. There were only a few sailors scuttling around on deck, and the entire vessel had a poorly-cared-for appearance.

The captain of the Lucky pursed his lips and blew out worriedly. "Still, doesn't hurt to take precautions," he muttered before hurrying off to yell at more sailors. Trying not to show any alarm, Kaoru moved back to stand next to Tsubame's side and wait in watchfulness.

The Lucky kept progressing forward, the pilot discreetly moving it away from the other ship without making it seem like he were in any hurry to doing so. The other ship lagged in space, drifting off in a seemingly random direction, but Kaoru kept her eyes fastened on it. They passed it within minutes with no altercation whatsoever. As Lucky moved forward, briskly leaving the decrepit airship behind them, Kaoru breathed a sigh of relief, surprised to find that her thumb had been poised over her tsuba the whole time, waiting to push it forward and free her blade from its saya.

But her relief was premature. Suddenly, without warning, the other ship wheeled sharply and honed in on the Lucky with a stunning burst of speed. On board the Lucky, the sailors snapped to attention and began frantically doing twenty things at once while the captain increased his bellows tenfold and Tsubame's security guard burst up from the bowels of the ship, swords in hand and grim duty written on their faces.

Kaoru quickly turned to Tsubame, saying in the calmest voice she could muster, "We'd better return to your cabin, my lady," and firmly escorted the girl and her maid back to their room, her heart thudding with the heat of battle. Inside the cabin, Kaoru hurriedly snapped shut the locks. The door had been specially reinforced just for Tsubame and there were no windows – nothing marked it from the outside as anything other than a storage room, and Kaoru hoped fervently that if the pirates overcame the sailors and soldiers, they would overlook Tsubame's cabin.

For several agonizing minutes, Kaoru stood in front of the door, sword held at ready and Tsubame and her maid cowering in a corner of the room as the noise of battle and the screams of dying men seeped in from above. It was impossible to tell who was winning and what was happening, but Kaoru had her orders – stay at Tsubame's side and defend her with her life. She had every intention of doing so.

Suddenly, Kaoru heard the sound of heavy footsteps thundering down the gangplank into the belly of the ship. Choking back a tang of acid that rose to her throat, Kaoru held herself steady, calling up all her training to keep her calm and prepared. Strong hands hammered at doors, and there was the sound of shattering wood. Finally, the assailants found Tsubame's door and began their assault. It shook but held firm, and Kaoru hoped fervently it would withstand the attack. After a few minutes of violent noise, everything suddenly became very quiet. Kaoru gulped, wondering what was happened on the other side of the enforced door.

With a deafening bang, the door blew inward, shattering into pieces and filling the room with smoke. Through the looming reek of gunpowder, a man stepped forward. He was surprisingly short, but his glowering eyes and mane of flame-red hair unmistakably marked him as dangerous and powerful. He was gripping a bloody sword, and his cold eyes swept Kaoru.

"I have come only for the Lady Tsubame. Drop your sword, and I will not harm you," he said in a deadly calm voice.

"Never," Kaoru spat back. "You'll have to fight me first."

His eyes glittered, and Kaoru was surprised to find a flick of emotion buried in their cold depths. "I don't harm innocents, and I intend no harm to the Lady Tsubame. I am only capturing her. She will be safe."

"Like hell she will!" Kaoru yelled, "Over my dead body!" Mustering her courage, she threw herself into an attack.

The man was superhumanly quick, his blazing assault like trying to fend off lightening. Kaoru knew in a millisecond that she had absolutely no chance of even coming close to his skill and that she was a dead woman. Within a moment or two, a stunning blow knocked her across the room, smashing her against the side of the cabin.

Battousai, as Kaoru was sure he was, ignored her. He merely pointed at Tsubame and two pirates moved forward to seize the girl and escort her firmly out of the room, leaving the maid and Kaoru behind. As the pirates hurried out of the room, Kaoru was blearily surprised to see that the Battousai stopped and gave her one intense look before he too turned and left.

Ignoring the maid's screams, Kaoru fuzzily pulled herself to her feet. Her head ached and she was certain one rib was cracked, if not broken. "Tsubame..." she rasped out, gasping for the air that had been knocked out of her lungs. I...I've got to...to get to her..., she thought. The floor spun and waved under her feet as Kaoru forced herself forward, moving up the stairs, adrenaline helping push her onwards.

On deck was chaos. Slashed bodies lay everywhere, and the few remaining soldiers and sailors were frantically trying to revive their comrades who were not quite dead. Kaoru's eyes swept the blood-strewn deck and saw that Battousai and his pirates had already boarded their ship and were preparing to pull away. The pirates were cutting free the grappling hooks that attached their ship to the Lucky, and the Black Avenger's propellers were droning loudly.

In the midst of the panic and noise, Kaoru heard one loud, terrified scream, "Kaoru!" pierce through the clamor of sound. Tsubame was barely visible, a tiny white dot leaning over the edge of the ship as a pirate tried to haul her back.

"Tsubame!" Kaoru screamed back. "I'm coming!" Adrenaline coursed in her, wiping away the pain and filling her with fresh energy. As she raced towards the side of the ship, the last mooring rope was cut and The Black Revenge swung loose. Kaoru didn't have time to think, only act. Hauling herself onto the balcony wrapped around the deck, Kaoru jumped, launching herself into thin air, hands reaching for the other ship.

She knew within a half second of jumping that she was too far away, that she was going to plunge to her death. Her grasping hands missed the side of The Black Revenge and she began to fall, plummeting towards the ground hundreds of feet below.