Chapter 12

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Kaoru woke up in her bed, once again with no idea how she got there. She groaned as she sat up, her head protesting the movement. From how she felt, Kaoru could easily guess why she couldn’t remember. She’d gotten drunk. She winced, that was never a good thing. She was a horrible drunk.

She stood up and stumbled over to the basin of water and splashed her face. Enishi had been very considerate to take her out on deck, and how had she repaid him? She wasn’t sure but it was likely something utterly embarrassing. She sighed. Hangover or no, she would practice today, just like the day before, and before that. This would be her punishment.

She walked over to the door between her and Enishi’s room, and opened it without bothering to knock. As she had come to expect, he had already gotten up and left to do who knows what. She sighed and leaned down to pry open the trap door. It was rather heavy. Her eyes still squenched shut, she made her way down the stairs.

Standing in the middle of the dojo she pried one eye open. Something was missing. Something important. She had forgotten to bring a boken with her. She blinked and looked down at herself. She had also forgotten to change into her usual hakama and Gi. She cursed.

Yahiko stretched on his cot. After Heishin was eliminated, he saw no reason not to take his room. It would certainly be easier to avoid dangerous people that way. He glanced about the room. Almost every trace of the incident before was cleaned out of the room, leaving only a few bloodstains on the walls. He winced, remembering the messy process of cleaning. He had done it at night as to avoid any questions, throwing the carnage over the side of the boat. It had taken him a full week. Since then he had been at a loss as to what to do.

Dangerous people, Dangerous people, his mind kept on taking him back to the younger boy. There was something about that boy that really bothered Yahiko. He sighed, suddenly wondering how Kaoru was getting along with that maniacal creep Enishi. Enishi, who had taken everything away from him. Nothing was the same anymore. All he could do was wait till the pieces finished falling apart, then at least; he could start putting them back together without it crumbling in his hands.

Kaoru frowned at the tray. She hadn’t seen Enishi come in… yet again. He had left it in plain sight towards the end of the dojo where the stairs resided. In fact, she hadn’t seen him since last night. Her mouth twitched. Who would have thought that she could scare Enishi away? She chuckled, slowly breaking into outright laughter at the thought. Walking over to the tray, she sat down and dug into her food, still chuckling. She’d have to find him

Later that evening, Kaoru wiped the sweat off of her face and neck with one of the towels towed in the obscure closet in the corner of the dojo. She tossed the towel around her neck as she’d often seen Enishi do. Though he rarely broke out in a sweat when training with… or more appropriately, training her. She grumbled to herself as she plodded up the steep staircase to Enishi’s room. She walked over to the basin of water in his room and splashed her face. She surveyed the room, it was still the same as ever, but… she had an idea.

Enishi walked into his room that night and stopped suddenly in the doorway as he found Kaoru dozing off in his bed. He was about to turn around and head back out the door when she sat up. He paused and looked back around. Kaoru noticed that he looked a little nervous, like there were questions he didn’t want to be asked. She smiled. Enishi looked a little pale.

“You’ve been avoiding me today haven’t you” she reproached. He gained his composure and Kaoru cursed inwardly. She must have asked the wrong question.

“No.” He said simply. When she didn’t say anything, seemingly expecting more he answered further “There were some problems I had to take care of.” He finished simple. Kaoru looked disappointed. Enishi almost chuckled but caught himself. Kaoru had been prying too many little emotions out of him here and there already. He stared blankly at her with his usual deadpan look. After awhile she stood up, nodded and dejectedly walked over to her room. She paused in the doorway.

“We’ll train together tomorrow?” she asked hopefully, Enishi simply nodded. As soon as she closed the door she leaned against it and cursed silently at herself. She had had the perfect opportunity to catch him of guard and she had lost it, only finding herself further away from gaining the upper hand. There was just no winning with him, in either sparring or anything else. She suspected he was lying about not avoiding her, but she had no proof, or no reason to suspect that he’d have a reason to.

Enishi looked at the door for a few minutes after it closed. He shouldn’t have brought her out on the deck yesterday. She was only a puppet in furthering his goal. He didn’t really care about the revenge anymore, but he was determined to finish what he had started. Yet still, he wondered what it was about her that prompted such responses from him.