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"Your father read too h hiht, Ōka the her better control of the blade His right foot slid in the space between her feet, his knee grazing her inner thigh

The instant it happened, Ōkami kneas aeyes

His thundering heart

"You haven’t toldin her cheeks "Nor have you asked irl," she whispered

Irritation took root in his chest Not irritation with her words But irritation with her need to say theaze on hers "You are first and foremost a person A reckless, foolish person, but a person nonetheless If I ever say you are not per, rest assured that the last reason I would ever say so would be because you are a girl"

When her eyes softened, Ōkami knew he’d made another mistake

But he didn’t want to take back his words

She ithout a doubt strange Maddening A force to reckon and be reckoned with And--as she’d demanded of him earlier--he appreciated it

In that reat deal of trouble

All because of a wonderfully strange girl

A FOREST OF BLOOD AND FIRE

Kenshin gasped awake His chest heaved as he struggled to draw in breath The ground beneath hiertips charred Copper and ash coated his tongue

He sat up and gripped his throbbing head When he gazed down at his fingers, he saw they were covered in dried blood Fear coiled up his spine

He looked around

The blood was not his

No This was not possible This could not have happened He could not have--would never have--done such a thing

Kenshin tried to conjure an iry exchange of words A refusal to cooperate Threats blasted both ways Flashes of blood and ser An uncontrollable rage erupting fro into the air around hiered to his feet, dragging his blade through the charred ree The kind of tall slender grass that had bent and swayed in the wind Kane waited in the same place Kenshin had last left him, the warhorse still tethered to a tree trunk at the outskirts of the clearing Without even bothering to wipe the crimson stains from his katana, Kenshin sheathed his sword and heaved hih it had been split in two and sewn back together Again Kenshin lifted his hands before his face

Not his blood But still his pain

He did not understand what had happened Could not understand what ht have caused anyone to commit such atrocities The echo of a screa all else Except the promise of future torment

Kenshin squeezed his eyes shut

It was not him He had not done that

He would never do that

--

In the shadow of a thorny underbrush nearby, a ghostly grey fox watched Hattori Kenshin reel to his horse Watched him stare in horror at his bloodied hands

The fox s to black It waited until the Dragon of Kai rode fro