Enishi glowered as he saw Fang come out of the wall in just the direction he'd predicted. It figures Fang would wait until he was completely restrained, Enishi considered as he tugged experimentally at one of the manacles that chained him to the wall. Fang grinned one of those obnoxious lopsided grins at him, running a hand through his hair before raising an eyebrow at Enishi.

            Enishi expected that Fang could likely get anything he wanted in a normal way, if he wasn't such a sadistic bastard. Many a girl had fallen into his trap before finding out what he was and regretting they were even born. He sneered at Fang. He would make him suffer if he did anything to Kaoru. Even if he had to come back from hell to do it.

            "I suppose you're hating me now… as if you hadn't already done that before" Fang said smiling. "Of course it won't do you any good since you're chained up there, and I'm over here. By your own hand mind you. You very well could have disregarded what I said and killed me anyway" Fang grinned sadistically "I finally hit jackpot when you brought that girl here. By now you're likely regretting it in seven different ways." Enishi didn't respond, waiting for Fang to get to the point. That damned brat was always entirely too verbose. Fang chuckled.

            "You're not going to say anything to me until I tell you where she is right?" Fang said, nodding to himself as if he knew he was right. "We'll I'm not too sure that you're restrained quite well enough. I've seen you knock down solid brick walls" Fang looked over his shoulder as two of his guards walked in the room and over to Enishi. Enishi almost smiled as he noticed one was drastically injured.

            He looked down at them in distain as they stripped him down and one of them pulled a disturbing looking contraption off of the wall. Enishi didn't even flinch, having been here before.

            "You don't seem even slightly disturbed," Fang hissed seemingly pleased anyhow "But hear this; you will be mine before I ever tell you where your girl is. Only once you give over completely will I grant you that. And by then you'll be begging me to allow you to do the same to her." Fang grinned with an insane glint in his eye. "I know better than to torment your kind with pain, I will break you with pleasure" Fang laughed as he went on, seemingly enjoying the sound of his own voice. "You will beg me to keep you when I'm through"

            Shinta awoke in a cold sweat. He'd been having horrible dreams as of late, ever since Fujita told him of this battousai. He hadn't said anything to Sanosuke about it yet, afraid to disrupt his newfound family life. Sano seemed to need the peace that he'd been brought in China. It had taken a while but he'd been able to get out o him at least that they'd come from Japan.

            The nightmares had been getting worse though. At first they'd just been blurry unintelligible thoughts of blood and horror, but as time went on they'd been getting clearer. He witnessed mutilation beyond anything he'd imagined. A cold blooded murder of hundreds of people fighting for their lives, he could hear them as they cried out in pain, their last death wishes falling on death ears.

            He put his hand to his face and found that he was crying. He blinked in confusion because he felt nothing. There was a void in his heart that it seemed like nothing could fill. He could almost feel the wind rushing through it as it cried out a name he couldn't understand. He was hiding from something. That much he knew.

            It seemed obvious that his feelings escaped him because he didn't want to remember something. Something important, something monumental. Did he really want to risk bringing back the past when it might very well destroy everything he'd gained up until now? Shinta ran his hand though his hair in frustration and stood up. He had to get some fresh air.

            Yahiko crossed his arms as he watched Kenshin walk out of the house in a rather disheveled state. It seemed that Kenshin too, was uneasy, although Yahiko doubted he knew why. Yahiko had seen the exchange between Saitoh and Kenshin the week before. He had paled at the mention of battousai, but Kenshin hadn't seemed to be effected by it at the time.

            Now it was quite obvious that that wasn't the case. It was odd seeing Kenshin display so much emotion. Yahiko guessed that It made sense since Kenshin didn't remember well enough to have cause to hide his emotions. He really did seem like a different person.

            When he'd lived with Kenshin at the Kamiya dojo, there had been subtle mood changes. It had taken a while to notice them but he'd finally gotten a hang of noticing Kenshin's emotions. Now it was all the easier. And the definition between Battousai and Rurouni wasn't quite as similar. Yahiko shivered as he remembered the look in Kenshin's eyes that day when Kaoru had been attacked by him. It was far beyond the cold fury that Yahiko remembered from that last big change, the fight with Saitoh. And after Shishio, Battousai had seemed buried forever.

            Now there was no Calm medium between the two, no silent but productive Kenshin who sat and stared into space as he did the laundry. Shinta was either smiling or upset. And Yahiko was scared of him. More than anything though, he was angry that Saitoh had provoked the volatile Shinta. There was no saying what would happen now.

            And then there was Kousetsu. That boy with the eyes that were so cold a blue they were almost white. He'd disappeared after they had talked that once, although Yahiko knew for certain that he was likely still around. Yahiko got up and followed Shinta. There were just too many things gathering. It was likely just the calm before a storm.

            Mao walked through the piles of corpses lining the hallway the way Enishi went, marveling at the destruction. Some people had hit the walls so hard that it had crumbled portions of the stone and completely shattered their bodies. Not a single person was left breathing, although it was likely anyone who had been would be long gone.

            Mao nervously looked down the entrails-stained hallway. The way things had gone it should have been already over with. Enishi was more than enough to take out Fang and everyone else. Too much time had passed without Enishi's return. Mao headed down, following the trail of blood and destruction.

            He still felt numb from the experience with his sister. Not that the numbness was a new feeling, although he thought he had killed her before. He should have gone back and checked; he should have made sure and saved her all the suffering she'd gone through. He felt a familiar coldness settle over him as he climbed the stairs. A coldness that had followed him for years… until he had met Enishi.

            Maybe this time he would save the other, instead of vice versa, but he hoped to god he wouldn't have to. If only he believed there was a god.

            Kaoru opened her eyes, but all she could see was darkness, and the only feelings available to her were cold and pain. She felt tears dried and new trailing down her cheeks, although she couldn't remember crying, or where she had gotten them.

            She took a deep breath and closed her eyes again, the dark silence around her disconcerting. The last thing she remembered was following Enishi with Mao supported on one arm. She squinted her eyes even tighter shut, trying to remember what had come after. She could only recall an odd whooshing sound, like a wave overtaking and breaking on a rock at a cliff, and after that she awoke here, in pain.

            She concentrated intently on her surroundings, and her pain receded to a dull throb. It wasn't her head, so she hadn't been knocked out. Not the conventional way anyhow. She tried to move, but was rewarded with a new rush of pain. Her eyes flew open as they were assaulted once more by streaming tears.

            Where am I? She thought to herself Is this hell? She wondered then mentally shook her head. It wasn't at all as bad as the loneliness she was accustomed to. At least she was preoccupied with trying to figure out what had happened. She shivered as the darkness was getting to her. She didn't know weather she should be afraid of the lack of space or how much there was out there, as she couldn't even see that.

            She tried to open her mouth to say something, hoping to tell by the echo or lack thereof what kind of place this was. Her mouth was already open, she discovered with surprise. She couldn't move it as it was pried open by some sort of ball or something that was tied across her mouth by a gag. She just realized how sore her jaw was and wondered why she hadn't noticed it before, when all the pain flooded back again.

            Her senses were overloaded and confused, she reasoned. And she still felt a bit groggy. She winced as another movement brought another pain… along with a very faint sensation of rocking. She was suspended in the air! A startled gasp was garbled by the ball in her mouth as a new understanding of her situation came to her.

            She was bound in the air, her wrists were numb, bound behind her back with the same thing that bound her feet under them, and her legs were forced apart by some sort of pole. She whimpered, not wanting the realizations to continue, but it was too late as she could no longer hide behind her grogginess, it had fled with the horrifying sensation of being suspended in midair.

            She also came to the realization that she was entirely devoid of any covering, other than the toughened fabric, likely leather that held her suspended in the air. Bound around her breast and thighs, traveling to her knees where it held the rod that separated her legs.

            She closed her eyes again, trying to shut out the painful exposed truth of her current situation. But the Harness showed her no mercy, and the silence around her was deafening, filled only with the small broken gasps and whimpers that she could hardly believe came from her. She desperately wished for the blissful state of unconsciousness once more as she was engulfed in pain from inside and out.

            Fang cursed as soon as he left the room. Enishi had a disturbing amount of self control. Fang had gone through almost everything he knew, it had been hours already but nothing. No response, no pain no pleasure, no cursing no glaring, Just cold, stony silence and an expression of distain that drove Fang crazy. The man must be a bloody Eunuch although it was clearly physically otherwise. And Fnag had been known to get more emotion out of them than he'd seen out of Enishi.

            "What does it take to break you!" Fang screamed into the air.

            "You cannot break what was already broken." Came a murmuring voice from the door, Fang forced a smile and turned around to see one of his favorite toys. He could easily apply the same to him… but this man had nothing to break.

            "Mao" Fang spoke simply nodding to the older man. Mao didn't look much older at all, perhaps even appeared to be his junior. Fang knew that Mao had never been his. But he'd been content with that, as Mao had seemed to have no soul to speak of, and Fang had his sister as a trump card, if that would have even worked. His eyes fell to Mao's hand briefly, where he saw to sightless pale white eyes held there. Well… he'd had his sister.

            "I'm going to have to ask you to let go of Kaoru." Mao requested simply. Fang stared at him in silence as if measuring his words.